Calling for a Radical Lifestyle: Meet David Platt

David was always a bit different than his peers when he attended UGA in the late 90's. Most collegians spend their free time on evenings and weekends going to parties, playing intramural sports, visiting Athens many bars or concert venues, improving their high score on video games, and perhaps studying a bit. While he was president of Baptist Collegiate Ministries (98-99), David Platt managed to find time to lead his peers while traveling to churches around Athens and surrounding towns preaching and teaching. Even then he had a remarkable ability for scripture memorization and storytelling. He made the Bible come alive. His passion for God's word was contagious.

It was no surprise when this popular, yet introverted student from Briarlake Baptist church in Atlanta graduated and headed to New Orleans to attend seminary. He quickly finished a masters degree and then a PhD. David did so well in his seminary endeavors that he was asked to stay and teach. He proved to be just as popular as a professor as a student. The floods from Katrina forced David and his family to leave the city. Like many other professors and students from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, they moved to Atlanta as a temporary home. Eventually he made a career change, becoming the senior pastor of the huge and affluent Church at Brookhills in Birmingham. He was still not yet 30 years old.

Along the way David has continued to travel as a popular speaker at conferences and in churches.
Along the way he went overseas to preach and teach. Always evangelistic, the opportunity to travel to places where the gospel was scarce provided a thrilling spiritual pull that deepened his faith and calling. Teaching pastors of secret house churches in places where the practice of Christianity is illegal changed David.
Along the way he came back home with a desire to introduce his parishioners to the experiences of worshiping in secret. The result was what he dubbed "Secret Church." David and the staff of Brook Hills invited members of the church to arrive at 6 pm for prayer and worship until late into the night (or the wee hours the next morning). At each occasion David would traverse the Bible from Genesis through Revelation, expounded on God's word yo our contemporary setting. The event was so popular that they did it again, and again, and again. Now the Secret Church events held in Birmingham are simulcast live around the world via the Internet by Lifeway Christian Resources.

As the pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham David continues to reject the status quo. He has called on his church to reject the American Dream and to seek to allow God to dream a new dream in their lives as Christian Americans who try to apply the challenges if the Bible to love simply while giving away more and more of their income to support evangelistic and justice needs around the world. He calls each member to voluntarily be radical, to live against the norm, to be willing to face the changes the gospel commands.

In the process, David and Heather also caught God's heart for adoption. They realized that their family and excess resources and could incorporate more members, so they brought two children who were living in orphanages in impoverished countries to live with them in Birmingham and to become Platts.

David has written a series of books sharing what he has learned about living a radical Christian life.

His best selling book Radical has taken the collegiate Christian culture by storm. And now he has added to the conversation by writing for churches to join the movement, challenging churches to change in order to meet the issues brought about by injustice around the world and here in America.

His book Radical is a call to be different. It is a call to take the scripture literally, listening to God's concern for the poor, for those suffering injustice by living more simply and by giving more and more of what we have away. It is a call to dissatisfaction with what is and a call to try to make the world a better place through prayer and action. David believes that Christians, those who truly seek to follow Christ more fully each day, cannot be comfortable with the way the world is now and will try to do whatever it takes to create change. He thinks Christians should be radical. He thinks that the message of the Gospel should not only save souls but also make the world a better place to live for all, bringing about the Kingdom of God that Jesus talked about so much.

I think he is right.