As I’ve expressed before, during college I somehow found myself in the middle of those who consider themselves “young, restless and reformed.” The one time I interacted with Collin Hansen I was introduced as “one of the people you wrote about.” (thanks Dad…) I quickly embraced the title and began reading and listening to more Piper, Driscoll and Chandler and then went to as many of the “Gospel” conferences as I could (T4G, The Gospel Coalition). I enjoyed the commitment to the Word and history of the church but didn’t always enjoy the connotations that came with identifying myself as a “Calvinist.” After having the books for 2 years, I’ve finally been digging in to “Against Calvinism” and “For Calvinism” and find myself resonating much more with Calvinism than I ever have before, but still don’t always like what comes with the label.
Reading through a couple blogs today on what has been dubbed “the Neo-Calvinism” (which you can read about here and here) and continuing to reflect on where I’m at and where I’ve been I’m continuing to find myself less within the so-called neo-calvinism movement and more likely to consider myself to be an Evangelical, to which my dad has been delighted. So what do I mean by Evangelical?
Evangelical gets it’s name from the Greek word evangelion which we translate as “gospel” so the whole gospel centered movement is Evangelical in nature. I uphold Scripture as the ultimate authority in my life and daily strive to be more like Christ. In this way I am also reformed, in that I am constantly reforming my life to the message of the Bible. I can join with the early church fathers in reciting and agreeing with the creeds of the early church and go back to Christ’s final command in Matthew 28 to spread the message of the gospel to the ends of the earth.
This is also something I often hesitate to do because so many labels come with so much baggage. Calvinists tend to be over bearing and domineering without much grace extended. Many people don’t know what an evangelical is or what one believes. And reformed tends to bring to mind Luther and the Reformation. What are some labels you’ve seen in your life that have either been helpful or unhelpful?
In the same vein, some of my hesitancy to use labels to identify myself is because neo-calvinism is currently the “cool” title to use. And while there are some aspects of it I so resonate with and will whole heartedly agree with, there is some hesitancy for me to jump on bandwagons. I know things come and go so quickly in the church and don’t want to be swept away by the newest trends-even if they’re good things. I know that the truth is here to stay and am continuing to trust God to lead and guide the church of yesterday, today and forever.
Pastor Mike's Musings 
Louise
/ June 30, 2014Yeah titles are overrated in my book. I prefer Christian above all else or Christ follower. If someone asked if I was an Evangelical, I would say yes although there are connotations to that title that probably would not fit me. Having grown up in both Methodist and Presbyterian mainline churches I am not exactly a Calvinist or an Arminian. The title I most reject is Fundamentalist, especially with its association to YEC and strictly literal interpretations of scripture. I reject the patriarchy that many Fundamentalists embrace as well.
Emilio Graulau
/ February 24, 2024I agree. Having been raised between the Christian Reformed Church (of the Netherlands), and the more “liberal” Baptist church, I have come to a centrist point (later re-inforced further in life thanks to Calvary Chapel’s stance on non-essentials).
I admire the commitment to orthodoxy the reformed camp has and its zeal, but also acknowledge the abuse sometimes non-reformed are subjected to, when opinions differ.
Whether the interpretation might be for regeneration taking place prior faith, or after faith, it is always better to support such interpretations with the scripture first, rather than by what theologians and confessions might have said a few hundreds of years ago. It is usually the aggressive identification, with perhaps a theologian or a confession, above everything else, that affects the fellowship with others, specially when they are younger or weaker believers in Christ.
It is pleasing however, when you see people from both camps being able to go beyond discrepancies, and focusing on the expansion of the kingdom.
Regards,
Emilio