Posted on March 16, 2009 - by Stephen Murray
New Calvinism Breathing Life into a Tired Church
One of the reasons I make time to post about the rise of New Calvinism or the Neo-Reformed is because I really think that God is in the process of using this movement to breathe new life into a flagging evangelical church. My own personal journey as a Christian and as young aspiring pastor has, over the last 8 years, raised many many questions for me. Essentially those questions all came down to (and continue to come down to) questions about the nature of truth and questions about the nature of our world in relation to truth. In no other movement have my questions found as satisfying an answer as in the Neo-Reformed movement. Not all my questions have been answered, nor have I ceased to question but amongst the Neo-Reformed I’ve found a haven where I can ask those questions with the knowledge that there is a significant saftey net of Gospel truth that exists allowing us to both be convinced on particular issues yet at the same time be extremely open-handed to numerous other issues. In this haven I can breathe again.
I think many who are foreseeing something of an evangelical meltdown are right to see it and herald it but I can’t shake the feeling that the Neo-Reformed will be the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes here. I can’t shake the feeling that God is doing something huge here. I know Michael Spencer doesn’t think there’s a second Reformation coming out of this meltdown (and he is the post-evangelical guru) but I’m beginning to think that this Neo-Reformed movement might end up being a little more substantial than we think.
* As an extra point Scot McKnight made quite a bit of noise a month back about why he’s not really enamoured with the Neo-Reformed. I’d like to say that I don’t buy his reading of exactly who the Neo-Reformed are and to be honest I’m not actually sure who he was going after. So for example if you read my own take on the Neo-Reformed and you read Scot’s the two look radically different – surely we’re not talking about the same group of people. If we are then I think Scot is greatly mistaken. To give you an indication of who I see as the Neo-Reformed let me just nail my colours to the mast a bit. I see a group like Acts 29 as being the epitome of the Neo-Reformed movement and I think it would be ridiculous to apply Scot’s critique to the vast majority of Acts 29 churches.
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Stephen Murray
Christian, husband to my beautiful Robin, missional dreamer, pastor, church planter, Arsenal, Sharks and Springbok supporter, surfer (in the real sea), patriotic South African, Capetonian. Find out more about the church planting work I'm involved in at my support blog.
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March 16, 2009
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Donna said:
Growing up in a reformed church, I knew the 5 points of Calvinism as a toddler, and hated them as an adolescent. The crowd I grew up in believed these big truths about God, but were not moved to love by them. Somehow, the neo-reformers have made the truths of the reformation accessible to me, for which I am so grateful.
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March 16, 2009
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Jake Belder said:
Stephen, first I should say hello…I’ve been following your blog for a bit, but have not yet commented.
I appreciate your thoughts here. I don’t like the prophesy about new movements (so many people did that with Emergent, and now it’s faded way to the background). But I think you may be right that there is some really big potential here for the future of the church in this movement.
Needless to say, especially with TIME magazine covering this to an extent, and the media coverage of Mars Hill and Acts 29 lately, there’s been a lot of reaction all across the blogging world about all of this. I can appreciate the critiques of some from much more conservative, Reformed circles who say, “Hold on a second, this isn’t quite a Reformed or Calvinist movement.” That may be true, but the fact that there are big chunks of the church leaning towards a more Reformed expression is, for me anyway coming out of that tradition, very exciting. Yeah, I mean, if there were Acts 29 churches all over the place, I’d be really happy. That would be a good thing.
Time will tell. Thanks again for your thoughts on this. Peace.
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March 16, 2009
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Rod McWilliams said:
Stephen,
I’m like Jake. Been reading your blog for many months without jumping in. Your comments resonate with me completely. In fact, I was having this very conversation with a brother yesterday.
One of the observations I have made regarding Acts29 is how diverse they are. The coalitions they’ve entered into with Crowded House, Desiring God, Redeemer NYC, etc. suggests to me that something is afoot.
And it is particularly exciting when I consider my homeland. Australia has been a Christian wasteland for years. Acts29 just hosted 900 young men in Seattle seeking potential church planters. My country [and yours as well] were well represented. My hope is that a groundswell will continue in both our countries. May the Rainbow Nation and the Great Southern Land become fertile soil for the spread of gospel churches.
your brother Rod
[notice how I didn't mention the cricket. Dang it just did, sorry!]
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March 16, 2009
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Stephen Murray said:
Hi Jake and Rod thanks for reading and commenting.
Rod – just to encourage you further we held an Acts 29 conference here in Cape Town in February with over 100 pastors and churc leaders attending. At the end of this month we begin church planter quaterlies here in Cape Town and there are plans afoot to start similar quarterlies in Johannesburg and Durban. So the momentum is building here.
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March 17, 2009
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John said:
Do you have any dates for those quarterlies yet? Whose co-ordinating, JD?