It’s been almost 10 years since Collin Hansen’s “Young, Restless, Reformed” article hit the pages of Christianity Today, almost 8 years since the publication of his book about same. I remember when I first saw that article in my friends copy of CT lying on his coffee table. I was at his house leading a young adult Bible study that would become a church plant, and I had no previous interest in joining whatever the “young, restless, and Reformed” movement was, but the burgeoning movement Hansen described in the piece resonated with me as something I identified as already unwittingly being a part of! I was just a few years out of a complete renaissance of my life, out of an experience I like to call gospel wakefulness, and I found myself smack-dab in this “gospel-centered” thing not because I wanted to embrace the latest church fad or whatever, but because I had come to see that the gospel is oxygen and I liked breathing.
The last 10 years have been interesting, to say the least. Many have sounded the death knell of the YRR/gospel-centered movement (sometimes called the neo-Reformed or neo-Puritan or neo-Calvinist movement). Some acknowledge it’s not dead but would like it to be. I don’t think it’s dying. I don’t know if it has even slowed — I suspect not — but I do think it has settled down a bit. And this is a good thing. What I perceive, actually, is a maturing of the movement, a real growth over the last 10 years that the actual focusing on the gospel has produced.
From my vantage point now serving in a seminary and from traveling around the country meeting folks at numerous churches and conferences, I am greatly encouraged also that the youngest members of the ongoing gospel-centered recovery movement — those oft-maligned Millennials — are incredibly mature, spiritually astute, and unapologetically focused on the local church and the dignity of the pastorate. They are much further ahead at their age than my generation was. If the evangelical millennials I’m meeting regularly are any indication of the future of the movement — of the future of the evangelical church, even — we have cause for great optimism.
And I think part of the strength of the YRR/GC/neo-whatever whatchamacalit has been the reluctance from every generation involved to consume theology and ministry helps from whatever is happening right now. This was a crucial misstep of the Boomers, which feasted on church growth manuals and business/marketing books to give us the Christian Entertainment-Industrial Complex known as the attractional church, and it was the fatal mistake of Gen-X (my generation), which gave us the Emergellyfish Village and what-not. Yes, some of the whippersnappers of my gen became the celebrated darlings of the gospel-centered movement (e.g. Driscoll, Chandler, Chan, Platt), but none of those guys could rightly be said to have pioneered the movement. No, the movement was pioneered by our elder statesmen, who have been doing this “new” gospel-centered thing for several decades now.
Yes, we are enjoying today the sweet fruit of long laboring from the likes of J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, John Piper, Tim Keller et.al. I don’t think this can be overstated, really — part of the strength of the gospel-centered movement has been its affection for and attention to both its elder statesmen, as well “the old dead guys.” If I could put it bluntly, I’d say that the gospel-centered movement is (largely) healthy because (in part) it reads good books full of old wisdom. To that end, and to end a rather lengthy introduction, I am taking a stab at a gospel-centered canon below. You will note that not every book is old, of course, but these are the books that I believe have shaped and continue to shape our movement (assembled based purely on anecdotal evidence). Every carpenter has a set of trusty tools he must have in his workshop; these are the same tools for the maturing, resting, and Reformed. In any event, these are the books I think have particularly shaped the tribe.
The ESV Study Bible (Which has likely replaced the New Geneva Study Bible, now called the Reformation Study Bible, but which is perhaps itself soon to be replaced by the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible)
Desiring God by John Piper
Knowing God by J.I. Packer
Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul
The Cross of Christ by John Stott
Confessions and The City of God by Augustine
The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther
Lectures to My Students by Charles Spurgeon
Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
The Mortification of Sin by John Owen
The Valley of Vision: A Book of Puritan Prayers and Devotions
Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards
Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem
The Gagging of God by D.A. Carson
The Prodigal God by Tim Keller
The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Jerry Bridges
The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler
The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones
You know, if you wanted to sniff out a neo-Calvinist in your church ranks, these are the books to look for on their shelf.
Anyways, see if you don’t agree, and feel free to suggest any additions in the comments.
