Next, he challenges who should be doing ministry, the grunt work in souls. The American model puts a kink in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:30-37) Churches hire seminary or college trained Samaritans (pastors and/or staff) to monitor ditch activity in case we fall in or want to know about someone else who did. Our busy schedules never get derailed and we give the appearance of Christian caring. Platt grieves over how we have deceived and cheated ourselves of joy, purpose and all those things that the faith promises but somehow eludes us. Jesus’ hand picked choices to change the world sit inside our own shirt collars.
Christianity has counter cultural woven into its genes; it expresses through culture but stands against everything dead within it. That’s what makes it alluring to outsiders. That’s what gives it force to change and shape history. That’s what produces enemies and crucifixions. What we call the Christian faith has been so marinated and soaked in the greasy shallowness of the world around us that we look like them. We’ve lost the joy and our proper beliefs transform no one and nothing. A friend in Belfast, Northern Ireland, commented that church and political leaders can make all the pronouncements and sign all the agreements they want. But arms still get broken in the middle of the night. Evil and hate will not be legislated from the human heart or appeased with weak naive religious clichés.
I began to follow Jesus Christ during the Jesus Movement in the sixties and seventies. I learned faith without buildings or bulletins. I grew good roots and drew good fire in the belly lasting to this day. As the belly is bigger, I assume the fire is too. I’ve driven getaway cars for 450 lb. “mooners” and looked into the eyes of people who, failing in past hanging attempts, asked me, “Does God understand why I can’t wear anything tight around my neck?” I never though of myself as being “radical”. “Out-of-the-box” or “counter cultural” simply describes healthy vibrant Christianity wherever it’s found. It only seems radical when we’ve cooled off and bent our knees to the wrong gods. And we’re not gracious or happy when this is exposed.
I must warn you about the discussion questions. In most books, these are lame throw-ins. As we encounter the stories in here (and there are lots of them) and then work through these things in a group, we will be forced to be more deeply honest and vulnerable about our spiritual lives than maybe we’ve ever been. Or we will have to lie to others and to ourselves. Nobody who goes cover to cover with “Radical Together” will forget what it tastes like. Will it be a sweetness we embraced at whatever cost or bitterness suppressed but still dry on the palate?
David Swartz pastors Bethel Baptist Church in Roseville, Michigan. He thinks that jazz is sacred music, that books are better company than most people, and that university towns rock.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In