In case you’re not familiar with Tim Keller, he’s a New York Times bestseller, a gifted orator and founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. To those fond of Keller, he’s often regarded as the “thinking person’s pastor,” with sermons that are culturally relevant, exegetically sharp and profoundly practical. On any given Sunday, Keller can in one breath be heard quoting C.S. Lewis, an Old Testament prophet and an op-ed from The New Yorker.

Having visited Redeemer church a dozen times or so, I can attest to Keller’s ability to connect with the casual New Yorker, and by casual I mean well-read, successful and impeccably groomed. His congregation, which now hovers around 5,000 people, have known for years what many Christians outside Manhattan are finding out—Tim Keller is a powerful figure in the church.

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Last week, my husband jumped out of an airplane.

For a sermon illustration.

He's done lots of things for sermon illustrations. He has used real fire and real chain saws to drive a point home. He uses the verbal illustration most often. He talks about me, his kids, and his friends in sermons all the time.  If you know him long enough, you will appear in the weekly sermon. It's an honor, actually. Well, most of the time. He once tattled on me to the whole congregation, claiming that I was a "cusser", a foul mouthed human being. The congregation laughed, because they all knew he was exaggerating,  and I had to answer a thousand questions about the incident inthe hallways after the service. In my defense, I uttered one small word (not even a really bad one) in front of my kids and they delighted in repeating it over and over. They told daddy and a sermon illustration was born. You just can't trust kids these days. I must note here that sometimes the stories in his messages are stretched the ever most teensiest bit.

Eugene Cho, a second-generation Korean-American, is the founder and lead pastor of Quest Church in Seattle and the executive director of Q Cafe, an innovative non-profit neighborhood café and music venue. He and his wife are also the visioneers of a new organization to fight global poverty called, One Day's Wages.

You can stalk him at his blog or you can follow him on Twitter.

 

If I Were Jon and Kate's Pastor

You go through phases as you live abroad.  When you first get there, all you can see are the differences.  First it's just the obvious differences of language, lifestyles, and quality of life.  Then it's the differences in cultures and customs, and slowly that starts to reveal thought processes and worldviews; the deeper stuff that underlies all of those bigger differences.  Around that time I think you begin to see the similarities between your home culture and new culture as well.  The differences aren't so imposing and the similarities make it all welcoming.

One way you notice differences and similarities is by looking at how people do their jobs.  Every culture has teachers, politicians, policemen, grocery store clerks, doctors and so on.  Observing those shared professions help give you insight into the larger culture as well.

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