Did you know that the followers of Jesus Christ are only called “Christians” three times in the New Testament? This is the (somewhat) provocative question posed at the beginning of The Radical Disciple, a short gem of a book, and the last one to be written by John Stott. The Reverend Dr. John R. Stott, many will know, was an Anglican evangelical, the long-term rector of All Souls Langham Place in London, whose influence on the worldwide church in the second half of the 20th century is probably equal to that of any other church leader of his time. TIME magazine named him one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2005.
He wrote Basic Christianity (translated in to over 60 languages with sales over 2.5 million), so he’s not, of course, sidelining the term Christian. Hardly. Instead, he chooses discipleship to keep our focus on the Lordship of Christ, which reaches into all areas of our lives. A radical disciple in one who is utterly grounded, deeply rooted in Christ—in fact, we get our word radical from the Latin word for root. Because we are tempted to pick and choose which teaching of Jesus we will follow and to ignore the costly elements of following Christ, Stott puts in view eight characteristics of wholehearted discipleship that he feels are neglected – or may be easily neglected.
They are non-conformity, Christ-likeness, maturity, creation-care, simplicity, balance, dependence, and death. I say “puts in view” because none of them receive an extended treatment. Each chapter easily can be read in half-an-hour or so. Brevity turns out to be a virtue in this regard: each characteristic challenges us to embrace it and live it out, not so much to debate it, dispassionately, to avoid action. Yes, there’s a time and place for questioning, philosophizing, and reflecting before acting. But there is also a time to embrace certain virtues and put them in play with haste. There’s also a time to get on with living by putting into play what Jesus Christ puts before us. This book delights in the latter, giving just enough exposition to see the importance and the implications of each of these virtues. An additional note: this was the last writing of Stott, and he knew it would be, before his death, it's what he most wanted to say, which adds a certain poignancy to the book.