Nearly three years after his death, Christians are still talking about Tim Keller.
In October 2025, a discussion took place between James R. Wood and Collin Hansen on Keller’s ministry, covering topics like cultural engagement, preaching, church planting, humility, gay marriage, and politics. Hansen, author of the 2023 biography of Keller, worked closely with him for years, helping to shape and run The Gospel Coalition, Keller’s brainchild for church renewal. Wood is an assistant professor of religion and theology at Redeemer University in Ontario and one of Keller’s thoughtful critics.
In this wide-ranging interview, however, they barely mention a major ingredient of Keller’s secret sauce: his voracious reading habit. Whether a critic or a fan, one cannot fully understand Keller’s impact without reckoning with the enormous foundation he laid in quiet study.
In Hansen’s biography of Keller, we learn that his first church in rural Hopewell, Virginia, did not have the budget to buy him books, so he asked for books as Christmas gifts. He would then spend the next year reading them. Many of these titles came from Banner of Truth, a publishing house that specializes in Puritan texts. Keller’s reading included tomes like “The Works of Jonathan Edwards.” Reaching nearly 2,000 pages, this two-volume publication’s famously-thin page margins and miniscule font size risk sending the reader to the optometrist. In the October interview, Hansen mentions Keller’s thorough reading of Martyn Lloyd-Jones and George Whitefield, both Banner of Truth staples.
In fact, Keller never missed a moment to read. In his biography, Hansen tells us that in New York City Keller had a habit of “walking down the street reading an open book,” and that he would “drive around Hopewell with a Puritan paperback from Banner of Truth resting on his steering wheel.” Keller’s study was constant.
As the Christian leaders of the baby boomer generation pass away, who will rise to take their place? Who will be the next Tim Keller or R.C. Sproul or John MacArthur? Who will serve as the pace-setting preachers to influence Gen Z and the generations that follow?
Wherever they are hiding, I believe this: they are doing the reading. They are devoting themselves to private study and prayer, far from the constant buzz of X. They have the patience to work through old books and the discipline to limit social media usage. They know that opportunity costs exist and that every yes is a no: time spent engaging the latest controversy on social media is time not spent quaffing down eternal truths. We may not even know their names for some time. Like Keller, these men are right now laying a solid foundation. Are we doing the same?
It is tempting to attribute to talent what we should instead credit to work ethic. We would rather label someone “brilliant” than “well-read,” as the former excuses our own shortcomings. If someone’s success comes from unusual gifts, we can easily explain away our own mediocrity. But if that success is instead the result of grit and sweat, our excuses fall flat.
Certainly, Keller possessed outsized gifts, but he also put his time to good use. A friend of mine who knew Keller personally says that many desire Keller’s impact and influence without his piety and study. His piety was more than his reading of great works and Scripture, but it was not less than that.
I do not recommend following Keller’s example of reading while driving, and he himself admitted that at times his diligence turned into overwork. We all have different capacities for work and different life circumstances. Nevertheless, great fruit does not ordinarily come without great labor. The apostle Paul even had a few things to say about the Christian work ethic.
Keller had the advantage of serving in ministry before social media or even the internet. Is he, therefore, part of a dying breed? I hope not. Ministers and Christians today face the temptation of countless internet distractions, but we are not left without recourse. One friend of mine has fully embraced Cal Newport’s philosophy of “digital minimalism.” Another pastor in my city uses a flip phone and urges congregants to email him rather than texting. I’m not ready to go cold turkey, but I bought a brick last year to help me manage my time. I turn to it when I know I should be reading rather than scrolling.
In addition to removing distractions, we must also plan reading that nourishes us. Sinclair Ferguson reminds us, “Christian history, biography and personal experience show us that Christians who read have tended to be stronger Christians than they otherwise would have been.” Keller’s life serves as proof of this. May ours do the same.
Matthew Capone is the lead pastor of Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado.