(resonance of reforming)

Welcome to my first proper blog series, entitled “The Second Reformation”. A heavy title, if ever there was one. I don’t claim to be the new Martin Luther… far from it! There are much better contenders to take up that mantle. Some of them were instrumental in shaping and influencing my thoughts of late as I have struggled with some questions; some troubling, “preoccupying questions”. These questions have formed the basic root of what I hope to address in this series. I will share them with you shortly.

In his 2007 book Everything Must Change, author Brian McLaren began with his own set of troubling, “preoccupying questions”. I won’t go into much detail about McLaren or his book here, as that’s not my aim. I probably won’t surprise anyone reading this by saying that I’m really not much of a fan of his work. As best as I can discern, the book is an attempt to re-cast and re-new his reader’s understanding of what it is and what it looks like when we follow Jesus Christ. No small or insignificant task.

McLaren approached this task by setting a foundation of two “preoccupying questions” which have formed the basis from which the book issued forth. Respectfully, they are:

01. What Are the Biggest Problems in the World?
02. What Does Jesus Have to Say About These Global Problems?
Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change pp. 11-12)

I can agree with McLaren’s title with one addition: A subtitle. It should read “Everything Must Change (But God)”. Brian McLaren attempts to deal with real, difficult issues, but he starts in the wrong place – both of his questions are human-centric. From the language of his second question (labelling the problems as “Global”), it doesn’t take an expert in modern textual criticism to gather that he feels the biggest problems in the world are the ones that affect “everything” – or, perhaps, everybody? At first, this seems sensible… after all, aren’t the most important problems the big ones that affect everybody?

I’m inclined, after getting past “at first”, to disagree.

After all, who is Brian McLaren? Who gave him the knowledge, understanding, and authority to decide what the “Biggest Problems in the World” are? To the best of my knowledge, the answer to both is “nobody”. The same is true of me.

Before I get into the difficult bits of unravelling my grey-matter about subjects to which I’m probably not qualified to wax prosaic, I have something very deep and important to admit: I’m nobody. Consequently, what I think the big problems of the world are is rather irrelevant.

Therefore, here are my troubling, preoccupying questions, which form the basis of everything I hope to touch on from this point:

00. Who is God?
01. What Does He Say the Biggest Problems Are?
02. What Does He Say is My Responsibility?

I feel it’s important to set the stage in this way because otherwise it’s too easy for me to give commentary and amusing detours without really accomplishing much. Nothing I can say about my topics will really mean much unless I’m building on a firm foundation of who God is and what He has revealed to us in His Word(s).

Allow me to expand on my first question:

00. Who is God?

Without intending to avoid the most important question of all, I feel this one is best answered elsewhere. Most of my readership knows what I believe and (hopefully) why I believe it, but for the sake of reference, I generally align myself with the Reformed Theological tradition and the Doctrines of Grace. I believe that God is real and that He has revealed as much of Himself as we can handle in His Word, the Bible. Inclusive in that, I believe that He has also revealed Himself most completely when He came in the person of Jesus Christ and that the Bible gives us the fullness of what we need as to His story. Specifically, I believe that all of History hangs on the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ – all of these capture the heart of Scripture, which is that God’s primary aim is always to bring glory to Himself. I believe that there is far more to God than is in the Scriptures, but that they give us everything we need – thus anything beyond that is mystery and intended as such.

In short, and very generally, I believe in the evangelical distinctives and orthodox tenets of the Christian faith inasmuch as they belie a careful and Spirit-led understanding of the Scriptures. There is no one writer or person who has it all correct, and anyone who claims to is probably very far off the mark. That being said, my influences have included such men (past and present) as John Piper, Mark Driscoll, CJ Mahaney, CH Spurgeon, JI Packer, Francis Schaeffer, Timothy Keller, DA Carson, and many others. I don’t agree with any one of them in all areas, but I agree with all of them in some areas.

I think that’s healthy, and I could be wrong. For the most part, my theology isn’t up for grabs and is the result of years of studying, hearing, and seeing God’s word interact with myself and many others. It will always be evolving in some aspects as I learn and grow and study and see more of life and Scripture. Essentially, though, this is where I’m at, and will be at.

If you aren’t familiar with this understanding of God, either from a Christian perspective or from that of someone who is “outside” and has no idea what half/all of what I just said means, I would point you in a few directions (which tend to have the same endgame):

First, a presentation of The Gospel by Mark Driscoll.

Second, a general plug for the views shared on these fine websites: Desiring God and Mars Hill. There are loads of other good resources, but those are a good starting place if you have no idea where I’m coming from.

That about wraps up the most basic foundation of all that is to come – after all, what we think about God is our most defining characteristic as human beings. If you (for the most part) share in my beliefs about who God is (or even if you don’t really agree about the whole Reformed theology bit, but are on board with “The One True God is the God of the Bible and He revealed Himself as Jesus”), then I invite you to join me for what is to come.

And here is what is to come, what I’ve promised to write about, and what I’ve been delving through these past few months (years?):

01. What Does He Say the Biggest Problems Are?

There are many things God lays out in His Word, the Bible, as being “Big Problems”. Things such as my Sin and all the myriad branches and effects thereof, the World I inhabit, and many other things. Most likely, all of them will touch and affect the one I’ve chosen to discuss (revealed in a few lines!).

02. What Does He Say is My Responsibility?

This is kind of what we’re all getting at: What do we do when we know things are broken and messed up and definitely “not what they ought to be”? What am I supposed to do/think/pray/feel/be about this? And so on.

I believe, along with many of you, and maybe even Brian McLaren (ha!), that right now – perhaps even all the time, one of God’s biggest “problems” is the Church, both local and universal. It is my intent to explore this topic of Ecclesiology (the study of the Church) through the utilization of these two questions applied to it:

01. What Does God Say the Biggest Problems with the Church are?
02. What Does He Say is My Responsibility?

It is my intent over the coming weeks and months to delve into these questions. For my sake and yours, and most of all for the Glory of God.

The title of this series is going to be “The Second Reformation”. I’ve named it that because, as we’re about to explore together, I believe that a second reformation of the Church is coming, probably within my lifetime (assuming that, Lord willing, I live for a normal lifetime). The first Protestant Reformation saw a reformation of theology, doctrine, and organization revolving around the five “Sola’s”: Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus, and Soli Deo Gloria. The coming Second Reformation, I believe, will build on that foundation – once again reforming the church, this time reforming Protestantism itself, which in the West and elsewhere has become just as faulty, unbiblical, and often counter-productive for Christ as the “Catholic” church of Europe was in its time. Its emphases will be the same, but with additions. Once again, theology, doctrine, and organization will play a primary role. This time, however, there will be a variety of new elements of church which receive the reformation treatment: methodology, missiology, worship-ology (is that a word?), and various other smaller aspects. It will serve as a reaction in some ways to both the “emergent church” conversation/movement, as well as the “house church” movement, though (despite the role those two movements will play as touchpoints) hopefully not a complete pendulum swing to either. There’s a lot of things it might be, and some of it may not happen yet. I’m no prophet, just a nobody… and “The Second Reformation” is, I think, a fitting and perhaps subtly self-deprecating title. In truth, I might as well entitle it “The Second Trillionth Reformation” since, through sanctification, we are reformed daily and even “second-ly”. I’ll never live up to the heights of its demands, but hopefully this title will spur both you and I on to following and serving Christ as a part of His church more effectively, efficiently, faithfully, actively, and sacrificially for His glory. May the Reformation begin in my heart and yours.