When YRR Becomes Old, Cranky, and Moving On

Tim Challies pointed to an article by R.C. Sproul the other day. Here’s a sample of what Sproul wrote:

Until recently unity has been on a hot streak. Charismatics, dispensationalists, YRR, and old school Reformed folk, post-mills and a-mils have managed to work together for the gospel. Blogs and conferences, magazines and books have born much fruit from cross-pollinating. We discovered that our brothers on the other side of this aisle do not actually have horns. We remembered that the beauty of what unites us is not only more important, but more potent than the nuances that divide us.
But we should never count out truth, or at least our own version of it. Though it was on the ropes, like Rocky in the last few rounds, truth has shown a rare ability to take a punch, and come back strong. It has moved well past highlighting what separates charismatics from dispensationalists and this Reformed group from that, and has now has each camp engaged in its own civil war. Cessationism versus continuationism, neckties versus t-shirts, beer versus teetotalism have sparked fires that rage inside our own worlds.

The whole article is worth reading.

I’ve enjoyed the conferences and the resources, and it’s too soon to say that it’s all over. But the day will come: the conferences will no longer sell out; the major personalities will have moved on; the groups that came together around the gospel will focus on what separates us rather than what unites us.

Is this a bad thing? Not completely. It’s inevitable. To the extent that my focus is on conferences and movements, I’ll be disappointed. This doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate them. I’ll keep downloading Tim Keller sermons, and I’ll probably go to more conferences. But the time will come that we’ll remember the big conferences just like we remember Promise Keepers, and that’s okay.

Why? Because the gospel isn’t a fad, and because these movements have launched many of us on a good trajectory. And because we’ve been reminded that we do have more in common even when we forget it and act like the sinners we are. And most of all because our hope is not in a movement or coalition, as good as they are, but in the God who never changes. I’ll try to remember that even when I’m no longer young, restless, and reformed, and instead I’m old, cranky, and moving on to the next big thing.

Darryl Dash

Darryl Dash

I'm a grateful husband, father, oupa, and pastor of Grace Fellowship Church Don Mills. I love learning, writing, and encouraging. I'm on a lifelong quest to become a humble, gracious old man.
Toronto, Canada