Christian Renewal in Manhattan.

While I was at the Superior Court today waiting to find if I would be picked as a juror I began thumbing through some magazines that were brought in. One that caught my eye was Christianity Today and an article in it entitled "How Tim Keller Found Manhattan." I heard of Tim Keller years ago from a friend who has extremely high regard for the man but I knew nothing about him so I was interested to investigate.

He is the Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan. He started his own ministry in the city in 1989 and has since seen it expand to five services at three different locations that he preaches at. Keller has helped to plant 65 other churches (of which only ten are his own denomination). He is a strong believer in God's ability to use different denominations as distinct tools to bring others to Christ.

I wanted to share some of the words he gave for this article. The magazine details how he believes that all human being are equally defined by the their original creation into innocence and fall into sin. Keller states that, "nonbelievers are far better than their wrong beliefs should make them, and we Christians are far worse than our beliefs should make us." It is a great explanation of the hypocrisy that we all possess and helped me to more greatly understand our need for grace. A Christian can turn only to God for righteousness and salvation if he knows that there is nothing that makes him inherently better than another. All men are created in God's image whether broken or restored.

On detailing his approach to moral relativists whose response to his call to understand the first commandment (to have no other gods) is "That's just your opinion," he responds: "When you say the ultimate sin is to put things in the place of God you take that argument away. You find that they say, 'Hmm, I don't know if there is a God.' When I describe sin in such a way that people wish there were a God, I'm making progress."

So what is the response to the life of grace that this attraction to God should produce in those who come to Christ? Or, in the words of Francis Schaeffer, "How shall we then live?" Keller's response is to speak of church in saying that, "The difference between a solid church and a terrible church is pretty much up to you. The difference between a solid church and incredible success has almost nothing to do with you at all. It's like you are out there paddling on your surfboard, and suddenly the wave comes and you ride in, standing up like you're a Greek god. That has everything to do with the wave."


That wave is the Spirit as it rushes upon us and strengthens us to do the works of God, whether great or small.