Recommended reading and listening...

Who/What? 

David Platt, Secret Church, and The Church at Brookhills

Where: 

Birmingham, AL, your local book store, and the internet

What are they? 

David Platt is the Sr. Pastor of The Church at Brookhills in lovely Birmingham, Alabama. He is also the author of Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (2010) and Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live. (2012). The Church at Brookhills is a large, contemporary church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.  Secret Church was created by and is hosted by the pastoral staff at The Church of Brookhills. It has been happening since 2006 but really became increasingly well known in 2010-2011. It is a 4-6 hour long teaching time/Bible study taught by David Platt focusing on a few specific topics. It is called Secret Church because it initially began after David Platt had returned to Birmingham after a trip to visit with some of our brothers and sisters who must worship in secret. He says he was struck by how intense they were in their time of worship and prayer. It began as an idea of an evening-long time of worship through Bible study and prayer for the persecuted church. 

Why? 

1. The Church at Brookhills. Obviously, you can only attend if you ever become a Birmingham resident. Also, Birmingham has been blessed with many wonderful, solid churches so I'm not saying by any means you need to attend Brookhills. I only went once the entire two years I lived in Birmingham. But it is a very solid church who's "thing" is outreach/missions and discipleship. 

2. David Platt. I have read Radical and recommend it! We here in America have been very blessed both as a country and as the Church. Slowly, the "American Dream" and the spouse, 2.5 children, house, and picket fence that comes with it has become the ideal that many of us, often intentionally, put on our list of "should strive toward". These things are good things, and the American Dream is part of what makes our nation great. But as Christians, what should our "Christian Dream" look like? How does Christ call us to live? In our  Christian-ized version of American culture, the idea of being willing to sacrifice something, really anything for the sake of the gospel is not a very familiar idea to most of us. This book made me ask myself a lot of questions, and I recommend it!  

Follow just came out, and I have not read it yet. But I plan to do so in the hopefully near future, and I'll update this after I do. 

3. Secret Church. I really wish I had know about this before I did. I first heard about it a few months before I left Birmingham, and unfortunately did not have the opportunity to attend. However, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, video/audio/transcripts of past Secret Churches are available online! I have not been through all of them, so cannot speak the content. But over time I hope to listen to the rest of them. I highly recommend "Family, Marriage, Sex, and the Gospel" and "The Cross of Christ".   Don't worry, the audio/video is broken down into manageable sections and is not one hours-long recording! Great, Biblical teaching on important, crucial topics. 

How? 

Secret Church: http://www.radical.net/secretchurch/

Persecuted Church: http://www.radical.net/secretchurch/about/persecution.html

Books: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, LifeWay, Family Christian Stores

The Church at Brookhills: http://www.brookhills.org/