Thank You Tim Keller
Many of you know that Dr. Timothy Keller passed into eternity with his Savior last Friday, May 19. Many have spoken of the tremendous impact he has had on their thought and life and I wanted to add mine and offer a few ways he has specifically impacted my life and my teaching. Consider this one big fat macro footnote to my ministry.
I was taught by a mentor early in life, to find mentors to learn from and then begin learning from their mentors. That I have done, with Tim Keller, yet, his writings often brought clarity to topics even his own mentors were muddy on. That is in some way Dr. Keller’s gift. To clarify an issue and in the most charitable way, explain each of his opponent's arguments and simply and efficiently explain his. I chose to add the title of a publication by Keller that correlates with each of the lessons I have learned. I hope it can serve as a digest for people to go for “more learning” on a particular subject.
1. Grace is what changes me. For a wedding gift, a friend of mine dubbed five cassette tapes of Tim Keller teaching a nine-part series on marriage. I listened to them over and over again, for many years each year on my anniversary. I learned that “in Christ, I can trust that I am more selfish than my worst nightmare and more loved and accepted than I ever dared dream.” This quote he drew from his mentor Jack Miller gave me the courage to own my stuff in marriage, learn forgiveness and enjoy our love that flowed not from a ‘high-performing marriage,’ but a ‘grace-flowing marriage.’ (The Meaning of Marriage)
2. The gospel is good news for everyone. I had learned the gospel as truths that formed the basis of a doctrine, that formed a basis for life. The gospel is a report that something happened in history that changed everything. God showed up, showed us what it means to be human, died to redeem our inhumanity and released to us a power (His Holy Spirit) that will change us and our future. This isn’t words, this is a life-giving message changing everything. This challenged me to not build a ministry on my talents, on a model, but upon the life-giving (and church-forming) power of a simple message. (Jesus the King, Encounters with Jesus, The Prodigal Prophet, Gospel in Life)
3. The gospel is not only how we start in the faith, it is how we continue in the faith. I learned to say that “we are saved by grace through faith and we grow by grace through faith.” Jesus not only came to forgive us but to heal us, transform us, and ultimately glorify us to be like Jesus himself. (Galatians For You)
4. Every single one of us will do anything we can to avoid God as savior. Some of us will run from him in immorality and some of us will run away from him through high-performance faith, but all of us are resistant to grace. Because if grace is true, then there is nothing that God cannot ask of me. It is my control issues that drive me to avoid God as savior. (The Prodigal God)
5. Our Faith is Reasonable. I share a similar story with Tim Keller. Each of us came to faith in college and then learned our faith in a ministry called Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. We then each spent time at Westminster Theological Seminary. I learned the simple truth that if God has created all things, the order of all things holds together with a knowledge of God, and without a clear understanding of God at the center, our worldviews, and lifestyles will eventually fail us. Cornelius Van Til pioneered presuppositional apologetics, but Tim Keller made it practical as he appealed to secularists and skeptics with the reasonableness of the Christian faith. Tim Keller modeled for me and gave me hope that we can speak about the depths of the Christian faith in such a way that any outsider can understand and feel like they are neither shamed or spoken down to. He modeled how to challenge unbelief, yet maintain a winsome spirit. (The Reason For God, Preaching, Counterfeit Gods, Making Sense of God)
6. Mercy and care for the poor are signs of true faith. Before Dr. Keller moved to NYC in 1989, he spent much of the 80s in the Philadelphia area earning his Doctorate and leading the mercy component of his denomination, the Presbyterian Church of America. His call to all people to be engaged in serving the poor continues to challenge me and should challenge every congregation and individual to be purposeful in serving the poor. Serving the poor is not a ministry I do for Jesus. Serving the poor is a way that Jesus ministers to me. (Ministries of Mercy)
7. The goal of a church isn’t to grow, but to multiply. A gospel-believing church can become a movement. Redeemer, the church Tim Keller formed used its platform to foster the planting of hundreds of other churches in its own city and in cities around the world. The church is the most powerful plausibility structure for hope the world will ever see. (Center Church)
8. Vocation is central to our faith. Whether a person is a pastor or a painter, a teacher or a tech-head, what we do with the best hours of our days is a central part of our calling in life. It is essential for each of us to think about our profession through the lens of the gospel. How does what “I do,” reveal God? “How does the work I do glorify Him?” Often, we are told that we are sent to our jobs to be an influence, but before that, we are sent to do something that honors God. Each of us are called to see God honored in every good endeavor. (Every Good Endeavor)
9. How to grow up. Twenty-one years ago, I was a pastoral intern before Tim Keller started writing books. A friend of mine and I called Redeemer and asked if we could take Tim Keller to lunch and learn from him. The assistant I spoke with politely said, “No,” but then told me to call Kathy (his wife). At that point, Tim was getting attention because of his preaching and success, so he and Kathy arranged a simple “Pastor’s Conference.” For $50 (I am not joking here), we would attend church on Sunday morning and Sunday evening, then go to his house on Roosevelt Island and hang with the Kellers and other pastors. The next day, we would join their staff meeting and meet with a variety of their staff leadership. One of my favorite $50 investments.
It was then that I saw Tim Keller as a simple follower of Jesus like me and that I could learn to follow Jesus the way he was following Jesus. As he hit the later stages of his career, I noticed how much he began talking about prayer, and how he saw prayer as foundational to his life and ministry. This has coincided with me finding my heart moving more and more towards wanting a greater connection to Jesus in prayer. Tim Keller isn’t my only mentor there, but I am grateful for a man who trusted Jesus, lived out the gospel, struggled with challenges, and finished his life strong alongside of his wife, praying. (Prayer)
-Marc
