A conversation between father and son has become a new book carrying the late Tim Keller's ideas into a changed cultural moment. Michael Keller says The Stories We Live By: Seven Cultural Myths That Fail Us and the Story That Never Will began when he told his father that he wished Making Sense of God had a more accessible companion-one that brought the stories shaping people's lives to the forefront.
Tim's answer was simple: they could write it together.
The two began identifying those stories and outlining the chapters. But Tim died in May 2023 before the project was complete. Michael told ChurchLeaders that, before his death, his father urged him to take the material they had gathered, write the book, and publish it. What began as a shared idea became a task Michael would have to finish without him.
Michael is the lead pastor of Redeemer Lincoln Square in New York City, part of the church network associated with his father's ministry. Yet the new book asks a question that reaches beyond the Keller family or Redeemer's congregations: What stories do people rely on to explain who they are, what they need, and where they hope to find fulfillment?
For pastors, Michael believes the an...