mgpcpastor's blog

What does Center Church (Timothy Keller, Zondervan Publishers, 2012) promise?
In Center Church, Timothy Keller seeks to provide “a particular theological vision for ministry that we believe will enable many churches to reach people in our day and time, particularly where late-modern Western globalisation is influencing the culture”. This vision also embraces “using the gospel in the lives of contemporary people, doing contextualisation, understanding cities, doing cultural engagement, discipling for mission, integrating various ministries, and fostering movement dynamics in your congregation and in the world”. (pg 25)
What I’m liking.
The layout and font size are helpful and make the material accessible.
The book breaks into three areas: Gospel, City, and Movement. These are further broken down: Gospel into Gospel Theology and Gospel Renewal; City into Gospel Contextualisation, City Vision, and Cultural Engagement; and Movement into Missional Community, Integrative Ministry, and Movement Dynamics.
Unusually sized, Center Church is unashamedly a text-book. It will occupy the curriculum of Bible and Theological Colleges and be text for course consideration. Chapter layouts are inductive and side boxes provide supplementary material and references. It is a book to study and lead to further study. Helpful summaries and discussion questions mark the transition between chapters.
Keller’s chapters on Gospel are clear about what the Gospel is, what the Gospel is not, and what accompanies the Gospel as authenticating outworking but which is not the Gospel itself. In affirming substitutionary atonement and the various images given in the Scriptures of God’s redeeming action, Keller does not play the thimble and pea game of affirming many atonement theories in order to move substitution from view. Rather the other atonement and salvation motifs enrich our understanding of the salvation Christ has achieved. This richness helps to explain the scope of Keller’s ministry and mission model, because the outworkings of the Gospel affects every area of life. The chapters on Gospel renewal outline what might be called the ordinary means through which renewal is brought about by God differentiating this from revivalism a movement which historically has truncated the Gospel and has, in some situations led the church to withdraw from wider societal engagement. Corporate and individual responses and outworkings are expressed as a balance which necessitates Gospel expression outwardly at proclamation and societal levels.
The City material is very interesting, particularly for those of us who live in rural contexts. Keller makes a case that cities are to be a focus for Gospel ministry, not only because lots of people live in those places in high concentration, but because they are centers where culture is formed, where productivity is maximised, and from which ideas spread. His material on ‘Two Kingdoms’ and ‘Transformationist’ theology is a helpful introduction of to these two expressions of reformed theological thought.
In the Movement section Keller contextualises the concept of ‘Missional’ church in 20th century Christian thought, moves on to identify six marks of a missional church, and then sets out to show how people (and the church) can be equipped for missional living. This includes connecting people to people, and people (corporately and individually) to the culture. Finally, church planting and cooperative evangelical movements are explored.
The material described above is presented in-depth, but accessibly. It flows inductively and is augmented by a number of illustrations. Indexing is helpful, further reading lists are provided, notes are at the end of chapters. Readers familiar with Keller’s other books will observe that the themes they deal with are all embraced and incorporated into the vision espoused here.
What I’m not sure about.
Honestly, I haven’t had time to digest Center Church. I’m sure there are those who by inclination, or because it’s their job, will take issue with various aspects of its content. But I think the integrity of its core message is sound. The book’s themes resonate with any pastor’s heart.
As a parish pastor this is the sort of book that requires a lot of time to work through, preferably with others. A six month unit at theological college would be nice. (We certainly had nothing like this when I studied.) Having watched the church growth movement go through small church and large church fads, through ‘Seeker Sensitive’ or ‘Promise Driven’ phases it’s easy to simply want to sit back, see what sticks around and wait for the next big thing. ‘Models of church/ministry’ can be promoted which are not transferable beyond individuals or specific contexts (sometimes not even replicable beyond the original context by those promoting the model). Keller is working very hard to present a convicting model which is not a fad, not locked to a particular culture, or dependent on an individual.
Keller’s model is attractive because it is Gospel centered, embraces individual and corporate outworkings, and does not sacrifice the centrality of the local church and the means of grace as central to Gospel ministry.
Even as a country church minister, the comprehensiveness of the ministry expression commended by Center Church is daunting yet evocative.
This book is not a superficial treatment of the subject matter, and hopefully the impressions contained above are helpful.

Timothy Keller’s Center Church is an important book for those in the evangelical tradition (particularly those in the Presbyterian/Reformed traditions) who yearn to see local Churches and Christians effectively carry out Gospel proclamation and ministry. It requires ongoing study and I look forward to being instructed and challenged by the various responses to it which I’m sure will follow.
Highly recommended.

The review copy of Center Church was provided by Zondervan Publishers’ Engaging Church Blog as part of their Center Church blog tour.
Provision of the book did not require the publication of a positive review.