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Quick to Listen

Tim Keller’s 20-Year Plan to Avoid Building a Megachurch

Quick to Listen

Christianity Today

Religion, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.3622 Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2017

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Did you hear the news about renowned evangelical pastor and author Tim Keller? From CT’s report: Later this year, Redeemer Presbyterian will no longer be a multisite megachurch in Manhattan, and Tim Keller will no longer be its senior pastor. Keller, 66, announced at all eight Sunday services today that he will be stepping down from the pulpit. The move corresponds with a decades-long plan to transition the single Presbyterian Church in America congregation—which has grown to 5,000 members since it began 28 years ago—into three particular churches. His last day as senior pastor will be July 1. This plan has been a long time in the making: The transition follows a vision plan Redeemer set in place back in 1997, and preparing Keller’s three successors—the pastors at each of the new particular churches—ended up as a helpful side effect. “This is not primarily a succession plan,” Kathy Keller said. “It is a vision for not being a megachurch.” Each of the three Redeemer churches will remain collegial and still partner together for programs, but will officially be their own congregations with their own leaders and elders (pending a May 20 congregational vote). They also each will plant churches in three more locations—resulting in nine total daughter churches. Keller has been “typically wise and humble” in how he carried out his pastoral succession, said Capitol Hill Baptist Church pastor and Keller friend Mark Dever. “This as a more constructive model than is often done where a large congregation is built very much around the personality of the preacher, and when that preacher’s gone the whole thing kind of dissolves,” said Dever. Dever joined assistant editor Morgan Lee and editor in chief Mark Galli on Quick to Listen about whether pastors should fight against their church becoming a megachurch, why the senior pastor should share the pulpit, and if pastors should have a say in choosing their successors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.

0:11.0

Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion.

0:14.5

Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at apologeticsky.com.

0:28.7

Music Michael Del Rosario at Apologeticsguy.com. You're listening to Quick to Listen. Each week we go beyond hashtags and hot takes and set aside time to explore the reality behind a major cultural event.

0:43.2

Today, we're talking about Tim Keller's announcement that he will be departing Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

0:47.0

I'm Morgan Lee, and I'm an assistant editor at Christianity today.

0:50.4

I'm joined by Mark Alley, who just came back into town.

0:51.2

Yes.

0:51.9

Welcome back.

0:52.5

Thank you.

0:53.2

Good to be here.

0:55.8

We're glad that you're here. Who is joining us today?

1:01.4

Mark Devere. He's the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and president of Nine Marks, a Christian ministry he co-founded, quote, in an effort to build biblically faithful churches in America, end quote.

1:07.7

It's a resource, at least the online resource I've used periodically to kind of get my head around some issues the churches face. So I appreciate that, that ministry. Welcome, Mark.

1:16.7

Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Morgan. It's good to be with you guys. It's good to be with you, too. Can I just ask you, where is the name of nine marks from?

1:23.0

A book that I wrote about 15 years ago called Nine Marks of a Healthy Church.

1:27.8

Okay.

1:30.7

So it doesn't have any correlation to like the gospel of Mark.

1:31.6

It does not.

1:34.7

But hopefully it would be consistent with what you'd find in the Gospel of Mark.

1:35.9

And it is.

1:39.0

Morgan, it's going to be one of those kind of podcasts.

...

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