Locusts and Wild Honey

Young, Restless, Reformed

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 | Books, General

This week I enjoyed reading Collin Hansen’s book, Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalists’ Journey with the New Calvinists.” As one of the editors at Christianity Today, Hanson chronicles the new movement among young evangelicals who recoil from the superficiality of the postmodern church and run to the depth of authentic theological grounding they find in the God-rich soil of reformation thought.

Hanson’s seven chapters cover the Passion Conference, John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, Southern Seminary and the SBC Founders, Sovereign Grace, the New Attitude Conference, and Mark Driscoll. He peppers in conversations with every-day guys influenced by the resurgence. He closes the work with:

For nearly two years, I traveled across the country and talked with the leading pastors and theologians of the growing Reformed movement. I sat’ in John Piper’s den, Al Mohler’s office, C. J. Mahaney’s church, and Jonathan Edwards’s college. But the backbone of the Reformed resurgence comprises ordinary churches like those I saw in South Dakota — churches used by God to do extraordinary things. Armed with God’s Word and transformed by the Holy Spirit, these churches’ leaders faithfully proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ week after week, through tragedy and triumph. Culture has conspired to give their message a wider audience. Desire for transcendence and tradition among young evangelicals has contributed to a Reformed resurgence.

Contrary to the rumors, I’m not quite as young as the focus group of the book, so I’ve never attended a Passion or New Attitude conference, but I resonate with the revival of the doctrines of grace in my own life. I read hints of my own autobiography in the book, but I’ll save my story for another day. If you are young, restless, or reformed, and particularly if you are all three, you will probably enjoy this book.

btw, Mike Corley interviewed Collin Hansen last week. Great show.

 

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