Radicals

I started getting into David Platt after I heard the best talk on God's sovereignty and missions at last years Together For The Gospel. It is definitely worth a watch/listen (here).

Platt's book covers some of what he said in that talk, but also it also contains a lot more. It is aimed at the average American christian to consider if they are really living like Christ has instructed us to. It challenges our ideas of materialism and mission in the local and global sense.

Platt has been a missionary in Sudan, Indonesia, India and in underground (illegal) house churches in China. You can tell from this book that he really has a heart for spreading the message of Jesus to anywhere and everywhere (including "unreached" people groups), regardless of the cost or hardship. Platt sees that Jesus is enough in this life. Jesus is like a treasure in a filed that is worth selling everything for in order to buy that field.

Throughout this book he draws on lots of personal experience overseas, pointing to people he has met and how they are living out their lives promoting Jesus. I found these stories to be pretty cool, but I do wonder how I could relate to them in my context. And that is a little bit the point of this book.

What if Jesus really meant that we are to sell everything and follow Him? What if we really believed that God is sovereign over all things and that He cares for His people, regardless of what circumstanced they faced? What if we really believe that hell is real and that people who do not hear about Jesus will go there? If we believe these things, then shouldn't our questions about money and our life turn from "What can we spare for God?" to "What will it take for all people to know Jesus?".

At the end of the book Platt puts forward a Radical Experiment he wants people to try. The experiment last for a year and he wants people

1. to pray for the entire world;
2. read through the entire Word;
3. sacrifice your money for a specific purpose;
4. spend your time in another context;
5. commit your life to a multiplying community

Platt wants people in this book to reorient their lives to be focused on making disciples for Jesus. For them to live radical, counter-cultural lives where people can see that we thing Jesus is enough, in all circumstances. Like some of the people he has met in his travels. This was a good and challenging book.

I can see why Francis Chan and David Platt have gotten together on another project (Multiply Movement), as like Chan's Crazy Love, this book pretty much asks the questions, "What if we took the Bible seriously, what would our lives look like then?" and that is a good questions to ask.

You can also visit the book's website for more details.