What Would Tim Keller Say to Wendell Berry?

3 Comments

1. Sean
   Posted July 28, 2009 at 2:06 pm | Permalink

   This was an interesting piece, not for the jabs at Keller, but for the responsibility that big steeple churches have. The church I now pastor is the second largest in Mississippi and largest in our presbytery. If Berry is right about the interconnected nature of community (and if we are right about the connectional nature of Presbyterianism), then we have a responsibility to the rural churches in our presbytery and state.

   One of the things I’ve been thinking about since arriving is carving out a portion of our mission budget either to support student supplies from RTS for churches who can’t afford anyone to come or adopting churches to cycle staff/elders through as a means of support. Regardless of what we strike on, I’m convinced that we have a responsibility beyond ourselves, one that extends toward our fraying urban section on the east side of town and to our rural areas.

   I’ve wondered, though, whether those rural churches we’d like to assist would want our help. One of my fears is that churches in our presbytery would view us with our resources as somehow paternalistic in our help. I think relationships have to be the key and I’m working on developing those relationships with fellow presbyters. But there is a kind of helping that can hurt and we need to negotiate our way through those things.

   That’s my view from a location near Brett Farve’s front yard…

2. dgh
   Posted July 28, 2009 at 9:15 pm | Permalink

   Thanks, Sean. It is pastors and congregations like yours where this question will be especially poignant. But of course it also bears on a denomination and the sort of preferences it gives to the most visible, marketable, and seemingly successful congregations.

3. Baus
   Posted July 30, 2009 at 6:56 pm | Permalink

   I attend a rural farm-community church of approx. 30+ folk. Providence OPC, Mifflinburg, PA.

   Totally off-topic:
   http://www.foodrenegade.com/hr-2749-nearly-passes-and-spells-the-end-of-local-food/