Christianity Today

This article hits the nail on the head. Thank you! I wonder how much the new radicals would have to say without their "American Church" straw-man as a whipping boy. Do most people in America attend a mega church with tens of millions in property? Do they attend church just for entertainment but are not "really committed" to discipleship? Sure, there are some churches like that. But, less than 2% of churches in America are mega churches. Most churches are small churches with less than 100 members led by a solo pastor or bi-vocational minister. The real American Church is the one down the street where real people worship together, study the Bible, find fellowship and support, and serve together in their local communities in simple but important ways. The Christian woman who serves in the church's clothes closet and faithfully attends worship and women's Bible study is no less a disciple than the woman who goes on short-term mission trips and adopts children. Thanks for some balance here!

It's amazing how Christians slam each other so quickly. We need to be challenged by people like Matthew in order to stay on our toes. I heard it said from an old preacher, we can dot all the I's and cross all the t's, and still spell the word wrong. Who is it we are living for again. Really

We are the body of Christ. Everyone of us has different gifts. Such as Matthew, David Platt, & myself, a 42 year old truck driver. Our confidence comes from Christ Jesus, our very being is in Him. When we find out who we are in Christ by seeking him diligently through his word & prayer, we find out why we were created& where we are supposed to be. Do I stop being an American? No. I began to serve right where i'm planted. Growing in Him all along trusting Him for everything. books like "Radical" help me to press on in a world that has backslidden. In a world that doesn't want to here about Christ& His free gift. To be bold enough step out in faith to follow Him. Body we need each other, we need encouragement to get out of our comfort zones& tell the world about Jesus. Jesus said in Luke 9;23 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself & take up his cross & follow me."When the body, begins to build up instead of tear down maybe then we can get somewhere. Thanks David & Matthew.

Unfortunately Matthew Lee comes across as somewhat pompous in his critique of David Platt et al in his article, "Here Come the Radicals!" (March 2013 issue CT). I never for a moment thought Platt and his ilk intended their message to be holistic. Rather, I believe the Church would do well to pay attention to the prophetic voices which the Spirit may be raising up as a necessary correction to an indolent western Christian spirituality. Luther said, "We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that remains alone." Our faith must translate into works if it is to be genuine and effective: a muscular witness that confronts an affluent, secular, selfish lifestyle neglectful of much of the misery and suffering enjoined around the world. Spiritual formation is very much "responsive obedience" to the impulses of the Holy Spirit, rather than Lee's assumption that Platt's idea of spiritual formation rests entirely in a legalism ("sheer force of will"). (p23)

Xians who view life and Scripture through the lens of politics are not new and they are found both on the left and on the right (and everywhere in between). Always amazed at how those 'left-wing' people are corrupting the gospel but they obvious corruption by right-wing politicians is just as bad but mainly ignored by those who claim to be speaking for God and being 'biblicly-sound.' We have David Barton running around for years waging a false culture wall via right-wing politics and those on the right trying to make God a conservative.We have Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission claiming that the entire Tea Party movement is actually the work of God as part of a "spiritual awakening"the Religious Right to claim the Tea Party mantle are getting more and more blatant (March 2010). If we stop talking political smack and trying to make the other side anti-gospel because of a economic system, we'd be better off.