Thursday, November 30, 2006

Missional vs Seeker Sensitive Churches

This is Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC. I don't know a great deal about Keller, but he seems to be a thoughtful voice concerning church-planting, emerging churches, and missionality.

Redeemer Church is doing some wonderful things reaching out to post-moderns and the unchurched in NYC.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! That last statement is telling, huh? Very good piece. Thanks for sharing, Sean.

jch said...

Hey Sean, Redeemer is good at what they do. I took a church planting seminar from them and have gotten to know many of their people. However, they are very conservative (PCA) and got on to me for my beliefs on gender justice. Keller is also a very loud critic of the Emergent movement.

Sean said...

JCH,

Like I said, I don't know much about Keller or Redeemer. I'm not surprised that they are critical of Emergent or of Gender justice. I've also posted an interview with Mark Driscoll who is more conservative and critical of Emergent. (Being remotely connected with Emergent gets one accustomed to criticism pretty quickly.)

I do like what both are saying about the missional piece, though. And I think missional ecclesiology is an important part of what the church needs to do in the future. Of course, how we think and feel about the gender and other issues will greatly impact where we go missionally--and those are important conversations as well. For most churches--particularly here in the south where the Christendom world in hanging on by its fingernails--the turn to missional church is going to be the hardest.

Thanks for your comments. You're doing good, necessary work. How's the family?