Tim never had a market share mentality about Christians in his city, and he never targeted members of other churches, either overtly or covertly, so as to lure them to his own church. Instead of trying to position Redeemer as New York’s Walmart of churches that would swallow up “the competition” with its superior offerings, Tim consistently leveraged time, resources, and energy to build a church planter training organization through which to bring more church planters, and with them more churches, into the city of New York. He was happy to see other NYC pastors succeed and other NYC churches thrive, even if it meant that Redeemer’s “slice of the pie” might become smaller as a result. Third, in a time of posturing, comparing, and competing-a time when many pastors see each other as obstacles to overcome versus kingdom co-laborers to pray for and applaud-Tim has always been the latter. No doubt, his book writing pace since then has made up for lost time.ģ. Humbly, he wanted to wait until he was old and wise enough to write the best possible book he could on any given subject. Second, Tim waited until he was almost 60 years old to publish his first trade book. Always shy about himself and boastful about Jesus, his ambition is to advance Jesus’ kingdom spiritually, socially, and culturally-whether through Redeemer or (notably) through promoting and supporting other churches and leaders.Ģ. 45:5), seemed like a life philosophy for Tim as well. The counsel of Jeremiah to his secretary, “Do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not” (Jer. He never tried to make a name for himself.
First, in this weird and troubling age of Christian celebrity where platform-building, fame-chasing, green room-dwelling, and name-dropping can easily replace gospel virtues, Tim inspired me with his reluctance to participate in or even flirt with the trappings of Christian celebrity. He never chased the spotlight. So here are a few important things that Tim’s example has taught me:ġ. I suppose that now is as good a time as any to tell about them, because that’s what you do when one of your mentors announces such a significant transition (Tim announced his retirement from pastoral ministry this past summer). And yet, having also gotten to serve “up close” under his leadership, there are other things about Tim that endear him to me, even more than these things. I believed it then, and I still believe it now-he is the best English-speaking Christian preacher, thinker, and visionary of our time.
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