June 5, 2023
June 11 | Application (‘Accept No Substitutes for God’)
Pagans aren’t the only ones who worship idols. God’s covenant people sometimes make the same mistake. . . .
Articles for tag: Tim Keller
May 24, 2023
Remembering Tim Keller: 6 Christian Church Leaders Discuss His Impact
Tim Keller, renowned pastor, speaker, and best-selling author, died Friday. Several Christian Church leaders shared with us how Keller impacted their lives and ministries. . . .
May 1, 2023
Gradations of Unity
By Tyler McKenzie A recent Love Thy Neighborhood podcast detailed how fake news spreads in the church. They told a story from the 2016 election as a case study. On November 5, 2016, just three days before the presidential election, the Denver Guardian ran this headline: “FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide.” The article stated that FBI agent Michael Brown and his wife were found dead in their home. The web article looked legit. It included quotes from the local police chief, comments from neighbors, and links to online sources claiming it was a
July 1, 2022
8 Ways Church Growth Has Reached an Idolatrous Level (Part 1)
By Tyler McKenzie I love the church. That’s why I would like to suggest that pursuit of church growth by some leaders has reached an idolatrous level. Growth has become synonymous with health and success. It’s why we invest so many resources in the weekend gathering. It’s why we platform the leaders we do. Having led a large congregation for a decade now, I’ve experienced some of the lusts and obsessions in my own heart. Growth shouldn’t be the main thing. Tim Keller wrote in “Leadership and Church Size Dynamics,” Out of necessity, the large church must use organizational
August 10, 2020
Halting the Downward Cycle (Aug. 16 Lesson Application)
By David Faust “Sin blinds you, then it binds you, then it grinds you.” I don’t know who first said those words, but they ring true. Disobedience to God leads to a downward cycle. “After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:15)—and that’s true on both a personal level and a societal level. Someone observed, “First we overlook evil. Then we permit evil. Then we legalize evil. Then we promote evil. Then we celebrate evil. Then we persecute anyone who still calls it evil.” There are two
July 22, 2019
Why We Must Go to the Cities
God’s Word, Urbanization, Generational Shifts Compel Us to Plant Urban Churches Now By Nathan “Chivo” Hawkins and Josie Barton People are drawn to cities for many reasons: education, employment, entertainment, economic and social opportunities. People have also been overwhelmed by cities; the exposure to poverty, illness, and other symptoms of brokenness have caused many people to flee urban centers. But whether pulled or repulsed, the Great Commission compels us to minister in cities. Biblical Rationale for Urban Ministry Social justice has become such a buzz phrase that followers of Jesus might dismiss urban ministry as a fad. Yet, we have
August 19, 2017
Urban Church Planting: A Conversation with Eric Metcalf
By David Dummitt When I was first invited to write an article about urban church planting, I planned to write about trends, research, data, and the like. But after thinking about it some more, I decided that rather than share my thoughts, it would be more powerful to share the insights of someone in the proverbial trenches of urban church planting. I recently sat down with Eric Metcalf, a colleague, fellow church planter, and friend. Eric and his wife, Erin, are church planters in downtown Chicago. Eric is also the residency catalyst for NewThing. Their passion for the Jesus mission,
December 2, 2015
Christmas: It”s a Heart Thing
By Jim Tune In his excellent book simply titled Preaching, Tim Keller commits an entire chapter to the notion and need for preachers to preach Christ to the heart. “Preaching,” according to Keller, “cannot simply be accurate and sound. It must capture the listeners” interest and imaginations; it must be compelling and penetrate to their hearts. It is possible merely to assert and confront and feel we have been very “˜valiant for truth,” but if you are dry or tedious, people will not repent and believe the right doctrine you present.” Arguing that we should preach “wondrously,” Keller contends that
October 6, 2015
About Face
By Mark A. Taylor Yesterday we posted the first in a series of posts this month about integrity. We believe each one will challenge readers to grow deeper, to actually become in greater measure what they seem to be and what they say they want to be. But one aspect needs fuller discussion. None of our other posts specifically addresses how our prayer lives are a measure of our integrity. Yesterday’s post by Randy Gariss touches the issue with his list of four disciplines to achieve integrity. Correctly, he begins with worship, and certainly he includes prayer as a part of that. We posted Gariss”s essay first
July 30, 2015
Becky Ahlberg’s Thought Leaders
We asked 35 Christian leaders, “Who is the influencer with the biggest impact on your life and ministry?” Most of these leaders listed several influential thinkers, writers, innovators, and leaders more of us should get to know. This response is from Becky Ahlberg, executive director of My Safe Harbor, Anaheim, California. ________ This was a difficult assignment. When you”ve been in the ministry for 45 years, you”ve had to do A LOT of thinking! The question also comes at an interesting time in my life when so many of the thought leaders that shaped me and my choices are either gone
July 28, 2015
Aaron Wymer’s Thought Leaders
We asked 35 Christian leaders, “Who is the influencer with the biggest impact on your life and ministry?” Most of these leaders listed several influential thinkers, writers, innovators, and leaders more of us should get to know. This response is from Aaron Wymer, senior minister with Grandview Christian Church, Johnson City, Tennessee. ________ Noticeably missing from this list are my professors from Emmanuel Christian Seminary in Johnson City, Tennessee, yet they were all instrumental in forming me and pointing me in the direction I have traveled. It seemed unfair to mention one of them and not another, so I left them off
