Tim Keller on Responding to Critiques

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. There have been lots of critiques going on against various groups and people that I admire. How do you respond, especially when you sense that some of the critiques have some truth to them?

One of the best answers to this question is found in a message by Tim Keller delivered a number of years ago in the United Kingdom. I've been thinking about this message a lot recently, and dug out my summary. Here are some highlights.

• To respond [to critiques], evangelicals must understand and practice biblical repentance as a result of believing the gospel. This will allow evangelicals to admit their sins, even if they disagree with 80% of the criticisms … and even if the remaining 20% is expressed poorly. To the degree that we understand the gospel, we will be able to freely admit our shortcomings as an evangelical movement.


• To the degree that we understand the gospel, we are free to admit the worst about ourselves finally. Repentance isn't how we get right with God; it's just the right response. It gives immediate assurance.


• Don't ever think that we can respond to legitimate criticisms of our practice by defending our doctrine. In defending our doctrines, we have not responded to the criticisms of our practices. Orthopraxy is part of orthodoxy.


• It is necessary to draw boundaries. What really matters is how we treat the people on the other side of those boundaries. People are watching. We're going to win the younger leaders if we are the most gracious, kind, and the least self-righteous in controversy. The truth will ultimately lose if we hold the right doctrines, but do so with nasty attitudes and a lack of love.


• We need to approach the controversies with a repentant heart corporately and say, "Despite all the bad things that are being said here, there's a core of truth here and we need to deal with it."

This paragraph is my absolute favorite:

My dear friends, most churches make the mistake of selecting as leaders the confident, the competent, and the successful. But what you most need in a leader is someone who has been broken by the knowledge of his or her sin, and even greater knowledge of Jesus' costly grace. The number one leaders in every church ought to be the people who repent the most fully without excuses, because you don't need any now; the most easily without bitterness; the most publicly and the most joyfully. They know their standing isn't based on their performance.

Read the rest here.

Are You Bruised?

Richard Sibbes in The Bruised Reed:

Are you bruised? Be of good comfort, he calls you. Conceal not your wounds, open all before him and take not Satan's counsel. Go to Christ, although trembling, as the poor woman who said, `If I may but touch his garment' (Matt. 9:21). We shall be healed and have a gracious answer. Go boldly to God in our flesh; he is flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone for this reason, that we might go boldly to him. Never fear to go to God, since we have such a Mediator with him, who is not only our friend but our brother and husband.

Fear, Church Planting, and Seth Godin

One of the issues I had to work through as I thought about church planting is fear. As I sensed a growing desire to explore church planting, I could feel my fears rising. I dealt with two fears in particular:

• What if I fail?
• Where will the money come from?

The hard part about fear is that it can be mistaken for prudence. In moving into church planting, I need to be aware of the risks. Not every church plant does succeed. And it's wise to have a financial plan and some ideas about where the money is going to come from. But there comes a point at which the issue isn't prudence; it's fear. And I clearly reached that point a number of times as I thought about planting.

Nobody helped me through this more than Seth Godin. It sounds strange to say this, given that Godin isn't a renowned church planting leader. But Godin helped me tremendously as I thought about fear. I think it was Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? in particular that got me really thinking about church planting.

That's why I was glad to see this article at Desiring God last week:

One of Godin’s goals in this little book is to expose the truth about failure — it's not as bad as we all think.

And yet, the fear of failure is paralyzing. It's the great deterrent to our starting things, to our taking risks. It is, as Godin explains, the dirt that buries us in the status quo program of the world around us.

Now, in my opinion, the biggest and simplest takeaway from reading Godin is how much more what he says applies to the Christian than to the secular professional.

Godin is brilliant in trying to convince his readers to step forward, to fly in the face of fear, to “start.”

How much more is this true, the post says, in light of Jesus' promise and command contained in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. What if we really believed, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me … And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." If we believed the promises that bookend the command, do you think we'd do a better job with the command?

I'm grateful for Seth Godin. And I hope he'll be instrumental in getting many more Christians past their fears and closer to obedience.

The Lord Himself Invites You

A great invitation at the start of 2012:

The Lord himself invites you to a conference concerning your immediate and endless happiness, and He would not have done this if He did not mean well toward you. Do not refuse the Lord Jesus who knocks at your door; for He knocks with a hand which was nailed to the tree for such as you are. Since His only and sole object is your good, incline your ear and come to Him. Hearken diligently, and let the good word sink into your soul. (C.H. Spurgeon, All of Grace)

What Are You Afraid Of?

Reading Ed Welch's book Running Scared: Fear, Worry & the God of Rest last year helped me realize that fear is a bigger part of my life than I had realized. Our fears reveal our idols: comfort, approval, safety, and so on. It turns out I had (or have) more fears and idols than I'd realized. When we say, "I'm afraid of…" we're usually saying is, "I have an idol."

I've thought about church planting for years. I thought it was a crazy dream. It's easy to rationalize why it's not a good idea. Slowly my excuses crumbled, and I was left to confront my fears. It's one thing to think that church planting may not be a good idea. Not everybody should be a planter. It's another thing altogether when the thing holding me back is that I'm putting some of my idols at risk.

If you're struggling with fear, I highly recommend Welch's book. But I've found some other books to be helpful as well. The Flinch is a good, quick read, and it's free on Kindle. Seth Godin's book Linchpin was also very helpful.

What are you afraid of? Follow your fears, and you'll probably find your idols.