November - December 2010

Editorial Rick Wood, Editor

Is God trying to get our attention? I have never seen anything like it. Pastor David Platt of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama released his book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream in May of this year. It already has 370,000 copies in print and is in its 18th printing. It has spread largely by word of mouth across the country. A neighbor came up to my wife recently and spontaneously asked, "Have you seen this great new book called Radical?" It has been as high as #18 on Amazon and has even caught the attention of columnist David Brooks of the New York Times. download pdf of this story

Dr. David Platt, the 32-year-old pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, AL, is challenging the Western church's reinterpretation of Jesus' teaching by which we justify neglect of the nations, the lost and the poor while heaping up treasures here on earth: "We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist Him into a version of Jesus with whom we are more comfortable, a nice, middle-class, American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn't mind materialism and who would never call us to give away everything we have." He has suggested his congregation consider selling its multi-million-dollar campus and give the money to the poor. His book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream is a runaway best-seller, despite its strong exhortations to rediscover Christ as our sole treasure, to hunger for a deeper understanding of His Word, and to pursue God for the desire and power to obey His commands to deny ourselves and disciple all nations. download pdf of this story

A Radical Shift in Mobilization Robby Butler

Throughout his book Radical, Dr. David Platt presses us to come to Jesus on His terms, to be made free and eager to give whatever He asks and go wherever He sends. Thus The Radical Experiment introduced at the end of the book may seem anticlimactic. download pdf of this story

This past May, a condensation of Dr. David Platt's Radical sermon series was published as Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream1. Its dramatic reception may herald a tipping point in North American mission mobilization (370,000 copies in 18 printings in the last five months), as widespread dissatisfaction with seeker-sensitive "Christianity Lite" converges with the passion of 100,000 Perspectives alumni and Mission Frontiers recipients for discipling all nations. Hundreds of churches have bought copies of Radical for their members, and dozens of Christian high schools have ordered the book for their graduating seniors. download pdf of this story

Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream David Platt

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes." download pdf of this story

David Platt's book is a mission mobilizer's dream. Rarely do high-profi le pastors take it upon themselves to call the church to a lifestyle of radical obedience in fulfi lling God's global purpose. Rarer still are those who end up saying it better than we do. God will use this book to inspire many to global service, just as He has used John Piper, Rick Warren and Bob Roberts (to name a few) who have also used their pastoral role to cast a global vision. download pdf of this story

Like many movements of God, this one has a modest beginning. Nearly two decades ago, men and women came together from all over the United States representing mission agencies and publishing houses. About twenty in all, with diverse backgrounds, they had at least one thing in common – a love for children. Some were writers of children's materials. All had experience in working with children, and all complained about the lack of state-of-the-art material essential for teaching missions to children. They focused primarily on churches whose workers asked for experienced, professional assistance. download pdf of this story

Global Network of Centers for World Mission Chong Kim

The Global Network of Centers for World Mission (GNCWM) Consultation 2011 is set to take place April 12-16 near Seoul, Korea. After a pivotal reawakening at a gathering in Singapore in 2009, GNCWM is poised to take significant steps forward through the 2011 Consultation in Korea. download pdf of this story

In Radical, David Platt repeats Bonhoeffer's reminder that the first call every Christian experiences is "the call to abandon the attachments of this world" (page 14). This is an important corrective to the "benefits-oriented" Christianity of our day. download pdf of this story

Christians in America are getting exercised, or even "radical," about all kinds of things these days. I guess that is better than the opposite, but I wonder if we are getting confused in the process. Some evangelicals are building up cultural defenses to stave off encroaching "evil" of all sorts. I'm not talking about things where the Bible is clear; certainly, we should resist the Evil One, and he is wreaking havoc on a host of things in the West. download pdf of this story