In the ballpark of always affirming, always sunny religious journalism comes Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra’s puff piece on Tim Keller’s retirement at Redeemer NYC. I am not sure that this is the kind of analysis of context that Joe Carter had in mind for the Gospel Coalition’s journalistic forays:
The three main forms of journalism we use at TGC (opinion and advocacy journalism; reporting and narrative journalism; explanatory journalism) are all used to help the church think more clearly about the gospel and how it leads us to interact with the world.
Although, since Carter thinks journalism at TGC should promote revivals, Zylstra’s piece certainly does that. Her account shows, whether she intended or not, how much Keller’s position in New York City made him stand out in ways that no one else among the Allies could. If you do a word count on Zylstra’s story, she mentions the PCA twice, Presbyterian six times, and New York 37 times. As for the work of the Holy Spirit — nada.
If religious journalism at TGC is supposed to promote revivals, that would place Zylstra’s rendering of Keller more on the Finney than the Whitefield side of pretty good awakenings since Finney wasn’t big on the Holy Spirit either.
What I don’t understand is why Mark Dever doesn’t get more attention in the TGC world. There he is ministering in the nation’s capitol, the center of American power, the place from which the United States leads the free world. And yet, to get traction as an urban church planter you need the mojo of the nation’s biggest city, the place that nurtured and shaped Donald J. Trump.
What’s up with that?
Old Life 
D.G.,
Again, I suggest, for your benefit, that you join a local chapter of TKA.
BTW, journalism for some at the TGC not only promote the Gospel and revival, they promote particular political and economic ideologies to be promoted there. This is especially true of Carter whose economic writings on the Acton blog show signs of conservative libertarianism except that he believes that all businesses should be small as well.
Now I know what you are thinking when I make that charge. However, I criticize my fellow Socialists for excluding those from other ideological groups from participating in collaborative efforts in self-rule. I think socialism provides tools that help us identify some injustices in society and the world. But its various proposed solutions have no monopoly on biblical truth because these solutions talk about actions to which we are morally free to choose or reject. And so, we are obligated to respond to the social injustices but the various strains of socialism can only offer suggestions. Carter and others suggest that their particular economic ideology has a lock on the truth and propose timeless principles.
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It is interesting that there isn’t more on Dever at TGC, especially since there are plenty of Senatorial staff that go there.
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