A Radical Experiment

I just finished reading Radical by David Platt. It is about "taking back your faith from the American Dream." It was a great read; I highly recommend it. Seriously: summer reading list. I was so challenged in my way of thinking and living. Platt opened my eyes to how my Christian life has been shaped by our American culture and its beliefs and values. It was shocking and sobering. I am excited to be praying about how God wants me to start making changes in my life and how he wants to transform my way of thinking, so that it might be better aligned with the teaching of the Bible and not of the world. And I have found the next big step I want to make. Perhaps you will want to join me as well.

At the end of Radical Platt poses a challenge to take on "The Radical Experiment" for one year. Motivation behind committing to this experiment is found in so many of the promises we can claim from the Bible. "Real success is found in radical sacrifice. Ultimate satisfaction is found not in making much of ourselves but in making much of God. The purpose of our lives transcends the country and culture in which we live. Meaning is found in community, no individualism; joy is found in generosity, no materialism; and truth is found in Christ, not universalism. Ultimately, Jesus is a reward worth risking everything to know, experience and enjoy." 


The challenge involves five parts:

1. pray for the entire world;
2. read through the entire Word;
3. sacrifice your money for a specific purpose;
4. spend your time in another context; 
5. commit your life to a multiplying community


Pray for the entire world.
"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field" (Matt. 9:37-38). More than a billion people around the world have never heard the gospel. At the core of this heartbreaking truth is yet another heartbreaking truth: we must not be praying. Jesus told the disciples to pray that God would send out workers to reap the harvest. He didn't start delegating tasks to each disciple; he instructed them to PRAY. So I am committing for the next to praying that God would raise up and send disciples to the unreached. I am praying for the entire world.

Read through the entire Word.
"If we want to know the glory of God, if we want to experience the beauty of God, and if we want to be used by the hand of God, then we must live in the Word of God." I have committed to reading through the entire Bible in the next year, following a chronological reading plan-- I am so interested in the historical progression of the Bible and its events!

Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose.
"Our hearts follow our money." 


This challenge doesn't just mean that we give away our excesses. "Sacrifice is giving away what it hurts to give. Sacrifice is not giving according to your ability; it's giving beyond your ability." This is definitely going to be a challenge for me, but one I feel like God has really laid upon my heart.

A few tips Platt gives for how we spend our money:

• spend your money on something that is gospel-centered
• give in a way that is church focused
• give to a specific, tangible need
• give to someone or something you can personally serve alongside
• give to someone or something you can trust
• give in sustainable ways

Spend time in another context.

Our presence is needed. "If we are going to accomplish the global purpose of God, it will not be primarily through giving our money, as important as that is. It will happen primarily through giving ourselves. This is what the gospel represents, and it's what the gospel requires." We are commanded to go; Christians cannot feign ignorance of the Great Commission. "The point is not where we go, how we get there, or even how long we stay. The point is simply that we go." I am spending six months of this next year in another context--and I CAN'T WAIT for God to rock my world.

Commit your life to a multiplying community.

We cannot go it alone. We were made to be in relationship, and the fellowship that Christian community provides is of infinite worth. I can personally attest to this, because my time spent at Tech in the most wonderful Christian fellowship showed me the inexpressible value of community. We need others to encourage us, to spur us on, challenge us, grow with us, pray with us; and we need to have the responsibility and opportunity to do those things for our fellow believers as well. It is how we sharpen one another. 

"No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age...and in the age to come, eternal life" (Mark 10:29-31).

I am undoubtedly seeking to be committed to a multiplying community. I want to know that I am investing in the lives of others within the body of the church I am a part of, and to also know that I am being invested in as well. What a joy and blessing it is to share our faith journeys with one another.