When I first began reading this book, I was at the eye doctor when one of the staff made a comment on what I was reading. He mentioned that he had read the book so I asked him what he thought of it. His response was two words--life changing.
I chose to read Radical because I have felt for years that American churches have made a movement toward the church (lower case "c") blending in far too much with the world rather than going into the world, teaching and making disciples as is commanded in Acts for the Church (upper case "c"). When we walk into many churches in the US, there is a beautiful sanctuary, the music has been practiced to perfection and is very performance-like, the pews or chairs are cushioned, the air conditioning and heat making us quite comfortable in our surroundings.....There is nothing wrong with comfort BUT have we also gotten away from the Word and made God into the god (lower case "g") we feel comfortable with, ignoring all 360 degrees of God and instead only accepting those attributes of Him that make us feel good? I think we, as Christians, are in danger of doing so if we have not aleady done so.
David Platt, a pastor in Birmingham Alabama, encourages us to search the scripture to see what being a Christian really means and to follow the Jesus of the Bible. To borrow some of his words, Mr. Platt says that "We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves".
If you are searching for the answers about what being a true Christ follower really means or what God intended the Church to be, I encourage you to purchase a copy of Radical and read for yourself what Mr. Platt and scripture have to say on the subject. Radical is available through your local Christian book store, on Amazon.com, or through Barnesandnoble.com.
Sounds like a good one! I'm intrigued! We need to go on a vacation together so we can share some good reads. The subject matter reminded me of a video clip that JJ used yesterday:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3X-MN1JaLc&feature=player_embedded
I will say too, that we are often tempted to be critical of a local church body just because their music is done with excellence or they serve coffee, (or plug in here any other offense you have heard). But we are guilty of missing the Gospel ourselves if that is all that we see. Our heart must be first and foremost to follow Jesus, and in that to love one another...everything else is just details. We are the beautiful Body of Christ, made up of different parts with different gifts and talents, and our goal must be unity, not uniformity.
Disclaimer: My comments are biased by a heart that is breaking over devisiveness right now.
Love ya! Vicki