“Radical Together” builds off of David Platt’s first best selling book “Radical.” The review of that book can be found here (http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/radical). Whereas his first book was focused on the individual, this book focuses on the body of believers and what it would be like for them to take seriously their faith collectively.
The purpose of this book is to propose six ideas of how leaders (loosely defined) in the church can exhort Christians to spread the gospel and do His work for His glory. The first idea is that we need to not stop at the good things and comfortable things that we have prioritized in the church. These things have inadvertently stop the church from doing what it needs to do which is ministering to those who need it. Rather, we should see these good things for what they are and move towards doing what we ought to be doing. The second idea to unleash the church is to make sure that the implications of the gospel is fully understood. That means we are free from the tyranny of guilt based works so that we can work with joy for the glory of Him who has saved us. The third point is based on the idea that the word of God is actually still relevant for today. Preaching and teaching the Word is important. As Christians value the word in this way, God will use it to motivate, change, move his church to His glory and for His plan. The fourth idea is based on the concept that God is using his people to do his work. Building the right church is dependent on using the all of the people The emphasis tends to be using a select few in a select area to do ministry. Every Christian is part of the plan that ministers to all people. The fifth idea describes the task which we are to be doing. The reason the church is here to spread the word to all nations and to hasten the return on Christ. The final idea is a culmination of these ideas and that is God is seeking his own glory. We need to be selfless followers of self-centered God rather than a self-centered follower of a selfless God. We need to be wholly devoted to God’s work and he will glorify himself.
David Platt writes an audacious book with lofty aims. All of his six points are good and valid and are built upon the gospel message. He writes it in such a way that inspires the reader to consider changing his thoughts, decisions, and maybe even his life style. This book also provides a good look at some of the ailments of the current American church especially when it comes to our lifestyle and monetary decisions. As a reader, I had a couple of reservations as I was reading this book. First, the author seems to have a bit of false humility. Though he continually points out that he is growing as a leader and that his church hasn’t always done it right, it still feels a bit like false humility. It may be because the only examples he really uses to illustrate his points are from his church. Second, I was wondering why both of his books have not caused more change. It may be unfair to evaluate a book based on the resulting changes but what he is proposing is neither new nor incorrect. In retrospect, this last reservation is one of two things that I have taken away after reading this book.
At the end of the book, and sitting back to consider it all, I had to wonder what it means to read something like this and not be changed. As I just mentioned, I was also wondering why more people had not been change by the first book. If what he wrote is taken to heart, we would see a phenomenal change in the attitude of today’s church and the work that it is doing. This may say more about the people reading the book than the book itself. However, it does say something about the book and what you should expect when reading it. It is challenging, thought provoking and insightful. It will challenge you to consider your life’s purpose. It is thought provoking in that it will make you consider what you base your decisions on and it is insightful in that it provides a glimpse of issues surrounding the modern church today.
