The Reason for God, Vintage Jesus and more!

For my 400th post, I thought I'd mention the works of two current pastors who greatly impact my thinking and ethos. First, Tim Keller, whose book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism hits stores today. This book has the potential of being the "new" Mere Christianity. Who knows? Anyway, I have not read it yet, but I know enough of Dr. Keller to know it will be a great book. The thing I have benefited most from Keller is his understanding of the Gospel and the way he communicates it. Here is a guy who isn't flashy, doesn't have a hip band at the church he planted, yet over 5,000 people come weekly - in New York City. Through Redeemer Presbyterian, over 100 churches have been planted; 50 in the surrounding NYC area, and 50 from London to San Fransisco. Keller's goal is simple: take the Gospel to the cities like Paul did. His focus is on the larger cities, the ones which many Christians abandoned years ago. Where I have most benefitted from Keller is his constant emphasis that there is a difference between the Gospel and religion. Here are his words: Religion is "if I obey I will be accepted." Irreligion is "I don't really have to obey anyone but myself." The gospel is "since I am accepted, I will obey." I honestly believe that once a Christian understands that, it changes the way they live their faith. It has for me and it has impacted my teaching/preaching.

I pre-ordered Keller's book with Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timeless Questions by Mark Driscoll. Mark is an interesting guy. He's a Calvinist, he's fairly conservative theologically, but to many in Bible belt type places, he's "liberal" socially (not talking about politics/gender or abortion, here), yet in Seattle, where he ministers, they think he's a crazy fundamentalist. Weird, eh? Well, Mark has impacted me because of his understanding that for Christians to serve and minister in their context, in their culture, they must understand it, not hide from it, embrace the good parts of it, but counter the worst parts of it with the Gospel. Seattle is one of the least "churched" cities in the country, but every week, for some reason, thousands of people flock to Mars Hill Church in Seattle for worship and to hear Driscoll preach. What I like about Driscoll is his boldness and his love for non-believers. He's a lot like Keller, but instead of the eloquence, it's something wholly other. Something else, too, his church has planted others churches which have planted other churches which started a movement called Acts29; a cooperative that has planted tons of churches all over the country. It's awesome, and Driscoll just talks about grace. hmmm..

Anyway, these two pastors, Keller and Driscoll have impacted me in many way. I know they're both human and make mistakes, etc, etc, but still God uses them in great ways, and I think it would be a good idea for more people to take notice of how they are reaching their contexts, loving non-Christians, pointing Christians to look to the Gospel and not their own works to be accepted by God.