Skip to main content

The Radical Question / A Radical Idea




I like reading books because they make me think. Sometimes they make me think a lot. Sometimes they change my thinking. And sometimes all that thinking makes me uncomfortable. That's because sometimes it makes me stop and wonder just what I've been doing.

That is what happened as I read The Radical Question / A Radical Idea by David Platt. It's two books in one, which means more bang for your buck.

The Radical Question is an introduction to David's book Radical, which is just that, radical. It asks the question that every Christian should be asking themselves.

What is Jesus worth to you?

A Radical Idea takes the main points from Radical Together. Here David contemplates "the force of a people who come together to enjoy God's grace in the church while the extend God's glory in the world." These books are just small portions of David's books on the topic. So reading these vignettes could cause you to want to read the whole thing. Just as likely is that you will be forced to ask yourself the important questions found here. 

As a Christian, I normally ask the first question about Jesus' worth to me. But as a pastor, it was the radical idea that pushed my thinking. Why does the church exist? Jesus gave us that mission long ago. We can argue all we want about philosophies of ministry and methods we prefer given the society we are a part of. But at some point we have to ask ourselves if we are willing to set aside our comfort and preferences for what will actually be effective. 

Reading radical ideas is the kind of stuff that can ruin you for the normal that you've become accustomed to. Thanks for that, Mr. Platt! 

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. You can follow the links for more information. I highly recommend you do so.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Facebook Maybe

Granted, I'm a pastor. I have Type-A tendencies. Ok, my tendencies border on freakish OCD behavior patterns, but... Few things bother me more than the Facebook 'maybe'. I suppose I could go on and on about the grey areas of our society and the refusal of people to accept absolute standards. I could discuss the great need of people to accept that what is wrong for one person is likely wrong for everyone. I should certainly be concerned about mentioning that someone might have sin in their life. But I don't believe the Facebook 'maybe' is quite sin. Perhaps if I were coming up with new sins, I would add this to the list. But alas... Some might think the Facebook 'maybe' did not exist prior to the Internet, but they would be wrong. When I was in high school and asked a girl out on a date, I would normally be told that if they had no other plans, if nobody else called them, if there was nothing good on television and their hair did not need washing, then per...
5 comments
Read more

Jury Duty

I was recently summoned to jury duty. I know, groan. Except I didn't. I had never experienced it before and was curious to see what it was like.   When the day to report arrives, they separate you into groups, asking various questions to decide if you will be selected to serve. Do you know the accused? Do you have conflicts that would keep you from serving? Can you stay focused?  I wanted to answer well, if only because my kids kept wishing me luck the day before, telling me they hoped I made the team. After all, who wants to be rejected? It occurred to me that there are things you probably shouldn’t say right away if you’re wanting to serve on a jury. I know, I know, people don’t typically want to serve on a jury. But that list didn’t seem nearly as humorous to me. Here are the things you probably shouldn’t say if you want to be selected for jury. I hold myself in contempt. You can’t handle the truth. We find the defendant guilty. I believe the judge looks pretty in his ...
Post a Comment
Read more