Tim Keller on Ministry to the “Unwebbed” Unbeliever

Frank Tillapaugh in his teaching often divides all the non-Christians of the world into four groups. Each group has a particular relationship to your local church. First there are the “churchy” unbelievers. These are non-Christians who think they are Christians or who are at least religious and active in a church. How do you reach …

“Adults as Cultural Interpreters: From Teaching to Trusting” by Kenda Creasy Dean

The conversation we are talking about most closely resembles a variety of translation called “cultural interpretation.” Remember the people in period clothing at living history museums like those in Williamsburg, Virginia, or Tombstone, Arizona? Those people are called cultural interpreters. For the most part, they are volunteers, not professional historians; they are retired teachers and …

Hallmarks of ‘Missional’ churches by Kenda Creasy Dean

Many missional congregations begin - somewhat by accident, thanks to a handful of Christians who try out a shared way of life that they hope reflects the gospel as they address a particular set of needs in their community. Because missional churches tend to be structurally agile, they often rub shoulders with other local youth-serving …

We picture the risen Christ approaching us with “a severe and sour disposition,” by Dane C. Ortlund

This is not how we intuitively think of Jesus Christ. Reflecting on this passage in Matthew 11, the old English pastor Thomas Goodwin helps us climb inside what Jesus is actually saying. Men are apt to have contrary conceits of Christ, but he tells them his disposition there, by preventing such hard thoughts of him, …

Churches “Committed to the Good of All Their Neighbors, Near and Far” by Tim Keller

Looking at city neighborhoods as organs of self-government, I can see evidence that only three kinds of neighborhoods are useful: (1) the city as a whole; (2) street neighborhoods; and (3) districts of large, subcity size (composed of 100,000 people or more in the case of the largest cities). Each of these kinds of neighborhoods …

Understanding Theological Vision by Tim Keller

...this middleware is similar to what Richard Lints, professor of theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, calls a “theological vision.” According to Lints, our doctrinal foundation, drawn from Scripture, is the starting point for everything: Theology must first be about a conversation with God . . . God speaks and we listen . . . The …

“The Princeton leaders had consciously faced the key question: What was it that gave life to plain, scriptural preaching?” by Iain Murray

The Princeton leaders had consciously faced the key question: What was it that gave life to plain, scriptural preaching: And their united answer was, it was preachers knowing and feeling in their own experience the realities of which they spoke. True Christianity cannot exist without real communion with God, and neither can true preaching. So …

“O thou God of Love, kindle a flame of love in this cold heart of mine; and then I shall perform my work with alacrity and success.” by Samuel Davies

“My glorious and condescending Lord has appointed me the most pleasing work — the work of love and benevolence. He only requires me to shew myself a lover of souls — souls, whom He loves, and whom he redeemed — souls, whom his Father loves, and for whom he gave up his own Son unto …

“Wherefore, be of good courage, and go on your way singing.” by C.H. Spurgeon

You never met an old salt, down by the sea, who was in trouble because the tide had been ebbing out for hours. No! He waits confidently for the turn of the tide, and it comes in due time. Yonder rock has been uncovered during the last half-hour, and if the sea continues to ebb …

Jonathan Edwards, On His Pastoral Duty

I should think myself in the way of my duty, to raise the affections of my hearers as high as I possibly can, provided they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with. Jonathan Edwards, Some Thoughts Concerning the Revival in the …