{"id":1316,"date":"2009-12-20T15:24:16","date_gmt":"2009-12-20T19:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=1316"},"modified":"2009-12-20T15:24:16","modified_gmt":"2009-12-20T19:24:16","slug":"book-review-primal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=1316","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Primal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/waterbrookmultnomah.com\/catalog.php?isbn=9781601421319\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1317\" title=\"primalcover-762627\" src=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/primalcover-762627-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/primalcover-762627-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/primalcover-762627.jpeg 211w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I really appreciate WaterBrook Multnomah sending me a free preview copy of <a href=\"http:\/\/evotional.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Batterson&#8217;s<\/a> new book <a href=\"http:\/\/waterbrookmultnomah.com\/catalog.php?isbn=9781601421319\" target=\"_blank\">Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity<\/a>. \u00a0I got a ton out of Mark&#8217;s first two books <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Pit-Lion-Snowy-Day-Opportunity\/dp\/1590527151\/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt\/002-0426247-4248853?&amp;tag=evotional-20\" target=\"_blank\">In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Wild-Goose-Chase-Adventure-Pursuing\/dp\/1590527194\/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1215021181&amp;sr=8-2&amp;tag=evotional-20\" target=\"_blank\">Wild Goose Chase<\/a>. \u00a0Mark is the Lead Pastor of <a href=\"http:\/\/theaterchurch.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">National Community Church<\/a> and has a heart for developing leaders.<\/p>\n<p>As believers that are completely indoctrinated in &#8220;Christianese&#8221;, we tend to complicate things. \u00a0In Primal, Mark Batterson points out that Jesus kept things simple. \u00a0He called us to &#8220;Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.&#8221; \u00a0The very heart of Christianity is wrapped up in The Greatest Commandment.<\/p>\n<p>In Primal, Mark Batterson explores the four elements of Great Commandment Christianity: compassion, wonder, curiousity, and power. \u00a0Along the way, he calls you to be a part of God&#8217;s reformation, starting in your own life. \u00a0Without a doubt&#8230;this should be first book you read in 2010 if you are looking to radically reconnect with the Savior who desires for us to know Him and make Him known.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some of my takeaways from the book&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;When all of the rules and regulations, all of the traditions and institutions, all of the liturgies and methodologies are peeled back, what&#8217;s left is the Great Commandment. \u00a0It is Christianity in its most primal form.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Many Christians settle for simplicity on the near side of complexity. \u00a0Their faith is only mind deep. \u00a0They know what they believe, but they don&#8217;t know why they believe what they believe. \u00a0Their faith is fragile because it has never been tested intellectually or experientially.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The heart of Christianity is primal compassion. \u00a0The soul of Christianity is primal wonder. \u00a0The mind of Christianity is primal curiosity. \u00a0And the strength of Christianity is primal energy.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Communion is a pilgrimage back to the foot of the cross.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Does your heart break for the things that break the heart of God?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I&#8217;m afraid that the Western church has tried to engage our culture mind-first instead of heart-first. \u00a0But minds often remain closed to truth until hearts have been opened by compassion. \u00a0There is certainly a place for logical, left-brained explanations of faith. \u00a0But compassion is the ultimate apologetic. \u00a0There is no defense against it.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Have you ever experienced a sympathy breakthrough? \u00a0A moment when your inclination to hate was overcome by your will to love? \u00a0A moment when proactive compassion overrode reactive anger? \u00a0A moment when you cared more about someone else&#8217;s pain that your own? \u00a0Those are the moments when you recapture parts of your soul that you have lost. \u00a0Those are the moments when you learn what it really means to love God with all your heart.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;In my experience, it&#8217;s much easier to act like a Christian than it is to react like one.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The blessings of God are never ends in themselves. \u00a0And if we use a blessing selfishly, the blessing actually turns into a curse. \u00a0The blessings of God are always a means to an end. \u00a0And the end is a blessing to others. \u00a0We are blessed to bless.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;My motivation to make more is so I can give more. \u00a0John Wesley may have said it best: &#8220;Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The most important decisions you make are pre-decisions. \u00a0Pre-decisions are the decisions you make before you have to make the decision. \u00a0And they help you make the right decision when you have to make a tough decision. \u00a0If you don&#8217;t make pre-decisions, you&#8217;ll end up making lots of bad decisions because you&#8217;ll cave in to your circumstances instead of sticking to your convictions.