I like David Platt. I first herd him preach on the sovereignty of God and missions and since then I have tried to hear/read more from him. Platt's Secret Church audio is well worth a listen to.
The book Follow Me is kinda of a follow up book from Radical, where Platt called (American) Christians to turn their backs on the American dream and instead to live a radical life for Jesus. This book focuses on what it actually means for Christians to follow Jesus.
Platt points out the classic sinners prayer is superstitious (Frank Viola claims he said this first). Nowhere in the Bible do we see such a sinners prayer; meaning that someone prays some magical prayer and then rest comfortably knowing they are now going to heaven. Instead we see people with changed lives, going out and telling more people about Jesus.
Platt also appeals for believers not to just make "Jesus their own personal saviour". Jesus is Lord over all things, not just over some subset of the human population. While his gripes with modern Christianity may sound like a semantic argument, Platt is calling cultural Christians to not just rest in what some modern day church is saying, but instead to read the set text for themselves to see what it means to follow Jesus.
Platt doesn't want Christians to begrudgingly follow and obey God because He said so, instead he wants Christians to delight in God, to enjoy him in the same way a small child delights in hanging out with their Dad. After all the Father/child analogy is what Christians are- adopted into God's family. Platt is quite the evangelical: on knowing Gods will for your life, Platt straight up says it is to make disciples. Modern Christians should stop searching for what God's will for their life is and instead should get on and experience it.
Platt draws on lots of personal stories or stories from others people he knows from around the world. He talks about how in some Islamic states he has heard of converts who write a list of people they know who don't know Jesus and then they are to pick the five people least likely to kill them and then to go and tell them about Jesus. While we don't live in such an environment, our calling to make disciples still stands.
Like Radical, Platt puts forward a worksheet with six questions to think through to help you live in a way to follow Jesus. They are:
- How will I fill my mind with truth?
- How will I fuel my affections for God?
- How will I share Gods love as a witness in the world?
- How will I show Gods love as a member of a church?
- How will I spread Gods glory among all peoples?
- How will I make disciple makers among a few people?
There are other points made in the book, but those questions help sum up the whole. Unlike the premise of Radical, in that to be a Christian you have to live a "radical life", whatever that means, this book says that to be a Christian you are to follow Jesus. Jesus does call us to some pretty counter cultural things (Platt's next book is called Counter Culture) but this should be part and parcel to standard Christianity.
This is an easy book to read, and should challenge the Christian reader to seriously consider what it means for them to obey Jesus' command to follow Him.
Other books by David Platt I have read
Radical - Follow Me is kinda the follow up book to this one.
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