I am at Sydney airport, having just completed nine consecutive days of annual meetings with Langham Partnership.
Yikes!
However, for the first time in 15 years, I had only to cross a small ocean—NZers and Aussies call it ‘the ditch’—to be at the meetings. I am grateful. And to be in a hotel right on Manly Beach? Wow, what a beautiful spot. I went for a walk each morning…
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Six
Day Eight
The Opera House is beautiful as well, especially at night, when it gleams like a pearl.
Also, while here in Sydney, the death of Timothy Keller happened in the USA. I never met him, but I once opened the door for him at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford! I was there for some meetings. The doorbell rang and, trying to be helpful, I rushed off to open it … and in walked Tim Keller, much taller than I realized.
When I think about it, I first saw Tim Keller from a distance when I travelled to Chicago from New Zealand for an interview for my current role. It was back to TEDS, Deerfield, where I had done an MDiv in the early 1980s. We met in the White Horse Inn. As Greg Scharf and Jonathan Lamb interviewed me, huddled in a corner across from us were DA Carson and Tim Keller, plotting the early development of The Gospel Coalition. I had had Don Carson as a teacher and I remember him telling me, when we chatted afterwards, that this was the focus of their conversation…
When it comes to Tim Keller’s ministry, two areas of impact stand out for me…
One is that he was a preacher who did not merely talk about ‘double listening’, he made an effort to do it. It is hard. Biblical exegesis and cultural exegesis, listening to both Word and world, were a feature of his preaching. So many preachers talk a good talk on this one, but not too many are consistent practitioners!
The other is his capacity to find legitimate and varied pathways to Jesus from anywhere in the Bible, especially the Old Testament. Students of the Bible are taught to take the historical and literary context of a passage seriously—but there is another context which is critical, one which Keller championed. The biblical context, or the context of the entire biblical story, which climaxes in Christ. Until this third context is considered, exegesis remains incomplete, as is the sermon preparation. Keller helped me see the potential of revealing the beauty of Jesus, a beauty far more compelling than Manly Beach, in my sermons from the Bible…
Of Keller’s books which I’ve engaged on this blog, it is his one on preaching that stands out for me. It was good to read it again, as it is still so true—and find in it my favourite quotation…
nice chatting
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
Recent Posts
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Having been born in 1959, I don’t remember much about the 1960s. But I have heard a lot. Hippies. Drugs. Rock ‘n Roll. Assassinations. Moon-walking. A quick trip across to ChatGPT informs me immediately that it was ‘a transformative decade across the world’—marked by the civil rights and feminist movements, Cold War tensions, consumerism and…
Those Manly skies are stunning – such a treat.
And thank you for your reflections on Tim Keller.
Yes, Heather, it was a beautiful spot.
Oz doesn't lack for stunning beaches. One time I remember flying from Sydney to Port Moresby and there seemed to be hundreds of kilometers of beaches out the window—and there were!
I think Tim Keller shared many of John Stott's characteristics and it is no surprise to see the outpouring in the media since he died.
best wishes
Paul