Biographical Info. At age 26, David Platt was hired to be the pastor of The Church at Brook Hills. He became to be the youngest pastor of a megachurch in America. Platt’s education is comprised of three advanced degrees. He also holds a doctorate from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is currently the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board. Platt also recently founded a resource ministry called Radical.net.
Summary of Contents Platt begins chapter one by comparing him and the church he pastors to Jesus and His followers. Jesus spent most of His time with twelve men, while Platt’s was preaches in a church full of thousands of people. This seemed to convict him. He notes that Jesus didn’t always exactly use the most appealing tactics to win converts. He worries that as we mold Jesus
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This five-point plan equips the reader to take the action that this book convicts them to do. The plan sets the reader up with specific steps to take to help them begin to live a life radically for God. I think this is different from other books because most books don’t often also provide a way to take action on the things that they were written about. This book stands out because it is well equipped to help the reader to follow Christ more radically. Thirdly, Platt should be applauded for questioning the reality of American church culture. In chapter one, Platt says that many American churches define their success by bigger crowds, bigger building, and bigger budgets. He then compared the difference between the amounts of money raised to build an elaborate church with the money raised to send overseas to Sudan. The massive difference led him to question the system of American church culture. This is important because most American church pastors are afraid to go against the so-called
I believe the most important concept that I gained from reading the book was to remain faithful, in good times and in bad. Walking blindly can be very terrifying, but God always has a plan for each and every one of us. At times, the plan remains unseen, and that should not deter or slow me on the path that my heart is yearning
David Wilkerson author of “The Cross and The Switchblade” grew up in Pennsylvania where his father and grandfather were both Pentecostal ministers. David later married his wife Gwen, they had three children two girls and one boy. David and his family were pastors in Scottsdale and Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania. His life was pointed in a new direction when he saw the pictures of young teenagers in a magazine who had been on trial for a murder they committed in New York. This caught his attention and he suddenly had a heart for the kids who struggled with gang violence, and drug abuse. David and the youth pastor of his church at the time in Phillipsburg went to New York to see what kind of difference they could make. It was a long process for David.
I like that Moore is not hesitant to express thoughtful criticisms about the pretensions of the church and the undemocratic ways that Protestants have sometimes attempted to dominate American society. His commentary stimulates constructive discussions about what should and should not be the proper role of Christianity, especially Protestantism, in a religiously pluralistic culture that has constitutional guarantees for religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
First, Sweeney provides an overview of American evangelicalism that is brief and balance. This is demonstrated by his broad yet comprehensive writing style and selection of chapter themes. Next, Sweeney’s inclusive approach provides the reader not only with the history of the more famed evangelicals, but also acknowledges the influences Pentecostals, charismatics, women and black leaders of the movement. Additionally, he is not afraid to highlight many of the shortcomings within the movement. In fact, “he confronts the American imperialism and “cultural chauvinism” that often accompanied mission in the nineteenth century (98) as well as the unfortunate embrace of slavery and racism by some evangelicals.” Lastly, chapter four contains a good summary of the development of modern missions movement. To his credit, Sweeney includes within this summary several trailblazing women in the rise of evangelical missions and affirms that women “worked more freely with internationals abroad than they could minister to Americans at home.” Moreover, he discusses criticism concerning “contextualization” and offers a couple of perspectives on the demographic trends of evangelical
Whether people stood for or against the Reverend William A. Sunday, they all agreed that it was difficult to be indifferent toward him. The religious leader was so extraordinarily popular, opinionated, and vocal that indifference was the last thing that he would get from people. His most loyal admirers were confident that this rural-breed preacher was God’s mouthpiece, calling Americans to repentance. Sunday’s critics said that at best he was a well-meaning buffoon whose sermons vulgarized and trivialized the Christian message and at worst he was a disgrace to the name of Christ (Dorsett 2).
New brands of distinctly American Christianity began developing early in the country’s history. Before the revolution, George Whitefield set the stage for American religious movements. The most important factor that helped launch these movements was the American Revolution. The country was ripe with conversation and action on a new understanding of freedom. The revolution “expanded the circle of people who considered themselves capable of thinking for themselves about issues of … equality, sovereignty, and representation” (6). The country was beginning to move toward an understanding of strength lying in the common people, and the people’s ability to make their own personal decisions on issues of leadership and authority. There was a common belief that class structure was the major societal problem. The revolution created the an open environment that pushed equality of the individual, allowing political and religious beliefs to flourish and grow without being held in check by authoritarian leaders.
