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Most of you know that I’m disturbed and fed up with how we as Christians pursue the American Dream with much more fervor and zeal then we pursue Christ. When I saw the title of this book, it was practically enough to sell me on it right then and there.
I have now read through Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream twice, the first time on my own and the second while leading others in a study. I’ve recommended the book to many people and obviously think pretty highly of it. However, the reviews from those whom I recommend it to are very mixed.
Without a doubt it is a book that will challenge you. The author, David Platt, challenges the church to take back our faith from the “American Dream.” He is a young pastor of a mega-church in Birmingham, Alabama who calls out Christians in a tough way while balancing the line between rebuke and offense. But that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t offended anyone who has read the book. I believe that many who put the book down without finishing it are so convicted by Platt’s teachings that they can’t stand it any longer. I personally like being challenged, and found the book to be refreshing and spot-on in this lost world.
Platt shows how Christianity in America has settled into a comfort zone and has become more interested in the perks of the American Dream than they are with living their lives in pursuit of Jesus. He’ll make you consider that if you really believe Jesus is who He claims to be, and if you really believe His promises are real, then living a life for anything else just isn’t a consideration. He exposes how lost we really are.
Though Platt’s challenges are tough and he’s calling Christians to stop being comfortable, most find themselves eager to take on the challenge. Not many authors can create such a desire within the reader.
Blessings,
Steve
Order your copy today from Christianbooks.com or Amazon.com!
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Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream By David Platt / Multnomah Publishers, Inc. Take a transforming journey in authentic discipleship. As the pastor of a large and wealthy congregation, David Platt began to see a discrepancy between the reality of his Church and the way Jesus said His followers lived. In Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, Platt examines how American Christianity has manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences and challenges readers to rediscover the path. |
Good morning, Mr. Cook
Having just recently discovered your above review of David Platt’s “Radical”, I wanted to touch base to invite you to consider a review opportunity for the new non-fiction book titled, Embracing Obscurity from B&H Publishing.
I am working alongside B&H to identify a select number of faith-based bloggers to join the review team for this book. Your writing style seems to be a perfect fit.
Please review the following information for Embracing Obscurity and let me know by this Thursday (8/23/2012) whether you are interested in reviewing this unique book on your website as well.
Sincerely,
Rodney Bowen
rbowen@agroup.com
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Click to watch the Embracing Obscurity Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC7Iyw6fk2k
Unimportance: Surprisingly Good for the Soul
It’s not self-confidence that humans lack, it’s that we have too much self-importance, says an author who , by virtue of that, has chosen to remain anonymous. Or Anonymous.
“We have such a high opinion of ourselves that to live and die unnoticed seems a grave injustice. Yet, has God called us to be anything else?” The very challenge, the very calling, is in fact to embrace obscurity. “When we accept that our value is not dependent on what we do or accomplish, we are – ironically – liberated to do much for Christ.”
Finding that ability – to think little of ourselves – is the topic of the eye-opening book Embracing Obscurity: Becoming Nothing in Light of God’s Everything (B&H Publishing Group, 978-1-4336-7781-6). Arguably so counter to the desire of humans to “make a mark” on the world, Anonymous argues for the exact opposite, an about face that means rejecting the world’s views of significance.
“One of the greatest ironies of all time is that when we give up the hope of earthly fame and fortune, and instead embrace the obscurity of a life given in service to Christ, we are immediately touched with immortality and assured of eternal glory. By Christ’s own decree, we should be no more defined by the world than He is. Ours should be a different embrace.”
Embracing Obscurity is a call to action to recalibrate the strangling embrace of the world to God’s standards for God’s glory. Too frightening to put away definitions of achievement, success, and reward and replace them with new ones? The alternative is to allow our intoxication with the world draw us away from our Maker and His mission – an epidemic so common most of us do not even know we are under the influence, says the author.
Those radical enough to embrace obscurity will journey far from the spotlight, towards sacrifice, humility, significance in the Spirit, servant hood, and the mystery of Christ’s becoming nothing to glorify the Father (Phil. 2:5-11).
Rodney,
Thanks for thinking of us. Unfortunately I’m in the process of writing my own book and am supposed to have a manuscript turned in within the week. I’m very busy doing that and don’t have the time to review another book at the moment. I pray your book does well.
Blessings,
Steve