Aug 27 2008

Church Size

clay

Recently I re-read an article by Dr. Tim Keller on church size and how the culture and style of a church changes at different stages as the church grows.  Keller is a pastor, author, and theologian that I have a lot of respect for.  After spending time as a pastor and seminary professor, Keller planted a church in New York City, Redeemer Presbyterian, which has grown to over 5000, ministering especially to urban professionals.  I’ve been inspired by some of his sermons and articles.  He doesn’t prefer to be called an “evangelical” because of stereotypes of fundamentalists and because of the term can be a loaded term politically.  He calls himself “orthodox” because of his strong belief in the full authority of the Bible, but he is very sensitive to the issues that are important to the people he is trying to reach such as social justice, poverty, and the environment (also biblical issues, by the way). In all his teaching there is a strong gospel message of grace, combined with an intellectual edge that makes you think.  His book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism rose to #7 on the New York Times Non-Fiction Best-Seller list in March of this year and inspired me to do the series I did in the spring, Doubt Your Doubts.

 

I knew all this about Keller, but didn’t realize that he was such a student of church growth, structure, and leadership.  I guess I should have known he had some insight in that area since his congregation has helped start over 100 churches in the New York area and around the world! I have recently posted an article on my blog site under “Theology” called: Process-Managing: Church Size -Tim Keller. I read this article some time ago, but didn’t realize who the author was.  Upon reading it again, it really addressed some issues that we have been wrestling with at Grace Place over the last couple years.  It shows that some of our struggles are common to all churches as they go through different times of transition and it categorizes some issues that we need to study and work through as we move forward.  I would like to hear some feedback on it!

 

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