What a special night for REDEEMER!! Tim Keller shared with us that God has brought new leadership and now we have to let them lead. With amazing humility, he said for all us to be sure to give praise to the right person...in other words, to the Lord, not him.
Tim also said that on his wedding day he recited Psalm 34 to Kathy asking her to glorify the Lord with him. In this he felt it was their first church plant and that they have been inviting others to glorify the Lord with them ever since.
Psalm 34: 1-3
I will extol the LORD at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
My soul will boast in the LORD;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
Glorify the LORD with me;
let us exalt his name together.
I'm not sure why but I felt particularly emotional at moments through the night. I think some of it was my perspective. I ended up sitting on the side, raised up from the rest of the congregation. I could see REDEEMER worshiping together. REDEEMER EAST, REDEEMER WEST and now REDEEMER SOUTH all together.
Tim had us pray a covenant prayer of John Wesley. Did you have to gulp as much as I did to get through that thing? Some of the words included, "Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. Thou art mine, and I am thine."
And of course, we sang my fave, "There is a REDEEMER!" And, there is. Jesus and this church.
I told Tim on the way out that I felt like it was a really special time to be at Redeemer and he agreed. I have no plans to be anywhere else but I feel like I'm here in a unique season of this church. This is a very special slice of Redeemer's history and for whatever reason the Lord sovereignly has me here. Working at a church you get to see all sides of her...even the "under belly" as someone recently said to me. I feel humbled, renewed and excited for all that is to come and really love being in New York and specifically at Redeemer.
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