Dreyers in New York: Connections, sessions, book launch and Sleepy Hollow.

“I don’t know how it got so big.” This was Tim Keller’s words to me (Thomas) as we walked out of his office to the elevator and walked passed most of the staff. When I looked at him I could see the earnestness in his eyes. He has lots to boast in, humanly speaking, but he really sees himself as only an instrument in God’s hands.

We really prayed for good connections and one of them came in the person of Moné Dye, a South-African lady who spent almost 8 years in New York but now lives in South-Africa. While in New York, she became good friends with Tim and Kathy Keller. Kathy invited me and Erna and One and Confidence Mokgatle (From LIGPUNT, Pretoria) to meet her. She was back in New York for the UN meetings. We had lunch together on Sunday after Church (as Erna told you already) and then met again for tee in Tim’s office on Monday afternoon. It was so good to see South-Africa and the need for Gospel centred churches in South-Africa through Moné's and Andréa’s eyes. They will be able to help us a lot when we are back home. Tim Keller joined us at the end of the conversation. It was special.

Another good connection that God provided, and which caused us to alter our traveling program, is the connection with our minister of years back, David Strain. We mentioned this in a previous blog! What we did not mention was the possibility of being invited by David’s church, First Presbyterian Church (www.fpcjackson.org), to come and present our plans with the possibility of getting financial support from them. They indeed invited us and after discussing it with the leadership back home, we decided to go ahead with this trip. We can’t but see God’s had in this opportunity. This means another week in the States. On the one hand we are grateful for this opportunity. On the other hand we are really tired and missing home. So please pray for us for the energy to serve God in this also.

Monday morning sessions kicked off in Brooklyn. We visited Jamison Galt and his church plant in Clinton hill, Brooklyn (www.resurrectionclintonhill.org). This was once again a powerful experience; even more so because I attended the worship service 2 weeks before! Jamison was very honest with us about the difficulties and challenges they are facing, about his personal struggles, about his personal accountability structures, about unmet expectations and also about God’s amazing grace and providence.

Resurrection Hill.

After an amazing Indian lunch, provided by the Indian church plant team (Jeyakaran, Mike and Stacy), we had time to prepare our questions for our Tim Keller session. We had a powerful session with him about preaching the Gospel to the heart.

Tuesday was a full day. Although we stared at 10:00, there was almost no break till 16:30. We started out speaking about what it really means to be a missional church. It has become such a buzz word, but sadly many churches are only missional in name. We spoke about the fact that a true missional church is missional in it’s very existence, in its being. Why? Because we were brought together because of the mission of God, coming to reconcile us to himself and each other through Jesus! As reconciled children of God we are now on mission with Him, bringing the message but also the evidence of what it means to be reconciled to God. People of the Kingdom of God live according to a new set of rules when it comes to things like money, power and sex and this should make us an attractive yet distinct community.

We had lunch with Terry Gyger, the man of God who had the vision for Redeemer, and was instrumental in calling Tim Keller to New York. He also served as Redeemers executive pastor for many years. It was great to be in the presence of this 78 year old man, still full of enthusiasm for God’s kingdom!

We ended the day of with a session on leadership by Katherine Leary Alsdorf. The book we had to read for this was Leadership on the line which I can highly recommend. We had some good discussions and I learned a lot. The biggest thing being that leadership always involve leading people through change and that change involves loss. Deep, heartfelt understanding of what the people you are leading are going to lose when they follow you, can be very helpful in being a good leader.

Tuesday evening we had another good small group meeting for which Anton and Imke joined me. They are focusing on what it means to have a public faith. It was good to hear these New Yorkers sharing some of the challenges of living out and sharing your faith with non-believers.

Small group meeting.

Wednesday we took time off and headed North, out of the city to a small town called Sleepy Hollow. Yes, it’s the town of the famous headless horseman, but no, we did not see him except on posters. It was good to see a small town with its BIG meals. What we enjoyed most was the quiet. New York is so noisy! (More photos at the bottom of this post...)

Sleepy Hollow.

We ended the day with a great book launch event! Tim Keller's new book, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. It’s another must read! And it’s not just my opinion! Read a good review here: http://thegospelcoalition.org/book- reviews/review/walking_with_god_through_pain_and_suffering

Walking with God through Pain and Suffering.

Today (Thursday) we stared with a Preaching Intensive which will continue and end with Tim Keller’s session on Monday about Apologetics and Evangelism. Today and tomorrow we are focusing on:
•    Preaching to Christians and non-Christians at the same time.
•    Preaching grace and not moralism.
•    Preaching Christ from every text in the Bible.
•    How to aim your preaching at the “heart” and not just the mind or the emotions.
•    How to stay faithful to the text and to route your sermon in faithful exposition.
•    How to grow in your skill of delivery of a sermon.
So, let me get to my reading for tomorrow!!!