What is the essence of Christianity?
Love God. Mark Batterson does an
outstanding job in summarizing the essence of Christianity by giving us the
fresh look on the Great Commandment of Jesus: loving God with all our heart, soul, mind,
and strength. It is a simple instruction,
but the church has not faithfully lived out the truth of this commandment. We tend to blame the present culture for not
being interested in Christianity. We
have failed to examine ourselves. We
have lost the “soul of Christianity.” It is the primal problem of the
church. Mark challenges us to rediscover
this Great Commandment.
How? He invites the readers to
relearn the four primal elements of the Great Commandment which becomes the
outline of the book: the heart of Christianity is primal compassion, the soul of Christianity is primal wonder, the mind of Christianity is primal curiosity, and the strength of Christianity is primal energy. Mark connects the heart with our call to
compassion: “as we grow in our love relationship with God…we feel what He feels
(for others)” (:24). He connects the
soul with our call to recapture the wonder of God. When we lose our sense of God’s wonder, we
lose our ability to see the glory of God, and our worship of God is merely reduced
to a tradition. He connects the mind
with curiosity. When our soul ceases to
wonder, our mind loses its creative curiosity to learn about God. Finally, he connects the strength with our
energy to serve God and His purpose. To
love God is to feel his heart for others. However, it is not complete until the
love is expressed in our service and sacrifice for others. We cheapen the gospel when our love for God has
no action.
Mark is a very skillful storyteller.
He illustrates each element with practical stories that challenge us to
put each element into practice. However, some readers may find his usage of
scientific illustrations too many.
Almost every chapter has a reference to scientific story. For those readers, I would suggest not to
quit reading the book. I find the book
as refreshing. I am challenged to
reexamine my Christian life. Have I always
loved God with compassion? Have I always
felt His presence with a sense of wonder?
Have I always desired to learn more about Him? And have I expressed my love for God in a
tangible way?
My only criticism on the book is Mark’s use of successful stories of
his church, National Community Church in applying the four elements of the
Great Commandment. It is true that his church has been successful
in raising millions of dollars for mission through their endless pursuit of
creative ideas for ministry. It is true
that his church connects well with the generation of twenty-somethings, 70
percent of the attendees while churches in general are losing 61 percent of
this generation. My concern is that some
readers may treat his success as the primary motivation to apply the principles
learned in this book. There is no
guarantee that National Community Church’s amazing growth can be replicated
elsewhere after applying the same principles: compassion, wonder, curiosity,
and energy. I will leave this caution
for emerging church pastors so that they will apply the principles not merely
for success.
The book may seem brief and simple, but it is an inspiring book to read
not only for young believers but also especially for mature Christians. After many seasons of following Christ, we
may assume that we have known all. As a
result, our love for Christ can grow cold.
Our heart needs to be broken again, and our mind needs to be renewed so
that the fresh winds of revival may fall on us again, and we may present to our
generation the rediscovery of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and
strength. For this reason, I recommend
this book highly, and it is worth 5 stars of excellence.
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