Embracing the Journey: Discovering Reformed Faith's Richness

And I was motivated initially to write this book by reading a book by Frankie Schaefer, Francis Schaefer’s son. He wrote a somewhat autobiographical book, if I remember right, entitled Dancing Alone, which discussed his conversion from Presbyterianism to Eastern Orthodoxy. And I remember reading that book and being really aggravated, aggravated in part because I felt Frankie Schaefer had not represented the tradition from which he came very well, aggravated in part because I wasn’t convinced he knew the tradition to which he was going all that well. [00:01:09]

But in any case it made me pause and think how effective a book could be that reflected a personal journey, that we live in a period of time – maybe this is true of most periods of time – where we’re interested in personal stories. We’re interested in why people do the things they do. We’re interested in memoirs. We’re interested in biographies. And I thought someone really ought to write a book on how they became Reformed and what was attractive about being Reformed, not just how Reformed theology is true. [00:02:08]

And then I suddenly realized, since I’m a sort of slow learner, that that was me, that that described my spiritual journey. I’d been raised in a nominally Methodist home and really didn’t know the gospel until I fell in with Reformed folk in my high school years. And then I thought, well, my life isn’t very interesting, and Reformed people, I don’t think, are very good at opening themselves up and being autobiographical. [00:03:55]

And I had already decided that one of the things I wanted to do in each chapter was to move from my experience of learning to be Reformed to the Scriptures, because the point I wanted to make is that being Reformed is not for me something that just fits my idiosyncratic pattern of living. It’s not just a matter of taste for me. It’s not just a matter that it feels good for me, as if therefore, you know, find whatever feels good for you. [00:06:13]

But my conviction is that what I have found in Reformed Christianity, what feels so good to me in Reformed Christianity is precisely what is also found in the Bible. So I wanted in each chapter to try to move from my experience to what the Bible says and talk about how what I had found in the Reformed churches was what I actually found as well in the Bible. [00:06:47]

And then, I think, the thing that probably most impressed me on that first visit was the singing. Here were people who sang – well, I was going to say with enthusiasm, but they were Dutch. They sang with a certain commitment, a certain passion, and you could hear them above the organ, even though old Mr. Andreas was playing the organ, and as he progressively got deafer, the organ kept getting louder. [00:13:29]

But in spite of that, there was a true devotion to be sensed and to be heard in the singing. I didn’t know anything about church music. I hadn’t been much in church. I didn’t know hymns, but I was rather intrigued to see that these folk mainly sang Psalms. I hardly knew what Psalms were, but I sensed an enthusiasm here, a commitment here that was rather infectious. I sensed also a great reverence. [00:14:03]

And the practice in that church was that the minister and the elders and the deacons would meet together for prayer before the service, and then they’d all walk in together. And it marked a kind of official beginning, this sense that those to whom God had given oversight of the congregation were coming in together now to begin this service, this serious service. And the service week by week had a certain rhythm to it. [00:15:29]

One of the things that was striking is the Ten Commandments were read every Sunday morning. And here was this solemn moment when the law of God was laid again before the people with a dual purpose of reminding us of our sinfulness and need of a Savior in our failure to keep this law, but also reminding us of what God’s holy will for our lives was. [00:16:00]

And there were lots of ways then in which this Reformed community began to introduce me to the Bible. I really didn’t know anything about the Bible. And I think this is important for churches to think about. I remember encouraging my sister to go to a Bible study. And after she had gone, I said, “Well, what did you think?” And she said, “Well, I’m never going back.” I said, “Why not?” And she said, “I was humiliated.” [00:19:53]

I guess what I have found so satisfying about this unexpected journey is how rich the Reformed tradition is and that the more you study it the more you profit from it, the more engaging it becomes, the more wonderful it really is. Now one of the things I found in writing this book is that publishers are very difficult people, and editors are worse. [00:24:03]

And I, for myself, find a great deal of that emotional satisfaction in the treasure that is ours in the Psalter. And so I kind of wrapped up something of my journey by how as my life has gone on, I have come more and more to appreciate the Psalter to the point where I realized not so long ago when someone asked me, “What’s your favorite book of the Bible?” that my favorite book of the Bible is the book of Psalms. [00:26:34]