De Young is a young man who seems determined to minister in a relevant way, but who has made a conscious effort to appropriate the ancient Biblical and Reformed faith for a new day.

I suspect that Kevin De Young would balk at being called a rising young star in the Reformed world, preferring to be called rather a useful servant of Christ, and useful is precisely what Kevin is proving to be. He is a prolific author, publishing some four books in three years. At first he appears an unlikely leader in the “Young, Restless, and Reformed” movement.

Unlike most in that movement, who make their homes in conservative evangelical congregations, Kevin’s home and heart are squarely in the mainline church of his youth, the Reformed Church in America. He pastors in what many would regard as an unlikely place for a committed evangelical, complementarian Calvinist –at a university church in East Lansing, Michigan, home to the largest public land grant university, Michigan State.

This is not all that makes Kevin unique, however. He is a young man who seems determined to minister in a relevant way, but who has made a conscious effort to appropriate the ancient Biblical and Reformed faith for a new day. One can see this in the titles of his books: Why We’re Not Emergent By Two Guys Who Should Be, Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion, and his latest, The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a Sixteenth Century Catechism.

In the day when the hipster Christianity of Velvet Elvis and Blue Like Jazz appears to be all the rage, a book on the ancient Heidelberg catechism may appear sorely out of date. Yet, it is that which most illustrates the need. It is the children of Heidelberg who largely populate the pews of Rob Bell’s emergent Mars Hill super-mega-church: those who have forsaken the faith once for all delivered to the saints for the “drama” and “mystery” of the uncertain. De Young gently suggests to them they may have forsaken gold for dross. That De Young is, himself, young and attuned to rising generations only helps his case.

Like De Young, I grew up in an evangelical RCA congregation in suburban Grand Rapids. The catechism was used, but halfheartedly. My catechism teacher confessed he didn’t understand it himself, and the denominational materials spent far more time talking about social justice then the only comfort in life and in death. Whether or not this was Kevin’s experience, he senses, too, that the very churches that ought to value this catechism have, in many cases, left it, and the faith it proclaims, far behind.

He writes, “The only thing more difficult than finding the truth is not losing it…What provokes one generation to sacrifice and passion becomes in the next generation a cause for rebellion and apathy…Why is it that those who grow up with creeds and confessions are usually the ones who hate them most?” (p. 13). De Young’s goal is to rectify that situation, and to make a younger generation, many of whom are more serious about the doctrinal core of the Christian faith than their boomer parents, aware of the riches of the Reformed doctrinal heritage.

This book began as a series of church newsletter articles aimed at re-acquainting De Young’s congregation with the treasures of the Heidelberg Catechism, thus the chapters are short, pithy, and useful for personal devotions. He begins by making the case for the Catechism, and the ancient faith it presents. The Heidelberg dates from the 1560’s –early in the history of the Calvinist movement, forged in the fires of Reformation Germany’s Lutheran-Calvinist struggles – and has long been heralded for its personal, subjective character.

Its author, Zacharius Ursinus, himself a young Calvinist, patterned his catechism on Paul’s Letter to the Romans: guilt, grace, and gratitude. Its first question is “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” and is answered, “That I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful savior, Jesus Christ…” Its second question is no less sublime and simple, “What is it necessary for you to know that you, in this comfort, may live and die happily? Three things: first, how great my sins and miseries are; second, how I am delivered from my sin and misery; third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.”

The heart of evangelical religion breathes throughout the Heidelberg Catechism. It is a survey of the major core doctrines and disciplines of the Christian faith, through an exposition of the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments.

This book, written in a conversational, modern style, does an excellent job of pleading the case for the catechism. What is more, it is itself a useful exposition and application of the core truths of the catechism. One dares hope that this book will whet the taste for the ancient evangelical and Reformed faith among those who are in Reformed churches, but have little appreciation for their heritage.

Even more, perhaps it will drive those in the “Young, Restless and Reformed movement,” who are not in creedal churches to a more mature and settled understanding of the necessity of a confessionalism that proclaims, robustly and humbly, “We believe the Bible teaches chiefly these things.”

Most importantly, this book directs its readers towards the Lord Jesus Christ, and his Holy Word, which the Catechism proclaims, and points them to a vital, saving faith in him.

Ken Pierce is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and serves as Senior Pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi