Radical by David Platt
Week 8: Chapter 7 — There Is No Plan B
Read Chapter 7 of Radical by David Platt. Key passages: Acts 1:8; John 20:21; Romans 10:13–15.
Platt makes his most direct statement about the church's mission in this chapter: God has no backup plan for reaching the world — it is us, ordinary believers, or it is no one.
Discussion Questions
8 questions1.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?
a.Platt suggests that some believers may be called by God to relocate their lives — their careers, their families — to unreached places. Have you ever seriously considered whether that might include you?
b.What would prevent you from being open to that possibility? Name it honestly.
Closing Prayer
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