Remembering Tim Keller
A beloved pastor, a theological mentor, a thoughtful scholar, a humble leader
On Friday, Tim Keller passed away. I’ve been emotional thinking about his impact and about his loss to the church and the way he influenced my life and ministry. I didn’t have the opportunity to know him as a friend, only as a mentor from afar through books and writings. I did meet him one time, on a trip to New York in 2014. I had an open Wednesday evening and I decided to visit Redeemer. I wasn’t disappointed. I found him preaching on biblical sexual ethics. Afterward, I had a chance to meet him and tell him how much I appreciated his work.
His favorite books of mine:
A Reason for God (I’ve given this out more times than I can count) Preaching
The Dispatch asked me to write a tribute to Keller. Here is some of what I came up with:
Even just hours before dying Friday of pancreatic cancer at age 72, Tim Keller’s final public words indicate he left the world the same way he lived in it—telling others about his faith. “I’m ready to see Jesus,” he said Thursday night, according to his son Michael. “I can’t wait to see Jesus. Take me home.”
It’s hard to quantify the impact of Keller, an author, New York City pastor, scholar, and intellectual leader. In many ways, he became America’s pastor.
He began ministry humbly, as the pastor of Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Hopewell, Virginia. In the late 1980s his denomination—the Presbyterian Church in America—assigned him the task of finding someone to establish a new church in New York City. When no one else raised his hand, he did. As biographer Collin Hansen shares in his book, Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation, Keller thrust himself into the task of connecting the truths of the gospel with a city with a minuscule Evangelical presence, and thousands of New Yorkers converted to Christianity through the ministry of Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
Keller built Redeemer in the late 1990s in a way that was counterintuitive to the church growth movement of the time. While others built congregations by de-emphasizing the traditional symbols of Christianity and creating more seeker-sensitive entertainment environments, Keller insisted on preaching substantive messages from books of the Bible in a method commonly referred to as “expository preaching.” He was unafraid to address contemporary topics like sexual ethics in a city where the Christian vision of marriage and family was countercultural.
I first heard Keller preach in 2011 at an event for the Gospel Coalition, an organization he co-founded to equip Christians for ministry. I’d heard of Keller but hadn’t listened to him before. I was struck by his clarity, his knowledge of the scriptures, and his pastoral and apologetic approach. His message on Exodus connected the events of the Old Testament book to Christ in a way I’d never heard done before. I soon read his first book, A Reason for God, a defense of Christianity directly addressing the deepest questions and doubts people have about Christianity. The book changed my life, helping me approach evangelism—a lifetime passion of Keller’s—without defensiveness.
As both the church and his national profile grew exponentially, Keller modeled a vision of cultural engagement that didn’t flinch from difficult questions. In 2017 Princeton University awarded him a prestigious prize named for Dutch theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper. But the once proudly Christian institution rescinded the award after intrepid critics discovered, to their chagrin, that Keller, like Kuyper, took the Bible’s teachings on sexuality seriously. Yet the New York pastor was also known for his warmth and gentleness, even toward those with whom he disagreed. When Princeton withdrew his prize, Keller went and delivered lectures associated with the award anyway, a magnanimous gesture that belied his generous spirit.
Keller was a brilliant scholar who never flaunted his intellect. He could be prophetic without being condescending, always loving and tender, especially when speaking hard words to fellow believers. “Even when Keller chastised evangelicals, he spoke and wrote as a pastor with love for his flock,” Hansen writes. “As easily as Keller quoted obscure academics or New York Times columnists, he aimed to build up the local church.” He wasn’t embarrassed to be associated with Jesus, nor was he embarrassed to be associated with Jesus’ followers.
You can read the whole thing here