The Next Great Idea

One of the things Reformed Christians tend to do well is publish and lecture.  Folks who identify with our tradition tend to read widely, and love to educate themselves, as well as stay informed about current issues/controversies through lectures and conferences.

I have had a number of interesting conversations of late with colleagues, church members, and seminary students, about those areas in which our tradition has not written widely, nor provided sufficient instruction through lectures/audio materials.

In light of these discussions, I would like to conduct a survey of sorts. 

• Can you think of any topic(s) not sufficiently covered by a current (in-print) Reformed writer/speaker? 
• Are there resources you need, but can't find? 
• What topics need to be addressed in print (or a lectures series) that haven't been addressed?

Please leave your suggestions in the comments section below. 

Who knows?  You might just come up with the next great idea in Reformed publishing! 

Comments

[plw]

Jesse, Have you thought of looking up the 'Primitive Baptist Churches'??? Not the liberal ones, but the (as they call them) 'absoluters'. Which means simply that God is totally Sovereign in all things.

[Dave Sarafolean]

There seems to be a paucity of decent Reformed resources in the area of counseling, phychology, dealing with addictive behaviors, etc. On the one hand you have the nouthetic crowd who basically say, "Stop it" (ever see the Bob Newhart clip on YouTube?) and on the other hand there are those who have bought into psychology so much that the Bible is rarely referenced.

I am aware of Ted Tripp and David Powlison -- they do great work at the popular level. So do others (Dr. Richard Winter at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis). But more needs to be done.

When I was at Covenant Theological Seminary I did a paper in our Introduction to Counseling class on rehabilitating sexual offenders and whether that was even possible. Guess how much material I found from a reformed perspective? Zip, zero, zilch, nada. This leads to other questions: How many people with a solid background in reformed theology work to rehabilitate prisoners? Not enough. How many reformed pastors choose to pursue employment in the chaplaincy to in work state and federal correctional facilities? Hardly any. Do you know who works in such places? It is the Pentecostals who show up in droves. And what do they have to offer? Escapism into the mystical experiences of the Spirit.

I think that the reformed community is much more comfortable talking about doctrine than addressing some of the messiness of life (addictive behaviors, sexual sins, dishing out abuse, being on the receiving end of abuse, etc.). I'm not a counselor, nor am I a bleeding heart liberal (truth be told I'm a dittohead). I'm a pastor who sees a gap between our theology (defined in our creeds and confessions) and our ability to evangelize and disciple folks who bear lots of baggage. Sure the message of justification is liberating but what do we have to say to the upper-middle class person addicted to pornography? What do we have to say to the person who is suicidal or is experiencing the rage and betrayal of marital infidelity? What do we have to say to the person who suffers from clinical depression? Do we anything to say about other brain disorders? A lot could be done in this area.

[David Reddell]

Would like to see more on "Gospel-Driven Sanctification" as Jerry Bridges puts it. Seems to me to be a huge shift in how and why we go about serving the Lord and others and is not well understood nor practiced widely in the contemporary church.

[Adam McNeal]

I have heard that the best writings on aesthetics come from Roman Catholics. Some writings on this topic by Reformed theologians would be quite interesting.

[Neal P.]

I second a thoroughly Reformed discussion of pneumatology. As a former Pentecostal who still has friends and family who are affiliated with Pentecostalism, I'd appreciate more pointers on how to dialogue with them more effectively.

Also, a thoroughgoing discussion of why Reformed theology is not anti-Semitic, as some Dispensationalists claim. This seems to be the favorite allegation levied against Reformed Covenantalists by Dispensationalists. I encounter it on message boards frequently. Addressing John Hagee's latest book would be helpful in relation to this. From what I've seen, I suspect that Hagee will eventually reject Christianity altogether in favor of Judaism. How does one successfully shut the mouths of the Dispensational lions, so to speak? I'm sick of hearing it. quite frankly.

[carolyn]

well, at the risk of sounding really flaky :)...

I've been through four teenagers and all their Christian friends and unsaved neighbors, and I sure wish there was something really good and Reformed on UFOs and aliens. Chuck Missler has a book with some decent stuff in it but it just kills me to hand out or quote Chuck Missler the amil hater.

World Net Daily magazine (Whistleblower) did an indepth research survey a few year ago, all over the world. What they found was that the MAJORITY of people interviewed, in third world cultures as well as the richer western nations, believe that the ultimate hope for the world lies with extra terrestrials who will save us. It was just mindboggling to read the stats on belief that the ultimate hope for earth is ETs.

I myself have worked out a halfway decent approach which starts with getting kids to read Ezekiel 2, and the description of God's throne, which most UFO sightings seem to imitate. And from there we get into it and the subject of fallen angels. But these kids seem to be so indoctrinated with the concept of zillions of alien races out there, all the same and equal to humans on earth, and they know so much about all the sightings and paranormal stuff.

Some creationists have some great publications on earth at the center of the physical universe, based on the quasar shells and other facts, and pull in the centrality of earth in this Universe as the center of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. But they don't have anything about UFO's in the book, so you have to kind of pick here and there when talking to teenagers.

I was watching TV last night and all the film clips just released in the UK from the last 20 years. I realized most folks here might just write every bit of it off as high tech secret government machines. But I'd sure like to see somebody Reformed instead of Missler who can approach it from the fallen angel counterfeit angle, and, the centrality of earth and the work of Jesus on the cross in this universe.

[Lloyd]

I don't have the book with me here at work, but Ken Samples has a great book on UFO's.

I believe that you can check out the "Reasons to believe" website for more information on this book.

[Cole Brown]

I would love to see more Reformed books addressing the racial homogeneity of our churches. Could also always use more works exposing the lunacies of the TD Jakes, Paula Whites, and Myles Munroes of the world.

[Steven Carr]

What I would like to see is books very similar to and on the same topics as what were written by the Puritans, but written by authors of today. I am greatful for Banner of Truth and Soli Deo Gloria, but we need more contemporary authors who write like the Puritans. With today's English of course.

[carolyn]

Lloyd- thanks so much, I googled it and found the book. Looks perfect. (sounds like the same facts and conclusions as Missler, but I won't be supporting an anti-amil ranter).

If anybody else is interested here is the link:

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/cms_content?page=615258&sp=1028&event=1028RNF

[Berti Kona]

kim,
We reformed folks need a bit more encouragememt to do ministries like a church based prizion ministry. I asked a friend once about his conversion and he responded that he was converted in a prizon. I asked him again? was it a church ased or a denominatioanlprizon ministry. He responded: No reformed and Presbiterian folks do Campus Ministries not Prizon ministries. I have come to understand in my recent years that it is so true. So, let us talk about more difficult subjects.

SDG

[Chris E]

Isn't the main thrust of all the comments above that the Reformed community needs to share it's teaching a lot more widely - in terms of writing things that can influence the wider christian community, and act as salt and light in the culture at large?

Having 'discovered' reformed doctrine for myself, I'm amazed at how underexposed and unaware most Christians are of their roots in the faith. This could be somewhat due to the fact that I come from the UK where historically the reformed faith has never been identified with a particular church, on the other hand I see something similiar in America also.

The internet could play a factor here, but it's been amazing to discover the vast quantities of good and godly books, audio and blogs out there. You reformed types already have answers to cultural problems, because they all come back to problems of the human heart. So please, speak up.