I have to be honest, I was a little skeptical of Marks approach to his new book Primal. I have read In the Pit with a Lion on a Snowy and Wild Goose Chase. Loved them both. But when I started reading Primal, Mark pulls no punches. He is raw, honest and in your face with the premise that the church needs a reformation and that the only way to do it is to return to our original, primal roots. For a few pages you might think that you are listening to the rants and raves of an opinionated pastor. Then you begin to see what he sees.
I have had the privilege of interviewing him before and conversing with him online a few times. Mark is focused, which is a family value of his. Determined to serve God with everything that He has. It shows in this book. Believe me when I say that Mark practices what he preaches. Mark isn't going to ask much of anything that you probably haven't already asked. He is, however, going to give you a new point of view on it that you may have never considered before. Mark doesn't allow the frustrations of faith to stop him from believing and leading you to believe with him too. What he purposes isn't impossible, if we can imagine it.
As I began to read I started to wonder what he was going to say to those who have their faith and theology all figured out. Don't get me wrong. I don't have a problem with traditions and methodologies, as long as they serve the purpose of the Kingdom of God and keep Christ center in our lives. But when they begin to serve themselves of the purposes of men - that's when we've gone from being Christians to just being manipulative. What was Mark going to say? How was he going to broach this? Chapter 6 knocks it out of the park. Mark challenges the most educated theologian and scientist to take a fresh look at why they believe what they believe.
I recommend this book for personal reading and well as a small group study. In the book Mark points out that the average college grad only reads 2 books for the rest of their life. Make this book one of those books!
* Primal's publisher gave me an advance copy to review if I would publish an honest review of this book on this blog.
You can purchase your copy of Primal here.
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