"Timothy Keller’s recent work, Center Church (CC), is a substantive book on ecclesiology and philosophy of
ministry. It has received a lot of
attention since it was released last September.
With its graphic, glossy hardcover, and double columns throughout, the
395-page volume has the look and feel of a textbook. I believe that is what it was intended to be—a
textbook for pastors (particularly the urban ones) to maximize their
fruitfulness for the sake of the gospel.
Keller’s popularity and acceptance within mainstream evangelicalism have
positioned this book to hold significant influence on the American church for
some time to come.
After thoughtfully considering this
book and weighing it against Scripture, I have a few concerns. In spite of areas of agreement, I found the
heart and soul of the book to be biblically off-center. I fear that the theological vision of CC will cause more harm than good in
American churches. I don’t regard the
differences that I see between CC and
the Bible as minor or preferential. In
fact, I’m convinced that with nothing but the sufficient Word of God, no one
would arrive at this theological vision.
Where CC falls short of the
biblical ideal will not be of minor consequence. Regardless of what this evaluation may appear
to be, my primary reason for writing it is that I’m convinced that this vision
is unbiblical. I am sure that Keller
wrote this book with sincere motives. I
offer this critique with the sincere motive of love for Tim Keller, pastors at
large, the people of God, and the unbelievers in every community where they
serve. I desire to edify and highlight a
biblical vision that must not be lost or
else the church will suffer impotence and lose even more influence than it
already has. I write out of sincere
desire for the church of God to rest firmly on the Word of God, and think
discerningly about the way that Christ is building His church. I am convinced that we can’t improve on God’s
ways, and I consider it a step backward for the church to go in any direction,
theologically and methodologically, except that laid out in Scripture.
If you haven’t read CC, please read the synopsis of the book
below. If you have read the book, feel
free to skip ahead to the evaluation.
Synopsis of Center Church
Keller lays out what he
calls a ‘theological vision’ for doing ministry in the city.
His approach is intentionally to go beyond
theology and delve into the driving vision that determines how someone
accomplishes the ministry. He defines
theological vision as “a faithful restatement of the gospel with rich
implications for life, ministry, and mission in a type of culture at a moment
in history” (p. 19). He doesn’t see
theological vision as rooted exclusively a doctrinal expression, however, and
admits that “this concept of a theological vision explains how, for example,
our conservative Presbyterian denomination, in which all churches share the
same detailed doctrinal foundation (Westminster Confession of Faith) can be
deeply divided over ministry expressions and methods, such as music, preaching
style, approach to organization and leadership, forms of outreach, and so
on. The reason is that church with the
same basic doctrine are shaped by different theological visions because they
are answering these questions about culture, tradition, and rationality
differently” (pp. 18-19).
Keller then
demonstrates for us how he answers questions about culture, tradition and
rationality through three sections of the book.
All three sections describe spectrums that must be balanced for a church
to remain in the center.
First, there is the
gospel spectrum (chs. 1-6) with ‘legalism’ and ‘religion’ on the extreme left,
and ‘relativism’ and ‘irreligion’ on the extreme right. For the church to be fruitful, it must steer
clear of works-based righteousness on one side and antinomianism on the
other. In these chapters, Keller highlights
how the gospel must always be articulated in contrast to two different
errors. There is always the danger of
rejecting Christ for irreligion, and rejecting Christ for hypocritical
religious performance. It includes
chapter titles like “The Gospel Is Not Everything” and “The Gospel Affects Everything.” Here we see how pervasive the implications of
the gospel are for everything. Keller
explains in these sections how all-encompassing the mandate for the church
really is. “We evangelize, telling
people about the gospel and preparing them for the judgment. We also help the poor and work for justice,
because we know that this is God’s will and that he will ultimately overcome
all oppression. We teach Christians to
integrate their faith and their work so that they can be culture makers,
working for human flourishing—the common good” (p. 47).
Second, the city
spectrum (chs. 7-18) refers to the spectrum of how the church regards the
world, with ‘underadapted’ and ‘only challenge’ on the extreme left and
‘overadapted’ and ‘only appreciate’ on the extreme right. “We will show that to reach people we must
appreciate and adapt to their culture, but we must also challenge and confront
it. This is based on the biblical
teaching that all cultures have God’s grace and natural revelation in them, yet
they are also in rebellious idolatry” (p. 24).
In these chapters, we find how to adapt the message of the gospel to a
post-Christian, post-modern culture. American
culture is not what it was, and without adapting to the changes in the culture,
Christians won’t gain a hearing the way we used to. Keller articulates the balance this way:
“Because the city has potential for both human flourishing and human idolatry,
we minister with balance, using the gospel to both appreciate and challenge the
culture to be in accord with God’s truth” (p. 87). Without correctly identifying where the
culture is and how it has changed, the church will lose her voice in the world.
Third, the movement
spectrum (chs. 19-30) goes from ‘structured organization’ and ‘tradition and
authority’ on the left to ‘fluid organism’ and ‘cooperation and unity’ on the
right. It is imperative for the church
to avoid rigid traditionalism, which can’t get out of its stuffy, narrow
denominational constraint in order to have influence on the city. It is equally important to avoid
anti-institutionalism, which would shun all organization. On this spectrum, however, Keller admits he is
much more towards the right side of spectrum.
He believes that for a church to remain a ‘movement’ or an ‘organized
organism’, and “since churches always migrate toward institutionalism, they
often must be brought back toward a movement dynamic” (p. 352). In these chapters, we find how to maintain
our own ecclesial traditions and yet work cooperatively with other churches for
the sake of reaching the city. Keller
defines what he sees as a missional church, and how the church can successfully
connect people with God, each other, and the culture." TO BE CONTINUED
REVIEW written by Pastor Jon Anderson. Jon is a pastor at Grace Immanuel Bible Church and a Ph. D student at Southern Seminary. His future dissertation will be on presuppositional hermeneutics.
