Tim Keller

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Timothy J. Keller (born 1950) is an American author, speaker, and the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in New York City, New York.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Keller was raised in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Bucknell University (B.A., 1972), Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (M.Div., 1975), and Westminster Theological Seminary, where he received his D.Min in 1981.[1] He became a Christian at university due to the ministry of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, with which he later served as a staff member.[2] He was ordained by the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and served as a pastor in Virginia for nine years, while also serving as director of church planting for the PCA.[3] He also served on the faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he and his wife Kathy were involved in urban ministry, and he continues as an adjunct professor of practical theology.[4] Keller lives on Roosevelt Island in New York City with his wife, Kathy. They have three sons, David, Michael, and Jonathan. [2]

Keller was asked by the PCA to start Redeemer in 1989 despite his relative lack of experience and after two others had turned down the position.[3] The church grew from 50 people to total attendance of over 5,000 people each Sunday as of early 2008, leading many to call him "the most successful Christian Evangelist in the city."[5][3] His target audience consists mainly of urban professionals, whom he believes exhibit disproportionate influence over the culture and its ideas,[6] and in his preaching, "he hardly shrinks from difficult Christian truths, [but] he sounds different from many of the shrill evangelical voices in the public sphere."[3] Indeed, he shuns the label "evangelical" because of its political and fundamentalist connotation, preferring to call himself simply orthodox because "he believes in the importance of personal conversion or being 'born again,' and the full authority of the Bible."[3]

Redeemer started a church planting center in 2001 and has helped start over 100 churches of various denominations in the New York City area and around the world, and The New York Times reports that "pastors from around the world are beginning to come in a steady stream to New York City to glean what they can from Dr. Keller and Redeemer."[3][7] Keller, once the director of his denomination's mercy ministries, has always emphasized Christian service and charity, both in his own church's members and in those the center trains to plant urban churches.[3]

Redeemer, according to Christianity Today, is "one of Manhattan's most vital congregations"[7] and, according to a 2006 survey of 2000 American church leaders, is the sixteenth most influential church in America.[8]

[edit] Books

  • Resources for deacons: Love expressed through mercy ministries (Christian Education and Publications, 1985) ISBN 0-9703541-6-9
  • Contributor to Center City Churches: The New Urban Frontier edited by Lyle E. Schaller (Abingdon Press, 1993) ISBN 0-687-04802-8
  • Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road (P & R Publishing, 1997) ISBN 0-87552-217-3
  • Contributor to It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God edited by Ned Bustard (Square Halo Books, 2000) ISBN 978-0978509712
  • Church planter manual (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2002)
  • Contributor to Worship by the Book edited by D. A. Carson (Zondervan, 2002) ISBN 0-310-21625-7
  • The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (Dutton Adult, February 2008) ISBN 0-525-95049-4

[edit] References

  1. ^ Westminster Faculty - Part Time (via the Internet Archive). Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
  2. ^ a b Speaker biography for a Christian Life Conference (via the Internet Archive) (2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Michael Luo. "Preaching the Word and Quoting the Voice", The New York Times, February 26, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-03-28. 
  4. ^ Timothy Keller. Post-everythings. byFaith magazine, republished by Westminster Theological Seminary. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
  5. ^ "The Influentials: Religion" (2006). New York Magazine. 
  6. ^ Tim Keller (May 2006). "A New Kind of Urban Christian". Christianity Today. 
  7. ^ a b Tony Carnes (December 2004). "New York's New Hope". Christianity Today. 
  8. ^ 50 Most Influential Churches. The Church Report (July 2006). Retrieved on 2007-03-28.

[edit] External links