Radical Reformission

Just finished The Radical Reformission--a book that I should have already read by now, but at least I have now. And I loved it. Mark Driscoll unpacks what it means to live as a Christ-follower and how to share Christ with the culture God has placed you in, without selling out--without caving into the pressures--without looking like the world. It contains classic Driscoll humor and candor, of which I'm a big fan. If you're looking for a good read on how to influence the world around you within contemporary/pop culture, you'll want to check this out.

There are many great takeaways, but here are just a few:

• "The way to avoid sin is not to avoid sinners but to stick close to Jesus." p. 40
• "At worst, traditionalism fails to distinguish between biblical principles for ministry and cultural methods for implementing those principles. Traditionalism clings to dated ineffective methods in the name of staying truer to tradition than to Scripture ... Equally damaging ... is the tendency... to ignore church history and its lessons in pursuit of unrestrained and undiscerning innovation." pp.51-52
• "Innovation, when not tethered to the truth of the gospel, leads to heresy." p. 53
• "People who were raised apart from the church often have less resistance to ancient traditions and institutions. These are foreign experiences that intrigue them, rather than bad memories that repel them." p. 55
• "Too often the evangelistic task of speaking about Jesus is promoted as a work or something we must do, rather than as an overflowing of joy within us that explodes out of us because we have met God in Christ." p. 143