An old college friend suggested I read Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt. My friend had spent the majority of his adult life working overseas in regions of the world hostile to our shared faith. His role was officially as an educator but unofficially as a missionary. I know he’s bright and has a global perspective, so I figured I’d give the book a try.

The main focus of Radical is explained in the subtitle. The author, a young pastor with a zeal that is contagious, has captured an energy for change in the Church that appeals to many. Platt leads a church in Birmingham, Alabama, and (from what I can tell) has worked a lot of his life in the South. That’s evident in the book as he explains the pushback he gets from conservative church leaders about some of his radical ideas. Where I’m from, those ideas are so mainstream as to be almost boring today.

Radical calls for change that probably feels radical in thousands of churches across the nation. It’s a bit like Richard Stearn’s The Hole in Our Gospel in some ways. Unfortunately, it didn’t resonate for me. It’s not that I disagreed with it, it’s just that it seemed like old news. It didn’t seem radical … though it might have seemed that way thirty years ago.

Platt is an evangelist at heart, and that comes through loud and clear. His theology feels simple and without nuance, especially his writing about whether you can get to Heaven without knowing Jesus. It’s a style that sounds “radical” at first, but it’s really quite traditional. If you are an evangelist, if that’s what drives your work in ministry, then you’ll love the approach Platt takes.

For the rest of us, well, not so much. I’d rather read Timothy Keller’s Generous Justice. Sorry, my friend who shall remain anonymous, but this was a miss for me.