Book review: David Platt- Radical Together

Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God
David Platt
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In Radical Together, David Platt teaches on how entire churches can live radically for God’s glory.

I had been a bit frustrated by his previous book Radical which covers many of the same themes. I felt that it risked getting people excited on their own about being radical and as a result rushing out to do things for God without necessarily receiving wise council about whether their plans were suitable for them and likely to be helpful. In Radical Together, there was a strong emphasis on the importance of sacrificial living as an endeavor for the whole Christian community and our need for each other which I think should help check any tendency towards rash individual action without watering down the call to radical living.

Another area where this book improves on radical is having a stronger emphasis on being saved by grace. I felt at times Radical (almost certainly unintentionally) communicated that the Christian life was primarily about what we do rather than what Jesus has done. In Radical Together, Platt is a lot more clear about the idea that good works don’t make us Christian, but that being saved should motivate us to do good.

Also valuable in this book is Platt’s attempts to get people to question the necessity of fancy buildings or programs for Christian outreach and discipleship. I think this is a helpful question to raise as we often seem to assume such things are required rather than considering whether a change of emphasis or direction would be appropriate.

Overall, I think this is a helpful, challenging book that is bound to make you think about how you are living out your faith.


Review copy courtesy of Multnomah Books

13 things I learned on a mission trip

I recently went on a missions trip where we ran a summer holiday outreach program for children and teens in a seaside town. Having never been involved in a mission like this one before, I assumed that working with teenagers wouldn’t be that challenging because there isn’t as much age difference as when working with children and because teens programs don’t involve as much singing and dancing as children's programs. I now know better! I really enjoyed myself but it was also at times a challenging and humbling experience. Here is an assortment of things I learned:

• No-one is too old for playdough. What was meant to be a short activity involving some playdough turned into a whole session of the teens excitedly coming up with creative things to make.
• Sometimes the full impact of what we do can take a while to be obvious. On multiple occasions we met parents who had attended the program as children, remembered it fondly and were now sending their own children along. People involved in the mission during the 80’s probably weren’t thinking that their willingness to serve would mean that children who wouldn’t be born for another 20 years would one day get the chance to hear about Jesus.
• Given a chance, teenage boys will mix and consume almost any food or drink combination possible.
• Duct tape solves a lot of problems.
• Prayer makes a difference. I was maybe a bit lazier about praying while on mission than I should have been. Times when I did make an effort to pray, I tended to notice an improvement in how well things worked and how receptive the teens were.
• Pancakes are better when made with excessive amounts of neon food colouring. Neon pancake mix also makes an impressive looking mess when spilt. See the picture at the bottom of the post.
• That throwing things indoors can be a bad idea is not nearly as obvious as it seems.
• Good things can come out of failed plans. I am by nature a bit of an over-planner so found having things not work to plan a bit challenging sometimes. While derailed plans were sometimes frustrating and humbling, God is bigger than them. Some of the best activities and spiritual discussions happened when our original plans weren’t working and we had to make stuff up on the spot.
• Strange things start to become funny when you have a bunch of somewhat sleep deprived people working closely together for 10 days.
• Teenagers are often more willing to accept a copy of the bible you offer them than you might expect.
• Children's program music is often absurdly catchy and unusually difficult to dislodge from your brain.
• You can’t force meaningful conversations. Sometimes when we had planned what seemed liked good discussion starters, talk stayed very shallow. Sometimes meaningful conversations came seemingly out of nowhere while doing other things.
• A little encouragement from those you are serving with can make a big difference. I’m thankful for team members who took the time to be encouraging even though they had a lot to think about and be doing.

The neon pancakes

Most popular posts of 2011

I realise best of 2011 are so last week but since I was on a mission trip until Thursday and have been recovering since then, I'll just have to be a bit late on this one. The following lists are based on number of page views.

