Nothing Less than Radical Will Do

The talk of the news is the fear of radicalisation, how to stop people being radicalised and so on. For sure it is a real problem. The real issue though is not so much radicalisation itself, but the direction of radical thinking & action.

The thinking, teaching and actions of Jesus were radical, and still are today. As followers of Jesus we need to be radical! Yet not radical in the direction of controlling people, killing people, doing terrorist acts and the like. No, radical in the direction of Jesus. A direction that calls for laying down power, shunning violence, no longer asserting control. A direction that releases people, restores people, enables them to flourish.

Steve Chalke with the Oasis Trust says "If we are going to overcome the escalating problem of extremism and terrorism that our world faces, we need a different answer. We need to find a narrative that is radical enough to turn the tide". On this point I agree with him - and that narrative is Jesus Christ.

Our Western consumer/individualist culture has dumbed our senses, and seduced us into non-radical lives. Maybe our younger generation, especially those disaffected in any way from the soup of consumer living, are searching for something, a cause, a radical way of living. Will we offer them the radical way of Jesus, or will a lack of distinctiveness in us mean that they believe there is only one option ... that of radicalisation in a different direction?