Tim Keller in the New York Times








Within a year of its founding in 1989, however, Redeemer had grown from 50 people to more than 400. By the end of 1992, the church had swelled to more than 1,000 people. Since then, it has continued to grow steadily, all while renting space in several locations.

Sept. 11 proved to be a defining moment for the church. On the Sunday after the terrorist attack, more than 5,000 people showed up. So many people packed the church's Sunday morning service that Dr. Keller called another service on the spot, and 700 people came back to attend. While attendance returned to normal in other churches after several weeks, Redeemer kept attracting about 800 more people a week than it had drawn before the attack.

"For the next five years, I would talk to people about when they joined the church, and they said right after 9/11," Dr. Keller said.

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I think he first hit my radar screen in talking to Steve Knight at the Hard Times Emerging Church Cohort and DJ Chuang, also @ the Hard Times, is faithful to mention Keller's exploits on his blog and has a useful page on him. A few weeks ago, I started pulling down some of the talks DJ points to and have been throwing them on my Nano. I like the guy.

ht to Justin Taylor