The third preacher that shifted my preaching in a major way is Tim Keller. I first heard Tim Keller in early 2005. I knew I was moving to the Northeast shortly to launch Calvary Fellowship and I wanted to hear from someone who was making things happen, so I started listening to Tim. The way he dropped knowledge made my brain hurt, but to quote John Cougar Mellancamp, it hurt so good! So I continued listening to his preaching periodically and started reading his books. But it wasn't until a couple years ago when I listened to his Preaching to the Heart series (if you teach/preach you NEED to buy this NOW!) offered through Gordon Conwell that his preaching impacted me and my shifted my entire philosophy of preaching dramatically.
What I love about Tim's preaching is how he digs beneath the surface. He doesn't just address superficial attitudes and behaviors and use Bible verses to tell us why we should either start or stop doing them. He looks deeper into the heart and exposes the idols that drive the attitudes and behaviors we exhibit. He also has a wonderful way of pointing out the difference between irreligion and religion, and the fact that neither can save us. He then points out how the gospel is the answer to our problems and he always highlights Jesus as the hero to every message. This really helped me to learn to move past spiritual self-help or surface-level messages and to dig deep to get to the heart of the matter in my preaching.
Shifts he made in my preaching:
- Being patient because, it takes time to get good-here is a paraphrase of some advice I heard Tim give to young preachers, "Your first 200 sermons will all stink. You'll think some are good, but they're ALL terrible. However, if you can get to that point without killing your church, you'll be alright." Seriously that had to be the most liberating thing I had heard at the time!!!
- Digging deeper -it's not enough to address the sin or the issue in a superficial way, we have to understand the idols that drive behaviors and help people see them too (otherwise we might be offer surface fixes that drive people from irreligion to religion and have them still miss the gospel!)
- Making sure the gospel is in every message - preaching needs to be practical (especially where the Bible is very practical), but pragmatism must not overshadow the powerful message of the gospel and its ability to kill our idols)
- Having Jesus is in every message -whether you are talking about Levitical Law or living with your girlfriend, missions or marriage, Jesus needs to be a part of it. Jesus is central to the gospel, central to the Bible, and central to our faith. And if Jesus is missing from your message, then your message is missing something BIG!
Tim, thank you for your example and all that you have taught me from neighboring New York. I appreciate you, your ministry and I can't wait to read your preaching book (yes, he really has one coming out soon)!
Part 1: Bob Coy
Part 2: Andy Stanley
Tomorrow: The Wrap-up (The process of how an influencer shifs our preaching)
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