Tim Keller is notoriously averse to publicity. I had to pull teeth to get him to agree to be profiled for this story. He does not speak at many conferences and has not written a book for a decade. So, for some of you who read the blog, his name may be unfamiliar.
This week many more will hear about Tim as he is featured in Newsweek. Click here for the article.
To many of us, Tim is a hero and a role model. I have even been publicaly accused of plagiarizing Tim. (OK, the accusation was a joke, but I did respond here.)
Here are some excerpts from the article and my thoughts:
Place: New York City... On a sun-splashed corner near Central Park a churchlike building is filled to the rafters with Christian worshipers. By 9:15, the room is at capacity. By 9:20, even the balcony is full. There's nothing sexy here. There's no rock band, no drop-down theater-size video screen, no 100-member gospel choir--just a few chamber musicians and a couple of prayer leaders to help the congregation along in its hymns. The crowd at Redeemer Presbyterian is overwhelmingly young, single, professional and--for lack of a better word--sober.
This is exactly my impression.
Last time I was in Manhattan I attended the church and spent some time with Tim on Monday.
I was most impressed with how, well, non-"hip" the service was. (The giveaway was the note in the program reminding you that you should not applaud.)
The "band" was four men in suits who played wind instruments accompanied by an organ.
Yet, most of the crowd was young and engaged... a reminder that contemporary is not always contextual.
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More from the article:
Standing at the microphone is a man more than six feet tall with a shiny bald head and wire-rim spectacles, looking more like a college professor than a megachurch pastor. This is the Rev. Tim Keller, a Manhattan institution, one of those open urban secrets, like your favorite dim sum place, with a following so ardent and so fast-growing that he has never thought to advertise. He rarely speaks to the press.
And, might I add, he never moved from an imaginary 4 foot box on the stage.
Yet, he keeps my interest (and that of thousands of others) every time he speaks. And, since Tim reads the blog (and comments), I need to not go to over the top in my praise! But, he has blessed many of us with his teaching and leadership.
Simply put-- people are looking for content and transformation. Tim brings the content and points to the cross for the transformation.
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The story of Redeemer is remarkable. From the article:
Keller started Redeemer 17 years ago in a small rented church on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Now he preaches five times on Sundays, shuttling between three different rented venues and reaching more than 5,000 people each week (5,000 also download his sermon online).
New York is not a bastion of growing evangelical churches... and Redeemer is growing and multiplying at an rapid pace.
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Here is my favorite part of the story:
He is helping other pastors use his "formula," if you can call it that--orthodox Christianity and challenging preaching, with an emphasis on social justice and community service--in cities like Amsterdam, São Paolo, Berlin and Paris. Keller believes that young urban people too often face an unsatisfactory choice: the dispassionate formality of the established churches or the fire and brimstone of the conservative evangelicals.
Orthodox Christianity and biblical preaching, eh? Who woulda' thought that would work?
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Be sure to order his new book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.
Thanks, Tim, for your faithful witness. See you in NY for the dwell conference!
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