Our adult Sunday School class has recently gone through the Radical Small Group Study by David Platt. We were challenged to consider the claims of Jesus and to weigh them against the underlying assumptions about the Christian faith we often bring to the table. We were particularly stirred about evangelism and the importance of local and global disciple-making. This came on the heels of a strategic emphasis in our Sunday School classes on “mission” over the last year. What is our mission as a church and as individual believers? Beginning with last summer, we did the following:
- Watched the Dispatches from the Front video series and spent time praying for the lost in other countries
- Went through A God-Sized Vision: Stories of Revival that Stretch and Stir by Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge
- Made Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer our recommended read in Fall 2012
- Spent the month of January 2013 praying for the lost in our community and around the world, inviting folks to fast each Wednesday and come together in prayer
- Went through the Radical Small Group Study by David Platt in Spring 2013
- Made Radical Together our recommended read for the Spring
- All along, we have been going through the book of Acts and being stirred about the mission of God in the earth
If there’s one thing that has become clear, especially through our study in Acts, it’s that our priorities as believers must be realigned to reflect kingdom-advancing priorities or we’ll have a stalled mission. What does this type of life look like? Radical certainly raises that question. David Platt offers a helpful way to think about answering that question:
After writing Radical, I received all kinds of questions and comments about specific facets of the Christian life. People would ask me, “What does a radical lifestyle look like? What kind of car should I drive, or should I even drive a car? What kind of house should I live in? Am I supposed to adopt? Am I supposed to move overseas to a foreign mission field?” I found these questions, though sincere and honest, to be a bit troubling. It felt like people were looking for a box to check or a criterion to follow that would ensure they were obeying God. But such questions, if we’re not careful, bypass the core of what it means to follow Jesus. Outside of the commands of Christ in Scripture, we have no specific set of rules or regulations regarding how the radical commands of Christ apply to our lives. Instead, we have a relationship with Jesus.
We want our mission, which is to make disciples locally and globally, to flow out of a relationship with Jesus. We don’t want to be motivated by a religious checklist. How has your relationship with Jesus changed the way you plan your calendar, spend your money, take risks, pray for the lost, and love your church?
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