Archive for the ‘Tim Keller’ Category

Posted on December 15, 2011 - by Stephen Murray

Two Kingdoms vs Transformationalist

Given that some people stay up at night wondering about how the intricacies of the Two Kingdoms approach to culture  play out I thought I’d point to an article that will help you rest peacefully. And for everyone else who couldn’t give a hoot (or have no idea what Two Kingdoms theology is), just forget I ever wrote this post.

Tim Keller has written a very balanced (and on this issue I think ‘balanced’ is good) article on the current tension in the reformed and evangelical world regarding the mission of the church and the relationship of Christ to culture. Obviously the issues and ‘camps’ being discussed are far more complex and need much further reflection but this article gives a good bird’s eye view of the tension and suggests something of a way forward.

Posted on April 20, 2011 - by Stephen Murray

New Redeemer City to City Website

The really great people at Redeemer City to City have just launched their new website which gives interested people a comprehensive view of what City to City does around the world. There are loads of great resources from Tim Keller, City to City staff members and other church planters. The site also has great videos which capture the essence and ethos of City to City. If you look carefully in one of the videos (you figure which one) you might even catch a glimpse of yours truly waxing lyrical (for a second or two) about church planting and Cape Town.

City to City is an amazing ministry which is at the forefront of urban church planting and city renewal ministries. Anyone thinking about urban church planting should have this City to City’s site at the very top of their list of resource sites.

Posted on January 27, 2011 - by Stephen Murray

A Look Around the Web

A couple of theological items on the web in the last few days that I thought were worth a look:

1. I don’t know if you’ve picked up on the theological ‘saga’ of the last week involving John MacArthur’s ‘misunderstanding’ (you decide what it was) of Darrin Patrick’s book new book Church Planter. Well Darrin has written a truly gracious reply to MacArthur’s concerns. I got to hang out with Darrin a little bit two years ago when I visited the Journey Church and he came across as a superb guy with a ton to offer the church. His response just enhances my admiration for him and the work God is doing through him at the Journey. Well done Darrin.

2. David Fitch has some thoughts on the growth of neo-reformed churches in the vein of Mars Hill and Redeemer Presbyterian. His basic premise is that the models of these churches (and others like them) are ultimately growing through transfer growth by gathering large numbers of already-churched folk through excellent attractional meetings. The comments suggest that not everyone agrees – including Tim Keller. I found it particularly interesting that Keller seems to think that it need not be the case that the only people who will ever walk into a church service are basically traditional, conservative folk. I’ve often wondered about this. There is so much missional writing out there that says secular, completely-unchurched people don’t ever go to corporate worship services – I have my doubts about this rhetoric.

3. I enjoyed this interview with Michael Horton about his new systematic theology, ‘The Christian Faith‘. I particularly enjoyed this quote:

I agree wholeheartedly that we need a renewed conviction of God’s personal address in command and promise. I would only add, with Abraham Kuyper, that our confidence in Scripture rises and falls with our confidence in the gospel. We can be distracted by all sorts of good and worthy enterprises, but the gospel is “the power of God unto salvation.” The Spirit gives us faith, uniting us to Christ, through that word of redemption in Christ. Of course, Scripture also exhorts, commands, reproves, and directs. However, until we are convinced that God is actually addressing us here and now through his Word, convicting us along with the world of sin and forgiving and renewing us in his Son, the Bible will remain a closed and irrelevant book.

Posted on October 20, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Lausanne III: The Priority of Cities

I could have listened to Tim Keller speak all night. In one sense I almost feel it would have been justified to allow him the time. Here’s my logic (bearing in mind it’s no secret that I’m a huge advocate of Keller’s ministry and approach): The issue of ministry in cities seems to, in many ways, incorporate (simply due to the breadth of the issue) many of the other issues covered at the congress. Urban ministry is the challenge of our age and the sad fact that people are moving into cities faster than churches means that we’re on the back foot already.

Nothing less than a robust, gospel-centered church planting agenda is going to address this growing phenomenon. There is an intrinsic link between reaching cities and church planting. If our strategy for urban ministry is an arrow-head then the tip is church planting. It’s already well documented that nothing rejuvenates existing churches, para-church organizations and networks more effectively than the consistent and extensive planting of new churches.

Can we plant urban churches that, in Keller’s words, are ‘committed to evangelism and yet also famous for their concern for social justice’? Can we? I don’t see many yet. Pray for more and get it on the agenda.

