So says Tim Keller:
(watch)
Tim Keller
“Jesus Lived Like Mother Teresa.” – Tim Keller
Tim Keller on “Doing Justice”
Highlights from an interview with Kevin DeYoung, the full text of which can be found here:
What is justice and what does it mean to do justice?
Doing justice means giving people their due. On the one hand that means restraining and punishing wrongdoers. On the other hand it means giving people what we owe them as beings in the image of God… Doing justice, then, includes everything from law enforcement to being generous to the poor.
Any cautions you would give to Christians who are eager to transform the world or make the shalom of the city their church’s mission?
I believe that making disciples and doing justice relate (not exactly) but somewhat in the same way that faith and works relate to one another.
We would say that faith alone is the basis for salvation, and yet true faith will always result in good works. We must not “load in” works as if they are an equal with faith as a salvation-base, but neither can we “detach” works and say that they are optional for a believer.
Similarly, I would say that the first thing I need to tell people when they come to church is “believe in Jesus,” not “do justice.” Why? Because first, believing in Jesus meets a more radical need and second, because if they don’t believe in Jesus they won’t have that gospel-motivation to do justice that I talk about in the book.
So there’s a priority there. On the other hand, for a church to not constantly disciple its people to “do justice” would be utterly wrong, because it is an important part of God’s will. I’m calling for an ‘asymmetrical balance’ here.
It seems to me that some churches try to “load in” doing justice as if it is equally important as believing in Jesus, but others, in fear of falling into the social gospel, do not preach or disciple their people to do justice at all. Both are wrong. A Biblical church should be highly evangelistic yet known for its commitment to the poor of the city.
Strategic Division
Intentional and strategic division is something we’re pursuing at my church. Tim Keller’s New York City church is doing the same – of course on a much larger scale. Redeemer Church plans to eventually divide into four distinct but networked congregations, each of which will try to plant another church.
Keller on the division:
“We enter a new season, that, God-willing, will last much longer than 20 years. Our ministry will now be ‘Go and Tell.’ Redeemer is going to systematically impart what theological and ministry wisdom we have to its people and empower them so that, instead of only inviting people in to hear teaching, they will in the power of the Spirit go out into the neighborhoods to love and winsomely share the biblical gospel themselves.
It means a culture of training such as we have never seen before at Redeemer. It means coming to grips with one of the most radical aspects of biblical teaching, that every single believer is a prophet, a priest, and a king, not just a bringer and attendee. According to Jesus, ‘the least’ Christian is endowed with the Spirit and is ‘greater than John the Baptist’ (Matt 11:9-11).
It also means raising up a new generation of pastor-leaders. The vision is for a family of eight to twelve sister churches-covering Manhattan—ministering in their communities.”
And on his “successors”:
“My ‘successors’ are a new generation of a half-dozen to a dozen pastors. The difficulty is that to even talk of this as a ‘succession plan’ gives the impression I’m stepping out of my job and retiring soon, but I’m not. I’m 59, and we expect the transition to take eight to ten years. So we don’t call it a succession plan, but that’s what it ultimately is, among other things.”
Eight to ten years. That’s a lengthy transition plan.
Division is not always bad. Done intentionally it can be a means of spiritual and numerical growth. Here’s hoping that the days of “We need a bigger building!” as the only means of growth are behind us.
8 Traits Of An Older Brother
In our haste to name things, we often call the parable found in Luke 15 “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” but the parable is as much about the older brother as it is the younger. In fact some (like Tim Keller) would argue that it is actually MORE about the older brother.
If you grew up in the church – like I did – you are probably more like the older brother. Here is a list of traits that I can certainly identify with.
1. We think highly of ourselves
We think so highly of ourselves that we expect God to think like us instead of the other way around. Grace doesn’t work according to our logic. It doesn’t make sense to us that it does two things simultaneously:
1. If overlooks wrong
2. While it transforms repentant sinners
“It can’t do both – it’s not fair! Prodigals can come back but we should never forget what they’ve done. If we do they’ll think they can do it again without consequence!”
2. We have a “good reputation”
We’re thought of (by others and ourselves) as “good”… not having major faults… not really struggling with sin. The reality is that we’re just better at hiding these things.
