Radical Together
by David Platt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I enjoyed Radical, even though I found its message to be less radical and more a simple call to live as Christians in today’s society (which, I suppose, is radical in our world today). But Radical Together truly contains a radical message.
It’s radical to suggest that most Christians should actually go on international mission trips, rather than just give to them. It’s radical to suggest that we eliminate ALL of the good programs in the church and start over, doing only the things God has truly called us to. It’s radical to suggest that we need to make both small and huge changes in our lives and churches in order to most glorify God with our time and money.
I’m inclined to think that some aspects of this book are actually too radical for most churches. It’s simply not possible for a significant portion of my church family to go on an international mission trip together. It’s no small thing that I and a youth in my church are going to Haiti this summer. Our church has been very supportive, but if just 2 or 4 more people from our church were to want to go on this trip, it would suddenly become much more difficult to raise the funds to go. I imagine that most churches would be in a similar position as ours, since the average church in the U.S. has less than 100 in attendance on Sunday morning.
Some aspects of Radical Together (and many such books) cannot be understood as being applicable to every church. They are written from a large church perspective, and written with large churches in mind. That being said, a good portion of this book certainly is applicable to every church. Every church should consider why it exists and how it can best fulfill its purpose.
I was encouraged by this book. It helped me think through my church’s purpose and vision a bit more, and challenged me to lead us to be a church who where we live our our faith radically…together.