It's easy as a young 23 year old Calvinist to think that the whole world is changing. That the students i meet with have bookshelves full of Piper, Packer and Carson. That the books i read, published by crossway and endorsed by at least one of the T4G quartet are widely known and loved.
It's easy to think that people love the Bible, that they enjoy the Doctrines of Grace like they enjoy fresh air. That the Bible is changing my generation into a radically Reformed, Christ centered and mission mobilised people, who are ready to fully play their part in the great commission.
And then you read something like this from Mo, that reminds you that all is not the way it seems sometimes. The saddest thing about this article for me is that after being shocked and gutted the first time i read, i went back to it, and realised how unsuprising it was in many ways. If you've never heard Mo teach, let me say, he is as good and as engaging a preacher as i've heard. I just think the reaction of those he talks about is symptomatic of a 'Bible bad, feelings good' generation. I'm moved to ask what exactly these guys were worshipping in their singing time. Not exactly 'logic on fire' by the sounds of it.
Then Challies posted this fascinating article about new Calvinism and it's width, or lack thereof. The firgures are staggering. I can't get over the fact that The Purpose Driven Life has sold around 100 times more copies than Desiring God. That figure probably tells us all we need to know.
So what do we do in the light of these discouragments? We open our Bibles, and we preach on, we preach on.
Weekend A La Carte (April 20)
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2 comments:
It should be remembered that PDL sales are inevitably high because of the way it was marketted - both successfully and in such a way that they got whole churches reading it. We did it at Wycliffe and I guess 200-300 copies were sold to that church.
By being Reformed we're perhaps less inclined to go for method-approaches. I'd rather teach the Bible for a month than have the congregation read a book. I also reckon that DWYL is probably more equivilant to PDL than DG is.
It's a small world and we ought to be aware of that. Just count the number of reformed blogs out there - actually there aren't many. That should keep us humble and realistic - particularly going into NWA, those who love reformed doctrine are not all that numerous. Even for 4500 at NWA there are a million in the church and 60+ unchurched beyond that..
Only thing to do, as you say, keep preaching. Keep preaching.
And even if DG outsold PDL by the same margin - we still keep preaching and keep learning.
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