Something Needs to Change

Good But Has A Few Problems. This is an intriguing book in that it takes a week long trip Platt took into the Himalaya Mountains - apparently just weeks before becoming the President of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention - and combines it from passages from the middle of the Gospel of Luke to present a case that “something” needs to be done about human suffering.

A cynic or pessimist is likely to rate this one closer to a max of 3, because if nothing else it is repeatedly jarring to see Platt admit so openly to ignoring the human suffering in front of his face on this trip - he would rather speak to someone about Jesus than discontinue his trip and help them get to the closest hospital, despite their *eye rotting out from their face, in just one memorable (and early) example.

An Evangelical Christian is more likely to rate this at 5* and wish for more, as Platt's prose speaks exactly their language and ideology - he is quite explicit and unapologetic in exactly what he is, and this reader doesn't fault him for his honesty here in the least.

Ultimately, I go with the 4* because even while Platt uses the full text of much of the passages he uses as primary sources, he still uses the concept called proof texting - wherein a particular verse is cited out of context in support of some point or another - as ancillary evidence. Further, I simply can't ignore the cynical/ pessimistic points above, yet at the same time I understand the worldview - to use one of their favored terms - Platt is coming from, and I get that he thinks he is doing good. Also, knowing the culture Platt is steeped in - I grew up in it - honestly, this book could have been far worse for readers outside of the Evangelical Christian movement Platt is a part of. Though there is one final craw in my jaw in the final chapter: After spending an entire book proclaiming the need for others to be bold and “do something”, and indeed just before leaving readers with a challenge to do the same, Platt is so cowardly that he cannot bring himself to name the organization he represents and of which the International Mission Board is a key component: the Southern Baptist Church.

Overall, the book does indeed raise some topics that needed to be raised. Platt does a solid job of showing people what “life on the ground” is like in these rural, remote, and poor villages of the region. While it could have gone much further in a positive direction (showing the misery of the poor within yards of his own locations, for example), at least it didn't go quite as far in a more negative direction as it could have. So I feel the 4* is warranted here, and I do in fact recommend this book for everyone.

“It's easier to stomach poverty as long as you just look at numbers on a page. The poor are easier to ignore if they're a statistic. But everything changes when you know one of them. Everything changes when you spend time with one and then two days later he's dead. Not only does he die, but he's dead because he was poor.” -David Platt, Something Needs to Change


Last year, I read Radical by David Platt for the first time with my Bible Study group. I was inspired by that book and left with a challenge that has echoed through many decisions in my life since, but nothing like how this book just impacted me. Earlier this year, I received an email asking for my participation to vote on which cover I liked best for Platt's upcoming release. I participated but also became so excited to read Something Needs to Change as soon as it came out (and yes, the cover I voted for won!). I wasn't prepared for the heaviness of this book.

Something Needs to Change has given me 20/20 vision into how Christians ought to be living their lives. How I should be living my life. Even more so than Radical did, this book ignited a fire within me to move into my calling as the “hands and feet of Jesus”–in ways that are beyond giving “pennies” to a mission or simply attending Bible studies or church on Sundays. In this book, Platt causes his readers to feel exactly what broke him during his trek in the Himalayas and then creates a burning desire within his readers that makes them come to his same conclusion: “something needs to change“.

I cried in this book. I cried when Platt writes about his encounter with the man whose face is caving in after already losing an eye to an infection that could have easily been prevented here in America with a quick trip to the store and $20–if even that. I cried when he entered a village that had no girls because silver-tongued sex traffickers had convinced the entire village that their daughters were better off “working” in the city. This is not a book that gives the reader a pat on the back for going to church or giving $20 a month to a missionary; those ARE great things and a small step in the right direction, but this book will challenge you to be radical for Jesus.

A lot of us as Jesus-followers know our callings, but, for me at least, I would think about it but quickly think “later”, or “after college”, or “after I'm secure enough in my finances”. After reading Something Needs to Change, I agree with Platt, something– my heart, my attitude, my faith, my outlook on my role as a Christian in a lost world–something has got to change! We're not guaranteed tomorrow, so why would I wait until “tomorrow” to begin what I should have done yesterday?

“They don't need me, and other Christians, living as if somebody somewhere will do something someday about their urgent and spiritual and physical needs; they need me, and other Christians, living like this day could be their last.” -David Platt, Something Needs to Change

Platt wrote a book that is meant to change people, and it has everything packed inside to radically move any of his readers. But the choice to actually do something– to actually change something–that's up to each individual. I've never read a book that hit me so hard–yet encouraged me so much– in all my life. I want to put this book into every person's hands!

I will mention that Platt spares no details in his descriptions of the poverty he encounters. He does describe how the sex trafficking works in these villages. The death that results from diseases. The prosecution of Christians, the mistreatment of children with disabilities. It's a heavy read, but it's necessary.

“I really believe this book has missed the mark if your life ends up looking just like it did before you read it.” -David Platt, Something Needs to Change

I received this book from Waterbrook Multnomah for the purpose of this review. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.

This is a LiteratureApproved.com Review.