Platt - A radical idea: unleashing the people of God for the purpose of God

A R ADICAL I DEA
P UBLISHED BY M ULTNOMAH B OOKS
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Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921

All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
www.zondervan.com.

Details in some anecdotes and stories have been changed to protect the identities of the persons involved.

eISBN: 978-1-60142-416-7

Copyright 2011 by David Platt

This booklet was adapted from Radical Together, copyright 2011 by David Platt, published by Multnomah Books.

Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP, Attorneys and Counselors, Orange, California.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.

M ULTNOMAH and its mountain colophon are registered trademarks of Random House Inc.

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H igh atop the Andes Mountains, the rays of the sun strike ice, and a single drop of water forms. It begins to trace a hesitant course downward, gradually joining with other drops of water to become a steady stream. The stream gains speed and strength. Thousands of feet below and hundreds of miles later, what were once single drops have converged to become the mightiest river on earth: the Amazon. Flowing into the Atlantic Ocean at a rate of more than seven million cubic feet per second, the Amazon is more powerful than the next ten largest rivers in the world combined.

In my book Radical, I explored how the biblical gospel affects individual Christian lives. Simply put, in a world of urgent spiritual and physical need, gospel-believing, God-exalting men and women do not have time to waste their lives pursuing a Christian spin on the American dream. Using the imagery above, I tried to picture what happens when the truth of Christ penetrates our hearts, melts our assumptions, and propels us on a journey of abandonment to God.

You and I are not intended to plunge down the mountain of radical obedience alone.

But you and I are not intended to plunge down the mountain of radical obedience alone. Thats one of the reasons I love this imagery of the Amazon. The force of a single drop of water descending the Andes is minuscule. Similarly, as long as individual Christians journey aloneno matter how radical they aretheir effect will be minimal. But as men and women who are surrendered to the person of Christ join together in churches that are committed to the purpose of Christ, then nothing can stop the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth.

In A Radical Idea, I want to consider what happensor can happenwhen we apply the revolutionary claims and commands of Christ to our communities of faith. I want to contemplate the force of a people who come together to enjoy Gods grace in the church while they extend Gods glory in the world. And I want to propose that a movement of such people in such churches has the potential to permeate nations with the praise of God.

I am speaking to believers who are ready to lead, influence, or simply be a part of such a movement in their local church. You may be a follower of Christ who desires to live out a more biblical gospel, and you want to see your church do the same. You may be a pastor, staff person, or leader of some other description in the church, and you want your local fellowship to count for the spread of Gods glory in the world. You may even be a Christian who is tempted to throw in the towel and say, My church will never be radical.

Whatever your circumstance, I invite you to engage Gods Word and Gods world with a fresh, honest, and open perspective so that together we might answer one question:

How can we in the church

best unleash the people of God

in the Spirit of God with the Word of God

for the glory of God in the world?

As I pose this question, I do not claim to be an expert on how to answer it. I am merely one pastor in one church, and I have so much to learn. Yet I know that, as leaders and members of churches, we are called to spur one another toward Christ and his agenda in the world.

Throughout the history of humankind, God has chosen to call out not just individuals but a people for himself. He told the Israelites, I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. Through Christ, God brought Jews and Gentiles together as one body in which each member

If you and I want our lives to count for Gods purpose in the world, we need to begin with a commitment to Gods people in the church. God has called us to lock arms with one another in single-minded, death-defying obedience to one objective: the declaration of his gospel for the demonstration of his glory to all nations. This is Gods design for his people, and it is worth giving our lives to see it accomplished. It is worth it for billions of people who do not yet know that Jesus is the grave-conquering, life-giving, all-satisfying King. And it is worth it for you and me, because we were made to enjoy the great pleasures of God in the context of total abandonment to his global purpose.

God has called us to lock arms with one another in single-minded, death-defying obedience to one objective: the declaration of his gospel for the demonstration of his glory to all nations.

I was sitting at a table with an old friend who leads a large and thriving church. We try to make everything easy for the members of our church, he said to me. We encourage them to get to know people in our community, whether in their neighborhood or office or anywhere else. Then all they have to do is invite those people to church. At church, those people will hear relevant, gifted communicators in a warm, attractive, and appealing environment where their children can be a part of top-of-the-line programs.

He concluded, If our members will just invite their friends to the environment we create, then we can take care of the rest.

Then he asked me what we do at Brook Hills.

Hesitantly I said, We actually do the exact opposite.

Oh really, he said. What do you mean?

Well, when we gather as the church, our main focus is on the church. In other words, we organize our worship environment around believers, not unbelievers.

He looked confused. Why would you do that? he asked. If your worship environment on Sunday is not appealing to non-Christians, then how is your church going to intentionally lead unbelievers in Birmingham to Christ?

Were going to equip our people every Sunday to lead unbelievers in Birmingham to Christ all week long, I said.

Your members are going to lead them to Christ?

Thats our plan.

Well, he said, once those unbelievers become believers, how are they going to grow in Christ?