Exhortations For Those That Love The Gospel Coalition

Darryl Dash has a good post dealing with potential challenges for those of us in the Gospel Coalition tribe. I see this tribe growing rapidly in the future and as we do his cautions would be wise to hear and do battle against.  He writes:

Here are some of the challenges:

• Our blind spots are deadly. This is true of everyone, but the young, restless, Reformed crowd face a unique set of blind spots. You could also call them idols. Love theology? We can elevate a system over God and his revelation. Love truth? We can soon despise those who don’t hold some of the finer points of truth. If you read some of the criticism against the Neo-Reformed, you’ll see that we’re accused of being prickly, defensive, militant nit-pickers. It doesn’t mean we are, but it probably means we need to ask if they see something in us that we don’t.
• We can be too taken with celebrities. I love and admire guys like Tim Keller, John Piper, D.A. Carson, and so on. But admiration can soon cross the line and become hero-worship. We face the danger of becoming Reformed celebrity groupies. (But I am looking for John Frame’s autograph if you know where to get it.)
• We can become proud. We shouldn’t become proud; as D.A. Carson says, “proud Christian” is an oxymoron. We have little reason to become proud. But it’s a very real danger. Nobody wears pride well, but it especially looks bad on those who claim to be centered on the gospel.
• We may give the impression that we don’t value women. I was grateful to see the series by Thabiti Anyabwile “I’m a Complementarian, But…” It addresses the danger of taking a complementarian view too far and erecting barriers for women that shouldn’t exist. This can leave women feeling devalued. True complementarianism has nothing to do with chauvinism.
• We may become exclusive. We need to remember that we are only part of the Body, and that we are fellow-workers with many who embrace the gospel but don’t share all of our convictions.

Read the rest.