Monday, June 15, 2026

It is the 15th of June 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

A very happy Monday to you- as you may have heard, I am on vacation- but preloaded shows for when I’m gone… next weekend we will have a mailbag show- many thanks to all of you who wrote in with so many questions.

Over the years, I have had some very reliable writers of questions- some come for a season or two… and recently Micah in Washington state has been sending in a quote or a few- I will get to one of them (at least) on the mailbag show- but this one question tied in with my recent reading of old Christianity Today’s… Micah wrote:

“What was the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement? What other movements did it compete with at the time? What happened to it? What other movements has it fed into? Did it feed into 1517 at all?”

I could talk about this stuff forever- I was, admittedly, a little too into some of it back in the day, and there is a connection to 1517. But we have to ask first- what was it? Well… there were no membership cards. What is “Reformed”? It means generally Calvinistic- and Micah had a question about why some people attach “Calvinist” to other theological traditions in a way that you don’t with, say, Lutheran.

The Young Restless and Reformed- called that- were mentioned in Time magazine in 2009. The terminology comes from a cover article from a 2006 Christianity Today. And what a cover it is… a male torso wearing a t-shirt tucked into jeans, and on the shirt a picture of Jonathan Edwards with the words “Jonathan Edwards is my homeboy,” and the cringe is off the charts.

The article posits that John Piper- a Reformed Baptist- was the organizing character. And I suppose, because of his reach at the time, he can be put at the center. I’d suggest that the two precursors were R.C. Sproul and his Ligonier ministries and Mike Horton of the White Horse Inn (and of course, the late Rod Rosenbladt, who is the organizing figure behind 1517, was on the White Horse Inn from the beginning).

You asked what it competed with, and what happened to it- and I think- without being overly critical, we can tie it to a parallel movement in the church and see some of the less-than-fruitful fruit which came out of some corners.

They would hate to see each other grouped together, but the parallels in American Christianity are the YRR movement and the Emergent movement. Emergent was the loose collection of preachers and pastors who were engaging post-modernism and emphasizing community over doctrine. You can think of names like Brian McClaren and Rob Bell. Ironically, Piper and Bell had a famous feud.

In some ways, there were new radical groups- on the right and left- that were undone by the things that tend to undo groups that get too big too fast. The article in Christianity Today highlights a few characters- Joshua Harris of “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” fame, Mark Driscoll of “the rise and fall of Mars Hill” infamy, and C.J. Mahaney- also plagued with scandal. The Emergent side saw people trying to grapple with postmodernism, often get swallowed by the whole thing and end up reading Eckhart Tolle or some such. I don’t want to be mean and snarky- I traveled around those groups- they lacked a spirit of charity and compromise… such as it often is with radicals.

Let me heap some praise, however, on those individuals and groups that separated wheat from chaff. Piper has been open about his failure in platforming some too fast. The White Horse Inn and Modern Reformation have leaned into the gospel over culture wars, and we are proud that Bob Hiller- my good pal and friend for over 25 years- represents both.

There will always be a flavor, or flavors, of the week in the American church so long as we remain dependent on the kind of marketing that sells detergent and motion pictures… I don’t have an answer for you- heck, check out 1517’s Instagram page… we all do it. The answer isn’t to go Amish but to recognize patterns and keep your feet firmly planted in Scripture- and in its message of Good News on account of Jesus alone. Have I ever been as fired up with a mailbag question? Maybe this is my sign to go to the gym now… get some of this energy out of me. Thanks, Micah, as always, for the questions. You can send me yours at danv@1517.org and get ready for a whole bunch of questions answered on the coming weekend edition.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and one of my favorite psalms- and a good one for those who are agitating for renewal in the church today:

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
 we were like those who dreamed.

2 Our mouths were filled with laughter,
 our tongues with songs of joy.

Then it was said among the nations,
 “The Lord has done great things for them.”

3 The Lord has done great things for us,
 and we are filled with joy.

4 Restore our fortunes, Lord,
 like streams in the Negev.

5 Those who sow with tears
 will reap with songs of joy.

6 Those who go out weeping,
 carrying seed to sow,

will return with songs of joy,
 carrying sheaves with them.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 15th of June 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who is frankly, none of those things… he is old, stable, Lutheran Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who wonders if Bob ever tells the story about evangelism class and the bloomin’ onion… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.