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Think of the tithe as an income ceiling. \u00a0It&#8217;s a way to saying 90 percent is enough. \u00a0And honestly, it is the only antidote to greed that I know of.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;There are moments when loving God with all your heart won&#8217;t make financial sense. \u00a0But those are the moments when you need to give hilariously, ridiculously, generously, and sacrificially. \u00a0It won&#8217;t add up. \u00a0But God will multiply it.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;What if, instead of sound quality or lyrical creativity, our litmus test for worship was a heart that breaks for the things that break the heart of God?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;In its most primal form, worship is wonder.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The emotions we experience don&#8217;t reflect external reality; they reflect internal reality. \u00a0We don&#8217;t see the world as it is; we see the world as we are. \u00a0So wonder, or the lack thereof, simply reveals what is in our souls. \u00a0If our souls are full of wonder, then life is wonderful. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because you see with your soul. \u00a0And when you see with your soul, everything becomes a reflection of the glory of God.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Meditation is the mechanism whereby one-dimensional knowledge becomes two-dimensional understanding. \u00a0But it doesn&#8217;t end there. \u00a0Obedience is the mechanism whereby two-dimensional understanding becomes three-dimensional faith.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;In the Western world, we make a distinction between knowing and doing. \u00a0But there was no such distinction in ancient Jewish thought. \u00a0Knowing was doing and doing was knowing. \u00a0If you didn&#8217;t do it, you didn&#8217;t really know it. \u00a0Knowledge isn&#8217;t enough. \u00a0Truth must be translated with your life.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Loving God with all your mind literally means loving God with all your mind. \u00a0It means managing your mind. \u00a0It means making the most of your mind. \u00a0It means loving God logically and creatively, seriously and humorously, intuitively and thoughtfully.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The quest for the lost soul of Christianity is a quest driven by questions.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Holy curiosity isn&#8217;t satisfied with easy answers.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The church ought to be the most curious place on the planet. \u00a0We ought to be a safe place where people can ask dangerous questions, but all too often we&#8217;re guilty of answering questions that no one is even asking.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The goal of learning is to expand our God-given imagination so we expand our appreciation of who God is and what God has made.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Creativity is a dimension of spiritual maturity.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;We need fewer commentators and more innovators. \u00a0We need fewer critics and more creators. \u00a0We need fewer imitators and more dreamers.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Christianity was never intended to be a noun. \u00a0And when we turn it into a noun, it becomes a turnoff. \u00a0Christianity was always intended to be a verb. \u00a0We&#8217;ve got to act on God ideas.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Faith is not faith until it is acted upon. \u00a0That is the litmus test. \u00a0Faith without works is dead. \u00a0So is love without energy.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Vision is the cure for sin. \u00a0A God-given vision keeps us from decay and disorder. \u00a0It energizes everything we do. \u00a0And turning that vision into reality is one way we love God with all our strength.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;So don&#8217;t just point out problems; be the solution. \u00a0Don&#8217;t just criticize what&#8217;s wrong; do something right. \u00a0Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. \u00a0Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The last reformation was a reformation of creeds. \u00a0The next reformation will be a reformation of deeds. \u00a0The last reformation was symbolized by one central figure. \u00a0The next reformation will be led by millions of reformers living compassionately, creatively, and courageously for the cause of Christ. \u00a0It will be marked by broken hearts and sanctified imaginations. \u00a0And the driving force will be the love of God. \u00a0A love that is full of compassion, wonder, curiosity, and energy.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Compassion, wonder, curiosity, and energy are nouns. \u00a0It&#8217;s our job to turn them into verbs. \u00a0It&#8217;s our highest calling and greatest privilege.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>Are you ready to dig in and find the lost soul of Christianity? \u00a0Pick up your copy of Primal <a href=\"http:\/\/waterbrookmultnomah.com\/catalog.php?isbn=9781601421319\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> and while you are at it&#8230;pick up a few extra copies to give away!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I really appreciate WaterBrook Multnomah sending me a free preview copy of Mark Batterson&#8217;s new book Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity. \u00a0I got a ton out of Mark&#8217;s first two books In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase. \u00a0Mark is the Lead Pastor of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-leadership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}