Tim Keller has written some of the Books for life team’s favourite Christian books. "The Prodigal God" has helped a whole new audience experience the life transforming power of God’s grace. Both the "The Reason for God" and "Making Sense of God" have helped equip the church to respond to the questions of skeptics with a godly combination of grace and truth. Tim’s latest release is “Ministries of Mercy: learning to care like Jesus”. The book was originally published in 1989 but this UK edition has been given a beautiful redesign and comes with a foreword from the Archbishop of York John Sentamu and strong commendations from Ellie Mumford and Joel Edwards. We caught up with Dr Keller for an interview:

Thank you for writing Ministries of Mercy, the original edition of the book helped shape my understanding of the mission of God. The book comes across as an impassioned plea for a more holistic understanding of the responsibilities of Christians in the world. Why is Mercy Ministry such a passion of yours?

I grew up in a fairly prosperous (though not highly affluent) northeastern U.S. city. The first church that I was called to as a pastor was in a very different kind of community. It was a working class factory town in the South, with a good deal of poverty. That experience pushed me to look into the Bible to see what it said about justice and mercy for the poor. Of course, it says quite a lot! But as a newer Christian (I had only been a believer for about five years when I became a pastor) and as a young man, I had not known about it. 

What kind of push back have you received to the message of the book?

Well, I wrote this in the mid-1980s, and at that time in my denomination (the Presbyterian Church in America) there was quite a lot of wariness and some outright hostility to the book. One older minister who I otherwise admired told me he thought the material was just Marxism, and many others in my ecclesiastical connections agreed with him. (Even though the book is not about the role of the state but only about the work of Christians and the church.) I must say that now, over thirty years later, there is far less of that reaction in my circles, though there still is some.

How would you respond to those who argue that mercy ministry is a distraction from genuine gospel ministry?

Of course it depends on what the word ‘genuine’ implies. If ‘genuine gospel ministry’ means Word ministry—evangelizing and discipling people—then certainly, mercy ministry can be a distraction from that. I have indeed seen churches that, in their laudable desire to help the poor, became so absorbed in financially and emotionally costly programs to people in need, that there was too little energy left for Word ministry.  I would deny that mercy ministry is necessarily a distraction, but it can be.

However, as you know, the book argues that the Bible does not put a wedge between Word ministry and deed ministry. They went together in Jesus’ ministry. They went together in the New Testament church.  There is a very real sense in which mercy to the poor is itself part of our witness to the world, just like the holiness of our lives is part of our witness to the truth of the gospel. So yes, deed ministry must not replace Word ministry—as it has in the more liberal churches. But neither should it be separated from it.

You argue in the book that “Very few evangelical churches do much in the way of deed ministry outside of the annual donation of food at Christmas or Thanksgiving.” ( p.134). In the UK studies by groups such as Cinnamon Network and Evangelical Alliance reveal that churches are mobilising hundreds of thousands of volunteers and thousands of paid staff to impact their communities. One estimate values the work given by churches and other faith groups through social action projects such as Foodbanks, Christians Against Poverty, Street Pastors and others at over £3 billion a year. Do you think things have changed since you wrote the book in 1989?  Or do you think the bulk of mercy ministry is being done by non-evangelicals?

As I mentioned earlier, yes I do think things have changed among evangelicals since I wrote the book. That statement reflected my observations 35 years ago, and things certainly have changed in the U.S. the way you indicate they have in the U.K. Younger evangelicals are particularly keen to do mercy and justice. And I actually do not think that non-evangelicals are doing the bulk of mercy ministry, because the established, older churches are aging and shrinking, and it is the evangelicals that have they younger people who are eager to help in these ways.

In your book "Centre Church" you seem argue that the mission of the church as the church is evangelism and disciple making, whereas individual Christians might involve themselves in service to the poor. (Centre Church, Zondervan 2012 p.263) Whilst in "Ministries of Mercy" you argue “mercy is a mandated work of the Church, just as the ministry of the word and discipline are.” (Ministries of Mercy, SPCK, 2017 p.22)” What’s the best way of understanding the church’s responsibility for mercy ministry?

Galatians 6:10 says, “Do good to all people, but especially the household of faith.” This is an important distinction. First, mercy ministry is indeed the mandated work of the church qua church, particularly in its care for believers in need. “There should be no needy” among you (Acts 4:34). The church is to organize not just to build up each other with the Word, but also to serve each other’s most practical economic and material needs. That is what Acts 6 is all about. And by the way, in the U.S. in particularly, a great percentage of the most impoverished people are professing Christians.

But when it comes to meeting the broader needs of the poor across the entire city, I think it is prudent and (looking at the priority order in Galatians 6:10) biblical to encourage Christians to band together and form organizations and societies to meet those needs rather than having the local church under its elders running drug rehab centres or mission centres for refugees, and so on. Also, mercy ministry rather readily phases into justice—into seeking social reforms to help the oppressed. That is certainly best pursued by Christian agencies specializing in such work, rather than by the local church. So, in summary, both the statement in Centre Church and in the Ministries of Mercy are right and complementary.

You quote both Isaiah 1 and James 1.27 in Ministries of Mercy, both of which remind God’s people of their responsibility to care for orphans. With over 26000 children in foster care in New York state many of whom are available for adoption what steps might a large church take to inspire its congregation to consider adoption as an expression of mercy?

First, preaching on those texts. Secondly, forming (what we in the U.S. would call) a non-profit corporation (or you would call) a charitable trust, led by Christians, to work across denominations and congregations to get those children into homes.

You seem to have a very busy schedule how do you make time to read?

Even the busiest people (if they are not in fast declining health) find time to eat and sleep. You make time for the things you really think are essential. Wide reading is one of those things for a minister. Read or die.

We have been asking Christian Leaders which are the three Christian books have most influenced their spiritual development. ( www.booksforlife.uk ) Which books would you chose?

Nothing surprising here, especially for someone my age-- C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity; J.I.Packer, Knowing God; J.Stott, Basic Christianity.  All Brits—how about that?