In my early twenties I was living in New York City, working for a very hip arts organization, going to grad school at Columbia University, and attending tons of parties with fabulous people at places that were even more fabulous. I couldn’t get enough splashy Fabulous with a capital F in my life. I stopped going to church because it wasn’t exactly relevant anymore. I still loved Jesus, and I knew I was a child of God, I just became a total church snob. That was easy. I hated the hokey way pastors would try to relate to people my age in their sermons. I rolled my eyes at the illustrations they used from popular television shows to make scripture meaningful to me. Sorry, Joe Pastor, that reference to The Gilmore Girls flew right past me. I didn’t watch tv. I went to parties at the MoMA and opening night performances on Broadway, for free, during “primetime” network hours. I couldn’t get enough of that life for a few years. But, like I mentioned, I was a child of God. And he wasn’t about to let me slip away, regardless of what I thought seemed like the perfect life.

I started going to church again when my nagging, wonderful parents hundreds of miles south wouldn’t stop bugging me about a church on the Upper East Side called Redeemer Presbyterian. My dad, a former Bible smuggler, had attended a missionary conference with Tim Keller years earlier and never forgot him. FINE, I thought. I’ll go, I’ll go! I’ll go to make my parents happy and get them to pipe down about this Tim Keller guy.
He didn’t reference Gilmore Girls, or old Far Side one-liner cartoons, or silly commercials for cheap beer on television. In that first sermon I heard, he referenced Nietzsche and an article I just read in The New Yorker. Oh. I wasn’t prepared to open up my ears to hear what this guy was saying, let alone my heart.  He talked about the practical ways my life should be changing if I meant business about God, and how God’s love was transforming New York City. Honest, but not confrontational messages that challenge Christians to be loving, patient disciples that actively work together to live Christ’s message of love, hope, and mercy.

The way I understand and love God has changed because of Tim Keller’s teaching, and as a result of that, the way I love and serve the people in my community has changed as well. I moved down to this area in October 2008, and I see so many commonalities between the New York that God is changing and the Durham that God is changing. God has blessed Durham with a staggeringly high level of creative capital and brain power. Durham overflows with resources, financial and human, that are being strategically organized to serve people right here.  In this city filled with nationally recognized chefs, activists, scientists, mothers, educators, caregivers, philanthropists, authors, and concerned citizens, we have a talent pool ready to be mobilized for Christ.

Tim’s message this Wednesday will explore how to love your neighbor as demonstrated in the Bible. Go to learn what it means to love Durham in a way that will deepen your relationship with God. Go to learn what it means to change and serve this community, one Fabulous Christian at a time.

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