Here’s the final excerpt from Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity. If you want to download a sample chapter, visit www.theprimalmovement.com.
Chapter 10: The Next Reformation
Last year I was part of an international gathering of Christian leaders and thinkers that met in Wittenberg, Germany to discuss the state of Christianity. The setting could not have been more apropos. It was there that Martin Luther sparked the Protestant Reformation by nailing his ninety-five theses to the doors of the Castle Church.
Our three-day conversation, which culminated on Reformation Day, revolved around this question: do we need another reformation? The short answer is yes. Every generation does. Every generation needs its Martin Luthers, its Wittenbergs, and its ninety-five theses. But I don’t think the next reformation will look anything like the last reformation. A single person won’t lead it. A single event won’t define it.
Now let me make an all-important observation. If you miss this, you miss the soul of this book. Reformations are not born out of new discoveries. Those are often called cults. Reformations are born out of rediscovering something ancient, something primal. They are born out of primal truths rediscovered, reimagined, and radically reapplied to our lives.
So what does our generation need to rediscover? What primal truth needs to be reimagined? What is our reformation?
Simply put, we’ve got to be great at the Great Commandment. Anything less isn’t good enough. Or I should say, great enough. We must not succeed at the wrong thing. We must not invest our earthly lives in things that have no heavenly value. We must not be great at things that do not matter. We have to be great at what matters most. And what matters most is loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
When you descend the flight of stairs into the soul of Christianity, and everything is stripped away but its primal essence, what you’re left with is the Great Commandment. Just as the medieval church rediscovered justification by faith, so our generation must rediscover the Great Commandment. The rallying cry of the last reformation was sola fide. The rallying cry of the next reformation is amo Dei.