3. We take pride in our consistency
We’ve been here the whole time, going to church! We’ve had to sit through all the poorly performed worship songs, all the badly delivered sermons. Those prodigals need to do the same before we can see them as equals!
4. We save our freedom for future reward
Prodigals use their freedom to experience and consume. This is the path of self-discovery. Their thinking is that unused freedom is wasted freedom.
Older brothers resist using their freedom. Instead we save it up, thinking of it as an investment that will compound like money saved inside a mutual fund, doubling in size every 10 years or so. Our thinking is that freedom used NOW is freedom wasted and that by saving and sacrificing now we’ll have more and will be able to get more later than we ever could now. Self-denial now in exchange for lavish self-indulgence later.
5. We need prodigals to make us look better
Older brothers need prodigals because they provide us with an easy comparison to rise above. “Your extravagant sin makes me look better – it takes the attention off my minor faults. Thank you!”
When the father says, “He was dead but now he’s alive!” we mutter, “I wish he was still dead. It was better for me that way.”
6. We harbor unacknowledged envy
When the prodigal returns, his life is turned upside-down because he discovers that his father loves by different rules than he does. He has been out doing all the things that the older brother, in truth, would also love to be doing but doesn’t because he believes he is storing up extra grace for himself.
Is this perhaps one reason why we too react badly when a prodigal returns? Do we harbor some envy at the life of wine, women, and song (or “wine coolers, firemen, and dance music” for the ladies) they’ve experienced?
It causes us to question: What has all my self-denial been good for?!?!
7. We think God owes us
Because of this we sometimes see grace as a bit of a rip-off. Partly because we don’t think we need very much of it, but also because grace dictates that obedience can never be a way to obtain rights.
If your perception of your relationship with God is that you think you’ve earned something or that you’ve done so much good that God owes you something, you are in danger. This is typical older brother thinking.
8. We are likely to be punitive
We take a punitive position on prodigals. We say that they need to pay for what they’ve done – in essence to pay their way up to our status level. But that’s not the way grace works. If it did it wouldn’t be grace.
On the rare occasion that a prodigal returns, do they see in you a father waiting with open arms or the scowling face of an older brother?
To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World
I bought a big nerdy present for myself for my birthday yesterday: I ordered this book by James Davison Hunter: To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World.
Are you nerdy enough to read it together with me and discuss it chapter by chapter? If so, order it at Amazon or CBD.
I ordered it after reading this interview and the following endorsements by Charles Taylor and Tim Keller:
“How should Christians act in the world? The dominant answer in America today seems to be: through politics. But the major model of Christian political action, visible most obviously but not exclusively in the Christian Right, 
has been a politics fuelled by resentment and a sense of victimization, actuated by a strong will to power, and a propensity to demonize its opponents.
This politics is a capitulation to the worst elements of the contemporary culture it claims to be redeeming. Hunter offers an acute end penetrating analysis of this paradoxical and distressing phenomenon, and carefully charts an alternative course for contemporary Christians, a form of ‘faithful presence’ within culture and society. The book is brimful of insightful challenges to our conventional understanding of things, and of inspiring suggestions for a new departure.”
– Charles Taylor, author of A Secular Age
“No writer or thinker has taught me as much as James Hunter has about this all-important and complex subject of how culture is changed.”
–Tim Keller, author of The Reason For God
Publisher’s description of the book:
The call to make the world a better place is inherent in the Christian belief and practice. But why have efforts to change the world by Christians so often failed or gone tragically awry? And how might Christians in the 21st century live in ways that have integrity with their traditions and are more truly transformative?
In To Change the World, James Davison Hunter offers persuasive–and provocative–answers to these questions. Hunter begins with a penetrating appraisal of the most popular models of world-changing among Christians today, highlighting the ways they are inherently flawed and therefore incapable of generating the change to which they aspire.
Because change implies power, all Christian eventually embrace strategies of political engagement. Hunter offers a trenchant critique of the political theologies of the Christian Right and Left and the Neo-Anabaptists, taking on many respected leaders, from Charles Colson to Jim Wallis and Stanley Hauerwas.
