Tim Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, NY. He also leads the Redeemer network of church plants, and is author of The Reason for God. For an extensive list of Tim Keller’s resources (audio, print, video, etc.), see this page from Reformissionary.
Tim’s style is very intellectual, but accessible. He is very easy to listen to, and gives a well-reasoned approach to each passage or idea he teaches. This was a session from the “Multiplying Church” track of the conference. The next conference post I’ll make (also the final one) is his main session on the gospel, which was fantastic. This session is more of a summary of some historical and biblical observations of revival movements, with the assumption that to see a vast exponential church planting movement in the West we will first need to see revival.
Here’s a basic outline of the talk, followed by more details:
16 Factors/Dynamics of Revival for Church Multiplication
- 3 Intstruments of Revival (things we have control over)
- 3 Aspects of Revival (things we have no control over)
- 6 Balances of Revival Movements (things we have some control over)
- 4 Results of Revival (things we have no control over)
3 Instruments of Revival (these are things we have control over)
1. Recovery of the Difference between Gospel & Religion.
- religion says, “I obey God, therefore I’m accepted.”
- gospel says, “I’m accepted, therefore I obey God.”
- if this is true, I can’t place demands on what God can or can not do in my life (i.e., I can’t say, “God owes me, b/c I surrendered to him”). Instead, God can do anything with my life b/c grace is free to me and comes at infinite cost to Jesus.
- all awakenings (revivals) begin w/ people grasping this difference.
2. Extraordinary Prayer
- corporate, barrier-breaking, united, over-the-top prayer is always present in revivals
3. Creativity
- outside of the gospel & prayer, everything changes in a revival
- in the 1st Great Awakening, it was itinerant preaching.
- in the revival in Manhattan in 1857, it was lay-led prayer meetings.
- “you never get back into Narnia the same way twice” (revival never follows exactly the same path, b/c there is always fresh new ways the gospel must be incarnated to meet the current context.
3 Aspects of Revival (these are things we have no control over)
1. Nominal church members get converted.
- b/c of the gospel/religion difference
- they may have believed Christian doctrine, but Jesus was only their intellectual savior.
- they really were their own savior
- their testimonies are electrifying
2. Sleepy Christians wake up.
- their heart had looked to something other than Jesus to be their functional savior
- now the grumpiness and deadness goes away
- experiential assurance from the Spirit
3. Outsiders/non-Christians are drawn in in great numbers.
6 Balances of Revival Movements (these are things we have partial control over)
1. a particular kind of worship which edifies believers and welcomes non-Christians
2. strong emphasis on great gospel-driven preaching and teaching (truth-driven, accessible, applicable)
3. strong emphasis on life-changing community
4. evangelism – an outward focus which balances respect & humility with great boldness
5. passion for justice and the poor
6. cultural engagement – integrating faith and work (not just pietistic, isolated faith)
4 Results of Revival (these are again things we have no control over)
1. there is always a lunatic fringe with excesses
2. a backlash – in the church, in the denomination, in the city
3. lots of new churches planted
4. real social healing (when revival is extensive enough)
