Initial Thoughts from Reading "Radical"

I just started “Radical”, by David Platt. I’ll be honest, it’s a hard book to read. It’s a hard book to start. It’s a hard book to pick back up.

Almost right off the bat David starts discussing a passage out of the bible that has always fascinated me: John chapter 6. At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus feeds about 5 thousand people. Around vs. 14 and 15 you get the sense that the people believe that “He is the Prophet who is to come into the world”. Immediately He leaves, because He gets the feeling they were going to seize Him and make Him king. The next scene has Him walking on water. Once in the boat, it immediately appears on the shore (vs. 21)! As he starts talking to the crowd, He tells them quite plainly that they only seek him, not for the miraculous signs, but because he fed them. As He starts talking to them about believing in “the one whom God sent”, they begin asking about miraculous signs again. Jesus tells them about the manna from heaven, and how God fed the Israelites that way. But he doesn’t stop there. He amps up by proclaiming, “I am the bread of life” (vs. 35). He then continues to tell them that anyone who comes to him will go hungry or be thirsty. As the story escalates more and more, Jesus finally proclaims in vs. 53 “…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.”

As David Platt puts it, “Not exactly the sharpest church-growth tactic. I can almost picture the looks on the disciples’ faces. ‘No, not the drink-my-blood speech! We’ll never get on the list of the fastest-growing movements if you keep asking them to eat you.’”

And I’ll be honest: I have to agree. As you read through the next few verses, many of His disciples complain about his teachings being too hard, and that they don’t understand. Jesus doesn’t seem to be very sensitive to their feelings as he proclaims, “Does this cause you to be offended?...” (vs. 61). Again, this type of action doesn’t draw the greatest of crowds. At this point in your average western world Christian church, sermons start to get a little softer. Messages begin to be a little tamer. We do our best to not offend so as to push people away. We back off from the teachings of Jesus, because we are afraid to offend someone. But not Jesus! He amps it up, and people begin to leave. We see in verses 66 and 67 that so many people leave, that its possible only twelve remain with Him….

And that is where “Radical” begins…. Like I said, “ouch.”

The reading of this book has some pretty good timing as our congregation is going through some tough times presently. We have seen people leave, and we find ourselves asking, “What could we have done to keep them?” We also find ourselves asking questions like, “what can we do to draw more people into our church? How can we be more visible in our community?” Don’t get me wrong: ministry leaders should be very sensitive to not burning out volunteers. Church leaders should understand the demographic of the community and what the community needs are.

But this passage out of John 6 strikes a completely differ chord. Jesus knows who the true believers are, and he seems to push the others away. In fact, he seems to amp up the ‘weird’ stuff. I mean think about it: if you are around during Jesus time, waiting for the messiah to appear, you start following this guy thinking He is going to lead a rebellion against the Romans. All of a sudden He gets fed up with all the politics and starts talking about the only way to have eternal life is to eat His flesh and drink His blood?!? Don’t you think you might take a second look at your decision to follow Him? I’m just saying…..

I guess my point is that I think it is time to stop coddling to people and just teach the message of Jesus. We have to put Him first in every aspect of our life. Our finances should reflect spending habits that would make Him proud; not just using the church as a tax right off. The way we talk should inspire others; people should know we are Christians just by how we speak. Our weekly calendar should reflect activities of community service, outreach, and worship on a regular basis. I’m not saying I’m perfect and that I have this down, because I definitely don’t. What I am saying is that we need to start being intentional about our decision to follow Jesus, and make our decisions based on that. We shouldn’t be concerned with how many people might not like what we are doing, if we are living a life that reflects Jesus. Because if you are doing a good thing you will upset people. You can’t make everyone ‘happy’ and that certainly shouldn’t be our ultimate goal.

Reading List

Judah is still blocked from the blog and has sent another post for me to paste - The copy paste function is being uncooperative and it appears I am going to have to retype it. Suddenly I am not so thrilled with the length of his thoughts.....


This summer has seen me in China quite a bit. I think I spent most of June and July (except for one week) over here. When I finally get back from this current trip, I will have spent 60 days of 2009 over here! Needless to say, I read a lot while I am here. I also listen to a lot of podcasts. I finally found a DVD store (they had closed the other one we went to), so I am able to watch movies periodically. Anyway, below, is a summary of the books I have read while over here.

