Redeemer NYC: Getting Press

Tim Keller's wife, Kathy, has an article in The Movement about "Missional Ministry in the Age of Media."  I think it's helpful.  I especially find this excerpt interesting...

Unwise use of publicity, interviews and relationship to the media.

As a result of a series of unpleasant experiences, Redeemer Presbyterian Church has forged the following media policy:

We do not provide interviews or participate in stories; we do not desire publicity that will raise our profile. This policy exists for these reasons:

1. Anything that raises Redeemer's profile pulls Christians out of their own churches to visit or join us. This is a bad neighbor policy; the City needs many different churches, not one big mega-church, something we are going to great pains to avoid becoming.

2. If Redeemer becomes a “Christian tourist destination," our limited seating will be filled with those who already believe in Jesus, leaving no room for genuine seekers. We are already turning people away at one service, and seating is tight at others. Therefore, we do not want any publicity that would fill our seats with curious believers.

3. Redeemer would prefer that seekers come as the result of relationship (i.e., they are accompanying a friend who is then available to discuss things with them following the service.) To come into a church like Redeemer is not an easy thing, and although publicity might result in a few non-believer walk-ins, we would prefer there to be none at all.

4. Redeemer’s message is nuanced and non-political. We want to present the gospel and have people make up their minds about whether Jesus is God or not, rather than convincing them to espouse a point of view about this or that hot-button issue. Since this is somewhat different than the approach of some other evangelical churches, we don’t want to say or do anything that would give the impression that we fit into the storyline that the media currently has about evangelicals. This would tend to obscure and falsify our real message.

The problem is that while publicity alerts people who are trying to find a church like yours to your existence, it also alerts those who find your presence alarming. This can have an immediate negative effect on your rental arrangements (if your landlord does not wish to be identified with a church with your doctrinal commitments, or if he or she merely wishes to avoid a potentially controversial situation.) It can also affect the lease agreements of other churches in your area, which will suffer along with you if permission to rent in schools, for instance, is revoked.

Publicity also allows people to find you who are discontented with their own churches and who hope to find a church they can influence so that it suits their needs. These folks are a thorn in the side of any church planter trying to keep a clear vision of the Gospel before the world. And some people, of course, are just perennial malcontents, unable to be satisfied with any church, hopping from congregation to congregation, leaving a wake of destruction behind them.

Comments

[paul del signore]

yea, the problem Redeemer faces of sorts is the Tim Keller appeal. When I first attended Redeemer in 93, there were several hundred in attendance, Now, the Hunter College auditorium is jam packed with thousands, and that's just one of four services.

my suspician is that the press coverage Redeemer is getting lately will generate more members, and Redeemer will need to continue to find ways to spread that growth to other places in Manhattan.

not a bad problem to have, but certainly an issue.

paul

[Zach Nielsen]

From this article: "Train your staff in to refer inquiries about inflammatory issues to a designated person who understands your media policy and who knows how to say graciously “We preach Jesus, not politics” in seventeen different ways."

How does this translate if you are a church that embraces expository preaching and you are working through a book of the Bible that deals with "hot" issues in today's culture? It seems that there would be times when there are going to be seeker/visitors at your gathering and you will be forced to be honest about what you believe about these things. You can't just save it for membership class. I really value what she is saying here, generallyl speaking, it just seems that it might help to have a bit more qualification. Thanks for the post!

[Nick P.]

Neat article. So rather than "no such thing as bad publicity", it's "there's no such thing as good publicity".

Regarding point 2, is this not more of an administrative challenge? Any growing church is going to have space issues. This doesn't negate the other points, but "we don't have enough room" just delays the challenge of finding bigger space.

[hashman]

There policy is interesting and makes me want to visit their church. :<)

[Nick P.]

So has Tim ever emailed you and said, "Hey Steve, stop pointing people to my web site, my wife doesn't like the publicity"?

:-)

[Ray Van Neste]

Kudos to the Kellers! What a refreshing change from publicity hogs who simply want packed pews regardless. I really appreciate the desire not simply to pack their place but to see more healthy churches in their area. May we see more of this.

[Scott Stewart]

Tim Keller has been a huge influence on me for the past 2 years. I'm on the same page as him, but I do agree when we encounter passages in Scipture (if we are preaching expository) that deal with homosexuality, abortion, etc. we should preach it. Those hot issues can be addressed winsomly. A nuanced intro perhaps. Remember, we must preach the whole counsel of God, even the controversial stuff.

[Ray Van Neste]

I agree on preaching the whole counsel of God, but I am taken with their approach to publicity.

[Steve McCoy]

I don't see any reason to think that Tim Keller's avoidance of politics means not dealing with issues that have become political.

[Tim Keller]

Steve-When Kathy says we avoid 'controversial' issues she doesn't mean that in preaching we stay away from anything the Bible directly addresses. The hard-for-the world-to-take Biblical teachings (e.g. salvation through Christ alone; God's wrath and hell) get proclaimed in our pulpit all the time. But like Lloyd-Jones and others, I don't think it is good to weigh in on hot, current issues of public policy in preaching. It is one thing to discern what the Bible says about right and wrong for the Christian community--but how much of that should be enshrined in the laws of the land? Thoughtful people can have very deep differences over this. There are very smart, orthodox Christians who are both Democrats and Republicans. We don't want to give listeners the impression that in order to come to Christ they will have to embrace one particular political agenda.

[Justin Taylor]

Tim,

Would you place abortion in this category of "hot, current issues of public policy" that you wouldn't preach on?

Justin

[Kathy Keller]

Of course Tim would preach about abortion if he was preaching through a passage that directly referenced it (there aren't that many.) But to construct a sermon on the subject rather than to talk about Jesus seems like getting the cart before the horse--among those who worship with us, there are many people do not believe that Jesus is God, or even know whether to believe there is a God at all, so why should they care what the Bible or the church or Tim says about abortion until they have come to the prior conclusion that Jesus is their Lord and his words must be obeyed? We try to major in the majors, and although we never shy away from anything that the Bible teaches, we don't go looking for excuses to bring up things which are not the main message--in Jesus alone is salvation to be found.

[Steve McCoy]

Wow. Both Kellers in one day. This is a pleasure. Thanks for spending the time commenting here Kathy. Much appreciated.

[Scott Stewart]

Tim or Kathy,

This is kind of unrelated to the current discussion, but a quick question. I am sharing my faith with a guy at work who believes that religious moralism is the same as Christianity, but at the same time is not very moral. I am doing his pre-marital counseling and want to invite he and his wife-to-be to a Bible study that I am about to start up. Is there another way I can invite him other than saying, "Would you want to come to my Bible study?" I guess I'm just having a problem with the semantics of it all.

Thanks,
Scott

[True Blue]

I have never heard Tim preach about abortion or those kinds of hot-button issues. He has a couple of sermons he does on marriage, which is as close as he gets to talking about any kind of sex-related issue. Redeemer is so great because of the way it lets you get to Jesus, rather than trying to get to you with some kind of prefabricated political agenda.

I suspect that personally, Tim probably holds some right-wing-ish political notions that I would not agree with. But they don't infect his theology ever.