Hunter argues that all too often these political theologies worsen the very problems they are designed to solve. What is really needed is a different paradigm of Christian engagement with the world, one that Hunter calls “faithful presence” – an ideal of Christian practice that is not only individual but institutional; a model that plays out not only in all relationships but in our work and all spheres of social life. He offers real-life examples, large and small, of what can be accomplished through the practice of “faithful presence.”
Such practices will be more fruitful, Hunter argues, more exemplary, and more deeply transfiguring than any more overtly ambitious attempts can ever be. Written with keen insight, deep faith, and profound historical grasp, To Change the World will forever change the way Christians view and talk about their role in the modern world.
Interested in reading it together and discussing it online? Order it at Amazon or CBD.
Liveblogging “The Leadership Summit” – 5 – Tim Keller
Session 3 – Leading People to the Prodigal God (Tim Keller)
Next up, the reason I’m here in the first place: Tim Keller.
I say, “the reason I’m here” because I probably would have declined the invitation if I hadn’t seen Keller’s name. That would have been a mistake. The previous speaker (Gary Hamel) was phenomenal and covered most of the same points that Dan Rempel and I covered in our session at the EMMC Gathering 09. I’ll be looking into him some more.
But first a musical number by a kid named Josh Wilson. He did a killer instrumental arrangement of Amazing Grace, and then using live loops did an original number.
What a fantastic opportunity, playing via satellite to approximately 120,000 people. How do you land a gig like that?
On to Tim Keller:
Younger brother is like the sinners around Jesus; older brother is the Pharisees around Jesus. The story is for us, the religious people. Both are alienated from the father, who represents God.
Younger brother gets the money by being bad; older brother gets it by being good. Its more difficult for the good person to repent. The bad boy is found in spite of his badness; the good son is lost BECAUSE of his goodness.
The condition of our hearts is so persistent that we keep going back to religion. When things go bad, elder brothers get furious, because they think God owes them because of their good behavior.
Older brothers very rarely enjoy God. They pray a lot when things are bad and not at all when things are good. They loathe people who disagree with them.
You can’t stay angry and bitter with someone unless you think you’re better than them. They are sensitive about criticism but merciless in criticizing others. Repentance becomes a matter of pride.
Control, control, control… over self, over others, ultimately over God.
You must repent for your reasons for right doing. He quotes John Gerstner as having said, “There is nothing that separates us from God more than our damnable good works.”
Revival/renewal is not a system of steps. The Gospel is not religion or irreligion. Its not moralism but it’s also not “live any way you want”.
Keller’s 5 Things
1. Leaders – work this into your own heart. Expereince revival yourself. We try to help others to gain self-fulfillment. This is elder brother behavior.
2. If you’re a preacher/teacher, always move beyond biblical principles to the gospel. All sin is a result of doubting the gospel. Never end the teaching without pointing out Jesus bearing on the topic. Psalm 23 application. Make
3. Get a group of leaders together and take them through a book like The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
4. Work it into the congregation
5. [I don’t think he got to five. He was pressed for time.]
One evidence that renewal is taking root is gracious disagreements.
Keller ends with prayer – the first speaker to do so
[Side note: Why is it that Keller, who is pretty lock-step with Piper and Carson, gains a hearing amongst the non-Calvinist, egalitarian crowd? Style and delivery make a huge difference. The same goes for Ed Stetzer.
On another note of interest, at the bookstore and on the literature, Driscoll and Brashears’ “Vintage Church” is on sale.]
Tim Keller on Contextualization
From a two-part interview with Darryl Dash:
That is the practical question in ministry. If you under-contextualize your ministry and message, no one’s life will be changed because they’ll be too confused about what you are saying. But if you over-contextualize your ministry and your message, no one’s life will be changed because you won’t really be confronting them and calling them to make deep change.
If this scares you and you say, “Well then let’s not even try it,” then you have to remember something: to over-contextualize to a new generation means you can make an idol out of their culture, but to under-contextualize to a new generation means you can make an idol out of the culture you come from. So there’s no avoiding it.
There’s far more to say about this subject, but I’ll just give you one bit of advice. The gospel is the key. If you don’t have a deep grasp on the gospel of grace, you will either over-contextualize because you want so desperately to be liked and popular, or you will under-contextualize because you are self-righteous and proud and so sure you are right about everything. The gospel makes you humble enough to listen and adapt to non-believers, but confident and happy enough that you don’t need their approval.