Pray like a Calvinist, Work like an Arminian

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I was having coffee a couple of weeks ago with another church planter who said that in church planting, we have to pray like Calvinists and work like Arminians. It reminded me of something I read long ago, "The Vision" by Pete Grieg of 24-7 Prayer. Speaking of this 'army of young people', he says "they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them."

A few people have asked me where I stand in the Calvin/Arminian continuum. My answer would surprise my 3-years-ago self. At the time I was blissfully unaware of really where I stood, not really wanting to pigeon-hole myself in one camp or the other. But one of my mentors at the time, Glen Madden, urged me to listen to a guy called Matt Chandler in a sermon titled "Hope For Here And There". I immediately resonated with Chandler, his style of preaching, and mostly his love for Scripture and expectancy of the Spirit. I hadn't seen such a powerful combination before, though I'd seen glimpses and traces. But Chandler doesn't preach devotional sermonettes. He doesn't read a small passage of Scripture and use it to spring-board into what he wants to talk about. He doesn't deliver 'talks' - he preaches. He preaches text. And he's certainly challenged me. He helped me to become aware that my beliefs from Scripture about God's sovereignty, His calling and choosing, His jealousy for His glory, all of this I previously believed, placed me squarely in the camp of the (at least 4-point) Calvinist. There, I said it. Though, I prefer the softer-toned title of "Reformed".

Since listening to Chandler and through Chandler getting into Wayne Grudem, and eventually back around to Mark Driscoll, John Piper, Tim Keller, CJ Mahaney, and others, I've found deep, deep wells of refreshing spring water flooding over me. These guys who LOVE the Word of God as it is written. I mean, everybody brings a bias into their reading and understanding of Scripture, but I have found few others who are as true to the Written Word as some of these guys. They believe Scripture for what it says, even the hard parts, preach it effectively (more or less), make no secret of their own struggles with some of the tough passages, believe in the Charismatic acts of the Holy Spirit (as any serious student of Scriptura Sola would), and simply present it to their churches, urging them to do the same.

Do I struggle with Reformed theology? You'd better believe it! There are some in the camp who are hard-headed and egotists, who ignore parts of Scripture that have more of an Arminian edge to them (ie John 3:16, Romans 10:13, etc.). Emergent Reformers are still prone to make mistakes, and I count myself among them. I know what I believe, and I'm not afraid to take that stand, and yet I still humbly come to the Bible with the question, "what is God saying about Himself in this text"? Much of the time, I think God stays out of the controversy. He is Who He is, apparently. He writes some Scripture as an Arminian would, and some He writes as a Calvinist would. It's up to us to simply let Him be and try to keep up.