{"id":31830,"date":"2022-09-10T15:45:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/david-platt-on-what-needs-to-change-in-the-church\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:45:42","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:45:42","slug":"david-platt-on-what-needs-to-change-in-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/david-platt-on-what-needs-to-change-in-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"David Platt on What Needs to Change in the Church"},"content":{"rendered":"
David Platt’s idea for his latest title came from a journey to some of the world\u2019s highest mountains and most remote villages. <\/p>\n

By Aaron Wilson<\/em><\/p>\n

When a best-selling author pens a new book, his or her inspiration might come from the comfort of a library or private study. For David Platt, however, the idea for his latest title came from a journey to some of the world\u2019s highest mountains and most remote villages.<\/p>\n

In his new book and workbook, Something Needs to Change<\/em>, Platt chronicles a weeklong trek through the Himalayan Mountains and addresses what God revealed to him as he came face to face with great need and wrestled with tough questions about the Christian faith.<\/p>\n

Facts & Trends<\/em> recently sat down with Platt to discuss topics he addresses in Something Needs to Change<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the sense of not burying the lead of your new book and workbook, what needs to change?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

First off, something needs to change in the mountains where I was trekking.<\/p>\n

In those remote villages, there are young girls being sex trafficked. That needs to change. There are people dying of preventable diseases. That needs to change. And there are scores of people who\u2019ve never even heard the name of Jesus. That needs to change.<\/p>\n

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But in order to affect change, something also needs to change in my own heart, in my family, and in the church I\u2019m a part of. If we\u2019re not careful, we can live in a pretty insulated world. We can live with a blind eye and deaf ear to urgent needs around us and around the world.<\/p>\n

We need to be willing to get close enough to really need to feel the weight of the hurt and pain around us. Then, we need to open ourselves up to the ways God has graciously given us opportunities to make His love and hope known in otherwise hopeless situations.<\/p>\n

God wants to make our lives count for His glory and the spread of His good in the world, and He\u2019s uniquely given us opportunities to be a part of affecting change for people in need.<\/p>\n

The question is: Will we take advantage of it?<\/p>\n

As a pastor, how would you encourage fellow church leaders to spur their people toward the call of making their lives count in a world of urgent physical and spiritual needs?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If we\u2019re not careful, we can so overcomplicate things in the church.<\/p>\n

I get it. As pastors, we\u2019re often busy running this program and that and making sure all the different ministries of our church are functioning. But before we realize it, we\u2019re missing who we\u2019re supposed to be as the church.<\/p>\n

A small church found along the trails of the Himalayans may meet in one tiny room with a light bulb hanging in the middle. They don\u2019t have programs. They don\u2019t have so much of the stuff we have, but they\u2019re caring for one another and are working to share the gospel.<\/p>\n

Likewise, we have to fight to keep the focus on what matters most.<\/p>\n

How do we do that? We have to shepherd people. As pastors, we need to look for opportunities to lead the way in this\u2014to take people into places of urgent need and help them see how their lives can be leveraged there.<\/p>\n

If we don\u2019t keep this focus, we\u2019ll quickly get consumed with what we don\u2019t like about logistical details in the church and we\u2019ll totally lose perspective. It\u2019s our role as pastors to help people get that perspective.<\/p>\n

And if we\u2019re going to do that, we\u2019ve got to make sure we\u2019ve got the right perspective also.<\/p>\n

In the West, we live in a pretty individualized culture. What\u2019s the value of processing the themes of this book with a group of believers?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

That\u2019s really, really important. It\u2019s one thing for someone to process such things on their own or even in their own home.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a whole other thing to be in a small group and to process this together in a way that you\u2019re learning from one another, sharing with one another, and dreaming together about how this can change not just your life, but also your community. It reminds us we\u2019re a part of something bigger than ourselves.<\/p>\n

This is why we intentionally created a group Bible study for Something Needs to Change<\/em>. Books are meant to be read individually. Bible studies are designed to be done in group settings where you\u2019re able to consider your community and can spur one another along.<\/p>\n

I find that as someone is sharing how God is working in their life, it spurs on another person in the group to think about how their life can be used. That\u2019s part of why I tell stories of different believers in the Church in this book\u2014because this is how we spur one another on toward Christ in a Hebrews 10 kind of way.<\/p>\n

I hope this Bible study will foster the kind of community that spurs one another toward Christ where we lock arms to make a difference for Him in ways that are much bigger than what we can do on our own.<\/p>\n

In Something Needs to Change<\/em>, you intersperse the narrative of your trek with excerpts of what you were reading in Scripture at the time. Why is it important to stay grounded in the Word as the church tackles urgent physical and spiritual need?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If we\u2019re not standing on the Word, we\u2019re shifting sand blown and tossed by the wind. And that\u2019s especially the case when we come face-to-face with some of the most urgent needs in the world that prompt some of the hardest questions about our faith.<\/p>\n

These are questions like: Where is God\u2019s goodness and justice in the middle of oppression and poverty? Why are some people born into such earthly suffering only to move on to eternal suffering?<\/p>\n

My trek in the Himalayans was like a collision of the Word and the world in my own heart. Both are needed.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re encountering needs in the world but are doing it apart from God\u2019s Word, we\u2019re prone to error. And not only that, if we\u2019re detached from Scripture, we\u2019re also not honoring God, not following Him, and are not basing our thoughts on truth.<\/p>\n

At the same time, if we\u2019re in the Word but are not engaging the world in need, then we\u2019ve become pretty cold. We may have good facts about what we believe, but we\u2019re disconnected from people in need. We need to put both of these things together.<\/p>\n

Once we\u2019re engaging needs in the world with God\u2019s Word, our hearts will be totally transformed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

SNTC Trailer Full Everywhere from Radical on Vimeo.<\/p>\n

Something Needs to Change by David Platt is available now on Lifeway.com. <\/em>A Bible study for both adults<\/em> and <\/em>teens<\/em> will be available October 1 and can be preordered now.<\/em><\/p>\n

AARON WILSON (<\/strong>@AaronBWilson26<\/strong>)<\/strong> is associate editor for<\/em> Facts & Trends.<\/p>\n

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Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n
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Something Needs to Change<\/h2>\n

David Platt<\/p>\n

FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Related posts:<\/h3>\n
3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community 3 Reorienting Truths for the Discouraged Pastor 5 Signs a Pastor Is Emotionally Unhealthy <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Platt’s idea for his latest title came from a journey to some of the world\u2019s highest mountains and most remote villages. By Aaron Wilson When a best-selling author pens a new book, his or her inspiration might come from the comfort of a library or private study. For David Platt, however, the idea for … Continue reading “David Platt on What Needs to Change in the Church”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}