Radical Review- Chapter 6

Radical Review- Chapter 6

I am continuing my review of David Platt’s new book Radical. Today we turn our attention somewhat to the American dream and the pursuit of stuff.

How Much is Enough?

At the root of the chapter is the question that we must ask ourselves. How much material wealth is enough? This is a tricky question. Too many Christians today have been taught that material blessings follow faith. This is explicitly taught by many prosperity preachers but Dr. Platt is quick to point out that it may underlie our own faith as well. After all, if I am following Jesus and doing what I am supposed to do doesn’t He want to reward my obedience? This is simply bad theology at best and borderline heresy at worst.

The question becomes tricky in its application. Does every follower of Christ need to sell everything to follow Him? Maybe not, but how do we know? Unfortunately this question is not addressed as well as it could be.

For most of the chapter Dr. Platt focuses on the abundance that we have as Americans and the lack of basic needs that so many are suffering from. I must say that I agree with Dr. Platt that there are needs and that we can not simply sit on our hands while the world is starving. The danger here though is to act out of compassion for the physical needs and export the same theology that has led to the American church losing her way. The focus should not be on feeding and clothing the poor but on bringing them the Gospel. Of course we must also be addressing their physical needs as well, but this is secondary to the message of the cross.

I will add that I think that the church needs to lead the way in taking up this challenge. It is no wonder that we have churchgoers that are focused on their bottom line when they attend churches that are more concerned with how much you give than they are with meeting your spiritual needs. We want bigger buildings and better productions and I must ask myself the same question for the church that I do of myself- how much is enough? If our primary outreach teaches the community how to balance their checkbook and not how to follow Christ, then what have we accomplished? Certainly not making disciples.

The past two weeks I have been participating in an outreach in inner-city Atlanta that seems to be on the right track. We have been going into poor neighborhoods and delivering food to people that need it and also praying with them and offering them love without judgment. The idea is to make disciples. There are many approaches but if we are not striving toward that, then we will not have the multiplying community that was the focus of the previous chapter.

What I found to be most interesting about this chapter is that Dr. Platt seemed to focus on our emotions when making his appeal for us to ask ourselves how much is enough. This appeal seems to be rooted in our humanistic tendencies. However, when we get to how his church has applied this thinking to their ministry I see nothing but Biblical responses. They have adopted within their community and sponsored churches overseas out of their abundance. This is the Biblical picture of using our abundance to extend God’s glory. I am not sure how he could have made his argument better but it seems that he could have. Especially considering how his church applied it to the needs that they saw.