Yet another evangelical personality has announced that not only are he and his wife separating—this after he wrote a widely-read book on dating and courtship—but he has grave doubts about the truth of Christianity and he is intent on starting a podcast to share those doubts with the world. He announced the news of his separation on Instagram, which is something one might expect a movie star to do, and then asked for privacy. Days later, an interview appeared—so much for privacy—in the theologically and socially progressive (liberal) magazine, Sojourners, in which he lamented his “fundamentalist” past and expressed doubts not only about the historic Christian sexual ethic but also about the truth of Christianity itself.
The Business Model
Joshua Harris rose to prominence within the Sovereign Grace Ministries orbit, under the umbrella of C. J. Mahaney, another prominent “New Calvinist” and former president of Sovereign Grace Ministries. Mahaney left his congregation in Maryland after a controversy over the way he handled a child-sexual abuse scandal. Harris is perhaps most famous for his 1997 book, I Kissed Dating Good Bye. Harris succeeded Mahaney as pastor of the flagship congregation of the SGM movement until he resigned to move to Vancouver, BC to attend seminary at Regent College. When he became pastor of the Maryland megachurch and when he published his widely-read and influential book on dating and courtship, he had no formal theological education. Since attending Regent he has left ministry and opened a communications consulting business.
This story is symbolic of the way entrepreneurial North American evangelicals often operate. Mahaney saw a talented young man, he plucked him from obscurity, and groomed him to become his successor. This is not how a real church operates but it is the way American evangelicals often operate. Christian, you need to learn that there is a difference. In a rightly ordered church, a real church, a historic church with a church order, with genuine accountability, with historic roots in the Reformed, medieval, and Patristic church, with a public confession to which ministers and members alike are accountable, things are done differently.
The Churchly Model
First of all, when an experienced minister finds a young man who might make a good pastor some day, he does not thrust him into ministry. He might test the young man’s gifts a bit and mentor him for a while but before the young man enters ministry there are some things he must do. One of those is that he must get an education before beginning ministry, before preaching, and before writing books. It is more than helpful to know a little bit about what one is saying before one says it in public and especially before one says it with the authority of “thus saith the Lord.”
Second, in a rightly ordered church, a ministerial candidate must present himself to the churches for examination and testing. In Reformed churches, a candidate comes before a regional gathering of churches (we use the Latin term Classis, a fleet of ships to describe that gathering. Presbyterians speak of a Presbytery, a gathering of elders). There, before the gathered ministers and elders, the candidate is questioned. He preaches a sermon, and is evaluated by the Classis. Before all that, however, during seminary, while he was supposed to be reading Greek and Hebrew and writing term papers, he has been mentored by seminary professors and pastors. He has served a poorly-paid, sometimes difficult internship, where he gained some hands-on experience before entering into pastoral ministry full-time. Candidates frequently also serve an internship after seminary too to gain even more experience.
In a rightly ordered church, his senior pastor and he himself would be accountable to other churches for their doctrine and life. In the case of the sex-abuse scandal an ordered church would investigate thoroughly and if crimes are suspected the investigators would notify the police immediately so that they could begin a criminal investigation. According to Al Mohler, this is not what happened in Maryland.
American evangelical church life is ad hoc, which is a fancy Latin way of saying that they make it up as they go along. They do whatever seems expedient and practical. American evangelical Christianity is less governed by the Scriptures as understood by the historic Christian church and more governed by secular models of “success.”
In a properly ordered church a minister who comes to doubt the faith and his faith would do as Harris has done, leave the ministry and seek secular employment but he would do one more thing: be quiet. Harris no longer has a brief from the church to speak to others about the faith. He certainly has no authority from the Scriptures to drag Christ’s lambs that he once shepherded with him into his doubts and uncertainties via a podcast.
All of this mess, Harris’ theological and personal wanderings, the controversy surrounding the child sex abuse scandal would all have been handled quite differently in an ordered church. This difference illustrates one of the several differences between what the Belgic Confession art. 29 calls “sects” and what we confess to be the marks of “the true church.” For some today, the very notion that a church should confess that there is “the true church” is quite shocking. It seems positively arrogant. “Who are you to say that there is such a thing and that you know how to identify it?” We say so on the basis of the sufficiently clear Word of God. We say a lot of other things that modern evangelicals find troubling but we keep saying them anyway because they are true and good for us all to hear. Jesus is the only Savior (John 14:6). He established his church (Matt 16:18). He commissioned his church to preach the gospel and to administer the sacraments (Matt 28:18-20) and to administer spiritual discipline (Matt 18:15-20). The indicators (“marks”) of the true church are simple: does the congregation preach the gospel purely? Does the congregation administer Baptism and the Lord’s Supper purely? Does the congregation use church discipline to correct sheep who are straying? This is a short list but it is a list that is largely unknown to North American evangelicals.
Kiss New Calvinism Good Bye
The first question most evangelicals ask about church is whether it has a youth group or a singles ministry? The second question is how fast is the church growing, is it popular? Does it have the right kind of (contemporary) worship? Neither the New Testament nor the historic Christian church knows anything of the Modern evangelical marks. Jesus said, “feed my lambs” (Jon 21:15) not “be popular.”
