'Primal' by Mark Batterson - Book Review and Giveaway

I first learned of Mark Batterson while attending the 2008 Group Life Conference at Willow Creek Community Church in S. Barrington IL. Mark, the senior pastor of National Community Church in Washington D.C., was there with Heather Zempel, the discipleship pastor at NCC. I can say without reservation that they were the highlight of the conference for me. The focus of their church is to reach the unchurched in the Nation’s Capitol – a high calling indeed! They are so innovative and insightful, brilliant and committed to the Lord! So I was excited when I found out Mark had a new book coming out!

I had the opportunity to receive an advance copy of ‘Primal.' It exceeded my high expectations! Mark’s purpose in this book is to take Christians back to the basics of their faith. He believes Christians have lost the soul of Christianity, and it is detrimental to us and to those who are still outside of the faith. We need a new reformation – to get back to ‘primal’ Christianity. He encourages us to lay aside our differences in doctrine, etc… and instead to focus on the four elements of Great Commandment Christianity: compassion, wonder, curiosity and power. He bases these four elements on Jesus’ teaching in Mark 12:30: “…30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these" (NIV).

Mark’s primary motivator is to show more people the love of the Lord, and to have them see that He is what they need. He makes the observation that many young people are very turned off on church and Christianity because of judgmental attitude and ‘unlovely’ behavior of those who profess Christ as their Lord. We need to return to our first love, and allow Him to reflect through us by the power of His Holy Spirit – the same power which raised Him from the dead. As Christians, we have that power available to us, and we need to use that gift! I love Mark’s quote on page 150 – “Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Break a sweat.”

A big ‘take away’ for me is that Mark thinks our love for God grows when we learn more about all subjects. He is especially drawn to the Lord when he thinks about astronomy and the vastness and majesty of the universe. That really impressed me. I have over the years put myself in a small ‘sacred’ box, and rejected a lot of what I categorize as ‘secular’ – and, by default, have put the Lord in an equally small box. Mark’s observations, along with the teachings at our church, have ‘allowed’ me to broaden my horizons. It is so freeing – and honoring to the Lord, in my opinion!

I highly recommend this book. I think if we all read this book, and put the practices into action(which are very solidly biblical), I think it will definitely draw more people to the Lord, and will help us to live a life that is more honoring to Him! It will also give us the freedom to learn and explore and discovering how God wired us and what He wants us to do with our lives!

This book was provided to me by Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Company. There was no remuneration involved and this review is based strictly on my own thoughts and opinions.

This book’s release date is December 22, 2009. You can order a copy from Waterbrook here.

You can also order from Amazon.com or Christianbook.com.

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I have a copy of this book that I would love to give to one of you! You can receive entries in several ways:

1) Leave a comment on this post – please make sure to include your email address in this form – 
    sample[at]gmail[dot]com.

2) Follow me on this blog – please make me aware of that ‘follow’ in your blog post!

3) Follow me on Twitter. Please make me aware of your ‘follow’ in your blog post!

Or any combination of the three!  Please limit one entry per option!

The winner will be chosen by the Random Number Generator.  Each separate entry will be assigned a number.

Due to the holidays, the contest will run two weeks. The deadline for entry is January 4, 2010 at 6:00 pm Eastern Time. The winner will be notified by January 5 via email. So please be sure to leave your email address in your blog comment!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!