This video kind of caught me by surprise a bit. Michael Horton, whom I greatly appreciate, offers his concern with the church planting movement in general with the so-called ‘New Calvinists’. His concern pivots on the fact that without a solid doctrine of the church your doctrines of grace “will be planted in mid air.” While he rejoices in the rediscovery of the glory of Christ in the gospel he seems to cringe about the long-term implications of the way in which it’s being discovered and proclaimed.
Here’s a quote from a couple of minutes in:
There are a lot of new-Calvinists today who are basically followers of Charles Finney when it comes to the actual practice of ministry. You can’t staple Reformed Theology to a basically Finny-ite, revivalistic, eccessology. It’s fire and water. People are not really going to be nurtured, at least by the people who preach to them week in and week out, in that kind of environment.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RJ0W5Yb3N8]
Some quick thoughts:
1. Pastors need to be equipped for ministry. However, there is not a biblical mandate for seminary. There are pros and cons with either route. This is why I suspect that Horton’s concern is with the quality of equipping and the particular emphasis of these church planting movements.
2. If being gospel-centered means being unbiblically reductionistic (ie under-emphasizing the church) then we are not quite giving the gospel its full reach (cf. Ephesians). Horton’s words are helpful and thought provoking.
3. The Finney reference is a loaded statement. I would love to hear more from Dr Horton on this before taking it and running with it. Even so, I am not sure that seminary is necessarily the answer to the problem. However, I think rock he kicks over is worth thinking about. Are young Calvinists neglecting their duty to teach their people the Bible in the name of being a missional church?
(ht: on the video)