Arguing with Ourselves

I recently read the book Radical by David Platt. It is a call to change for American Christians and has the subtitle 'Taking back your faith from the American Dream'. He makes a good case that the church in America resembles the 'American Dream' more than it resembles Christ and the early church. He has a lot to say about his ambivalence toward the megachurch situation in the U.S., and I share his ambivalence. Many of the very large evangelical churches have such opulent buildings, such entertainment-driven programming, and such rampant materialism in their membership that they are difficult to differentiate from some vacation resorts.  The materialism espoused by Creflow Dollar, Joel Osteen, and others of their ilk are not the only megachurches with this problem (though they are the worst); it does seem to come with the 'success' mentality that drives the American dream and most of American culture. Growth, numbers, and prosperity are the measure of success both inside and outside the church. He contrasts that with much of what Jesus said which at times seemed to be intended to drive away those who were not ready to follow Him to crucifixion. Numbers were clearly not His goal.

There is much to agree with and to be challenged by in the book. I certainly agree with his proposal that we set a cap, an upper limit, on our lifestyle that we will not go beyond regardless of income we may earn. This has been espoused in the past by Larry Burkett and others but does not get enough play in the church in my opinion. He also espouses something C.S. Lewis recommended back about 50 years ago: when it comes to giving, if it doesn't cramp your style, if it doesn't hurt a bit, if it doesn't cause you to give up something, then it isn't enough. God prospers us so we may help others, not so we can over-indulge on ourselves.

What the author doesn't do enough of, however, is argue with himself. For instance, while the megachurch has its flaws, so do small churches. I  have observed in past blogs that my parents generation was less interested in megachurches because they had more interest in pastoral care from the pastor while my generation has placed a premium on good preaching, and there aren't all that many good preachers. Will the next generation still support megachurches? Or is it just a generational thing? I don't know, but I would have appreciated a bit more discussion, more argument, on the pros/cons of megachurches.

Similarly, while he decries the way Americans apply their 'we can make it happen' attitude to church while ignoring the Holy Spirit, he then seems to imply that we should apply this same ' we can make it happen' approach to missions.  That was a big disconnect for me, partly because I have commented before that it seems to me that missions have failed in some areas of the world, and I think much of that is due to misguided missions work where we have done exactly that.

Still, his challenges at the end to practice discipleship and giving to specific need areas around the world are compelling and the book is well worth reading.