Top Ten Books of 2012. . . # 3 David Platt, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream
This book was
one that I read because of several favorable book reviews that were generated
from several blogs that I read. Although
I actually read it a couple of years after its initial release (2010) and it is
a book that stretches you out of your comfort zone.
Author: David Platt
Publisher: Harper
One, 2011.
One of the
reasons that this book resonated with me was because of another book that I ran
across several years ago by Randy Alcorn (SafelyHome). It was then that I first
became acquainted with the house church movement that have become prevalent in
countries where there is very limited if any freedom of religion. They go to great measures often in fear of
punishment and incarceration to get to church.
When they get there it is a very subdued and quiet environment because
of the fear of discovery.
David Platt
relates to this because of an overseas missions trip he took to an undisclosed location
in Asia. He was huddled in a tiny house
with twenty leaders who implored him to teach the Bible to them. Later in the book, Platt reveals that he
would teach for as long as four hours and they would urge him to share more
with them.
He then
transitions back to the church he pastored in Birmingham, Alabama where there
was theater seating, multi-colored lighting systems, cutting edge sound,
high-end facilities surrounded by green, and well-manicured recreation
fields. He began to make a comparison
between the two venues and was very discouraged about the McChurch state of
things where he was the pastor. It was
as if he was involved in a Christianity that revolved around catering to
ourselves when the actual message of Christianity is about abandoning ourselves.
This book was
very troubling to me in the sense that I do my best to make sure that everyone
who comes to the church that I pastor finds a good worship “experience.” We want everything just so-so in order to “do
church.” While we shouldn’t do shoddy
and haphazard work with our services, is that really the essence of what we
have been called to do? We are to
evangelize the world and make disciples.
The understanding behind the word disciples is that we want to make
people martyrs to the Cross.
Platt writes:
.
. . we are starting to redefine Christianity.
We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the
Bible and twist him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with. . . A
nice, middle-class American Jesus. A
Jesus who doesn’t mind materialism and who would never call us to give away
everything we have. A Jesus who would
not expect us to forsake our closest relationships so that he receives our full
affection. A Jesus who is fine with
nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, he
loves us just the way we are. A Jesus
who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who
for that matter, wants us to avoid danger all together. A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity
as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream. . . And the danger is
now that when we gather in our church buildings to sing and lift up Jesus, we
may not be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible.
Instead we may be worshiping ourselves.
I realize
that this is a non-apostolic author but I have come to realize that some of the
same attitudes prevail among us and we are being dishonest with ourselves if we choose to deny it! He deals with money issues among Christians and
I have to wonder aloud if we have not fallen to the idea that God’s blessing is
reflected in what we hold on to as far as material things compared to what we
let go of to advance the Gospel. We can
say what we will but we aren’t advancing the Gospel nearly as well as we would
like to think. Reading books like this
is what will provoke you to a state of self-examination! Then you have to go about making changes in
your budget and lifestyle. Apostolic
lifestyle is more than the way we worship, dress, or the doctrinal positions
that we hold. Far too often we measure
our worship “experience” by the little emotional lifts we get instead of
behavior altering actions that are necessary to advance the mission of the
Gospel.
Chapter 2 was
incredibly convicting. Platt ended up
spending eight hours going from one passage in Scripture to another as these
people in the house-church listened to him.
They invited him back the next day and it was another session of the
same nature. All total they went for ten
days and would work through the Bible for eight to twelve hours a day. I am highly doubtful that we could get that
kind of response here in America. There
is a famine in the land and not for bread but for the Words of the Lord (Amos
8:11). You should go v-by-v through Amos
8 to get a good picture of what takes place to people who do not treasure the
Word of God.
Platt goes
on:
But is his Word enough for us? . . . This
the question that often haunts me when I stand before a crowd of thousands of
people in the church I pastor. What if
we take away the cool music and the cushioned chairs? What if the screens are gone and the stage is
no longer decorated? What if the air
conditioning is off and the comforts are removed? Would his Word still be enough for his people
to come together?
As I write
this, in four days Alabama’s Crimson Tide will play for the NCAA National
Championship. If they pull it off, it
will mean that the last four NCAA National Championship teams have come from
the state of Alabama. I was preaching recently
and mentioned that people think nothing of getting involved in a 3 hour
football game but can hardly pray through a 15-minute half-time. In a day when some want shorter sermons, even
shorter altar services, and want to cut back to one-and-done services on
Sunday, we don’t need less, we need more!
These are the
kinds of books that make you step back and analyze what you are doing as a
church leader. I would recommend that
you add this book to your list to read in 2013.
Thanks for
reading. . .
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