Thank you, Tim Keller

Widespread gratitude for the founder of Redeemer reflects both ambitious and sensible Christian leadership and scholarship

I met Tim Keller, very briefly, a few times. Once he was waiting for a cab after a speaking engagement I was at and I shook his hand. Nothing much more profound than that. So I don’t really have any Keller stories like those being shared. What I do have is gratitude for what he's taught me about God, life, and ministry.

It’s been fascinating to see so many from across a theological spectrum express their grief at the loss of someone they never really knew, or never even met. But for so many he spoke to us, and spoke for us. And so while our prayers are with those that knew and loved him, he was to many of us a gentle giant of the Christian faith. A CS Lewis for our times, as the New York Times put it, connecting not only with our heads, but with our hearts, and not exchanging one for the other.

This all got me thinking about the ways he's impacted me, and what his legacy is. I've settled on three: grace, the city, and the practical.

1. Grace

Grace is the relentless pursuit of God for humanity. Keller's focus on the outsider, and his warning that religious types revert to religion and self-righteousness sobers those of us in full-time ministry. His writing and preaching was always enticing us with the sense that grace is grander and greater than we realise.