July 25, 2015
Jeff Walling’s Thought Leaders
We asked 35 Christian leaders, “Who is the influencer with the biggest impact on your life and ministry?” Most of these leaders listed several influential thinkers, writers, innovators, and leaders more of us should get to know. This response is from Jeff Walling, founding director of the Youth Leadership Initiative at Pepperdine University, Malibu, California. ________ The thoughts and writings of Tim Keller, John Ortberg, Bob Goff, Thomas Merton, and C.S. Lewis have all been recently impacting how I think about Scripture. While hardly a new name among Christian authors, C.S. Lewis”s words still vibrate with deep spirituality and practical wisdom. Lewis
July 17, 2015
Ethan Magness’s Thought Leaders
We asked 35 Christian leaders, “Who is the influencer with the biggest impact on your life and ministry?” Most of these leaders listed several influential thinkers, writers, innovators, and leaders more of us should get to know. This response is from Ethan Magness, pastor of spiritual formation with Mountain Christian Church, Joppa, Maryland. ________ I feel like I am learning so much right now in ministry. So many people are participating in fruitful experiments of ministry and biblical study, and I am grateful to get to learn from them. Here are a few who are especially influential to me right now. In
July 15, 2015
Thomas F. Jones Jr.’s Thought Leaders
We asked 35 Christian leaders, “Who is the influencer with the biggest impact on your life and ministry?” Most of these leaders listed several influential thinkers, writers, innovators, and leaders more of us should get to know. This response is from Thomas F. Jones Jr., executive director of Stadia, Irvine, California. ________ Wess Stafford, president emeritus of Compassion International: Wess is an extraordinary leader who grew Compassion International, a child advocacy organization that works only through the local church, to one of the world”s leading nonprofits. Most important, he has helped shape the world”s thinking about the importance of giving hope to
July 10, 2015
Nate Bush’s Thought Leaders
We asked 35 Christian leaders, “Who is the influencer with the biggest impact on your life and ministry?” Most of these leaders listed several influential thinkers, writers, innovators, and leaders more of us should get to know. This response is from Nate Bush, lead pastor with New City Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico. ________ Very few communicators can seamlessly weave the biblical text, its psychological implications, and its place in the contemporary world like Tim Keller. Many years ago, while I was at Reformed Theological Seminary and teaching in my first ministry, I discovered Keller”s course “Preaching the Gospel in the Post-Modern World”;
December 16, 2014
What Does “˜Justice” Mean?
By Chris Travis Generous Justice Timothy Keller New York: Riverhead, 2010 In Generous Justice, Tim Keller leads us through a straightforward, well-reasoned, and brief but comprehensive survey of what the Bible says about justice. It”s eye-opening to see how much emphasis God puts on justice in Scripture. This is a particularly relevant book in the wake of socially volatile situations like this summer”s shooting of Michael Brown and ensuing protests in Ferguson, Missouri. There is so much impassioned public discourse about what”s right and wrong, and not nearly enough deep contemplation about what the Bible actually says about justice. Generous
September 8, 2013
Phoenix: New Approaches at New City
By Brian Kruckenberg “Do you own this gallery?” (As a pastor of a local church, it wasn”t a question I had ever expected to be asked.) “Well, sort of. Yes.” (Not the most eloquent answer, perhaps, but an honest one.) Over the past two and one-half years, I have been asked that question, and similar ones, time and time again in a place we call the New City Studio, one of New City Church”s venues. New City Studio is the place we intersect the message of the gospel with the world of art. I am pastor of this church, started
October 3, 2011
Lesson for Oct. 9, 2011: Valuing True Wisdom (Ecclesiastes 9:13″“10:20)
This week”s treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson (for October 9, 2011) is written by Russ Howard who serves as minister with LifeSpring Westside in Cincinnati, Ohio. ____________ Valuing True Wisdom (Ecclesiastes 9:13″“10:20) By Russ Howard Some time ago, we invited a young friend to dinner. My wife has a reputation as a great cook, and everyone, it seems, was telling him he was in for a treat. He arrived at our door with high expectations. We sat down at the table, prayed, and filled our plates. Fresh vegetables, baked potatoes, and roasted pork. We had just purchased a
May 11, 2011
Reading the Book Rarely Opened
By Diane Stortz I remember sitting in first-grade reading circle when the letters in the large book in front of me suddenly formed words. Sit, Spot. Run, Jane. Run, Dick. I could read! From then on I read nearly nonstop. Cereal boxes on the breakfast table. My Brownie and Girl Scout handbooks. Stacks and stacks of library books. “Dear Abby” in the newspaper. College texts. Magazines. Self-help tomes. But one book I rarely opened. And when I did, it mystified me. The Bible. In high school I bought myself a New Testament. For college graduation I asked for and received
November 15, 2009
Growing Leaders in a Young Church: Interior and Exterior
By Steve Cuss I used to believe that a good-hearted pastor with a strong work ethic and a vision from God could lead a thriving local church. Four years into my own journey, four churches around us have closed their doors. In order to thrive, I”ve learned to focus on the interior life of the leader and the exterior structure of the church. Your Interior Life Baptize your calendar!“”I”m convinced my calendar is a pagan””possibly even a devil worshiper. It can run my life ragged if I”m not careful, keeping me so consumed with details that I neglect my fundamental
