The Young, Restless, and Christian Reformed

Unity in What?: Part 6

I want to talk about the "Young, Restless, and Reformed" (YRR).

I see a lot of people pointing fingers and saying "look at the YRR. The CRC has become infested with the YRR." But I don't see anyone asking us "hey, how would you (who are among this current confessional movement within the CRC) describe the influence of the YRR has/had on you?"

This, In fact, is my biggest problem with Clay Libolt's writings. He speaks about this movement in the CRC in a way that sounds like complete conjecture from the outside looking in. None of his assessment of the conservative CRC as “evangelical-Republican” feels true to me.
Me who falls precisely in the center of the group he's talking about.
Me who is in multiple different groups with these young CRC conservatives.
Me who is attending seminary at Calvin Theological Seminary with young conservatives.

I would never call us "evangelicals".
We are Reformed. Confessionally Reformed.
And to us, that makes all the difference.

With that said, there absolutely is a YRR influence on many of these younger folk, myself included.

In a sense, though, there almost has to be!
Why?
Because solid orthodox Reformed teaching is NOT coming out of the CRC Mainline.

For a long time now, most of the CRC's most famous authors (Alvin Plantinga, Wolsterstorff, now JKA Smith, KKDM) have NOT been champions of Reformed orthodoxy. All of them are liberal, both theologically and politically.

And none of them are capital-T Theologians. They are philosophers.

There is no modern CRC Kuyper or Bavinck or Vos or Berkhof.
Heck, I’d even settle for a CRC Tim Keller at this point.

Orthodox CRCers have 2-3 places to look for solid Biblical preaching and teaching:
1. dead CRC theologians,
2. online theologians from other denominations, or
3. if they're lucky(!) they will have a solid orthodox pastor at their church.

But know where they can't look?
Faith Alive.
CRCNA.org.
Calvin University.

[Edit: Because of some orthodox standouts among the faculty, and out of hope for the future of the Seminary, I have been asked to remove Calvin Theological Seminary from this list and agreed to do so.]

For far too long: The denomination doesn't champion orthodox CRCers.

So yes, there is a large influence on younger CRCers from the Young, Restless, and Reformed online pastors. Because younger CRCers found in YRR preaching and teaching a theology that was substantive; that was Biblical; that upheld the authority and inerrancy of Scripture; that was not ashamed of the past, but embraced all the best teachings and brought them together and built upon them.

But here is the absolutely most important thing:
Everyone moves past the YRR. Everyone grows beyond it.

The YRR is merely a stepping stone to confessionalism.
The YRR is great for waking people up. YRR snaps people out of their spiritual fog with the Word of God. It shows them God's sovereignty and the importance of God's Revelation for our lives.

In the CRC, it is a movement from YRR to Bavinck/Berkhof.
From Piper to the confessions.

Everyone is saying this, but no one is listening:
Why do the Koreans want to become CRC? Because they like wooden shoes?
Why do the Latinos want to become CRC? The poffertjies?
Why do young YRR folk seek out CRC churches and become pastors in CRC churches?

Because of our confessions. Period.
Because of our theology.

I agree with the critique that YRR is "outside our tradition". Completely.

But YRR is very much sending people our way who want to leave YRR and embrace the 3 Forms of Unity.

Please listen to us! This is our lived experience.
We are NOT followers of John MacArthur! Despite his popularity, he is one of the LEAST Reformed online pastors.
We are NOT "New Calvinists"! We are Calvinists. We are Reformed. Some heartily call themselves Neo-Calvinists. But not "New Calvinists" with their un-Reformed understanding of the Covenant of Grace.

We are not Young, Restless, and Reformed.

We are Young, Restless, and Christian Reformed. And there’s a big difference.