Kevin DeYoung: Core or Crust

I run the danger of annoying some, but this post by DeYoung is very good. Not sure I like this part, "Let us be more like a chocolate covered raisin, likeable on the outside and surprisingly good for you on the inside, and less like a tootsie roll pop with its brittle, crunchy exterior that must be broken through before anyone can get to the good stuff." I'd rather have a tootsie roll pop over a raisinette any day, but here's the point, "If we are to be fruitful and godly Christians we need to have a theological core without being theologically crusty."

More and more I run into people, especially college students, especially Reformed students, who are sizing up someone's reformedness and ready to pounce on anything that sounds at all unReformed. Others are ready to pounce on anything that smacks of Emergent. Don't mention NT Wright to others, you'll get a reamed a new one. What about the core fella's? I will be the first to admit that I have sometimes been 'crusty', wearing my distinctives on my sleeve. What has changed me? Well, saying it that way probably assumes too much, but I'm not trying to be so 'crusty' anymore. Why? Because I've been in great Christian fellowship and partners in ministry with people who share the core and not the crust, and I've loved it. There's something joyful and God honoring in it that I want to embrace, and call other's to embrace as well. That is one of the beautiful things about the church I work in. I've never been in a place so diverse theologically and philosophically. It has it's challenges, but it is beautiful too.