Letter from America

The new wave?

‘Jonathan Edwards is my homeboy’ may not carry quite the same ring as Sola Fide, but as a rallying cry for the faithful it blazoned on a recent front cover of Christianity Today. Inside, the leader told the story of an emerging network of young, restless and Reformed Christians. What’s going on?

For some while now, John Piper (http://www.desiringgod.org) has advocated a passionate return to Reformed principles through his now well-known mantra of ‘God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him’. A self-styled ‘divine hedonist’, Piper has appealed to a whole new generation of evangelicals through the Passion conferences that stoke the flames of ardour for God, within a classically biblical (and Jonathan Edwards influenced) framework.

Together for the gospel

More recently, a couple of other pieces have fallen into place. Al Mohler became the President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s flagship Theological Seminary, Southern Theological Seminary in Louisville. Long recognised as an important engine of developing new pastoral leadership in the largest Protestant denomination in the world, Mohler began to recruit Reformed (and Conservative) seminary professors, several of whom hailed before from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (where Don Carson teaches).

Then Mark Dever, familiar to many Evangelicals Now readers from his time as Associate Pastor at Eden Baptist in Cambridge, and from various speaking engagements in the UK over the last few years or so, became Senior Pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist in Washington DC. Under his leadership, the church revitalised and grew, establishing a new commitment to pure ecclesiology and disciplined evangelical church life. His 9marks (http://www.9marks.org) ministries launched a wider ministry for this Reformed emphasis.

And the event which kicked off the Christianity Today article, a conference with these men plus C.J. Mahaney and Ligonier Duncan organising, with guests John Piper, John MacArthur and R.C. Sproul attending, was called Together for the Gospel. Pretty rapidly, attendance at this event overwhelmed expectations, and the meetings were packed out. There was even a together for the gospel ‘blog’ between some of the leaders of the conference.

For readers who want to follow the undergirding themes a little further, my The God-Centred Life: Insights from Jonathan Edwards for today (click here to buy) traces many of the relevant applications of being ‘God-centred’.

Shock the culture needs?

It will no doubt be encouraging for readers of EN to hear of the possibility of such a long-hoped-for return to a more biblical approach to the Christian faith across the waters. Pray for these leaders as they juggle their time and priorities, and that their hearts would be humble and their lives faithful. Could it be that a church culture fed on happy meal Christianity is finally beginning to get sated with fast food Christianity? Could the hard graft put in by movements such as the Proclamation Trust herald a return to expositional ministry more broadly, and be producing a genuine hunger for the word of the Lord?

Certainly, aping the entertainment focus of contemporary culture may be drying up even as a pragmatic solution to church attendance. In a recent poll, under the supervision of the Los Angeles Times, it was discovered that approximately two-thirds of those between age 12 and 24 are ‘often/sometimes bored with their choices’. Even with furious entertainment options, teenagers today are rarely thrilled. Could the return to something serious, solid and profound be the shock treatment our culture needs? Would the world wake up and listen if we started to speak with assurance about sin and salvation from a position of committed, convinced allegiance to the authority of the Bible?

In an age where, in Africa alone, 12 million have been orphaned by AIDS, we need to discover the passionate fire that sent a Wesley, a Whitefield, and a Jonathan Edwards about their tasks. If Nelson Mandela can say, ‘There is no passion to be found playing small — in settling for a life less than the one you are capable of living’, could we not say Ð Let the Word be Like Fire!