Book Club Questions for Radical

1.Platt begins by describing a moment of conviction when he compared the demands of Jesus in the Gospels with the easy, low-cost Christianity common in American churches. When did you first sense — if ever — that something might be missing from the version of Christianity you were raised with or first encountered?

2.He uses the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:44–46) to frame the book's thesis: that Jesus is worth losing everything for, and that our lives should reflect that conviction. In your own words, what is the point of those parables, and why do you think Platt chose them as his launching pad?

3.Platt makes a distinction early on between "the Jesus of the Bible" and "the Jesus of the American Dream." What does he mean by that distinction? Where do you see evidence of a culturally reshaped Jesus in the churches or Christian media you are most familiar with?

1.Platt opens with a vivid account of meeting underground church Christians in Asia — believers who risked imprisonment and death simply for gathering in Jesus's name. How did that contrast affect you as you read it? What emotions did it stir?

2.Jesus repeatedly used phrases like "deny yourself," "take up your cross," and "lose your life" (Luke 9:23–25). Platt argues that we have so softened these phrases they have lost their force. What do you think Jesus' original audience understood when He said "take up your cross"? How does recovering that original meaning change what He was asking?

3.Platt notes that Jesus never seemed to try to make following Him sound appealing to the crowds — He consistently raised the cost rather than lowering it. Why do you think He did that? What does that tell us about His character and His goals?

1.Platt opens this chapter with a description of the "lostness" of the world — enormous populations living and dying without any access to the gospel. Before reading this chapter, how often did you think about the roughly two billion people who are considered "unreached"? What, if anything, kept that reality at a distance for you?

2.He describes visiting communities of extreme physical poverty and argues that their spiritual poverty — having no knowledge of Christ — is the greater crisis. Do you find that argument compelling or does it feel like it diminishes physical suffering? How do you hold physical and spiritual need together?

3.Platt challenges the idea that people who have never heard the gospel can somehow be saved apart from explicit faith in Christ. He holds firmly to the exclusivity of the gospel (Romans 10:14–15). How does that conviction — that hearing the gospel is a matter of eternal life or death — change the moral weight of the Great Commission for the average believer?

1.Platt opens with the vision of Revelation 7:9 — a countless multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language worshiping before the throne. How does reading the Great Commission in light of that final vision change its feel? Does seeing the destination make the journey feel more urgent, more worthwhile, or both?

2.He gives specific data about the number of unreached people groups — communities with no indigenous church capable of evangelizing them — and compares that to where most Christian missionaries and money are actually deployed. What was the most striking statistic or comparison for you in this chapter, and why?

3.Platt argues that the American church has adopted a "come to us" model of evangelism rather than a "go to them" model. What are the practical and theological implications of each model? Which better reflects the pattern of Jesus and the early church?

1.Platt argues in this chapter that God's ultimate motivation in all of history — including salvation and mission — is His own glory. This is sometimes called "God-centeredness" or "doxological" theology. Before engaging the argument, what is your initial gut reaction to the idea that God does everything primarily for His own glory? Does it feel right, strange, or even off-putting?

2.He draws heavily on passages like Ezekiel 20 and Isaiah 43:6–7, where God explicitly says He acts "for the sake of my name" and calls His people to bring His "sons and daughters" "for my glory." How does reading those passages through this lens — God acting for His own glory — change or deepen your understanding of them?

3.Platt distinguishes between a man-centered gospel ("God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life") and a God-centered gospel ("You were created for the glory of God, and your greatest need is to be reconciled to Him"). What is at stake in that distinction? How does it change the shape of the gospel presentation?

1.Platt opens this chapter by describing the early church in Acts 2 — a community marked by teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer, where everything was shared and people were added daily. How does that picture compare to your experience of local church community? What is missing, and what might account for the gap?

2.He argues that the dominant model of American church — a weekly gathering centered on a polished worship experience and a professional sermon — is fundamentally consumer-oriented rather than community-oriented. What do you think? Is that critique fair? Where does it land for you personally?

3.Platt emphasizes 2 Timothy 2:2 — "what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" — as the New Testament model: multiplication through personal discipleship, not addition through attractional programming. What is the practical difference between those two models?

1.Platt opens with the observation that Jesus talked about money more than almost any other subject — and that American Christians are among the wealthiest people in the history of the world. Given both of those facts, why do you think money remains one of the most avoided topics in most churches?

2.He uses the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:13–34) as a centerpiece of this chapter — a man who built bigger barns to store his abundance but was not "rich toward God." What does it mean to be "rich toward God"? What does it look like in practice?

3.Platt challenges the prosperity gospel directly — the idea that God's blessing is primarily evidenced by financial success. What is wrong with that theology, and why is it so appealing? What does it do to the gospel when material prosperity becomes the sign of God's favor?

1.Platt's title for this chapter is bold: "There Is No Plan B." What does he mean by that? How does the weight of that claim — that God has chosen to work exclusively through His people to reach the nations — land on you?

2.He reflects on John 20:21 — "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you" — and argues that the same intentionality, sacrifice, and crossing of boundaries that characterized the Incarnation is meant to characterize every believer's life. What does it mean to be "sent" the way the Father sent the Son? What does that imply about comfort, culture, and convenience?

3.Platt challenges the sacred/secular divide — the idea that some people are "called" to ministry or missions while everyone else is called to ordinary life. He argues every Christian is sent. How have you understood your own vocation in light of this sending? Is your work a platform for mission, or separate from it?

1.Platt uses Paul's statement in Philippians 1:21 — "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" — as the hinge of this chapter. In your honest experience, do you believe death is "gain"? What would have to be true about your faith for you to genuinely believe that?

2.He tells the stories of Christians who have suffered — and in some cases died — for the gospel in dangerous places, and he holds them up not as tragic exceptions but as the biblical norm. How does the comfort and safety of American life make it harder to take suffering for the gospel seriously as something that might be required of us?

3.Platt draws on John 12:24–25 — the grain of wheat that must fall into the ground and die before it bears fruit — to argue that the path to fruitfulness is not self-preservation but self-surrender. Where in your own life have you seen the principle of "dying to produce life" actually work? Where are you resisting it?

1.Looking back across the entire book, which chapter or idea hit you hardest? What made it land with such force — was it something new you learned, something you already knew but had been avoiding, or something that confirmed a growing conviction?

2.Platt's central thesis is that American Christianity has been shaped by the American Dream more than by the gospel of Jesus. After nine weeks with this book, do you agree with that diagnosis? Has your assessment of it changed at all from where you started?

3.The book ends with "The Radical Experiment" — a one-year commitment involving five practices: praying for the whole world, reading through the whole Word, sacrificing your money for a specific purpose, spending your time in another context, and multiplying your life in others. Which of these five commitments feels most accessible to you, and which feels most frightening? Why?