Kevin DeYoung definitely has been the author of the hour the past few years.  He is the Senior Pastor of University Reformed Church in Michigan.  His books, such as Why We’re Not Emergent and Why We Love the Church have received many accolades and awards and are widely read – mainly among seminary students and ministry teams.

This book, The Good News We Almost Forgot, takes a pastoral spin on the 16th Century Heidelberg Catechism.  If I were learning catechisms, or wanting to teach them to my children (if I had them), I wouldn’t start with this one.  It is wordy and long (breaking 129 Q/As into 52 Lord’s Day sections).  And I am not in agreement with everything that it says. 

But, this book is full of pastoral theology and is quite readable (broken into small chapters).  And my copy is underlined well.

“From what I’ve seen and read, the interest in missions among young people is trending away from saving souls and toward saving the world.  The interest is too often social to the exclusion of spiritual.  The two don’t have to be at odds with each other.  Those who deal with the spiritual must not ignore the social and those who engage the social must fully embrace the spiritual.  Every Christian engaged in mission – be it medical, educational, agricultural, or just plain being a good neighbor – should care about real-life pain and long for opportunities to share the good news that every person needs to hear.” p 37

“Jesus saves us from our sins.  The point of the gospel is not that Jesus saves us from low self-esteem, or from singleness, or from our crummy job.  Sin is our deepest, most fundamental, most pervasive problem.” p 64

“We’d probably sin less if we spent less time thinking about our sins, sexual or otherwise, and more time meditating on the love and holiness of God.” p 196

“Perhaps the biggest reason why God has us pray is for His own glory.  God is glorified when He is seen clearly to be the giver of what we asked for in prayer.  If we didn’t have to ask, we might not notice the answer, and we might forget the one who gave us the blessing.  God is glorified in prayer by the expression of our dependence on Him.  He is glorified by the faith we put in Him to ask for things.  He is glorified when we learn to recognize that every good gift comes down from our Father of Lights.” p 212