An Observation on Cool Calvinism

Well, I'm ready to say it. Calvinism is cool. Reformed theology is being embraced by the young in Huntington. I'm not the first to observe this. And I'm a little behind in observing the current trend among young Christians. But in WV things make it through the valleys into the hills a little slower. So in reality, I can be about 5 years behind any national movement, make the observation in a profound way, and behold I'm a prophet who saw things coming about 5 years before it made its way to WV. But that's not my point here.

I'm a leader in a young church. I'd say 99 percent of our church is under 50. And 60% is under 35. And I'd say 75% of our entire group was either out of church or unbelievers prior to Crew. What do you think has brought that demographic to Crew? It isn't attractional ministry. You know get a great band, a great speaker, a great event, and then we pull the bait and switch. Although we want to worship with our best, we aren't the best game in town as far as that stuff goes. It isn't a cool style that makes Crew the place to be, although we do have a certain buzz around the place right now.

You want to know what it is? It's that we are calling young people to quit being whipped around by the latest fad and and the hottest doctrine and telling them to sink their teeth in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We call them to die to themselves and live their entire lives being consumed by the message of the cross for God's glory and our joy.

We're singing about the bloody slaughter of Jesus Christ on the cross for the sin of depraved mankind. And we sing these songs with more passion than anything else. I had one fella who is in his 20's say, "These songs are much better than the Jesus is my prom date ones".

Once a week I meet with our emerging young leaders at 6am to read J.I. Packer and John Piper. They love it. We're reading articles about modalism and the Trinity. Yesterday we digressed into such light topics as unconditional election.

I asked a guy at our church, who is a part of an indie rock band and had one of his new tracks posted at http://www.garageband.com/genre/alt_rock as track of the day, what was one of the things in our gatherings he liked . He said he liked when we do the responsive readings through the Shorter Westminster Catechism from time to time.

There is this trend among young and old that wants this deep, intense, rich faith in the God who made them. They love a God who hates sin and demands holiness of them. They love the sovereign grace that does for them what they know in their bones they cannot do. They want his renown and his fame and his glory to be bigger than theirs. They're interested in Edwards, Calvin, and Spurgeon.

Why is this so? Here are a few most likely reasons:

1. The world is so fast and shifting that there are very few things we can count on to never change.We need and want a God who is over it all and is unphased by the constant unpredictabilty we experience. A theology of a Sovereign God steadies us.


2. The state of the church in general over the last 20 years has been a little light on theology. For the many young people sermons have been self help motivational speeches that lacked any authoritative voice and no power to change my life. So..."Thus says the Lord", and "God is in the heavens and he does what he pleases", and "Not by power, nor by might, but by My Spirit" is truth that is loved and adored.


3. Deep and rooted theology is being linked with passionate and relevant mission. Both here and abroad. It is the Reformed camps that are truly reaching the world and their culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ. John Piper says this: "I think the criticism of Reformed theology is being silenced by the mission and justice and evangelism and worship and counseling—the whole range of pastoral life...We're not the kind who are off in a Grand Rapids ghetto crossing our t's and dotting our i's and telling the world to get their act together. We're in the New Orleans slums with groups like Desire Street Ministries, raising up black elders through Reformed theology from 9-year-old boys who had no chance."

Again, I know this has been blogged about by many before and written about for about 2 years now, but it's not a message that I experienced before. But I'm seeing it reach H-town. God, I pray that we be known as a church with a huge sovereign God. That we truly love the Bible and the truth that it teaches. I pray that our lives conform to you. I pray that we passionately pursue those in Huntington with the weighty message of Jesus Christ crucified and risen. I pray that it motivates us to feed the poor, fight AIDS in Africa, and befriend the godless. I pray that we make your name great and enjoy you forever.