Daily Dose of Keller

by Dave Winter on 19. Nov, 2009 in Faith, Ministry, Society & Culture

“Jesus’ teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.”

The Prodigal God, 15-16

“Idolatry functions widely inside religious communities when doctrinal truth is elevated to the position of a false god….their trust in the rightness of their views makes them feel superior… Making an idol out of doctrinal accuracy, ministry success, or moral rectitude leads to constant internal conflict, arrogance and self-righteousness, and oppression of those whose views differ.”

Counterfeit Gods, 131-132

“The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”

The Reason for God, 181

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This post was written by Dave Winter who has written 75 posts on Commentary on the Ordinary.

My name is Dave …. I am a Christian, a husband, a pastor, a ‘mission mobilizer’, someone who longs to impact my community for Christ regardless of where I am.

  • http://www.prayerjournal.ca Jim Hall

    I really appreciate Keller's statement “I cannot feel superior to anyone and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone” This is a critical truth that is extremely hard to walk in on a daily basis.

    I disagree with the statement that the problem is that 'we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did'. I don't believe that the declaration of the message is the problem. That leads us to think too much about our words, when I believe the real problem is that lack of power in our lives. I'm not being charismatic, I'm looking at what the apostle Paul said: “my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstration of power…” (1 Cor. 2:4) or “our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction” (1 Thess. 1:5) The other issue is the incredible gap between what we believe and what we know. There are great amounts of theological truth in our churches, which are things we believe; but knowing those truths deep down in the core of our being is a different thing entirely. The first Keller quote I commented on in a perfect example.

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