Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity

If you're looking for a book to kick-off the new year, Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, would be a great choice. Primal, hot off the press and just released, hit the book stores yesterday. Mark Batterson is pastor of National Community Church and author of the popular titles In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Thrive When Opportunity Roars and Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God.

I received a pre-release copy of Primal to review a couple of weeks ago and immediately cracked open the cover. I wasn't disappointed. Primal, while easy to read at a conversational pace, is full of insights that demand one to slow down and ponder the internal implications that these insights evoke within one's soul.

Batterson writes,

The Latin word for "listen" is where we get our word audit. When you audit a class, you take in lots of information, but you don't do anything with it. You don't do the homework, or if you do, you don't turn it in to get it graded. You don't take the tests. And you don't get any credit either. The same is true in our spiritual lives. You don't get credit for auditing Scripture. You've got to put it into practice...

...In the Western world, we make a distinction between knowing and doing. But there was no such distinction in ancient Jewish thought. Knowing was doing and doing was knowing. If you didn't do it, you didn't really know it. Knowledge isn't enough. Truth must be translated with your life. (Primal, 83-84)

It's easy to approach Scripture, sit through Church, engage Christianity, even live life in audit mode. Challenging this conundrum, is at the heart of Batterson's new book. Living as more than an auditor, but a student-disciple, is what it means to return to the primal roots of Christianity. Reading Primal would be a great way to start the year by intentionally posturing yourself to love God with all your heart, mind, sould and strength.