How to be radical

Francis Chan told us at New Wine that he has teamed up with David Platt to produce some discipleship material to encourage us all to crack on more radically with the great commission. It should be interesting stuff and I will keep you posted. Platt is the author of Radical which I have spoken of in the past and is a critique of consumerist Christianity. Well worth a read.

As an aside, a dear pal emailed me from Canada to say how impacted he has been by Why men hate going to church and he wishes he had read it years ago when it came out. It's causing him to rethink everything. It's now on my list because I haven't read it either.

So how can you be more radical? Read about people who are more radical than you and let God's grace do the rest. Platt says in this clip how important biographies can be to upping your radical-o-meter. I really do agree.

H/T Out of Ur

I can still remember sitting on a park bench months after having become a Christian captivated by John Pollock's biography of John Wesley (amazing- only four quid with Newton to boot). Now twenty years later by amazing grace I am ordained into the same church he was. I then went on to read a tiny little book about missionary pioneers called 'On Fire for God' which offers little pastiches of great Christian lives and my heart was then truly gripped. My life was a total mess but little did I know that my trajectory was being set through the reading of these two books.

If I was sitting you down on a park bench today I might also place into your hands:

C T Studd Cricketer and Pioneer

In the Shadow of the Almighty

Chasing the dragon

Bonnhoeffer

David Martyn Lloyd Jones The First Forty Years

John Wimber

In Pursuit of his glory

Take one of them on holiday with you and you never know what might happen.

Feel free to let me know your favourite Christian biography or one that has impacted your walk significantly.