Impossible is God's favorite word.  Out of all the copious activities God can do, it's the only activity He gets full and sole credit for.  Yet, in His providence, He wants to accomplish the impossible through moral invertebrates as us.  And more often than not we only get to see God at work flexing his muscles when we get off the diving board and make our first plunge into the cold and chilling abyss with no guarantee that we would even make a landing.  Often God hardly moves finger until we are at our knees saying "If you don't intervene, I have no more resources to turn to."  This is risk.  Risk scares us out of our wits.  It is one thing to speak about risk authoritatively from the pulpit, but it's quite another to be a missionary who has sold away all her possessions and wondering when her next paycheck will be coming.  Or a seminary student who has left a successful career surrounds himself in heavy student loans only to find out that there's no church who wants to call him after he graduates.  

We all fear risk so much this is why we invest our money.  This is why we buy car, medical and life insurances.  This is why many invest four years of their life to get a college degree so that we can get a stable job. But yet the Gospel can never find fruition in our lives if we don't risk: risk is not just right, but it is mandatory.  However, the issue of risk is not as simple as it appears:  when is risk Godly and not recklessness?  What is the fine line between risk and simply being irresponsible? When is risk not being self-serving?  After all, business schools also teach us to risk so that we can get a better financial portfolio and see more zeros added to our bank account.  These are some of the topics Owen Strachan deals with in his new book "Risky Gospel: Abandon Fear and Build Something Awesome."  Not only is Strachan the executive director of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, he is also the assistant professor of Christian Theology and Church History at Boyce College in Louisville, Kentucky. 

The book neatly divides into two sections.  In the first section (chapters 1 to 4), Strachan sets up his case for why risk should be a way of life for all Gospel-centered Christians before dealing with some conceptual issues relating to the topic.  In the second section (chapters 5 to 10), Strachan takes these concepts and applies them within various contexts: such as how do we become more Gospel risk takers in our families, our churches, our work place, our witness and in our societies.  So, let's start with examining what Strachan understands as "Gospel risk" before looking at some contextual issues.        

Risk is Recklessness if it is Not Gospel Driven

Anyone can take a risk but not all risk is Godly: you and jump off a building but such an act is anything but Godly.  So, when is risk Godly and when it is just mere stupidity?  Risk is recklessness if it is not compelled by the Gospel:  Strachan in the chapter entitled "Risky Faith: The Call to Risk" makes this crystal clear.  Risk should not be the reaction towards our need to prove ourselves.  Rather, risk is our response because our God is a risk-loving God when he sent Jesus to earth to die for us.  Strachan writes: "We can boil it down to this: God's awesomeness should compel our faithfulness" (p. 29, italics his).  Using the parable of the talents as his Scriptural basis, Strachan argues that because God took such a great risk for us, risk is not an option but a way of life for each one of us who has embraced the Gospel.

So, how is this risk different from the risks advocate by the world?  Chapter Three is the crowning moment of the book; this is where Strachan defines how this Gospel driven risk is ontologically different from risk colloquially understood.  We risk not because we want to be great or so that we can reap a better bank account.  Rather, we risk because the Gospel makes us a new creation.  The very fact that we are a redeemed by a risk loving Christ means we are no longer our own.  By faith we have become a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:16-18).  Characteristic of such a transformation is that we no longer live for our self-comfort; we no longer live to save our own skin; we no longer live so that we can merely enjoy life.  Rather, we now live for Him; we live now to further His kingdom and we live now in complete abandonment to His grace. 

Risk as a Way of Life for Gospel-Centered Christians

One of the book's strengths is that are no opaque principles: Strachan does not leave us guessing how these principles apply to our everyday situations.  In the second section of the book, Strachan applies such a Gospel-nuanced risk to our various contexts with the most helpful chapter being the sixth chapter ("Risky Work: Building a Vocation").  In many sub-Christian cultures, authors have often privilege religious work over its secular counterpart; here Strachan eradicates such a divide by emphasising the sacredness of all work whether it is done under the roof of the church or under a commercial plaza.  Like a seasoned pastor, Strachan offers practical suggestions that we could pocket every Monday morning as to how we can advance the Gospel in whatever vocation God calls to regardless of we sit in an office cubicle all day or chauffeur our children to school each morning or toil under the merciless sun in the afternoons. 

Also, Strachan is to be thanked for closing off the chapter with a balanced treatise on wealth where he does acknowledged that money is a blessing from God without falling into the trappings of the health and wealth Gospel purveyors. Nevertheless, Strachan is right in encouraging us to be less risk adverse in terms of sacrificial giving.  However, given that the thrust of the book is on risk, one would have wished he would have delved a little deeper to discuss the role of risk and investment.  If the Gospel compels us to be sell-outs for Jesus and His Cross, does this mean we shouldn't invest our money?  Does storing money in our banks means we are compromising the Gospel?  Where is the balance between savings and sacrificial giving? 

Moving on to his chapter on family, Strachan is indeed right in advocating that families need be committed in building a "happier vision of the family" (p.103).  But for a book on risking for the sake of the Gospel, this is far too safe.  The principles he delineates such as embracing the blessings of children and being a home devoted to God are noteworthy.  But how are these principles risky?  One would have wished Strachan would go deeper to look at how the Gospel revolutionises marriages: how can a Gospel-centered wife forgive her husband if she knows he's been unfaithful?  What is a Gospel-centered husband to do if her wife constantly nags and refuses to submit to him?  What is the role of grace when it comes to disciplining our kids? Does grace mean we let our kids go undisciplined?  What does Gospel risk look like for families when they reach out to singles? And what about adoption, isn't this the best illustration of the risky Gospel in action?

Nevertheless, we should not let these observations detract us from reading this book.  Communicators of the Gospel would do well to learn from Strachan.  Take his story about how God transformed a lesbian professor from being an erudite advocate for homosexuality to becoming a child of God as an example.  Strachan's ability to go deep enough to unearth the brimming emotions of his character certainly has a way of tunnelling right into our hearts.  And the proliferation of contemporary cultural references (such as "God is like the boyfriend in a Bruno Mars or Lady Gaga song" or "you don't unsubscribe from Jesus") certainly makes his book palatable to younger readers. 

At the end of the day, risking for the Gospel is by no means equated to blind-sighted recklessness. Regardless of how high we fall from and regardless of how nocturnal our successes might be, His caring providence is always our abiding safety net.  Thus, risking for the sake of the Gospel isn't much of a risk at all. Rather, it is a mere affirmation on our part to let Jesus take the lead.  Strachan in his "Risky Gospel: Abandon Fears and Build Something Awesome" avails for us some life-transforming ways in which we can grab hold of Jesus' hand as He lead us into this great adventure called living.