Barna on the Reformed resurgence

The Barna Group put out a new report this morning asking if there is a surge in the number of Reformed churches, Is There a "Reformed" Movement in American Churches? . The report is interesting and its conclusion is not what you might think:

Kinnaman, who serves as Barna Group president, concluded, "there is no discernable evidence from this research that there is a Reformed shift among U.S. congregation leaders over the last decade. Whatever momentum surrounds Reformed churches and the related leaders, events and associations has not gone much outside traditional boundaries or affected the allegiances of most today's church leaders. It is important to note that the influence of Reformed churches might also be measured through other metrics that are currently unavailable, such as the theological certainty of self-described adherents, their level of acceptance toward those who are not Calvinist, and the new methods Reformed leaders are using to market their views to their peers and to the public.

That runs somewhat contrary to the regular stories that imply a huge uptick in Reformed theology among Christians. I think there might a couple of problems in the research.

First, the research focuses on “leaders”, i.e. pastors. I have found that there are a lot of local church groups with a number of Reformed/Calvinist believers but pastors who are at best a squishy Arminianism. These “orphan Calvinists” are often sort of stuck in local churches without a confessionally Reformed presence because frankly they can’t find anywhere else to meet with the church.

Second I think you need to take into account the outsized influence many Reformed leaders have on the greater church. I think of course of men like John Piper who is influential in a wide swath of the church as well as men like John MacArthur, Albert Mohler, R.C. Sproul and others who influence people across the church.

Third, it seems as if there is a definition problem. When 17% of self-identified “Reformed” pastors describe themselves as theologically liberal, that would indicate the report is capturing as “Reformed” those pastors from traditionally Reformed denominations that long ago lost any semblance of Reformed theology (i.e. the Christian Reformed Church). There are a lot of Reformed leaders in churches that are not overtly Reformed and there are a lot of theologically liberal leaders in churches that have the word “reformed” in their name but little else.

Is there a surge in churches that would call themselves Reformed? Maybe not as much as some reports seem to indicate but I certainly think that among rank and file Christians there is a large upswing in interest. That interest may not lead to lots of churches that say “We’re Reformed!” but even in the ten years that I have been a Christian I have seen it become more mainstream. Of course there is also the small but noticeable departure of people who hold to Reformed theology proper (i.e. the five points of Calvinism and the five solas) but who reject the church traditions of typical Reformed denominations. People like Eric Carpenter and I may not be a significant movement yet but with the ease of information being disseminated via the internet, I can certainly see more Christians following that same path. For myself and others, being Reformed in theology is not the defining characteristic of who we are as followers of Christ. It doesn’t make the glorious, God honoring truths of the doctrines of grace any less glorious, it just is not the end all and be all of the life of a disciple.

It is an interesting report, you should take five minutes and check it out.