5 Comments

Thanks for this. I've been thinking along similar lines. I think YRR was the healthiest movement within a generally declining and drifting evangelicalism, but it had some fatal flaws that I did not see at all back in 2008. But to give it its due: what other stream of evangelicalism had more spiritual vitality and doctrinal rigor in the last 20 years? Yes there has been a lot of wreckage. But what other stream has raised up more and better leaders?

I came to Christ in 2004 and found my way through the online evangelical landscape to John Piper, R.C. Sproul, Keller, and all the usual names and institutions. And through them to much deeper sources in the Scriptures and church history that have, I trust, given me a solidity that can survive not only the failures and apostasies of key leaders (I was converted reading a Josh Harris book!) but also the decline and dismantling of organizations that were formative for me.

I lament the fracturing I see taking place now, but one has to come back to the basics: we need a Spirit-sourced movement of renewal and reformation.

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Apr 2, 2022Liked by Samuel D. James

It was magnificent while it lasted. And it is the abandonment of Scripture-based theology with tribally-based politics that has ended a movement sent by God that our cultural obsessions have destroyed. We live in tragic times.

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Apr 2, 2022Liked by Samuel D. James

Movements come and go, but we can take heart that, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever."

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Apr 5, 2022Liked by Samuel D. James

I am one of those who lament the fracturing of all this. I see the failures now and all the shortcomings. (also, as a non-American, I am irritated that much of it is driven by a political climate not my own).

But, as I reflect back, what I supposed to do in the period 2007-2012? Not move out of the neo-charismatic circles I was within during the first decade of my Christian life? I had become disillusioned by those excesses and needed out. What other options could I have looked to during that decade? The Rob Bell, Brian McLaren type stuff that was cresting at that time? How did that turn out?

I am thankful, sorrowful, less enamoured with movements generally now. But my theology hasn't shifted in a dozen years and likely wont much in the near future.

I'm living in 2022 now and there's less to be encouraged about in the broader Christian landscape. But I'm still glad for what helped me get here the last 15 years.

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