One of my book purchases at T4G was Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists by Colin Hansen. I was excited to see what Colin had to say about this movement, sinceI would probably be considered one of these “new calvinists.” I had read Colin’s article in Christianity Today, which goes by the same title, but was left wanting more. My hope was that this book would expand the ideas laid down in the article.
Colin states that many have heard of the Seeker-Sensitive and Emergent movements in the churches of America, but he knew more people who were young and a part of this “reformed” movement. This book takes you on a tour around the United States to various churches, seminaries, or conferences which are building Christians who are young, restless, and reformed. Each chapter in the book deals with a different aspect of this movement (if it can be called a movement). As I read through the chapters dealing with the Passion Conference, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Yale University, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Covenant Life Church, the New Attitude Conference, and Mars Hill Church I was struck by how different all these places were yet how they were all centered around the Gospel of Christ.
Colin does a great job of outlining the impact of each of these. One can easily see why these can be appealing to believers, even if they do not agree with everything. I learned much about various churches, various people, and their beliefs. One surprise was a church in New Haven, Connecticut called Trinity Baptist Church, which seems to be building a great ministry.
One area I wish Colin would have spent more time talking about is why he thought this group is growing. There might be hints to it here and there, but a nice wrap up of why this is happening would have been helpful.
If you keep hearing about John Piper, Albert Mohler, C.J. Mahaney, Mark Driscoll, Josh Harris, Ligon Duncan, and Mark Dever and don’t know who they are, this book is a good introduction. It is also good to learn about other intricacies of the movement. For example, I currently attend The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary but have no experience with the Southern Baptist Convention. I learned much about some of the ideas floating around in the SBC and how not everyone is on board with what SBTS is doing. Any student attending SBTS with no background with the SBC (like I lacked) would do well to read chapter four in this book.
To gain, perhaps a better understanding of this book check out this review as well.
Excerpt (Quoting Tom Schreiner):
“If a church asked me, ‘Are you a Calvinist?’ I’d say, ‘Yes, but I don’t use the word Calvinism. I teach what Scripture says, and I explain it in terms of biblical theology, what the Bible as a whole is teaching, the framework of Scripture. That’s what I want to teach this congregation. I want this church not to be a Calvinistic church but a biblical church. Now I think there’s a lot of overlap there biblically. But we’re not indebted to John Calvin; we’re indebted to the Scriptures at the end of the day.’”
“It is simple in the sense that you go into a church and you teach the Scriptures and you love people,” Schreiner said. “That sounds easy, but it’s hard. You have to be patient. You can’t expect to turn things around quickly. It doesn’t always succeed. Maybe the church is so immature that they kick you out. Maybe you’re so immature that you get kicked out.”
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