Keller looks at the sociological and spiritual obstacles and opportunities in reaching the west today. It’s easy when you are a missionary in a culture to become a student of that culture and work out ways to reach it. The more we belong to the culture the more we fail to approach the culture as missionaries. Keller reminds us that we are all missionaries sent by God and that we need the creativity of missionaries in thinking through new ways to preach the unchanging gospel in new contexts.

This would be a good essay to discuss with Christian friends or a church staff team. I noticed a helpful discussion guide on the Redeemer CTC website.

I particularly enjoyed his metaphor about how secular world views pinch and rip and how Christians need to show how the gospel fits.

“All worldviews that are not biblically based are like a suit of clothes that are too small. Such clothes always uncomfortably pinch—and occasionally they actually rip. The late modern view of reality and the self does not fit human nature as God designed it. There are times in which stories and art reveal how today’s beliefs pinch and fail to satisfy. There are other times—especially times of pain—that the late modern worldview “rips” and wholly fails to provide what is needed to face such experiences. Christians need to be prepared in these moments to “give an answer to everyone who asks [them] to give the reason for the hope that [they] have” (1 Peter 3:15).”

I also enjoyed this quote from Langdon Gilkey on the difference between moralism and grace.

“Religion is not the place where the problem of man’s egotism is automatically solved. Rather, it is there that the ultimate battle between human pride and God’s grace takes place. Insofar as human pride may win the battle, religion can and does become one of the instruments of human sin. But insofar as there the self does meet God and so can surrender to something beyond its own self-interest, religion may provide the one possibility for a much needed and very rare release from our common self-concern.” ( )