comments about Keller

what people are saying about Tim Keller… also, check the world live web via technorati and via Google Blog Search for buzz around the internet and the blogosphere

• Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC, challenges preachers with this observation: “If you speak and discourse as if your whole neighborhood is present eventually more and more of your neighborhood will find their way in or be invited.” … So, the point of Tim Keller’s comment is: “Watch your tone.” (7/31/07)
• Tim [Keller is] the only source of education left since I have put my seminary schooling on hold… I started to ask myself in sermon preparation: “If Tim was preaching on this text, how would he close in on the Gospel?” — see the full blog post for a basic outline for Christ-centered, Gospel-motivated sermons (5/1/07)
• what Joshua Martin has learned from the indispensable ministry of Tim Keller:
  1. The gospel is not just an evangelism tool. It definately [sic] is that, but it is more than that. It changes us from one degree of glory to another.
  2. Pride and self-centeredness have made me honest. I will expound on that a little more in the next post to explain what that means.
  3. Everyone contextualizes.
  4. If you are justified by Christ, you can read literature from others of different theological convictions and benefit.
  5. All of us have functional saviors that we look at to justify us when we think that something is more important than Christ.
  6. Christians really struggle with idolatry, especially those who think they don’t.
  7. No one can exhaust the implications of the gospel.
• There are two ways to present the gospel. Tim Keller calls on a systematic-theological way to do it and a biblical-theological way to do it. We need both ways for different times and contexts. (5/16/07)
• Why I’ve found Keller so helpful lately: Keller opens up with a critique of where from his vantage point he sees “we” are at in our culture. … at the Harvard Veritas forum he’s engaging a modernist on the subject of religion in the public square. The modernist came to the forum … expecting a religious traditionalist and at one point notes “I was unprepared for how post-modern Dr. Keller is…” (1/3/07)
• Tim Keller speaks like no other pastor I’ve heard. He thinks differently, he frames things differently, he remembers authors and dates and titles offhand, and he speaks from tiny notecards instead of big outlines. (9/30/06)
• Tim Keller is by far one of spirtual hero’s. I love this dude, he is wise, smart, and urban. He loves church planting and he walks with incredible humility. (9/21/06)
• Tim Keller’s a pastor and theologian that I really respect and resonate with, not just because of his communication skills, but also for his biblical insights and passion to engage people in their culture and thoughts and whatnot in New York city… Keller brings up that each culture group has their own sort of “defeater” beliefs that causes them to doubt intellectually. … He engages them waaaaaaay better (in my opinion) than most people who just bring out more “old-school apologetic” answers and leave it at that. (9/16/06)
• Tim Keller ruins debate and ruins me. We’re in trouble. Tim Keller has done an outstanding job of clearing up the whole justice vs evangelism thing. (8/10/06)
• Recently, I have been researching a lot more into what it means to be “missional” in the local church. One of the purveyors of this notion is a little man called Tim Keller. To some, you have no clue who he is, but let’s just say he’s the pastor of a church called Redeemer Prebyterian Church in the heart of Urban New York City. He is in the TRENCHES of urban culture and his church is reaching out to so many in the city and planting other churches that is sharing Christ to many people. (6/28/06)
• Tim Keller gave us Resurgence guys about 6 hours of, well, brilliance. I don’t know what else to say. Wow. It raised lots of questions about non-missional churches. Lots of questions about churches that are mostly focused on “church,” “us” than Kingdom. (5/11/06)
• “I’ve had it with the “religion vs. relationship” sermon (I have heard it twice in the past month, and the last was by Tim Keller, who should know better!).” to which Tim Keller responds with a comment. (4/10/06)
• Keller’s chapter is undoubtedly more helpful than Ashton’s, if not only for the relevance it possesses for all evangelicals. By lifting himself above the “historic worship versus contemporary worship” wars, Keller is able to claim the high ground and then to show how Calvin’s way best leads us out of the theological fog surrounding worship in our churches today.
  … In contrast, Keller advocates the use of non-Christian musicians who possess the natural gifts of God … (03/25/06)
• ‘If you want to expose yourself to sermons that are consistently and beautifully gospel-centered, listen to Tim Keller. I agree with Mark Lauterbach when he says, “No one, and I mean no one, preaches Gospel saturated messages better than Tim Keller. Buy his sermons and see how the Gospel is everywhere in the Bible.”‘ (2/22/06)
• Keller had some interesting things to say about dating. He identifies both traditional and contemporary idols of marriage/singleness and offers some practical advice that avoids both of these and prompts faith. (2/14/06)
• (12/05/05) Pastor Keller went on to say that he keeps a piece of paper in his wallet that he tries to look at every day… it says:
  

  Are you anxious?
  Are you afraid of how you look?
  Are you getting down on yourself?
  Are you criticizing other people?
  Are other people’s criticisms devastating you?
  Are you looking down on anybody else?

  Court is adjourned.

