Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City Hardcover Author: Timothy J. Keller | Language: English | ISBN:
0310494184 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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About the Author
Timothy Keller is the founder and senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Reason for God and The Prodigal God. He has also mentored young urban church planters and pastors in New York and other cities through Redeemer City to City, which has helped launch over 200 churches in 35 global cities to date. SPANISH BIO: Timothy Keller nacio y crecio en Pensilvania y se educo en la Universidad Bucknell, el Seminario Teologico Gordon-Conwell y el Seminario Teologico Westminster. Fue pastor por primera vez en Hopewell, Virginia. En 1989 fundo la Iglesia Presbiteriana Redeemer en Manhattan junto a su esposa y sus tres hijos. Hoy dia Redeemer tiene cerca de seis mil asistentes regulares a sus cinco servicios, un sinnumero de iglesias hijas y estan plantando iglesias en las ciudades mas importantes alrededor del mundo.
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- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Zondervan; 8.9.2012 edition (September 8, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0310494184
- ISBN-13: 978-0310494188
- Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.2 x 1.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
The "secret" of Redeemer Presbyterian Church's fruitfulness does not lie in its ministry programs, according to Tim Keller in this book. Far more important than the particular forms of ministry expression are the process by which they are arrived at, a process involving thinking long and hard about the implications of the gospel, the culture of the city, and the sensibilities of both Christians and non-Christians in the city.
The book is essentially a manual for creating a theological vision for a city, being a faithful re-statement of the gospel with rich implications for life, ministry, and mission in a type of culture at a moment in history. The book starts by discussing what the gospel is, and what is involved in gospel renewal. It then discusses the importance of gospel contextualisation and how it relates to a city, and finally movement dynamics including mission, institutions and integrative ministry.
While leaders of established churches may not spend much time considering the theological implications of their church practices, church planters (unless they are merely following someone else's template) are inevitably faced with the task of thinking through what the new church is going to look like, how it is going to explain the gospel to the local people groups, and how it is going to embody Christian community. These are challenging theological issues, and the book provides excellent source material to assist in the process.
If you want a philosophy of ministry, I'm not your guy. I've written them. I've even assigned and graded them. I don't like most of them, though. Some are theological, but don't tell me much about ministry. Some are programmatic, and end up becoming too prescriptive. Neither is helpful.
What we need, according to Tim Keller, is middleware. Middleware is like the operating system on your computer. It's neither the hardware (like theology), nor is it the application (the programs). In the church, this middleware -- a theological vision for ministry, really -- is more practical than doctrinal beliefs alone, but more theological than "how-to" steps for ministry. It is, it turns out, exactly what we need, and it's what Keller aims to deliver in his tome Center Church.
Yes, it's a tome. The book is almost 400 pages, and the audiobook is almost 23 hours long. It's formatted like a textbook with lots of sidebars, and some tables and sidebars. As Mike Wittmer writes, "The only thing it's missing is a few pictures of U.S. Presidents, and I'd be back in high school." (The sidebars are one reason why the print version is superior to the audiobook or the ebook format. There's no real way for the sidebars to have the same flow on a Kindle, much less an audiobook.)
The book delivers exactly what you'd expect from Tim Keller: a scholarly but practical look at ministry. The book is broken into three sections: Gospel, City, and Movement.
First, he begins with the gospel, helping us think carefully about what it is and what it isn't. He also describes how the gospel renews the church. Chapter 6, "The Work of Gospel Renewal," is worth the price of the book itself for any pastor who wants to see the church revived.
Second, Keller writes on the city.
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