Tim Keller and FCA

Tim Keller’s vision for gospel movements recognizes the important place of ministries like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Pastor Tim Keller is one of the leading Christian apologists of our time. His theology goes deep as does his understanding of our late modern age. (For more, see my review of Preaching: Communicating Truth in an Age of Skepticism). 

Keller’s Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City, outlines his philosophy of ministry for local churches.

In the final section of Center Church Keller shares the vision for gospel movements or ecosystems that would transform culture. The dream is of a gospel movement that would reach a tipping point such that the Christian influence on a city “becomes so large that Christian influence on the civic and social life of the city — and on the very culture — is recognizable and acknowledged. (page 376)”

Keller believes such a culture-transforming movement would require a “gospel ecosystem” (diagram seen to the right). A gospel ecosystem would require three layers of ministry. 

1. Contextualized Theological Vision – At the core of what is needed to transform culture, Keller says that we need churches with gospel DNA: that is, they are “gospel centered, attentive to their culture, balanced missional/evangelistic growing, and self-replicating” (p. 374).
2. Church Planting and Church Renewal Movements – The second layer is the establishment of new churches. This doesn’t mean existing churches are forgotten. Rather, Keller submits church planting is a key to renewing the older churches. 
3. Specialized Ministries – The place for ministries like FCA is in the third layer. He writes: “this third ring consists of a complex set of specialty ministries, institutions, networks, and relationships.”

As Keller develops the vision for specialized ministries, he states, “Of particular importance are effective campus and youth ministries” (page 374).” Keller does not mention FCA by name, or any other ministry that I noticed.

In the below video, Keller allows that there has always been a kind of love-hate relationship between para-church or specialist ministries and the local church. Yet, he goes on to acknowledge that local churches — even large ones — cannot infiltrate culture in the same way as specialist ministries.

Keller’s thinking may be helpful for sharing the vision for movements that would transform culture and also for encouraging local churches about the necessity of specialized ministries like FCA.