Primal

Primal – A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity

Primal: being of first importance

For most Christians, that primal notion of what life is all about…. who we are…. and whose we are…. revolves around a primal statement found in Scripture at Mark 12:28-31:

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”  ”The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.‘ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

Compassion.Wonder.Curiosity.Energy.

Mark Batterson, author of In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase and Pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C., illuminates that primal command of Jesus – the Great Commandment – in his new book called Primal.

Primal Compassion. Primal Wonder.Primal Curiosity.Primal Energy.

Mark gives new winekins to the primal concepts that Jesus gave us more than 2,000 years ago in a revolution that changed the face of mankind. Loving God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole mind and your whole strength requires us to look back and truly comprehend and metabolize the complexity, power and yet simplicity of following God with compassion, wonder, curiosity and energy. He challenges us to not live on the near side of complexity in our spiritual walk with Jesus, but to exeperience all that he has for us through the mental, emotional, physical, intellectual and spiritual challenging of our very being. It is when we fully use our minds, our dreams, our hopes, our compassion, our energy, our curiosity and our wonder that we draw closer to that primal truth spoken by Jesus.

Mark’s love and curiosity of science and of the wonder of what is all around us in creation helps to add 21st century light to the Great Commandment. Of key interest for the reader is his use of scientific studies, formulas and findings to show that not only are we to understand God’s Word and the truths that flow from it in a linear and very deductive way using left brain logic, but we are also gifted with the ability and the command to use our right brain imagination to understand the primal truth. Loving God through his Great Commandment requires us to use all of our heart, soul, strength and mind… and not just part of it. From a discussion of alpha waves to a neurological survey of the human cranium, from the scientific concept of critical realism to the law of entrophy, Mark challenges the reader to capture every thought, to take every step, to breathe every breath with the completeness of left brain logic and right brain imagination.

The timing of Primal reflects that. Had Mark simply decided to write three books, he logically may have chosen to write Primal first, as it sets the foundation of primal truths that lead to the passion of chasing the Holy Spirit in Wild Goose Chase or understanding the opportunities that God has for us and to chase them.

But God is much bigger than that and he gave Mark the idea of writing about an obscure verse in 2 Samuel that involved Beneniah and the chasing of a lion into a pit on a snowy day. That book spawned the Lion Chaser Manifesto, a series of statements that are meant to encourage the reader to seek God more fully. Band of Brothers has used both the Lion in a Pit book and the Wild Goose Chase book as a tool while leading hundreds of men over the last five years to climb 14,000 foot peaks in Colorado. The Lion Chaser Manifesto resonated loud and clear with them.

 God, through Mark,  has used those primal statements from the Lion Chaser Manifesto in Wild Goose Chase and now in Primal to shed light on what it is to be great at the Great Commandment. That right brain imagination combined with left brain logic to bring him to writing Primal as the third book.

Primal is not a book to read and set down, Primal will go to the depths of your soul, your mind, your heart and your strength and make you not only think… but do. There is a reformation coming and we do not know what it looks like. But as Mark notes in the book, we need to take on the “Go.Set.Ready” mentality instead of “Ready.Set.Go.” The ultimate primal truth is to love God. When we take on that adventure, Ephesians 3:20 will be played out. Love God.

Make Primal your first book of 2010 and share it with your friends, your small groups, your men’s ministries, your co-workers.

The reformation is on. Go Primal.

Amo Dei!

 

For more information about Mark Batterson and the folks at National Community Church, please visit www.theaterchurch.com . You may also visit Mark’s blog at www.evotional.com  as well as the Primal website at www.theprimalmovement.com. If you are ever in Washington, D.C., please stop by Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse, a great place near Union Station that is owned by National Community Church and which all profits go to missions. The lattes are good too!

You may purchase the book at Random House. You may also visit the Waterbrook Multnomah site for more information.