What can the “Young, Restless, and Reformed” movement learn from the historic Reformation?

That’s a big question, and there’s a great complexity to the answer. One thing we need to always keep in mind is that truth is never a fad. When God’s truth goes out, it never returns void. It always goes forth and accomplishes precisely what God has intended.

We need to be grateful for God’s truth going forth to the young, to the aged—to all. We need to contend for that truth, continue to proclaim that truth, and be grateful for the truth of the Lord going forth. We need to be faithful in cultivating that truth and discipling the young, not simply giving them the truth and then letting them run off on their own. Rather, we need to mentor them and come alongside them.

Older men need to come and mentor younger men, and older women in the churches need to come and mentor younger women. We need to help them grow as disciples of Jesus Christ so that they might not simply have a flash in a pan with Reformed theology in the Bible, but rather that they might come to learn how to love the Bible, how to love the Lord Jesus Christ, how to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ, and how to grow into maturity in the church of Jesus Christ.

We should not divorce young people—or anyone for that matter—from the church. Rather, we as God’s people in all the church should be examples to the young. We should be examples in our faith and examples in our worship. We need to be coming to worship and attending worship, attending to the means of grace.

That will be the example to the younger generations as they see us living out the gospel in our own lives.

This is a transcript of Burk Parsons’s answer from our Reformation 500 Celebration and has been lightly edited for readability. To ask Ligonier a biblical or theological question, email ask@ligonier.org or message us on Facebook or Twitter.