I can't remember ever winning anything for free in my life. I recently entered a drawing for a free copy of Tim Keller's Center Church at this blog. When I showed up at my local post office to pick up a package a month or so later, I had forgotten all about it. Then I opened the package to find this wonderful surprise inside. I have to say, having read so far only a third of it (it is by far Keller's thickest book and I am a slow reader), I would gladly pay many times the cover price for this brilliant resource. (Btw, EVERY page in my copy is as marked up as the picture above. The whole book should just come dipped in highlighter ink. ;) The only stipulation for those who won the drawing was to write a review of the book during the week of Sept. 24th, hence my review being written before I am actually done with the book.
Full disclosure: I am a Keller fan... as in he is hands down my favorite living teacher. I've listened to literally hundreds of his sermons and used some of his materials for courses I've taught in the church I pastor in Ukraine. For those of you who listen to Keller, you may be wondering how much of the material in this book you've heard before. So far (I'm on chapter 10), I'd say that I've heard about 75% of the material in the book in various sermons of his, particularly the Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World course he did with Ed Clowney, the Blueprint for Spiritual Revival series, and the Redeemer conferences. However, the way that this book synthesizes all this incredible material and fills it out makes it not redundant in the least but rather enriching and engaging. I realize it may sound a bit presumptuous for only having read a third of the book, but in my opinion this could very well be the most important book for ministers to read outside the Bible. Yes, it really is that good.
The introduction very succinctly lays out the explanation of the title of the book: that proper balance in ministry is necessary for fruitfulness. The three balances are on the axes of Gospel, City and Movement. The balance he refers to in each can be summed up in the following premises:
1) We preach neither legalism nor license, but the Gospel (which Keller rightly points out later is technically not "in between" these two options, but a completely different thing all together.)
2) We neither capitulate to culture not insulate from it, but seek to redeem what we can for the sake of the Gospel.
3) We see the church neither as organization completely nor as organism, but as being a hybrid between the two (leaning more towards organism).
Keller compellingly weaves his own story and experience into the principles in this book. Yet he steers away from the temptation to make his own experience the rule for ministry. Rather he takes the idea of a "theological vision" as dictating how a ministry runs. This is the middle ground between doctrinal foundation and ministry expression. Keller lays this all out in the intro very precisely (would you expect any less?). The intro alone is worth the price of the book (all of which can be read on Amazon. Read it and convince yourself.)
The first section really gets to the theological heart behind everything else presented here. This section brilliantly lays out what the Gospel is and what it is not. Keller lays out the difference between the Gospel and legalism on the one hand and anti-nomianism (license to sin) on the other. This section deals with the plot lines of Scripture and seeing Christ as the resolution to each one. Keller lays out how the Gospel itself is not merely the key to justification but to sanctification; that we grow spiritually as we more deeply come to see the implications of the Gospel for our lives and believe it. Additionally, Keller gets into the idea of "Gospel Renewal" (part 2 of the book.) In this section, he draws heavily on Richard Lovelace's work, Dynamics of Spiritual Revival (definitely on my wishlist!) This is an incredible section on the marks of true revival (similar points to his sermon series Blueprint for Spiritual Revival, but further expanded.)
The second section gets into the question of contextualization: how should the believer relate to the world and how should they present the Gospel to the world? He lays out the Scriptural basis for this and lays out an approach for humble yet confident contextualization of the Gospel. Having been a cross-cultural missionary for over 10 years now, this section is fascinating to me and even after having a bit of experience under my belt in hashing through these ideas, I was challenged to re-assess my own contextualization of the Gospel in the culture I minister in. The truth is that every believer needs to go through this process concerning the culture they are in. If it is their own native culture, this process becomes all the more necessary. This section also includes lots of practical examples.
It would be unfair to really comment further than I have read, though I am certain the rest of the book will be as excellent as the beginning and am looking forward to the rest. Bottom line: do yourself, the church you minister in, and the city you live in a huge favor and order this book.
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