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.
Here is an example of some of his wisdom of “Scripture as Foundation”… even in this postmodern age (a brief video interview from the desiringGod 06 conference preview)
Tim Keller – The Scripture as Foundation
If you are more interested in what Keller has to say and/or want to watch some of the other interviews on Mark Driscoll, Piper and David F. Wells, check out these two sites:
Tim Keller Resource by Steve K McCoy (The Reformissionary)
and
desiringGod 06 Video Interviews
I pray some of these resources will help us grow and learn in our own Toronto Chinese Church models which are in some serious need to being a missionary to our own areas.
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Heya Shu! Definitely good to see you sharing resources on Keller. I find there’s lots to learn from him also.
And definitel, ur last post about “If there are some of you who don’t like anything Emergent, this may not be for you”–I definitely agree… I felt my heart tightening up a tiny bit as I read. To some of those points I would say:
*be religiously real: we should seek opportunities to live redemptively, rather than opportunties to speak about redemption (McCoy)
*true obedience, I think, comes from faith. coz whatever does not come from faith is sin (Rom14).
from believing, from knowing+understanding, from hearing, from having Truth preached… I think we need our hearts & minds to be transformed +sanctified more by His truth so that obedience would naturally, reflexively from from our Spirit-filled/empowered life.
~after all, how can we imbibe a feeling about Jesus without knowing Jesus!?
*Lastly, I think where many emergents have gone astray on the wrong end of missional is that they’ve served the needs of the pomo culture so much that the Message of Redemption is neglected. (I reckon that the one thing all the lost need is Christ Jesus).
That’s my 2cents..Cheers mate, and GO ENGLAND!
Comment by sixsteps June 29, 2006 @ 8:21 pm-SDG
Alex my man, you have the truth part down
scripture is key, and I am all for truth being laid out… but some people do have questions that need answering and we have to start engaging them, like you said, at the LIVING aspect, not JUST in sound doctrine. Having a good doctrine is important, but equally, each christian has a responsibility to learn about God, and it’s not JUST through systematic theology 101 at Anywheresville Seminary.
Bottom line: I think it’s important and KEY to knowing Jesus and the Word.
I agree you need to know Jesus before you follow Him, BUT, there are things that a calvinist understands that Jesus’ death and ressurection has blessed people in this world and IS guiding some people’s actions, christian people or non-christian. Why I am still impartial to Emergent and their cause is because from my perspective, not all of them “have gone astray”. I do believe you can water down the gospel for your own purposes, but people have been doing that for centuries in the traditional evangelical church as well. I like Driscoll’s approach more myself personally (rather than McLaren’s) but at the same time, I have learned a tremendous amount from Emergent as well. They are one of the most humble theologians in terms of resources I have read, not all necessarily correct, but we all need to filter things out through the Word of God. Just like not all conservative theologians got it all down either…
Anyways, here’s to iron sharpening iron and a prayer for the Spirit to reveal the truth when He wants to reveal it to us in our lives.
cheers! (btw England got rocked… but so did Brasil :p)
Comment by Shu July 3, 2006 @ 9:50 pmI highly recommend his Q and A on the Redeemer Church site:
http://www.redeemer2.com/resources/index.cfm?fuseaction=media
Comment by ispan July 11, 2006 @ 2:35 pm