A decent book on calling Christians to spread the Gospel like the first Christians. It felt expanded to sell as a package with the video series. It helped me to focus on being more deliberate in my relationships to spread the word, but the tone and length seemed to annoy me at times. ( )

Very convicting. Makes me wonder if I've been "dating" my church all these years. Gonna make some changes in how I live for Him! ( )

Great followup to Radical in which David Platt discusses what true discipleship looks like. Flying in the face of many trends, Platt discusses the importance of living the Christian life as part of a community in a local church. I am very impressed with Platt and thankful for him using his platform to press believers back to the Biblical standards. ( )

I read a book by Platt recently and decided to read some of his other books. This book wasn't as challenging as "Counter-Culture" but nevertheless was a worthwhile read. Whilst "Counter- Culture" addresses specific issues and how Christians respond to them (abortion, gay marriage etc,) "Follow me" deals with Biblical discipleship. Platt begins by examining the state of Evangelical Christianity in the West (represented by North Americans) suggesting that most people that calls themselves "Evangelical" are not truly saved and are not following Jesus. He highlights that this is largely to do with easy believism, the "Sinner's prayer" and failing to count the cost when coming to Christ.

"In a world where everything revolves around self- protect yourself, promote yourself, preserve yourself, entertain yourself, comfort yourself, take care of yourself- Jesus said "Slay yourself."

"With good intentions and sincere desires to reach as many people as possible for Jesus we have subtly and deceptively minimized the magnitude of what it means to follow him. We've replaced challenging words from Christ with trite phrases in the Church. We've taken the lifeblood out of Christianity and put Kool-aid in its place so that it tastes better to the crowds and the consequences are catastrophic. Multitudes of men and women at this moment think they are saved from their sins when they are not. Scores of people around the world culturally think that they are Christians when biblically they are not."

He reminds us of the verse in Matthew 7 vs 22-23

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' 23"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS"

He deals with "carnal" Christians (those who think they are saved but continue in habitual sin/there is no visible change in their lives when they come to faith.)

"If our lives do not reflect the fruit of following Jesus, then we are foolish to think that we are actually followers of Jesus in the first place."

He covers the holiness of God, church fellowship (what it is Biblically,) knowing the will of God by being in close relationship with Him and there is an extended section on evangelism. The author reminds us that we are all called to be "disciples making disciples." This is a sobering reminder;

"We email, Facebook, tweet and text with people who are going to spend eternity in either heaven or hell. Our lives are too short to waste on mere temporal conversations when massive eternal realities hang in the balance. Just as you and I have no guarantee that we will live through the day, the people around us are not guaranteed tomorrow either. So let's be intentional about sewing the threads of the gospel into the fabric of our conversations every day, knowing that it will not always be easy, yet believing that eternity will always be worth it."

Those were the good aspects.....I wasn't keen on the Intro by Francis Chan where he suggests that all of our decisions should be based upon what is going to have the greatest impact for God's Kingdom. He is speaking in connection with evangelism after he decided to relocate as he was no longer "effective" in his previous location. But I would suggest that we should base our decisions on where God calls us as individuals to go regardless how effective/successful we are as the fruit may not be known until we get to heaven.

I also didn't relate to a section in the middle of the book about our emotional response to what Christ has done for us. The author seems to make this necessary for salvation and in addition to obedience but how do we know if we love God;

"If you love me you will obey my commands" John 14 vs 15

I like the heart of this author and sense his sincere desire to shake "comfortable Christians" out of complacency and apathy. We need more like him who will challenge the Western church. However, I believe he goes a step too far occasionally by almost encouraging recklessness; mature Christians will be able to discern how to practically apply some of his more radical statements but new believers may make unwise decisions as a consequence.

I recommend this book for Christian readers desiring to truly follow Jesus.



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in this book David challenges "Christians" to really FOLLOW Jesus. He also discusses how we say a prayer and become saved but in the Bible it never says we are the one responsible. Bible States that through Jesus we are saved. This is different that what you hear most of the time but is very challenging. ( )