Book Review – Radical by David Platt

About This Book

WHAT IS JESUS WORTH TO YOU?
“Do you believe that Jesus is worth abandoning everything for? Do you believe him enough to obey him and to follow him wherever he leads, even when the crowds in our culture -maybe even our churches- turn the other way?”

It's easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily...

BUT WHO DO YOU KNOW WHO LIVES LIKE THAT? DO YOU?
In Radical, David Platt challenges you to consider with an open heart how we have manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences. He shows what Jesus actually said about being his disciple--then invites you to believe and obey what you have heard. And he tells the dramatic story of what is happening as a "successful" suburban church decides to get serious about the gospel according to Jesus.
Finally, he urges you to join in The Radical Experiment --a one-year journey in authentic discipleship that will transform how you live in a world that desperately needs the Good News Jesus came to bring.

Before I received this book for review, I had a few friends who were jazzed about reading it too, and they had me watch this video about it. I agree what another friend of mine said about it here, that the way Platt presents himself can be, well, radical. He tends to slip so far off from where we are in “following the American dream” that it’s hard to reconcile his mindset with the one we already have. Add that to the fact that my church, which is the only one I’ve attended as a believer, tends not to have some of the problems of allowing us to ignore needs around us and just provide a fluffy gospel with no real substance to it.

That said, I really did like this book. The points that he brings up, especially in living the American Christian dream versus following the true Gospel, are very eye opening and make me think about where I am spending myself. Am I heartbroken over the poor and dying, as Jesus was? Am I willing to do what it takes, not just give out of my surplus, to help those who need it? We, as the Church, are the plan, there is no plan b in reaching others for the Gospel. How many people die every day not knowing our Savior because we as the Church are too comfortable in our stuff to do anything about it?

So, for me, then, the struggle lies in the balance of using my resources radically for the Gospel and being wise about appreciating what God has provided for me here in my life in the United States of America. Platt addresses this at the very end of the book, which I greatly appreciated. “Though we have much to learn from our persecuted brothers and sisters in lands where there is no freedom, and though we have much to learn from impoverished brothers and sisters where there are few resources, I am grateful to God for the freedom and resources he has given us in the United States. These gifts from God have certainly not been without cost, and if we did not have such freedoms and resources, many of the opportunities we have to take the gospel to the nations would simply not exist.”

The book concludes with the Radical Experiment, a one-year 5-part challenge, which is the culmination of everything the book talks about. I would love to participate in this challenge, but my husband has to be on board first, because it will impact our lives in large and small ways. In the meantime, I see choices that I make differently now than I did before I read this book. Am I about spreading the true Word of God or am I about making myself comfortable and our family “successful”?

~S

It would be a great help to me if you would please rate my review. I get the chance to review more books based on my rating, and there are cool contests and such. Thanks!!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.