1) "Seven Habits of Effective Ministry" A. Stanley, L Jones,, and R Joiner. This is an excellent church leadership resource. If you are looking to turn your 'good ministry' into a 'great ministry,' this is an excellent book to help. Andy points out "your ministry is perfectly designed for the results you are getting." This shows a much simpler and effective approach to ministry. The basic theme throughout the book is, "what is the win?" If you can define the win in any situation, you are half way there. Give it a shot.

2) "Essential Church? Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts" T Rainer and S Rainer. This book tries to answer the question "why do so many young adults(18-22) leave the church?" The Rainers us a lot of statistics to support their claims - if at times applied fairly loosely. The numbers are quite scary - 80%. The book reviews some of the concepts in Thom Rainers previous effort "Simple Church" which was a good (if repetitive) book. There are some new graphs in this book, but overall not as informative as "Simple Church." The concept that young adults need to have a place in the church I agree with, but the idea that we need to concentrate on them at this point I tend to disagree with. If you haven't established the connection and relevance before 18, it is a poor time to start.

3) "Principle of the Path" A Stanley. I absolutely loved this book. In fact, I am going to be doing a book study with our college class about this topic on Sundays for a few weeks. Andy discusses the question "Why do so many smart people make such stupid decisions?" He does a really good job of describing how we can justify huge mistakes. He offers this prayer "Lord, help me to see danger before it gets upon me. Give me wisdom to know what to do, and the courage to make the right decision." Bottom line: Direction, not intention, leads to destination.

4) "Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical" S. Claiborne. This book is mostly a compilation of Shane's exploits during college and a few years after. He spent time working with Mother Theresa at a leper colony in Calcutta, worked/lived with homeless people in Philadelphia, went to Iraq to protest the war, and many other things in the name of Jesus. He is one of the founding members of The Simple Way, a community in Philadelphia that tries to show Jesus to as many people as possible, in as simple a way as they can. He has some excellent points, but I disagree with his presentation at times, it can be a bit rough. I can sometimes hear a tone of "if you don't do it this way, what's wrong with you?" He has some issues with capitalism, but does mention a few rich people doing amazing things. I personally feel that the next mission field in the next few years will be to the rich. Imagine what we can do to poverty when the 20% who control 80% of the world's money decide to start spending it the way they believe Jesus would? I don't think capitalism is the issue, its the people and their intention for the decisions they make.

5) "The Drunkards Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives" L Mlodinow. If you are not into statistics, don't bother with this book. However, this is a very entertaining read. It gives a brief history from basic math, probability, and statistics. The author shows how basic probability and statistics can be used in our daily lives, and how we sometimes use these concepts to prove things that are not true. He points out that our brains are wired to see patterns, even when there are no patterns to see. Just knowing this concept can be extremely helpful with deciphering information.


I also read through Lamentations on my previous trip. Take my advice, never read the book by yourself in a hotel room away from all your family and friends.

Proverbs has to be my old standby when I am traveling. I read through it quite frequently. I also try to read through the Sermon on the Mount and at least one of Paul's letters, usually Romans, especially chapter 8.

During this trip I learned how to covert some of my DVDs to a format that I can load onto my Ipod. I have a video of Rob Bells' talk "Everything is Spiritual" He does a good job of showing how God is present in all things. This is a must watch.

And finally I listen to podcasts. The three I listen to the most are 1) Mars Hill Bible Church, 2) North Point Ministries:Andy Stanley, and 3) Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, KY

There are a lot of other things I do while here. If Michelle hasn't posted the pictures of me climbing Washan Mountain, I will do that when I get back. But for this post I though t the book list was appropriate.

So what are you reading?

Reading List

So, what I do when I am in China? Sleep, work, eat, sleep, repeat. My work day is about a 10 hour work day. I also call my boss when I get back to the hotel. So, technically my work day is about 13 - 14 hours. I also brought a lot of books with this time around.