In Nathan O. Hatch’s “The Democratization of American Christianity” he quickly forms his thesis and expands on the argument “both that the theme of
One of the most enjoyable points that Jenkins has done within the book was that he posed questions. The reader would be very engaged in the book and the Jenkins would pose questions that would cause the reader to stop and ponder for a moment. Jenkins had questions such as “Are these people “really” Catholic?” Page 132 (Digital Download Book). This was a question he asked because many Americans consider themselves to be Christian, but deny the church on certain points. They reject some of the doctrines that the church preaches, but yet they mark themselves off as Christians. The reader can have a different answer to the question, Jenkins simply states “For present purposes, my view is that if they consider themselves Catholic, then that is what they are.” Page 132 (Digital Download
In the recent past a lot of books have been written with the religious perspective in mind and the purpose for that has been that the people have been drifting away from the faith and those who have the know how about the thing feel that is it part of their duty to bring the people back to their faith. So it is the process of making the people realize that there is something wrong with their way of life and although it has not been an easy task but many have been trying and most of them have had a history on the related field. One of the best books on the chosen topic may be that of Salvation by Earl D. Radmacher which was also helped on in the editing by the famous Charles R. Swindoll. The message in the book is simple and it is just like the drum on which the God has been beating hard enough for a very long time. They have just tried to repeat what has been said a million times already but in a very unique and a different manner. They seem efficient and they have a certain touch to their approach. They are not willing to let go while at the same time they know what their goal is and it is the way of writing, which would make the reader sit through it all and they would read the book till they finish it. So it is a religious as well as spiritual work but done in the modern day language and it is not a tale but a complete story of what we may have wanted to hear for a very long time. People should be more worried about the after life because that is the eternal life and we have to be worried about the things that would last forever. We should be doing things that will work for our salvation in the after life because there will be no worldly things to support us. We need to be on the move and we need to make sure that we are righ...
In the first chapter of Nathan Hatch’s book, The Democratization of American Christianity, he immediately states his central theme: democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity. In proving the significance of his thesis, he examines five distinct traditions of Christianity that developed in the nineteenth century: the Christian movement, Methodists, Baptists, Mormons and black churches. Despite these groups having diverse structural organization and theological demeanor, they all shared the commonality of the primacy of the individual conscience.
In reviewing this book, I found one dominant sentence that will sum up all of the research and information presented. That theme is this – “all churches if possible, should be multiracial.” While this is idealistic and at the true core is the purest form of Christianity, the question remains on whether congregations want to be multiracial or not. The United States of America is no longer country dominated by one race. The author research in census data says that “the United States has well over 35 million more people of color in 2000 than it did in 1980.” Statistically these numbers will continue to rise to form an even more racially diverse nation. Racially diversity has its challenges even today in this post-modern era. Schools, offices,
Christianity’s role in America has rapidly changed over the last decades. Although it is still the most popular religion in the country its power over the people has decreased significantly. However, there are still many misconceptions towards American Christianity and in order to understand the unique nature of this religiously diverse country; one must understand its history and its citizens own views on the matter.
Then it goes into chapter five and it is called “The Leader’s Goal: Moving People on to God’s Agenda”. This chapter start off by telling a story of the author son. It a story that help understand how people will follow you and you need to have a clear direction. Then it goes into talking about the unworthy goals a leader can have. After that it goes into the worthy goal a leader needs to
In the days of Christ’s life on this earth, believers did not have access to the Bible in its entirety as we know and are familiar with today. Believers in this ancient time period only had access to the Old Testament. However, through their access to the Old Testament, believers were provided a foundation for New Testament times. This foundation provided New Testament believers with the Lord’s established principles of right and wrong they were expected to follow. In addition, the Old Testament is overflowing with accounts of people whose lives exemplified the future life of Christ on this earth. These pictures allowed the Israelite nation to begin to have an understanding of why Christ needed to come as their Messiah and the work He needed to do on earth. Finally, there are common themes that are interwoven throughout the entire Old Testament. Three of these themes: transgression, redemption, and consummation point to the purpose of Christ’s atoning death on the cross. These themes portray God’s work both in the lives of Old Testament believers, but they also foreshadow God’s desire and plan for believers in New Testament times and beyond.
To break this process down, one can see the simplicity and complexity of this process and how it fits into God’s perfect plan. First, we were all created in God’s image. Being image bearers of Christ gives us great responsibility to those who know and love Christ because everyday we are representing the King of Kings wherever we go. The second principle of stewardship is the redemption principle. Since Christ died for us on the cross, he set us free from the bondage of sin. Even though we are fallen people and sin daily, Christ has already paid the price in full, and has forgiven us of those sins in advance. The last part of th...