Getting Radical

So this book is AMAZING! Seriously. Some friends and I bought it in audio format for a friend as a going away present a few months ago, about the same time I started reading it, and upon finishing it, my friend said he wanted to go be a missionary. I kinda feel the same way, but it's definitely going to be something new for me. At the end of the book, Platt proposes a one year experiment called the Radical Experiment. It's a five part process that he asks you to commit to for only a year. 

1) Pray for the entire world.
2) Read through the entire Word.
3) Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose.
4) Spend your time in another context.
5) Commit your life to a multiplying community.

So, I'm gonna do it!!!!! In the following ways:

When Jesus was surrounded by those in need in Matthew 9, he tells his disciples to pray to send someone to the needy. Intercession is a type of prayer in which you pray for the Holy Spirit to move in the lives of others. It's a part of a worship service I attend when I have the chance. But, for the next year, I'm going to regularly pray for God to send servants with His Word to the 4.5 billion people that don't know Jesus. And I bought a little book that I'm going to write down who else I'm supposed to be praying for, because it keeps getting larger and larger, and I'm starting to lose track. So, I have a prayer request book now!

The second part is actually integrated into my seminary studies, because over the next year I'm reading through the Bible in the way that my teachers request, I'm almost halfway through the New Testament, and will finish it, and begin the Old Testament in late fall. I read Ephesians today, and it's just so beautiful. God is so good!

The third part is a little trickier, because I don't have a lot of money, and I'm about to have even less without a job. And this is where I've decided to get REALLY radical. I'm going to get rid of my car, and the insurance, and the gas, and for one year, I'm going to rely on public transportation. Crazy, I know, but we have a pretty good system here, and it's not a far walk. This actually works out in other ways, because of something I haven't posted yet. I've felt that God wants me to spend my time in ministry, even without pay, instead of finding a job. So, I've already arranged to teach a class every Monday afternoon at Teen Challenge. I've also decided that I'm going to use the public transit system to share the gospel with whomever is willing to listen. I know it sounds a little insane, but you know what? I don't really care how crazy I sound. I can take the bus into town, buy a homeless person lunch, and sit and talk with them about their life and Jesus. Or, I can sit and read my bible on the bus for several trips, and catch the curious looks, and pray that the Holy Spirit leads them to ask questions. This is how I'm sacrificing, and for a specific population, the underprivileged. 

The fourth part is to spend your time in another context, which Platt identifies as spending a week outside your regular area of ministry. I don't know how this is going to work out, but I'm going to pray for guidance, and plan a mission trip over the next year. Maybe I'll just drive across the border to Mexico, or maybe something else will come along. Maybe I'll spend a week helping out after a natural disaster. Whatever call God puts on me to minister in another area, I will follow. 

Last, but not least, to commit to a community. This means to commit to a church. I've been bouncing back and forth between two campuses of the same church, and I don't know if that's committing, but perhaps it's time to decide upon one or the other. The problem is that I have people at both locations I like to see and hear. Maybe I can join both campuses. 

The primary argument Platt advances is that of Jesus' last words to His disciples before He ascended to heaven: to go and make disciples out of all the nations. Not to water them down with Americanized Christianity, but to create another disciple, that will create more disciples. To GO, out into the world, not just your town, and spread the Gospel, to spread the good news. I don't know about you, but I want to be like Jesus, and He didn't build megachurches (or 6 flags over Jesus, as I like to call them). He traveled with 12 guys that were kind of a mess, and made disciples out of them. Sounds like a pretty awesome strategy to me!