Musings posts
1.Moving on from the gospel
2.When you don't know what to pray
3.God isn't a vending machine
4.How do you know God loves you?
5. Taking comfort in God's knowledge of our flaws

Book reviews
1.Theresa Flores- The slave across the street
2.David Platt- Radical
3.C. J. Mahaney et al.- Worldliness
4.Thom and Jess Rainer- The millennials
5.John Piper- Bloodlines

Thanks for your support over the past year! I look forward to bringing you more posts in 2012.

The adventures continue: Mission trip #2

Tomorrow I start my second mission trip for the summer!

It is a tradition for many Australian families to go camping by the beach for a week or two every summer. Many go back to the same place every year, some even keep taking their kids where they went when they were a child. Beach mission programs like the one I am involved in reach out to children and families at these holiday destinations by running programs that are fun but also give the children and teens participating a chance to learn about the gospel. I'm working with teenagers.

This is my first time being involved in a program like this. I'm excited but a little nervous. I would really appreciate your prayers as I participate. Things to pray for include safety (particularly to do with the large amounts of driving I have to do in a car I'm not used to), that we would be able to effectively reach out to the children and teens who come along, good health and that relationships among the team would remain positive despite the intensity of the program.

I'll be keeping pretty busy on mission so probably won't be blogging. I might also be a bit slower at replying to comments but I do love hearing from you. Normal blogging will resume sometime after my return on 5th January.

Book review: Carolyn Weber- Surprised by Oxford

Surprised by Oxford
Carolyn Weber
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In Surprised by Oxford, Carolyn Weber tells the story of how she found love and faith while a studying literature at Oxford University.

Surprised by Oxford is a really well written book. Carolyn has an incredible gift for describing people, places and situations in a way that is beautiful and draws you into the story. Her descriptions of Oxford made me wish I could go there! Her deep love for literature is shown through her brilliant turns of phrase and extensive but not gratuitous quotations from many books and poets.

The book is not just great style but has impressive substance too. Arriving at Oxford a non-believer, experiences she had while at university caused her to wrestle with questions of faith and eventually become a Christian. She shares much of that journey in the book, including some of the influential conversations she had in the process of coming to faith. She works through an impressive breadth and depth of topics. She also shares about her trials and progress as a young Christian trying to make sense of newly discovered realities, something I found quite moving. Woven throughout the book is also the lovely story of how she fell in love with a man she met at Oxford.

Surprised by Oxford has been one of my favourite books that I have read this year, both due to the beautiful writing and its profound reflections on faith.

Review copy provided by Book Sneeze

Book review: Caryn Dahlstrand Rivadeneira- Grumble Hallelujah

Grumble Hallelujah
Caryn Dahlstrand Rivadeneira

In Grumble Hallelujah, Caryn Dahlstrand Rivadeneira shares what she has learned about worshipping God and loving life even when disappointing or frustrating things happen.

This is one of those books that left me wondering if she had somehow been listening to how I think and pray sometimes! What she said about facing disappointment as a Christian certainly rang true. In the book is brutally honest about her struggles to deal with disappointment. She goes onto talk about how to handle disappointment well. I appreciated that she didn’t advocate possitive thinking influenced attempts to pretend things don’t hurt, instead she acknowledged the legitimacy of feeling and expressing disappointment. Nor does the book veer off the other side of spectrum into a pity party. She gives some good advice on dealing with issues like jealousy, doubt, shame and bad attitudes towards God. I also found some of the prayers at the end of each chapter helpful in starting to pray about things I’d felt but hadn’t quite had the words to articulate.

I’ve tended to think that in the Christian community we often don’t have a clear idea of how to go about dealing helpfully with circumstances that aren’t in the realm of tragedy or serious suffering but are nonetheless disappointing. I think this book does a good job at addressing that gap in our understanding of the Christian life. It is definitely a book I will be coming back to.


