Anybody read David Platt's book "Radical"

[GlennO]

It has been out a couple years....

Opinions?

[mattfivefour]

Based on his comments in an interview with the Christian Post, I would think he may be a good guy. Here are just some excerpts from that interview that caught my attention:

"I think with the way we have unprecedented material blessing, with the way we have a culture built on self, self-esteem, self-confidence. All of these things we begin to twist the gospel into something that it is not. We make it look like us and fit into our lifestyle instead of adjusting our lifestyle to the gospel. In the process we make following Jesus more American than it is biblical. As a result there seems to be a major disconnect between what it means to follow Christ in the first century and what it means to follow Christ in our definition in the 21st century America.

"I believe that the gospel and the American Dream have fundamentally different starting points. The American Dream begins with self, exalts self, says you are inherently good and you have in you what it takes to be successful so do all you can, work with everything you have to make much of yourself.

"The gospel’s starting point is completely different. The gospel begins with God, the reality that we were created to exalt his name to the ends of the earth. I am not inherently good. The gospel tells me that I am inherently evil and I need someone else to save me. The self is crucified from the start in the gospel. So from that starting point everything changes. Now it is not what I have in me but about what God provides in me. It is not about my life but the life of Christ. It is not about me making much of myself, it is about me making much of God.

"And from those starting points flow two different trajectories for how life looks, how success looks like, what satisfaction in life looks like. And if we miss the starting point – either self and the American Dream or God and the gospel – then that changes everything from then on out.

"Success is determined not by how many people are coming into our building, but how many people are leaving our buildings to take on the world with the gospel. What defines success is certainly not just the crowd. Jesus himself in many ways spurned the crowd. You can get crowds to do anything and crowds are not a measure of success as much as Jesus shows us men and women are multiplying the gospel with their lives and risking their lives to taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. This is the success of the church.

"We want our lives to count for the glory of God and the spreading of the gospel among the nations. There is an urgency here when it comes to the reality of the gospel and the reality of the world we live in. We want good, gospel theology. But when we have good, gospel theology that necessitates urgent missiology. It necessitates us to give our lives to making the gospel known around the world. It doesn’t add up to say we believe in the gospel and not giving our lives to make it known."

In any case, based on that I rather like where he is with his ideas. However, he IS a megachurch pastor (The Church at Brook Hills in Montgomery, Alabama) and his book may be another matter. There is a review of it by Kevin DeYoung at Getting to the Root of Radical: A Review and Response – Kevin DeYoung. You might want to read it before getting the book.

[soundingthealarm]

Radical Risk, Radical Reward Video

[IamPJ]

Wow, that was an awesome sermon!!! Thanks for sharing it!!!

[GlennO]

Adrian - Thank you for the link....

Getting to the Root of Radical: A Review and Response – Kevin DeYoung

Awesome analysis by Kevin DeYoung AND he including David's Platt's response. I'm ready to dive in.

Both appear to be Godly men well calibrated with the King