{"id":2034,"date":"2023-06-02T16:18:14","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T21:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelight.com\/?p=2034"},"modified":"2023-06-04T16:19:02","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T21:19:02","slug":"opinion-tim-keller-showed-me-what-a-christian-leader-should-be-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/02\/opinion-tim-keller-showed-me-what-a-christian-leader-should-be-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | Tim Keller Showed Me What a Christian Leader Should Be – The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While God is outside of time, may Tim Keller “now” be celebrating with Jesus as He honors Tim with the “Well done, good & faithful servant” award in the presence of all the saints. \u00a0Pastor Tim set a great example for me as well in not fighting the Culture Wars but in being as winsome as Jesus was in befriending non-Christians to the point where they knew He loved them and they wanted to love Him back as His newborn child.<\/p>\n

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\"OpinionTim\u2019s relationship with me was yet another example of his investment in people across difference. He was in a denomination that doesn\u2019t ordain women, and he believed the Bible calls for distinct roles for men and women within the church and the household. I am a woman who is an ordained priest. We discussed our disagreements openly, but the conversations were never hostile. We found far more unity in our mutual faith in Christ and commitment to the Bible than our differences could undo. Our theological differences about gender roles didn\u2019t keep him from supporting my work in ways he could. A few years ago, he found out I didn\u2019t have a literary agent, and chastised me, in a kind, concerned way. A week later his agent contacted me. Tim had called him. Even earlier this month, in his last weeks, when he was very sick, he made time to offer me wisdom and advice. Tim had nothing to gain from giving me his time. He was simply generous, even to the very end.<\/p>\n

In our last conversation, he spoke fondly about his ministry at Redeemer, his love for the church and his concerns about American Christians. As a pastor and Christian leader, Tim refused to be politically captive to either party. In a 2017 piece for The Times<\/a>, he wrote, \u201cWhile believers can register under a party affiliation and be active in politics, they should not identify the Christian church or faith with a political party,\u201d insisting that the church must never devolve into \u201cone more voting bloc aiming for power.\u201d He continued: \u201cFor example, following both the Bible and the early church, Christians should be committed to racial justice and the poor, but also to the understanding that sex is only for marriage and for nurturing family. One of those views seems liberal and the other looks oppressively conservative. The historical Christian positions on social issues do not fit into contemporary political alignments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tim was criticized by some for being too theologically conservative, by others for being too liberal, and by others for being too moderate. However, he never seemed bitter or upset by the criticism. He took it all in stride and encouraged me to as well, signing emails with advice like, \u201cKeep that skin thickening!\u201d<\/p>\n

Tim seemed so secure in his relationship with God that he wasn\u2019t threatened by anything \u2014 he was at ease with disagreement and difference, he did not fret over the future of the church, he did not even fear death. Some Christian critics say that the \u201cTim Keller model\u201d of engagement, his winsome, gentle approach to those with whom he disagreed, is outdated. They say that increased secularization and progressive hostility toward traditional Christianity requires the faithful to hit back, respond in kind, dominate or humiliate those who oppose us. But Tim wasn\u2019t kind, gentle and loving to others as some sort of strategy to win the culture wars, grow his church or achieve a particular result. Tim loved his neighbors, even across deep differences, simply because he was a man who had been transformed by the grace of Jesus. As he wrote in The Times, he believed and lived as if \u201cthe Gospel gives us the resources to love people who reject both our beliefs and us personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Christian Scriptures describe \u201cthe fruit of the Spirit\u201d \u2014 what grows in us as we walk with God \u2014 as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Tim\u2019s life was marked by these things. And these dispositions are not a political strategy. They are not a part of a brand. They are not a way to sell books, gain power, win culture wars or \u201ctake back America for Christ.\u201d Tim inhabited these ways of being, not as a means to any end, but as a response to his relationship with God and love for his neighbor. The last 10 years or so have been hard on orthodox or traditional Christians who are wary of Christian nationalism, hyperpartisanship and the politics of bitterness or resentment. \u201cKeller\u2019s passing leaves a void in the nascent movement to reform evangelicalism,\u201d wrote Michael Luo in<\/a> The New Yorker, \u201cand today\u2019s social and political currents make the prospects for change seem dim.\u201d<\/p>\n

This content was originally published here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While God is outside of time, may Tim Keller “now” be celebrating with Jesus as He honors Tim with the “Well done, good & faithful servant” award in the presence of all the saints. \u00a0Pastor Tim set a great example for me as well in not fighting the Culture Wars but in being as winsome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kHU7-wO","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Opinion-Tim-Keller-Showed-Me-What-a-Christian-Leader-Should-Be-The-New-York-Times.jpg?fit=1050%2C549","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2034"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2037,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2034\/revisions\/2037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}