Review copy courtesy of Tyndale Publishers

What I learned talking to strangers + summer adventures update

A few weeks ago I blogged about the crazy assortment of things I was about to embark on. I figured I should check back in to report on progress. I finished my thesis, survived moving house and managed to pass my driving test, something I suspect involved divine intervention. In the last two and a half weeks I have presented at an academic conference, attended a Christian conference and gone on a mission trip. I considered doing the maths on the number of talks I heard between the three activities but decided working that out would probably make my head hurt! There is so much I could say about it all. God was very gracious in making all the logistical stuff come together even better than I originally planned. I plan to post a bit more reflecting on what I learned and how I've seen God at work in the coming weeks. Hopefully the talks from National Training Event (the Christian conference) will be online soon and I will be able to share them with you.

One thing that stood out to me, particularly in the ministry activities, was the stories I heard. I heard some at mission but even more at the Christian conference. The conference dining hall was very large so most of the time you would end up sitting and talking with strangers rather than friends. People would also strike up conversations while waiting for sessions to start and a few were given the chance to share in sessions. Something about the conference environment got people asking good questions and telling good stories. I heard so many interesting stories- stories of how God led people to faith using all sorts of means and circumstances , stories about the trials and joys of different sorts of ministry, stories about the challenges of growing in faith and reaching out in places as diverse as Tonga, Japan, Sydney and Slovenia. It seemed like pretty much everyone had an interesting story to tell of something big or small God was doing. It was so encouraging.

Hearing all these stories made me wonder what we are missing in our churches and communities by not hearing that many stories of God at work. I don't just mean stories of how people got saved (although those are fantastic), but stories of how God is at work right now and what people are learning. I wonder what we are missing out on by assuming we know peoples stories or never bothering to ask? I wonder what we would learn or how we would be encouraged if we made a habit of taking an active interest in what God is doing in peoples lives? What fascinating stories might people tell if only we would ask?

Next up is my second mission trip for the month, starting just after Christmas. It is longer and probably more intense than the mission trips I've done before. It will also have me working with teenagers, a group I don't have much experience with. It is exciting but a bit a bit intimidating. I plan to write a bit more about that before I go.

Resource roundup: Christmas music

If you've been shopping any time lately you've quite likely heard some terrible recordings of Christmas music. It is amazing how badly it is possible to ruin perfectly good songs. Thankfully there is good Christmas music out there. Even better, you don't have to spend much (or in some cases anything) to get it.

My favoute Christmas album is Love Shall Be Our Token by High Street Hymns. You can download the whole album for whatever you want to pay (minimum US$1) Instrumental tracks are also available. The sheet music is free at their website.

Quite a few great artists have also been putting out Christmas music on noisetrade. All the music on noisetrade is free, but you can make a donation to the artist if you want to. Some I've enjoyed are

Sojourn
Aaron Ivey
Rebekah Antoine
Nathan Tasker
Culby X

Sleeping at last

If you have any other suggestions for good free or cheap Christmas music, please post them in the comments.

Book review: Robert Bogh- When the bottom drops out

When the Bottom Drops Out: Finding Grace in the Depths of Disappointment
Robert Bugh
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In When The Bottom Drops Out, Robert Bugh teaches Christians how to think about and work through grief and serious disappointments.

One of the things that makes this book work so well is that it isn’t just theoretical knowledge about the topic but that what he teaches has been learned from his experience of his best friend and his wife dying. His reflections on these events are really moving. It also serves to demonstrate well why having good theology matters in practice.

What he shares of his personal story is complimented by extensive teaching from the bible about suffering. He shows how God is good and at work in the severe suffering of a number of biblical characters. He also addresses some misconceptions Christians have about suffering. I was particularly glad to read his arguments from the bible against prosperity gospel approaches to dealing with suffering as these are popular but can do immense harm.

Even if you are not suffering right now I think this is still a valuable book to read. It will help you have a good framework for when bad things happen in the future. It will also probably be helpful in learning how to be sensitive to those who suffer. He provides some hints based on what was helpful and unhelpful in his own experience.

The only critique I would make is that some of the retelling of the author’s story were a bit longer than they probably need to be, particularly towards the start of the book.

Overall, I thought it was a helpful and well written book that many will find quite helpful.


Review copy courtesy of christianaudio.com