“I couldn’t help but wonder if we have accepted a form of Christianity that is more educated but less powerful, more civilized but less compassionate, more acceptable but less authentic than that which our spiritual ancestors practiced. …  What is the primal essence of Christianity?”
Mark Batterson in Primal

I received a free pre-release copy of Mark Batterson’s new book Primal (available 12/22) from Waterbrook Multnomah.  (Thank you to Liz Johnson and team!)  In exchange for the book, I was asked to write a review of it and if I liked the book to ask if you’d consider making Primal the first book that you read in 2010.  While I didn’t care much for Mark’s In A Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, his next book Wild Goose Chase was an excellent and thought provoking book on the Holy Spirit.  I read Mark’s blog and follow him on Twitter so I’ve been hearing about Primal for a while now and was excited to read it.  It kept me great company on my way to my friend’s wedding and back (including a short mechanical delay on my flight home).  I read the last page as the plane was touching down in Charlotte.

Primal refers to the thing of first importance.  So what is the most important thing in Christianity?  Mark strips Christianity down to this: “We’ve got to be great at the Great Commandment.”  In this, God calls us to love Him in 4 ways: heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Mark describes these 4 ways like this:

• Heart = Compassion
• Soul = Wonder
• Mind = Curiosity
• Strength = Energy

Mark asserts that we have a spiritual love language in the same way that we have a preferred love language with our spouse, family, and friends.  We tend to gravitate to one of these four dimensions of love when acting out our love of God.  We should all love in each of the four ways, but one is likely to rise to the top as our primary spiritual love language.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes and thoughts:

• “But minds often remain closed to truth until hearts have been opened by compassion.”
• “I want to work with people who don’t just care about the work but who care about the people they work with.”
• “Don’t let what you cannot do keep you from doing what you can do.”
• …”most of us become so tangled up in our own self-consciousness that we have a hard time experiencing the joy of just being ourselves.”
• Scripture is kaleidoscopic – it speaks to you in a difference way each time you read it.
• “The goal of knowing the Bible is knowing God.”
• There’s no distinction in Jewish thought between knowing and doing.
• We’re losing a love for learning; our educational system is more about cramming info in rather that drawing conclusions out.  This is force feeding rather than unleashing curiosity.
• “Holy curiosity isn’t satisfied by easy answers.”
• “God is always speaking.  The real question is whether we are listening.”
• Strength = servanthood, sacrifices, hard work.
• Our love for God is our reflection of His love for us.
• The reformation for our generation is “Amo Dei” (Love God); a return to the Great Commandment.

I believe that my spiritual love language is mind or curiosity.  Fits with my top strength of learner.

This is, in my opinion, Mark’s best written book so far.  I’m enjoying him as an author more and more with each book.  Primal is also challenging.  It is a reminder that we serve a multi-faceted God who wants us to love him in many ways.  At the same time, that God has created me with a certain bent and shape that I need to cultivate and nurture.

What is your spiritual love language?  How can you be great at the Great Commandment?  Find out!  Get this book and make it the first book that you read in 2010!

• A mind stretched by a new idea never returns to its original shape.  – Oliver Wendall Holmes

As Jesus was getting ready to send his followers out he told them to be shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves.  See Matthew 10:16.

• Tension between being shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves.
• Truth is found in tension.
• If you’re not experiencing tension, maybe you’re not very close to the truth.

Being Innocent as Doves

• Our motives need to be right.
• It’s easy to get “good” and forget why you’re doing it.
• Find a way to periodically check yourself.
• Mark has a picture of the cow pasture where God called him into ministry behind his desk as a reminder of why he is doing what he’s doing.

Being Shrewd as Snakes

• Genesis 3 – The serpent was was the shrewdest of all creatures.
• Outwit your enemy – be better than Satan.
• Most of us have not been trained to exegete culture.
• Contextual intelligence – See something that has nothing to do with what you’re doing and finding a way to redeem it for your purposes.
• Jesus didn’t tell us how to go into the world; He just told us to go.

Equation #1

1% change = 99% difference

• Pay attention to the smallest little details.
• Shape > Color > Content
• Successful retailers know:

1. Many check out lines.
2. Make type big.
3. Greet each customer with hello.
4. People walk to the right.
5. Hands are at 3 ft.
6. and more.

• What are we doing in the church to use these concepts and more?
• The greatest message deserves the greatest marketing.
• We are fostering spiritual co-dependance in the church.
• NCC is doing a series through the whole Bible next year.
• Jesus asked the Father what to say and how to say it.

Equation #2

Change of Pace + Change of Place = A Change of Perspective

• If routine becomes routine, you need to change the routine.
• You need the ability to confuse people.  Do something to interrupt people’s routine to engage them.
• One God Idea is Greater than a Thousand Good Ideas
• It can be tough to discern the difference between a good idea and a God idea.
• One God idea will change your life.
• 2 Corinthians 10:5 – Take every thought captive.
• Take captive the God idea and nurture it, protect it; give it blood, sweat and tears.
• You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right.
• What has God put on your heart that you’ve pushed down?
• What has God put on your heart that you don’t even dare speak?