Confessing Evangelical

Interesting post by Marty Sweeney on Matthias Media's Couldn't Help Noticing blog, summarising an article by Presbyterian pastor Tim Keller on how to reach out to "Post-Everythings" in our society.

Revd Keller's main aim is to demonstrate that Reformed theology is capable of speaking to those who are post-Christian, postmodern, post-everything. Obviously he's wrong about that, and should have said "Lutheran" rather than "Reformed" ;-), but there are some points in there of real value even to those of us in the other stream of Reformational Christianity. Two examples cited by Revd Keller particularly struck me.

First, Geerhardus Vos, father of biblical theology (a Christ-centred approach to Scripture that has had a huge influence on me, particularly via Graeme Goldsworthy). "Post-everythings like narrative and story" is how Marty Sweeney summarises Revd Keller's message here, and Keller himself describes how Vos can help the church speak effectively to the post-everythings in our pews:

If you know how to do Christ-centered preaching, then you turn every single sermon into a kind of story. The plot of the human dilemma thickens, and the hero that comes to the rescue is Jesus. Christ-centered preaching converts doctrinal lectures or little how-to talks into true sermons. Post-everythings who are interested in narrative are reached by such preaching that is deeply Reformed.

But even more deeply Lutheran: what Keller(/Vos) is saying here sounds very much like Law/Gospel preaching - or, more to the point, a way to stop Law/Gospel preaching degenerating into a stereotypical "ten minutes of the hammer, ten minutes of Christ" approach that the likes of Josh S have been known to complain about.

The second point came from that well-known Reformed theologian, Martin Luther, whom Keller cites as providing a means of responding to the hostility which he suggests post-everythings have towards "moralism and self-righteousness". As Keller writes:

Traditional gospel presentations assume that the people want to be "good." But our kids' generation wants to be "free." Luther said, "Look, you want to be free? Good. It’s good to be free. But you’re not. You are living for something and, whatever that something is, it enslaves you."

If a person lives for reputation, then he is a slave to what people think. If a person lives for achievement, then he will be a workaholic. As did Luther, we should tell such people, "You want to be free? Fine. But you’re not going to be free unless Jesus is your salvation."

When post-everythings rejected Christianity they thought moralism and Christianity were the same thing. But we can show post-everythings that the two are not the same, and that freedom really is in Jesus.

Even if we consider "post-everythings" to be no less moralistic and self-righteous than previous generations, only about different issues (racism, homophobia, environmental issues etc), Revd Keller is surely spot-on with this summary of how Luther's teachings on freedom can speak to us today.