Why I’m Thankful for Tim Keller
Tim Keller was one of the greatest gifts to church planting the PCA has ever known. His ministry was also a great blessing to me, personally. I was privileged to meet Tim only once when he was speaking at a church planter conference in Texas. The encounter was brief, but it was also warm and delightful. His lectures were both culturally penetrating and accessible, a rare blend. Like so many others, though, not having a personal relationship with Tim did not diminish his impact on my life and ministry.
I first came to hear about Tim in the mid-90s while in seminary at Covenant. News of his flourishing church plant in secular New York was almost unbelievable. Yet, when one listened to his sermons, it was clear God had given a gift to his Church. Not only were his sermons doctrinally sound, expository, and Christ-centered, but Tim showed how the Gospel is a more compelling and persuasive alternative to contemporary idolatries. I have never heard a sermon by Tim where I was not moved in my whole person to greater devotion to Christ and a deeper commitment to his mission.
His preaching, however, was not the only thing captivating about his ministry. In the early 2000s, as a young campus minister I was most drawn to his vision for urban church planting. Though the new Southwest Church Planting Network (SWCPN) was not directly connected to the Redeemer-NYC network, the emerging philosophy of ministry associated with Redeemer was already exerting an influence in the southwest in powerful ways. I was profoundly grateful.
In 2002, the SWCPN called me to launch a new PCA congregation in urban San Antonio. Of course, no one knows what they’re doing when they plant a church, I certainly didn’t, but I was confident Tim was a faithful guide. For this reason, I was eager to secure his church planting handbooks that were being used by those in the Redeemer Network and were the raw material for what later became Center Church. It wasn’t easy; they were like contraband in those days. After some effort, I was able to procure them from a friend, who doubtless, had violated some rule to pass them on. These handbooks became my constant companion for years. As I reflect on the church I was privileged to have a hand in planting and leading in San Antonio, I would say no voice was more influential than that of Tim Keller. Through his writings, preaching, and the entire church planting community that built up around his life, San Antonio’s Redeemer is indelibly marked by his ministry philosophy and vision.
A key aspect of Tim’s influence on Redeemer-San Antonio was our desire to be a church that planted churches and anchored ministry in the city and beyond, particularly ministries along the border of Mexico and deeper into Latin America. In God’s matchless grace, over the years those dreams came true in many ways. Among the most important was the partnership that began with the Tim Keller inspired City to City Latin America, a ministry devoted to planting churches, training church planters, and fostering church planting movements in Latin America.
More poignantly, however, this past week I had the privilege of preaching at a church planting conference co-sponsored by City-to-City Brasil in Sao Paulo. From day one, Tim’s presence was felt. Among its many ministries, the host church, one of the leading churches in Brasil, operates a vibrant publishing house devoted to translating important theological and practical texts into Portuguese. At the conference, they were debuting their latest effort, Keller’s How to Reach the West Again.
Joy turned to sadness when the news came that Tim had entered into his everlasting rest; the entire conference stopped. Three of us were asked to pray. I prayed in English, and my two co-laborers prayed, one in Spanish and one in Portuguese. It was a beautiful moment, and I could not help but think my presence in Sao Paulo was yet one more aspect of how the Lord had used Tim Keller in my life.
As many others have noted, Tim had a Gospel heart and life that shaped him as a pastor and touched the lives of those he interacted with regularly. Tim was a preacher and apologist for the faith in ways that evoked the brightest theologians, preachers, and Christian thinkers in history. But Tim also possessed another rare gift, one which could be described as kingdom vision. Though Tim’s race is run, the global reach and impact of City-to-City will reverberate for generations. Among the many contributions of Tim’s service to the church, we must not forget this one. Few have been more obedient to Christ’s words given to us in John 4:35, “I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”
