Radical Together - David Platt

Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God  by David Platt
Multnomah (2011)



Rating: 8
Readability: 8
Impact: 9


Read it Again: Yes.
Recommend It: Yes!




What to Expect

Pastor David Platt moves from his best selling book, Radical, focusing on our own ambitions and expectations, to Radical Together, a book that focuses on the position, responsibility, and power of a community of believers.

Radical Together is a call back to a Christ-centered vision for the Church--her energy, resources, and focus.

The book focuses on both home-based discipleship and missions abroad, in a manner modeled after the Gospel.

David Platt is direct and engaging. He doesn't smooth over the tough stuff. If you aren't prepared to be convicted or spend time in serious evaluation, don't read this book.


My Squib

Radical Together draws its arguments and conclusions from the character of God and the fallen state of Man. The Church is a body of sinful, messed up, complicated people...all wrong for this beautiful, momentous task, but together created for a weapon of victory.

We are called to be selfless followers of a self-centered God. He is not our slot machine. We are His servants. There is no greater joy than serving, glorifying, and enjoying Him as He has called us!

A book taking the Church this seriously is both refreshing and somewhat depressing... We've been doing a pretty rotten job.

Both of David Platt's books have given me a lot to think about and evaluate in my own priorities and attitudes. They are dangerous stuff. I'd love to talk to someone else who has read them and has another take.

They've been my book of choice to give away for 2011, but I guess I still haven't decided what I think on all their aspects. Time for a reread... If only there wasn't so much else to read too! ;-)

From the Book

"Are these steps radical in and of themselves? For some the answer has been yes. For others, the answer has been no. But for all, the aim has been to set our lives and our churches in motion by putting ourselves in positions where God can mold our hearts with his gracious Word for his glorious purpose."

My Week in Pennsylvania

I'm home again.

What a wonderful and amazing time in Pennsylvania! I was truly blessed to be able to take this trip.

Thank you Aisha for an amazing time and for being wonderful!

There was way too much awesomeness to summarize. I'm just going to make you hear about two pieces because they were beautiful and because they relate somewhat to my blog. ;-)

Of course the best thing of all was spending time with Aisha. :-)

Some of the amazing things we did included visiting a lot of churches, cemeteries, coffee shops, and book stores. All beautiful.

I really enjoyed visiting All Saints Presbyterian Church.

I loved staying up late our last night drinking a warming beverage, just doing nothing.

I loved getting high on cheesecake and then getting high on book sniffing at Borders. That was an amazing day.

I loved watching favorite movies together and reciting them word for word. I enjoyed watching new movies...even when Aisha was tired. ;-)

I loved listening to Les Mis well we drove through amazing fall Pennsylvania countryside.

I loved reciting the Jabberwock and hearing it too...even the hundredth or so time. ;-)
I loved having serious talks and crazy, wild rambles.

I loved walking all over Lancaster, wet or dry. What beautiful buildings!

Okay...so more than two things...but I just had to talk about it.

The two things I was going to mention were these-- my German/English Bible and St. James Episcopal Church.

Unfortunately, my sister wasn't there. She is the camera mastermind so we didn't get very many good pictures. The ones I attempted were pretty pathetic, but I knew when I got home she would exercise her genius and fix them for me.

She did. :-)
And then she used her sweet new Nikon and extra awesome picturesque spotting skills and did a photo shoot with my Bible. You'll be seeing some of those in the next post.

This is the beautiful cemetery behind St. James.

The other side of the cemetery and the back of the church.

It was a cool church, inside and out.

We went here three different days. The last day, before our trek to the airport, we came here and wrote. It was raining, but just before we left it changed to brilliantly sunny.

And my Bible.

On Monday we walked all over Lancaster again. One of our stops was an amazing bookstore, called Dog Star Books. The shop smelled incredible and they had some of the most wonderful old books. One was an early 18oos Luther Translation. It was beautiful. That was a bit out of my price range, but next to it was a 1849 German/English New Testament. That's what came home in my suitcase. It's magnificent. I am so happy.

Aisha got a huge unabridged copy of the Count of Monte Cristo with hundreds of pen and ink illustrations. It's really neat.

And we are only $20 poorer. It was crazy cool!

My sister got some outstanding pictures that I'll be posting soon. :-)

We stopped at another cemetery, a huge one, on the walk back home and I tried to take some pictures of my new purchase. No matter how many buttons I pushed I couldn't figure out where the macro setting was. Thankfully, Suzy cleaned this picture up.

We got to the airport in plenty of time, despite the fact that Aisha ran over a helpless robin. The craziest thing about Pennsylvania is that there is no Starbucks in the massive Philadelphia airport! There is nowhere to get any coffee unless you go through security. Finally, a guard told us that the Marriott Hotel next to the airport had coffee. A lifesaver. :-) We had a delicious and relaxing lunch, tea, and coffee.

It was a perfect ending, since the ending had to come.

My whole family was waiting for me at the airport. It was so sweet. And it was good to be home. Suzy and I stayed up until 2 eating Krispy Kreme donuts, chatting, and laughing.

Mostly laughing.

Trips are good. Home is good. Friends are good. Family is good.

God is so good.

So much better than I can imagine. So much wiser. He knows what I need when I need it. He knows our plans, and has already made better ones.

Praise God!

I am so thankful for this trip and opportunity.

Thanks for reading. Sorry it turned hideously long. ;-)

Miss Pickwickian