5LQ Episode 498 with Collin Hansen

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Collin Hansen who serves as the vice president for content and editor in chief of The Gospel Coalition. They discuss his new autobiography on Pastor Timothy Keller which focused on his intellectual and spiritual formation. Collin shares about Keller's early years, the influential relationships that made him who is he today, the church where he learned to care for souls, and the city that lifted him to the international fame he never wanted.

BEST QUOTES

“When you're learning from Tim Keller, you're actually learning from dozens of other people. You're learning from all of those who have influenced him.” – Collin Hansen

“Everything Tim writes about the power transformative power of grace, that's based on his experience with Jesus.” – Collin Hansen

Tim often says, “When we preach what Jesus preached, we should be seeing a response from the people who responded to Jesus. But if our churches are not and they don't have anybody like those people who are attracted to Jesus, maybe we're not preaching the same message that he did.” – Collin Hansen

“The clear testimony from every single one of their family and friends is that really you're just not understanding Tim Keller unless you understand his biggest influence, which is certainly his wife, Kathy.” – Collin Hansen

“One of the things that I took away from this book was how Tim continued to grow and develop and continues to this day to develop as like rings on a tree. A lot of people seem to develop their belief system, their theological perspective, or their businesses, like fads. It's like a lily pad theology where they are jumping from one thing to another and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of coherence to it. While Keller’s is like rings on a tree starting from that essential conversion experience, he has through Intervarsity Christian Fellowship in 1970. That never changes the theological beliefs. He develops as a student especially in seminary, but it doesn’t really change for his whole life. But he continues to grow.” – Collin Hansen

“Tim is an excellent leader in terms of casting a compelling vision that that people will get excited about, they'll understand, and they'll want to follow.” – Collin Hansen

“I have spent my career 20 plus years working with a lot of the most effective leaders in the church, and not one single one of them or anybody I've met is good at everything. So, we shouldn't pretend otherwise.” – Collin Hansen

“Tim has always overworked. It's been one of his besetting sins. The cancer freed him up for the first time in 50 years, essentially to do what he wanted to do and not what he didn't have to do.” – Collin Hansen

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation by Collin Hansen