Posted on September 22, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Generous Justice

The good people at Redeemer City to City were kind enough to send me a sneak peak into Tim Keller’s forthcoming (November 2010) book, Generous Justice. If you’re familiar with Keller’s preaching and teaching ministry you’ll be well aware of how central the idea of ‘doing justice’ is to much of Redeemer’s philosophy of ministry. Here’s the product description from Amazon:

It is commonly thought in secular society that the Bible is one of the greatest hindrances to doing justice. Isn’t it full of regressive views? Didn’t it condone slavery? Why look to the Bible for guidance on how to have a more just society? But Timothy Keller sees it another way. In Generous Justice, Keller explores a life of justice empowered by an experience of grace: a generous, gracious justice. Here is a book for believers who find the Bible a trustworthy guide as well as those who suspect that Christianity is a regressive influence in the world.

Keller’s church, founded in the eighties with fewer than one hundred congregants, is now exponentially larger. More than five thousand people regularly attend Sunday services, and another twenty-five thousand download Keller’s sermons each week. A recent profile in New York magazine described his typical sermon as “a mix of biblical scholarship, pop culture, and whatever might have caught his eye in The New York Review of Books or on Salon.com that week.” In short, Timothy Keller speaks a language that many thousands of people yearn to comprehend. In Generous Justice, he offers them a new understanding of modern justice and human rights.

On the eve of the Lausanne Congress here in Cape Town this looks like it will be an important book by a leading practitioner as evangelicalism continues to consider its mission to the global populace. For a sample have a read the first chapter of the book here.

Posted on June 26, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Why I can’t Walk Away from the Faith

Here’s a list of reasons why I could never walk away from the Christian faith:

1. I find the historical person of Jesus too compelling. Even with the most skeptical and literary critical reading of the gospels the man that comes forth from those accounts (let me stress again: even when torn apart by literary criticism) still demands more than a mere nod of the head as a moral teacher or visionary or whatever you want to call him.

2. I find the coherence of the reformed, evangelical worldview deeply satisfying in how I understand events and circumstances around me. I think if I fell into another branch of the Christian family I might struggle more with certain issues. I once read an atheist suggest that if he were to become a Christian he’d feel intellectually bound to adopt a reformed understanding of the faith given the way it synthesizes the Scriptures with the existential.

3. I find atheism intellectually unsatisfying. The vast majority of atheists I have encountered seem to me to be on a quest for absolute truth and the ability to be able to empirically attest to absolute truth. I am becoming more and more convinced that such a quest is impossible in this life. I don’t think we can know truth absolutely – in the way that many atheists would demand we must if we are to verify anything. I once heard D.A. Carson say that we cannot know truth absolutely but that does not mean that we cannot know truth truly. There’s a difference between the two and for me its made the world of difference. So in that sense I find atheism to be largely built on a premise that I find intellectually and philosophically unsatisfying. If we acknowledge Carson’s statement the whole ball game changes.  A classic example of this is the debate about the resurrection. The Christian scholar can stack up the historical and sociological evidence for the resurrection in such a way that the evidence is near overwhelming but the atheist will dismiss it on the premise that for a person to rise from the dead would be to defy the laws of nature and therefore be completely unverifiable empirically. So because miracles cannot be empirically verified they cannot happen. That’s essentially saying that unless I can know the truth absolutely I will not go with the rest of the overwhelming evidence that points to me being able to know the truth truly. Who really lives like that on a functional level? We trust in truths truly (not absolutely) on a day to day basis – so why move the goal posts when it comes to faith?

4. The way the Bible expounds the concepts of sin and idolatry line up with my own heart inch perfectly. I’ve been greatly helped by Tim Keller to understand these two concepts with more biblical depth in the last few years and the deeper I search the deeper my conviction grows that the Bible’s estimation of the human heart is spot on. Everybody, atheists included, worships something.

5. Suffering and pain in this life, ironically (or maybe not), help me make sense of the Fall and a holy and just God. C.S. Lewis and John Piper have helped me see that suffering, more than anything, exists to show that things are not okay and that human sin has caused this world to be plunged into a chaotic, dysfunctional existence. We more than ever need a God who allows suffering and evil so that we will wake up to the reality of sin. I know this is controversial, even amongst some Christians, but to me it makes way more sense than any other explanation, faith-based or secular, that I’ve heard.

5. The hope of th New Creation means I just don’t want to take any chances. I guess this is a little like Pascal’s Wager, but seriously if this whole existence is headed to a restored and renewed creation where every tear is wiped away and unending joy reigns forever don’t you at least want Christianity to be true?

