A friend of mine, a pastor of many years, decided to leave his church because of ecclesiological pragmatism that stifled spiritual growth. He saw that “success” in the evangelical church merely required four aspects: a concert-feel worship service, simple practical how-to preaching on popular topics using humor with a non-confrontational challenge, a fun-clean-safe children’s ministry, and a similar teen meeting concurrent with the adult service.

Compare this depiction of Tim Keller’s preaching and church services:

Unlike many suburban megachurches, with their soft-rock praise bands and user-friendly sermons, Redeemer’s services were almost defiantly staid, featuring traditional hymns and liturgy. But the sermons were wry and erudite, filled with literary allusions and philosophical references, and Keller was shrewd about urging his congregants to examine their “counterfeit gods”—their pursuit of totems like power, status, and wealth, which the city encouraged. (Michael Luo)

Similarly, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York wrote this about Keller,

The usual canard about Evangelicals—that they were anti-intellectual—did not apply to Pastor Keller. Thus his fascination with Augustine, with C. S. Lewis—whom his dear wife Kathy especially promoted—and Joseph Ratzinger. Thus his 2008 best seller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.

Keller possessed an insatiable intellectual curiosity. He was a broad and voracious reader. He was an astute observer of human relations. He embodied mental piety and intellectual acuity. For this reason, his sermons and lectures were compelling and transformative.

Keller was not a homiletical pragmatist. His teaching was a great example of what many evangelical churches lack. He avoided the false dichotomy between theology and ethics or thinking and doing. He expressed theological and biblical reasoning. He did not merely preach rules or activity.

Last year, Keller published a vision statement about the future evangelical church called, “The Decline and the Renewal of the American Church.” In the last section, he described the “Christian Mind” Project, and he commented, “Evangelicalism has a strong anti-intellectual cast to it that must be overcome without losing its appeal to the majority of the population.” Keller called for increasing the number of Christian professors in the university, developing a “robust intellectual culture” for Protestants, and fostering the development of “Christian public intellectuals” as spokespersons for the biblical worldview and the common good.

Which is to say, Timothy Keller modeled how to love God with the mind in everything he said and did. He demonstrated intellectual piety in all his discourse. He communicated the gospel in ways that were intellectually plausible and existentially credible.

Thank God for his servant, Timothy Keller.