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.

TIME’s cover story for next week is entitled ‘10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now‘. Now to my surprise, and I guess to a whole lot of other people’s too, nestled in at #3 is ‘New Calvinism’. I guess this means that in many ways the ministries of John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, Matt Chandler, Al Mohler, Mark Dever, Wayne Grudem, Don Carson (you get the idea) are beginning to leave a significant mark on the landscape. Significant enough that TIME magazine can see it at least. In light of the article Driscoll has some thoughts on Old Calvinism vs New Calvinism. I wrote a lengthier list a short while ago on the same subject.