Called a “C.S. Lewis for the 21st century” by Newsweek, Dr. Timothy Keller is founder and pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Over the past 20 years, the church has grown to three sites, with weekly attendance of 6,000. Named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Churches in America, Keller’s ministry is notable not only for winning over New Yorkers who are skeptical to faith, but also for its missional approach, planting more than 100 churches through the Redeemer Church Planting Center. Author of The Reason for God and The Prodigal God, he will talk about the well-known parable of the Prodigal Son and discuss the ways many people in our churches tend to resist the gospel.
Notes from this session follow.
Watching videos of the 2009 Courageous Leadership Award Winners. Some amazing churches!
Now on to Tim’s talk…
- Spiritual deadness is the main problem in churches.
- Parable of the prodigal son… was for the pharisees, the religious leaders.
- Both the elder brother and younger brother are alienated from the father. They both just want the father’s money. The younger brother does it by being very bad, the elder by being very good.
- Many religious people are like the older people, thinking if they are very good the Father will have to give them what they want.
- In the end, the bad boy is saved and the good boy is lost because of his goodness.
- The gospel is nether religious nor irreligious (nor somewhere in between).
- Religion says God accepts me because I obey. The gospel says I obey because God accepts me.
- When things don’t go right, elder brothers get furious because they think God owes them.
- Elder brothers can’t take criticism, they pray for things but not to spend time with God, they loath others who are lazy or don’t have right doctrine, they can’t forgive.
- What can be done? What is the key to renewal?
- Repent – You must repent of the motivation for your good deeds.
- Pharisees repented, but it was one more thing to be proud of, one more religious thing to do. They never repented of their motivation.
- You must distinquish between legalism and the gospel.
- Today when people hear “invite Jesus into your heart” they hear they’re going to have to try really hard to be like Jesus
What can we do?
1) You’ve got to work this into your heart yourself.
- Do you live and die by your church’s attendance or ministry success? Are you trying to earn your salvation?
2) Move beyond biblical principles to the gospel
- For example, don’t just challenge people to give. The reason people don’t give is because they don’t fully believe the gospel.
3) Bring leaders together and go through something like The Prodigal Gd. Share spiritual renewal with your leaders
4) Work it into your congregation the slow way, or take the whole church through the book.
- How do you know it’s working? Gracious disagreements
5) Pray for this.
Check out the book The Prodigal God
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