Posted on September 25, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

New York Trip: Part V

So, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday update…

Tuesday we listened to some of the intensive guys give presentations about their future plants and then we watched Tim Keller’s address at last year’s Dwell Conference, entitled ‘Dwelling in the Gospel‘. After that we had a bit of fun planning a philosophy of ministry for a simulated occasion and place – interesting getting church planters to work together in a team.

Wednesday was an off day to catch up on reading (and we had a lot) and to check out more of the city. So after some reading we headed out to the Central Park Zoo – saw a snow leopard for the first time.

Thursday we spent most of the morning having a Q&A session with Tim Keller on ‘Gospel Ministry’ – we decided beforehand, after our reading, which specific questions we wanted to ask. It was a fantastic experience to be able to just sit with him in a small intimate group and talk gospel ministry with him. As you’d expect his answers to our questions were soaked in biblical faithfulness, cultural sensitivity, pragmatic wisdom and serious humility. We were all very grateful for the privilege of that meeting – and we’re looking forward to having a few more before we leave.

More to follow…

Posted on September 16, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

New York Trip: Part II

Ok, so these updates are not exactly daily – but there’s a lot going on that keeps us really busy so that’s my excuse. It’s Tuesday afternoon as I write this, I’m sitting in our apartment’s living room still enjoying the amazing view of Manhattan. We’ve been here for a week now and it’s still a bit surreal to wake up in the morning, get up to go make coffee, and see the Manhattan skyline stare you in the face across the Hudson – my guess is that it will still be surreal in 5 weeks time when we leave.

So what have we been up to? Let me back-track to last week. Wednesday through to Friday saw us attend the Global Cities Initiative Conference with 400 other leaders from around the world. Tim Keller spoke in the plenary sessions each morning about planting gospel-centered churches that start movements of renewal in global cities. There were lots of other breakout sessions in the afternoons about networking on a city-wide level and planting multiplying churches. Keller’s talks in the mornings were superb (we’d heard a lot of it before but he just seems to make it fresh and compelling each time he opens his mouth).

Slowly we’ve gotten to meet the rest of the church planters attending the Fall Intensive with us. Amongst us we represent the following countries:

Cape Town, South Africa

Pretoria, South Africa

Barcelona, Spain

Mexico City, Mexico

Seoul, South Korea

Monterrey, Mexico

Rome, Italy

Dublin, Ireland

London, England

Paris, France

Budapest, Hungary

We’re quite a diverse bunch but all committed to gospel-centered church planting in global cities. On Saturday we all met up at the Redeemer Church Planting Center‘s offices which are on Broadway in the middle of Manhattan. We had an introductory lunch and got introduced to each other and the staff. On Sunday then we we’re required to attend two Redeemer services: One on the upper west side and one on the upper east side. It was a frantic rush to get to these two services and we only just made the sermon on each occasion where we heard Dave Bisgrove and Tim Keller preach respectively.

That evening we visited a church plant, Resurrection Presbyterian, in Brooklyn where we heard this really great young guy by the name of Vito Aiuto preach (one of the best sermons I’ve heard all year).

Monday morning saw the Fall Intensive classes start. We had sessions with Dave Bisgrove (one of the Redeemer pastors) and Vito Aiuto where we got to ask them questions about their churches and philosophies of ministry. Vito was super engaging and really gave us down to earth insight into the life of a new planter.

This morning I had to give a presentation about the church planting work we’re involved in back in Cape Town and we got hear about our flatmates (and now friends) Endre and Eneh’s work in Budapest, Hungary. After that Al Barth (who many of you know) took us through a session on the spiritual dynamics of gospel-renewal. We visited Columbia University this afternoon, and Union Theological Seminary in particular where we spent the afternoon with two of the Redeemer staff talking through the pastor’s devotional life. They day had a very devotional focus in general and I think we’re all feeling deeply grateful for the mercy shown us in Christ Jesus as we’ve explored it in depth today.

So yes, we’re fairly busy. We’re about to have supper with some of the planters (Robin is making curry). We’ll let you know more as we experience more. I’ll try to be more regular so that I don’t have to write such long posts in future. Hope you’re all well – we’re loving NYC but we still miss our beautiful Cape Town (and I think our presentation this morning made some of the guys wish they were planting in Cape Town!). Later…

Posted on February 25, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

New Tim Keller Wiki

Everything you ever wanted to know about Tim Keller can now be found at one place. This wiki will link you to tons of Keller resources around the web. I think this is a really helpful wiki and worth pointing a lot of people towards.

(HT – Dave)