This review has been a long time in coming. When I started reading Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream by David Platt, I wished I hadn’t committed to reading and reviewing the book, because I knew it wouldn’t be one I could just walk away from without making some changes in my life. I’m not someone who’s all sold on the American dream with a big comfy house, car, salaried 8-5 job making six figures. I’m a graduate student who lives as cheaply as he can imagine and hates the thought of getting any more educational debt. But that’s not good enough, at least not according to Platt.
Platt’s intent should be obvious from the title. It’s not an uncommon theme in evangelical circles in the United States either. Casting Crowns raised the question in a hit song “way back” in September 2003. Artists like Charlie Hall, Derek Webb, and others have prophetically challenged the church on living in comfort when so many live in poverty. Like Platt says, “We were settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves” (7). In the following pages, Platt challenges us as Christians to see the loss of discipleship and the loss of the Gospel as a way of life in our churches — and to see how it is killing us when we refuse to submit to His Lordship in every area of our lives.
I was convicted and brought to repentance by this book. I was disturbed. I had to seek out the counsel of friends and family because I found myself repulsed by the comfort and ease I lived in while thinking of those who lived in poverty of every kind imaginable — particularly their lack of Christ. It lit me on fire. I was ready to sell everything I had — but Gospel wisdom also should follow Gospel passion, and wise friends have urged me to a wise pursuit of a radical life. But before posting my review, I wanted to test it out. Is the radical life possible? In answer, I would fully endorse this. Read Radical. Start the Radical Challenge. Turn your life more and more to the Gospel-centered life we’ve been called to.
As noted in a related review (for The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister), I have had an interest in things having to do with liturgy. One of the strengths of various liturgical traditions are in their careful practice of the sacraments, particularly the Lord Supper/Eucharist/Communion. This significant act has often been neglected in evangelical circles, but ought to be recovered for all its value and its importance to the life of the Church. Jesus did command us to, after all. After the disappointment in The Liturgical Year, I was hoping for a better experience with The Sacred Meal.
For many years, I have had an interest in things having to do with liturgy. As someone who identifies as a believer with Pentecostal beliefs, who grew up in non-denominational contemporary church settings, I never had much of an experience of it until college. For the last year and a half, I have regularly been part of an Anglican church plant near my church and have grown to love the depth and value of liturgy and its connection to Gospel ministry. So, with that sort of interest and enthusiasm, I requested The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister. I should have researched better before doing so.
It was with great anticipation and excitement that I received Chazown by Craig Groeschel for review. Alas, the last bit of graduate work at Geneva College demanded my time. And it has been worthwhile because the book makes more sense in light of that experience. I first encountered Groeschel at Catalyst Atlanta in October 2008 when he preached about “The Special Something of God” to an auditorium of 10,000+ ministry leaders and student leaders. The man clearly had vision, passion and purpose — which made him that much more authoritative. So when I heard about Chazown, I was definitely interested in what he had to say.
Because of a lifelong interest in prophecy, a love for history, for the Jewish people and Orthodox Judaism itself, and because of the different directions studying Scripture has taken me in regard to those things, I was skeptical of the book’s concept from the start. What Wright, an Atlanta pastor, attempts to do in this book is to provide a biblical and historical explanation of “why things are the way they are” between Israelis and Arabs in the present day. He does this with several prooftexts and by toeing the same lines Hal Lindsay has done for decades. In short, it’s a pro-Zionist baptized history for Christians who aren’t sure whether they should feel guilty about taking sides in the Middle East conflict or not.
On This Day in Christian History, pastor Robert J. Morgan promises “a year’s worth of insight and spiritual challenge” through anecdotes and events from the second century into the twentieth century. Spanning across Western Christian traditions, from early Catholicism to Reformation groups, several times embracing conflicted forces (Catholic/Protestant, Anglican/Puritan, Reformed/Anabaptist, Quaker/Congregationalist), Morgan attempts to be as all-encompassing as he can be both in tradition, era, and station in life (laity, clergy, etc.).
Charles Stanley is well-known and beloved throughout broader evangelicalism as a pastor who is gentle and practical in application of the Bible. In a newly released daily devotional book, I Lift Up My Soul, years of that soul and experience is shown. In a brief devotional thought that includes a passage of Scripture to be read, along with the key verse highlighted to be meditated on, Stanley engages the reader with stories, writings from Christian history, and challenges to start the day.
Ever since I heard Steven Furtick preach at Catalyst 2008 in Atlanta, I’ve followed a number of his sermons and learned a great deal from him about the radical nature of faith and walking in obedience to God regardless of how much people would like to insert “common sense” into your routine. His story is far from typical and it’s been an inspiration to see the kinds of things God will do with a life that surrenders control to him. For those reasons, I was looking forward to seeing what he had to say in Sun Stand Still.
Given my