What Happens When the Megastar is Gone?

There was some alarm recently when Apple announced that Steve Jobs would not be attending the upcoming Macworld conference. Rumblings began circulating on blogs that Jobs, who is a survivor of pancreatic cancer, was in failing health, with some rumors reporting that he might be dying. I also remember that initial news of his cancer actually caused Apple stock to dive. The questions (again) began to arise: what would happen to the global leader in consumer technology innovation when the person who is considered the face and soul of the company was no longer around? Or taking the question from another angle, how should Apple prepare for the inevitable day when Steve Jobs is no longer around?

There's a parallel of sorts in New York City Church circles, specifically in Redeemer Presbyterian Church where Tim Keller has a tremendous following among urban Christians all around the metropolitan area. Tim is no doubt a tremendously gifted preacher, a person who I'd say is the most eloquent teacher of the Word that I've had the privilege of hearing speak from the pulpit. He has a superb ability to interlace his biblical exposition with pop culture, everyday anecdotes and editorials from the New York Times without it coming off as contrived. He has an incisive wit which will cause you to laugh first, and then be convicted after the fact. Perhaps most impressive, he has the uncanny ability to capture the attention of both Christian and non-Christian alike, though a fellow PCA elder remarked that while he thought highly of Tim's sermons, the basic lessons are essentially the same after a three-year cycle.

In an article in the New York Times, Tim was referenced as Manhattan's leading evangelist and spoke of his remarkable effectiveness in building a multi-thousand member church amongst a sea of urbanites better known for their worship of money, fashion and fame. But was there a downside to the "cult of Tim"? I attended Redeemer as a business school student and saw some of it firsthand. For one, it was apparent that there were tons of people who would come in and hear Tim's sermon and otherwise not get involved in the life of the church (these people tended to greatly outnumber those who were also engaged in fellowship groups, etc.) because the only thing that drew them into Redeemer was the preaching. Second, I found it alarming that people would literally come only to hear Tim Keller preach. I was sitting in a service during the summer where after the praise band finished, and Terry Gyger stepped up to preach. On cue, as many as twenty people got up out of their pews and walked out of the church, apparently making up their mind that only a Tim Keller sermon would justify the investment of their precious time.

It wasn't just remarkably rude and inappropriate, it's a small scale example of what may happen in a post-Tim Keller Redeemer. I don't think this is necessarily a given, as I know that Redeemer constantly encourages their members to get plugged into the church beyond sitting in on sermons. Whether people are heeding this exhortation or not is a different question entirely. I understand that John Lin (who was Sarah's former English Ministry pastor back in Connecticut, by the way) preaches with increasing frequency, and I can only hope that he never had the unfortunate occurrence of being walked out on simply because he wasn't Tim Keller.

The reality is that there's so much more to Redeemer than just Tim - I know people who love their music and arts ministries, Hope for New York provides care for people all over the city, I have a friend who is in their Gotham Fellows Faith & Work program, I have friends that absolutely love the fellowship groups, and they planted an absolutely amazing church in the Morningside Heights area (wink). I just hope that the people within and outside of that church recognize and embrace those things before they have no choice but to do so.