Follow Up on the Last Post

This article in the New York Times is a report on the ministry of Tim Keller and Redeemer Prebyterian Church. Note that they rent space in three buildings to meet--one of them is First Baptist Church on the Upper West Side (A side note--Dr. Arthur Williams once pastored this GARBC affiliated church; a rather sad report about the congregation's current needs is found here).

One of my favorite quotes in the story is about the church's approach to having an impact on its culture.

"If you seek power before service, you'll neither get power, nor serve," he said. "If you seek to serve people more than to gain power, you will not only serve people, you will gain influence. That's very much the way Jesus did it."

As a result, one of Redeemer's hallmarks has always been its focus on charity, something it emphasizes in its training of urban pastors. It operates a program called Hope for New York that arranges volunteer opportunities for people from Redeemer with 35 different partner organizations. Last year, 3,300 people from the church volunteered their time.