• Tim Keller puts it this way: The Gospel is that I am far worse than I imagine and simultaneously more loved and accepted by God than I ever dared hope for — because of Jesus death for me. (11/2005)
• I have no doubt that it is the result of our view of the city, largely influenced by this vision. If Redeemer’s advantage is ‘Tim Keller’ then every church has the same advantage. There is an example to follow. (10/24/05)
• … I was convinced that Tim possessed what Jonathan Edwards called an “admirable conjuction of diverse excellencies” that would some day be recognized by a very broad and appreciative following. Tim was smart, indeed very, very smart; theologically astute, practically-oriented, pastorally committed and, on top of it all, personable. If he possessed the vicious edge of some of his fellow Pennsylvania Presbyterians, he concealed it much better than they did. (Dr. Bill Long, 8/29/05; cf. deconstructing a Redeemer worship service II)
• “… he has had such an impact on me through his writing, preaching, speaking and vision.” from Steve McCoy’s Tim Keller Articles list
• “… he was saying that we need wisdom more than anything, and Christ is wisdom enough for us all.” (8/15/05)
• “… it was something much more simple that Keller wrote that captured my attention: Many people do not know what it is that gives meaning to life but they know intuitively that life is meaningful. What I have found is that the meaning of life is the glory of God. All meaning is some aspect of the glory of God. If there is no God then nothing can have ultimate significance. The word glory means weight, it means significance–it basically means ‘meaning.’” (8/11/05)
• “… Keller is the best preacher alive.” (7/25/05)
• “what Tim Keller … calls ‘entering the culture’s stories and retelling them with the gospel’.” (12/09/04)
• “Timothy Keller Rocks!” (11/01/04)
• “Dr. Timothy Keller … gave an incredibly insightful sermon today (as usual). It was was based on proverbs, and primarily discussed sex, but he touched on some ideas that I’m glad to hear a male in the Christian community address… that men obssess over an artificial idea of women and what real beauty is, and they pass by 80% of women, who are completely wonderful people, and go for the superficial beauty, which may or may not result in finding a woman with a winning personality …” (10/24/04)
• “This morning though, Dr. Tim Keller … gave a most excellent message from 1 Corinthians 3:1-23 about divisions in the church and basically broke it down to the local church level and the broader church level.” (10/21/04)
• from ChadCanipe.com, quoting Keller: “Character is primary, because there is enormous pressure in the Christian ministry towards hypocrisy. Christian leadership in all its aspects means you have to tell people every day, “God is so wonderful!” This usually is not something you have to do daily in other walks of life. But in ministry, you have to be pointing people in one way or another to God to show his worth and beauty.”
• – from evangelism won’t be enough: postmodern converts need new mental categories by Greg Johnson
  

  “A looming crisis for all American evangelical churches is that they cannot thrive outside of the shrinking enclaves of conservative and traditional people and culture. We have not created the new ministry and communication… models that will flourish and grow in the coming post-Christian very secular Western world. Our vision should be to develop campus ministries, new churches, Christian education/discipleship systems that are effective in those fields in North America.”

• … the sermons of Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. His sermons are contemporary examples of what Paul meant by “we preach Christ crucified”. They are (sadly) exceptional.
  (August 2003)
• referred to by many as a modern day Martin Luther
• Keller offers his own views on why evangelicals are not engaged in showing compassion, among them, a fear of failure (the problems are too big to even try grappling with) as well as self-serving pride (God helps those who help themselves).
• … we, as humans, have three ways of reacting to any given situation: moralistically, hedonistically, or by holding fast to the gospel.
• … he has this constant theme throughout the sermons about how we add to the gospel… how it’s never jesus plus nothing… but jesus plus money, or sexual prowess, or our self righteousness, or just other stuff, how we refuse at times to let Jesus be the all in all in our lives.
• I attended Redeemer Presbyterian Church, and I was impressed. They do a good job there, and Pastor Tim Keller seems to embody the “Truth and Love” priorities so necessary for a good church.
• one of the best qualities of tk’s teaching as unflinching. he doesn’t side-step tough issues, but owns up to them. acknowledges and recognizes the difficulties, and re-frames them with Christian understanding. it’s like his willingness to face difficult issues of the Christian walk and theology is, to me, a witness of how much he affirms the bible, God’s revealed word, the gospel, to be Truth.
• from the Leaky Cauldron:
  Tim Keller, a conservative Presbyterian minister in Manhattan … stirred up controversy when he tried to praise “Harry Potter” in a sermon at his church, arguing that the books do a good job portraying evil as a force in the world, portraying the power of the supernatural, and glorifying the importance of sacrificial love as seen when Harry Potter’s mother dies saving her infant son.
  Keller said he has been criticized by a small but vocal group of people upset that he praised Potter. Keller rejects the criticism, saying it’s “somewhat inexplicable.” His wife, Kathy, is even more critical, saying “I learned that anything can be misused when one of our sons picked up a big Bible and clunked his brother on the head with it. But that doesn’t mean we banned Bibles.”