Renovation of the Heart, D. Willard. I have actually been reading this one for a few months now. Willard is always a good read, but he is so deep. You end up reading his stuff multiple times, just to comprehend what he is saying.
Wisdom of the Native Americans. I got this one after a close friend of mine read some quotes in a recent men's bible study. I decided to read it through. It seems, the Indians may have had a grasp on God and Jesus that we just didn't get. There is some good stuff here.
Cost of Discipleship, D. Bonhoeffer. I have just recently gotten around to reading some of Bonhoeffer's books. Its unfortunate I waited so long.
Generous Orthodoxy, B. McLaren. One of my buddies (gospel playboy) got me turned on to this guy. I don't agree with everything he says, but he makes me think.
Liberty and Tyranny, M. Levin. So, I get to Chicago and remember that Mark Levin just published a book. If you don't know Mark Levin, he is on talk radio. He is a conservative radio host. One of his other books is, "Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America." Anyway, I had to go to 2 terminals just to find a book store that sold this book. I am really looking forward to it.
Sandworms of Dune, B. Herbert and K. Anderson. Michelle and I are big Dune fans. They are always good for some politics, fiction, and just overall good read.
Bible, New Living Translation. My NLT is small, so it fits really well in my backpack. It isn't my normal research bible with all my notes and references, but it still gets the job done.

I also have my ipod filled with about 2 weeks of podcasts. I would say that is enough to keep busy for quite some time. I didn't read or listen to much on the way over. I try to sleep on the way to China. I will do more listening on the way home. The podcasts are also good for in the gym. Since I can't carry a conversation while lifting weights, its best to just put the ear buds on and nod.

Will I get through all these books? Probably not. That's fine. Between calling the wife and kids, working, sleeping, listening to God, and shopping, I'll fit some of them in.....

"Jesus Wants to Save Christians"

Rob Bell teams up with Don Golden to write this short, but very informative book. Its written in the same style as Velvet Elvis and Sex God, and it is about as long. As usual, the end notes are as informative as the book itself. I finished it in a day, in a room at the Shangri La in China. The irony to this will only be seen by those who read the book.

Bell/Golden spend a lot of time focused on the Exile, and for good reason. I think Christians (myself included) don't focus enough on the exile of the Jews. We tend to focus more on worship style, instrumental music, what to wear to church, what to give this Sunday, will I be able to fill my SUV after worship, who is going to show up at small group, etc. They go into much more literal detail with statistics that will absolutely astound you. The book continues to marry the exile with communion, again something most 21st Christians just don't get. There is more to church than just showing up. During the discussion of communion (Euchurist) they ask one amazing question: "Is it really possible to take communion in the presence of someone you are mad at?" We miss the point, when we ignore the thousands- year-old meanings behind the exile, communion, and the death of Jesus. Bell/Golden do an amazing job describing how all of this is put together.

I do have slight issue with some of the authors' "literal" stretches of Biblical stories. True, they do make a good point the way they are told in the book, but I felt they sometimes came a little too close to what some would see as "taking out of context". You can call that my traditional upbringing speaking, and I will be fine with that at the present.

Bell/Golden also have a discussion on the current state of affairs of the US government. The reader is bombarded by statistics of "better use of funding" on the several trillion dollars being currently spent on the War in Iraq. There are even more statistics on what an average American's daily spending could do for someone in the middle of Africa. I feel the point behind this, is to show that the US is the "empire" on the likes of Egypt and Babylon. This I don't deny, but the reader is in someway left feeling that ALL Americans have no pity in wasting stuff, or that ALL Americans never share any of the things they purchase, or that ALL Americans don't appreciate what they just ate for dinner tonight. I personally know plenty of millionares that provide seemingly endless amounts of money to people that are in need in all kinds of different ways. These millionares would never want the attention or feel "entitled" in any way. I also know of numerous middle class Americans that do plenty without the giving of money. So, on this topic I take particular issue. It could have been written differently, as to not make the reader feel that ALL Americans have a sense of entitlement to the things they possess, believe, vote, work, live, etc.

The authors make very good points however. It is very difficult for someone who doesn't need anything to follow Jesus. Why should they? Young, rich, Americans are the hardest to evangilize to. This, I do agree with. They also discuss that entitlement is a word that Americans tend to throw around way too easily. Americans tend to say things like, "I worked hard for this job", or "I deserve that new car." Entitlement is a word that has no place in Christianity. They also talk about how that God is not against "things", as long as the purchase of those "things" does not in some way "enslave" someone else.

The book is worth the read, but if you have a 50" HD television in your living room, you may take issue to some of the comments.....