I have friends who are sociologists, so I don’t mean to offend. But when I do read sociological data and the conclusions I sense that someone has spent a lot of time to argue what I already thought was the case.
Confirmation of this impression comes (thanks to Lig Duncan) from George Barna’s results on the so-called resurgence of Calvinism. The findings from the Barna Group’s research indicate that Calvinism has not grown and is faring no better than it was at the beginning of the millennium. Barna writes:
Clergy Identity
For the past decade the Barna Group has been tracking the percentage of Protestant pastors who identify their church as “Calvinist or Reformed.” Currently, about three out of every 10 Protestant leaders say this phrase accurately describes their church (31%). This proportion is statistically unchanged from a decade ago (32%). In fact, an examination of a series of studies among active clergy during the past decade indicates that the proportion that embraces the Reformed label has remained flat over the last 10 years.Pastors who embrace the term “Wesleyan or Arminian” currently account for 32% of the Protestant church landscape – the same as those who claim to be Reformed. The proportion of Wesleyan/Arminian pastors is down slightly from 37% in 2000. There has been less consistency related to this label during the past decade, with the tracking figures ranging from a low of 26% to a high of 37%. . . .
Church Size
The Barna study also examined whether Calvinist churches have grown over the last decade. In 2000, Calvinist churches typically drew 80 adult attenders per week, which compares to a median of 90 attenders in the 2010 study, about 13% higher than 10 years ago. Wesleyan and Arminian churches have also reported growth during that period, increasing from a median of 85 adults to 100 currently, reflecting an 18% change over the last ten years.Who is Reformed?
The Barna study explored some characteristics of the pastors aligned with the “Calvinist or Reformed” label as compared to the profile of pastors who identified themselves as “Wesleyan or Arminian.” In terms of the age of pastors, among the youngest generation of pastors (ages 27 to 45), 29% described themselves as Reformed, while 34% identified as Wesleyan. Pastors associated with the Boomer generation (ages 46 to 64) were evenly split between the two theological camps: 34% Reformed, 33% Arminian. Pastors who were 65 or older were the least likely to use either term: 26% and 27%, respectively.
The report has a little more to flesh out these numbers. If readers want to see it they should go here.
At Reformation 21 Lig Duncan sounds a little disappointed in the report. He offers this consolation:
Because we’re not hoping, praying, thinking, writing, working, bleeding, preaching, pastoring and dying for our fifteen minutes of fame. We are out to quietly, faithfully, plug away for the glory of God in the churches and in the world, making disciples who know, believe, love and share the Gospel, and who live by grace the way their Lord commanded them.
Our report card, our only report card, comes on the great day when “the King of Glory passes on his way.”
All of this is true enough. But it sounds as if Lig was actually hoping that a Calvinist resurgence was underway. For us over here at Old Life, we were not that hopeful for a movement led by the likes of John Piper, Mark Driscoll, and C. J. Mahaney. These men all have their virtues (and their vices), but when Calvinism depends on Baptists and charismatics it is hard to think that Reformed Protestantism is surging.
Old Life 
The RR ‘camp’ has generated a lot of noise, buzz, talk, hype, muddied and perhaps even compromised the pursuit of Reformed theology and its practise since it bubbled up some years ago. I may not be able to give a deep, nuanced and intellectual take on the RR, but as one who has emerged from a Baptist and even more so charismatic background where emotions were the underlying driving factor I am baffled why the supposedly Reformed leaders give credibility to their friends in these latter groups. It seems like a conspiracy of silence covers vital issues which the Reformed leaders should be asking and then I believe the likes of the RR guys may be shown to be much less “Reformed’ than they would have us believe. In the meantime, the ‘Reformed charismatics’ are mopping up credibility which they don’t deserve from supposedly Reformed and evangelical coalitions, and no doubt gladly taking in folks who think they are Reformed.
One question for example I would like to put the friends of the RR, one which deserves an answer, is one among many I have for them: if Paul says he wishes the Corinthians/all to speak in tongues, then we should either do this today as it was done in the past or the exegesis for this charismatic stance is flawed and dangerous. And men like CJ Mahaney see such gifts today as ‘a necessity, not an option’.
Reformed theologians past and present are rightly admired for being incisive, and for not living in denial of hard questions and skating over vital matters of theology. If this is so, then why are the friends and advocates of Driscoll (who seems to question the eternal generation of the Son of God – is that a secondary issue?), Mahaney (who has shoved tens of thousands of dollars to Southern Baptist work – why?) and deYoung not raising these matters in the Christian domain with them? Is group affirmation more important?
There is, I freely admit, a fine line which can be tripped over in becoming over concerned about some matters like the RR. But in essence what is staggering is the lack of open challenge, except by a few Reformed writers, of fundamental flaws in the overall theological framework of the ‘Reformed charismatics’ found in this nebulous movement.
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“Is group affirmation more important?”
Bullseye, Paul. We have this abstraction called “Evangelicalism” which mesmerizes the masses and obliterates important distinctions across denominations as it enfolds everything in its path.
In short, “Evangelicalism” has become like a politically correct boundary line among conservative Protestant churches. To seriously question anything in its boundaries is to be of a bad temper or overly fastidious.
Our host’s book “Deconstructing Evangelicalism” is a superb treatment of the subject and is complemented well by his “The Lost Soul of American Protestantism.”
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There is a common modernist tendency to think empirical research is necessary for belief. This is a particularly terrible characteristic in a parent or political leader who often must act swiftly with wisdom on a hunch.
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Baptists are not even members of true churches and have a completely different take on the sacraments than the Reformed. How they came to be the flag-carriers of Calvinism is beyond me, but I suspect the Reformed themselves are to blame.
We need to decide if there is going to be any Protestantism at all in North America in 50 years because right now the picture is looking pretty grim. We might start with – you know – actually being dogmatic about our distinctives and liturgy. As it stands right now, there are dozens of churches claiming to be “Reformed and Presbyterian” in SoCal right now and, of those, there are only about a handful I could recommend and all of those are in the URC.
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