The Joshua Harris episode is a wake-up call to Evangelicals. It comes after the scandalous behavior of fellow “New Calvinist” James MacDonald and before him Mark Driscoll and somewhere in there Tullian Tchividjian. Entrepreneurism is a great virtue in business but the church is no business. It is an authorized embassy for King Jesus. We serve him, at his pleasure, with his message, according to his Word. Twenty-two years ago Josh Harris urged us to kiss dating good bye. Now we see that the time has come to kiss the so-called “New Calvinism” good bye in favor of the old Calvinism of the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dort.
Resources
- How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia
- Maybe Darryl Had A Point? Driscoll v. Catholic Creeds
- Critique of Driscoll and YRR Movement Now in Portuguese
- Molly Worthen on Mark Driscoll (and Calvin)
- Molly Worthen on Mark Driscoll (and Calvin; pt 2)
- The Guy On The Screen Is Not Your Pastor
- When Pastors Abuse
- Calvinism Old and “New”
- Young, Restless, And New School
- Young, Restless, and Arbitrary?
- The Fork in the Road for the “New Calvinists”
- Resources On Defining Reformed
- Why This Reformed Christian Will Not Be Charismatic In 2018
R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
More by R. Scott Clark ›
And don’t forget that Josh Harris’ father, Gregg, was already into marketing his stuff and his family through the homeschool community. Josh’s younger twin brothers founded a ministry at a ridiculously young age. I am not saying it is not a prodigious family, but the marketing big eva aspect should not be overlooked either. Josh did not come out of nowhere.
Interesting that we never learn the first name of this person until the comment section – I had no idea who you are talking about
Dru,
Did you follow the “read more” link to the full article? I certainly used Joshua Harris’ full name in the article.
New Calvinism was always marketing. Bob Buford’s “Leadership Network” was invitation only. Buford consulted with C. Peter Wagner. The result: Rick Warren, Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, Ed Stetzer. Pastors became ” change agents” using parachurch organizations. What is the real background of Tim Keller’s “The Gospel Coalition?” Tim Keller, who was silent in regards to Mark Driscoll, until he was forced by circumstances to admit ” Mark Driscoll was very important in the internet age.” Evangelical fascination with “leadership” has risen to cult-like status superstars. Are the successes “blessings” or judgment?
Justin Peters and Costi Hinn did a series on the Word-Faith Movement. Justin: Goats don’t turn into sheep. Sheep were always sheep…..lost sheep. They will always hear His voice. Dr. Clark, feed and shepherd His sheep. Be encouraged !
Any word on his next book with the usual theme of You People Need to Stop Sinning, Right Now!!!
Dr. Clark,
Are there any written articles you would recommend on Mark Dever’s 9 Marks “Covenant Church memberships” that must be signed to join? C.J. Mahaney did this. Matt Chandler does this. One of the two new Theocast hosts attended Dever’s church. I looked at Justin Perdue’s N.C church website. It requires signing a covenant church membership and is a Gospel Coalition church. From what I have seen, these signed memberships have led to spiritual abuse by leadership.
Carmen,
I do not know much about these. I have heard of them and have seen only a little about them.
The Reformed approach to membership is to catechize adult converts and their baptized covenant children. After instruction, they meet with the elders & ministers (consistory) to make formal profession of faith. After that, they make profession before the congregation and take membership vows. They make profession before the congregation and take three membership vows, that they know themselves to be sinners saved by grace alone; that they believe the faith as confessed; that they will submit to the government & discipline of the church.
Should they find themselves aggrieved, They have the right to complain against the elders, ministers and deacons. Should they not find satisfaction, they have a right of appeal to Classis and thence to synod. This process (church order) combined with our confessional standards is designed to prevent and/or remedy abuse.
9Marks, Gospel Coalition & Colin Hensen still holds to New Calvinism.
https://www.9marks.org/article/still-young-restless-and-reformed-the-new-calvinists-at-10/?utm_source=eml-article&utm_medium=eml-article&utm_campaign=eml-article&mc_cid=804402b0a9&mc_eid=39a5fc306b
I really don’t understand your real motive behind writing this article. What it has to do with Joshua Harris? What your article so far achieved?
Philip,
My goals in the article are quite transparent: I want 1) to inform adherents of the New Calvinism that there is an Old Calvinism; 2) to highlight some important differences between them; 3) to persuade some adherents of New Calvinism, who might be dissatisfied with it, in view of the grave theological and pastoral problems associated with several of the founding personalities in the movement, to adopt the Old Calvinism.
Did I claim that no one holds New Calvinism any longer?
What did it achieve? I don’t know yet Philip but let’s see what 20,000 + readers of the article do with it.
Dr Clark thank you for this; sadly here in South America New Calvinism is almost synonim to Reformed theology. The search for confessional reformed churches can be a hard one but it is worthy. Even though YRR was helpful for me in one moment (to leave the WoF movement) I have to admit that it is a different theology, piety and practice to that of the reformed churches and that sadly it follows some unbiblical patterns that have to be denounced. Be encouraged brother, the Lord is using this space to care for His Childrens in South America (a long way from California!)