Short-sighted - 9 June 2009 |
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Yesterday I spent a very illuminating few hours at a study group hosted by London Theological Seminary discussing John J. Murray’s Catch the Vision: Roots of the Reformed Recovery.
One widely-held conclusion was that it is very difficult to write such a history of a ‘movement’ so soon after the event, when it’s far from clear what events/people/etc have had long-term significance. Consequently, such histories tend to overestimate the significance of the author’s own (small?) circle, practically ignoring other (possibly very significant) parts of the ecclesial landscape.
For example, the main text mentions John Stott three times, each time only in passing, and twice in relation to his public disagreement with Lloyd-Jones in 1966. Lloyd-Jones, on the other hand, is the focus of two entire chapters. Obviously, the great Doctor had a massive (and wonderful) influence in 20th-century Reformed evangelicalism, but one wonders whether Murray has got the balance quite right.
There’s an important lesson here for all of us contemporary evangelicals. We must not identify the growth/strength/fruitfulness of Christ’s church solely with those (socially defined?) streams of evangelicalism that we happen to be familiar with. Too often we get stuck in our own small corner, vastly overestimating our own significance and vastly underestimating the wondrous work the Lord is doing far beyond the circles represented by alumni of our University Christian Union.
The fact that yesterday I was introduced to a number of godly, wise, experienced ministers in thriving evangelical churches that I’d never heard of served to underscore this point. Thankfully, the Kingdom of Christ is larger than, and is growing faster than, any of our little networks.
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Books, Minister's Blog