Prominent NYC-based pastor and best-selling author Timothy Keller dies at 72

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Timothy Keller, a pastor and best-selling author who founded the influential Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, died this morning at home after three-year bout with pancreatic cancer. He once wrote, “The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” Keller’s teachings reached far beyond the spaces that Redeemer rented for its Sunday services. Still, in an essay for The New Yorker in 2017, Keller lamented that it was harder to wear the label “evangelical” after President Donald Trump’s election, which many other leading evangelicals had championed. “When you are at a funeral, especially one for a friend or a loved one,” he wrote, “listen to God speaking to you, telling you that everything in life is temporary except for His love.” ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.