Tim Keller is popular among segments of communities dedicated to reformed theology, presbyterianism, church planting and preaching.
He has led the planting of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York. His books include ‘The Prodigal God’ (reviewed here), The Reason For God and The Call Of The Jericho Road.
He is also one of the figures supporting the Gospel Coalition.
If you’ve been reading you’ll know that the leadership of mgpc have been struggling to grow ourselves as an intentionally led and pursposeful church.
So, this quote from Keller stood out to me. This is exerpted from a blog post here, in which Keller comments about having spoken at a leadership conference hosted by the Willow Creek Church planting network:
“John Frame’s ‘tri-perspectivalism’ helps me understand Willow. The Willow Creek style churches have a ‘kingly’ emphasis on leadership, strategic thinking, and wise administration. The danger there is that the mechanical obscures how organic and spontaneous church life can be. The Reformed churches have a ‘prophetic’ emphasis on preaching, teaching, and doctrine. The danger there is that we can have a naïve and unBiblical view that, if we just expound the Word faithfully, everything else in the church – leader development, community building, stewardship of resources, unified vision – will just happen by themselves. The emerging churches have a ‘priestly’ emphasis on community, liturgy and sacraments, service and justice. The danger there is to view ‘community’ as the magic bullet in the same way Reformed people view preaching.’
I don’t really want to engage too much with his evaluations of the Willow Creek and Emergent movements. (Or even John Frame’s ‘tripersectivalism’) This is not a ‘watch blog’ where I carry out a full time ministry to pointing out errors in people or groups that we’ll never come into contact with.
What I want to do is focus on is the part of Keller’s quote relevant to our own situation at mgpc. We have a solid committment to preaching, teaching and doctrine, but have also expressed that ‘naïve and unBiblical view that, if we just expound the Word faithfully, everything else in the church – leader development, community building, stewardship of resources, unified vision – will just happen by themselves’.
Over the years I have characterised the same philosophy as ‘…if we preach it they will come…’ (Field of Dreams) I just have not been that good at being intentional.
It’s not an either/or. It’s actually a deficiency in our preaching, teaching and doctrine if we are not developing leaders, nurturing community, stewarding our resources and shaping our vision.
This is not about being like Keller, either. I’m trying to grow wiser about that sort of thing as well. I don’t think you can make a methodology out of one gifted individual’s fruitfulness in a particular situation.
We need to develop the balanced life of a Christian community, those elements that Keller identifies as the ‘kingly’ and the ‘priestly’ with the same commitment and purpose that we apply to our preaching and teaching emphasis.
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