In that first sermon after 9/11, Keller famous that everybody had an opinion about New York Metropolis and America as a complete. Some have been claiming that “God is punishing us” due to rampant immorality. Others mentioned America had been judged due to social injustice and greed. As an alternative of blaming the victims, Keller mentioned it was time to ask who would stand their floor and love their neighbors.
“Perhaps we’re going to need to be rather less involved about our personal careers and extra involved concerning the neighborhood,” he mentioned. “So, let’s enter in. Let’s not simply ‘repair it.’ Let’s weep with those that weep.”
Keller was greater than conscious that he was an outsider when he left the college of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia to just accept a Presbyterian Church in America problem to begin a New York congregation. Nobody else wished the job. The bookish preacher understood the depth of the “monolithic public philosophy of secularism” that dominated Manhattan tradition, mentioned Tony Carnes, chief of the influential “A Journey by way of NYC Religions” web site.
“The church-planter mantra at the moment was that you just got here to New York to die. … Tim got here right here to remain,” mentioned Carnes, a long-time member of Redeemer who had a detailed working relationship with Keller.
Sure, only one% of Manhattan was “evangelical” when Keller arrived in 1989, and homicides hit 2,245 throughout his first full 12 months of ministry within the tense metropolis.
But there was a “cracking within the ice,” as immigrants in a wide range of faiths poured into town’s boroughs, mentioned Carnes. Quickly, many new church buildings have been born. Additionally, waves of younger professionals have been arriving and Keller “found that he may communicate to that mindset. … Wall Avenue will be so empty and meaningless. Strain? How do you address that? Tim began asking: ‘The place can we get the energy to outlive on this metropolis?'”
Keller’s sermons have been low-key, however witty. The previous professor held Q&A periods after providers, dealing with the questions of seekers and skeptics. He tried to keep away from partisan political wars and did not search publicity. However each got here his approach as he started writing bestsellers, together with “The Purpose for God: Perception in an Age of Skepticism.”