Posted on April 9, 2008 - by Stephen Murray
If I Were to Write A Book…
If I were to write a book what would it be about? I’ve often thought about this so I’m going to give you my answer and then tag some other people with the same question.
If I were to write a book I’d like to write something on the subject of ‘authenticity’ in the Christian life. I know this is one of the major concerns of the Emerging Church and its one of the reasons that the EC resonates with me. I don’t think I’d be good and showing the church exactly how to be authentic – that would just be arrogant. But I would like to poke some fun at some of the bogus expressions and ideas that are afloat in the broader Christian community and then maybe tentatively suggest some ways forward. These are the areas I’d like to tackle:
Bogus ideas about the Bible.
Bogus ideas about guidance.
Fake expressions of community.
Fake expressions of spiritual experience.
All that is bogus in the contemporary Christian ‘worship’ (music) scene.
Preaching that leaves the listener unconvinced because of lack of conviction.
And there are others I could think of…
I’d like to take some pot shots at a number of different expressions and traditions of the Christian church (The emergents, the calvinists, the arminians, the charismatics, the roman catholics, the seeker-sensitive crowd, and many others). My aim wouldn’t be to run down the church but rather just to give us a reality check of what we really look like and to begin a conversation about how we might restore authenticity before a watching world that craves it.
So that’s what I’d write – I wonder what the following people would write:
Ant, Chris, Jeremy, Jeff and Jason – consider yourselves TAGGED.
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Stephen Murray
Christian, husband to my beautiful Robin, missional dreamer, pastor, church planter, Arsenal, Sharks and Springbok supporter, surfer (in the real sea), patriotic South African, Capetonian. 
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April 9, 2008
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Dion Forster said:
Hi S,
You SHOULD write your book! I would both buy and read it! However, I think you could write something amazing about Church planting in our context. I would encourage you to ask the question – what can you write that nobody else could write? What are you an expert on? Think about it in pictures first, then put it in print, images are the information of our generation.
Write it! Please!
Blessings,
Dion
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April 9, 2008
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Stephen said:
Dion – I’ve thought about writing on church planting – and I’m busy writing my thesis on it but I’d like to spend more time on the field testing out my theories and teaching them before I put them to paper. But thanks for the encouragement.
BTW – the reason I didn’t tag you was because you’ve already written books!
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April 9, 2008
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Jordan said:
Stephen – you should start a series of books titled “All that is bogus in…” and you could fill it in with all of those subjects you mentioned above. I would definitely buy that series!
On a more serious note, and maybe I’m “preaching to the choir” here, I would include the positive side of things in whatever you may write. That is, it is easier to say what something is not, and harder to say what it actually is or should be (e.g. worship music, preaching). Would you ever consider making your thesis available online in pdf format?
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April 9, 2008
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Stephen said:
A few people have asked me if they can get a copy – I think I’ll rather just email it to whoever wants to read it.
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April 10, 2008
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Jeff said:
I would write a book that is a re-telling of some Classical story, but with some deep allegorical meaning a la Lewis (Till We Have Faces). I think the best stories already exist…we just re-tell them in different formats. The storyline of the Bible is a good one – Greatest story ever told. Or imagine re-writing a 1 Samuel? The drama and intrigue of the David/Saul narrative is hard to beat! But don’t write books – nobody reads these days – make movies! No one buys books at our booktable at church – wondering if we should make it a DVD table…
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April 11, 2008
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Sam Groves said:
Hey Jeff,
That’s very interesting, what you say about nobody buying books anymore. I also like your sense about re-telling the best stories. Maybe I should spend more time reading your blog. Especially seeing as Steve’s blog is all theoretical- I mean who’d want to read all about church planting from a guy who has never actually planted a church? Am I allowed to say such nasty about the blogger on his blog? Just kidding Steve, please send my your thesis when it’s completed, or the DVD would be better actually, after all Cape Town does provide the perfect backdrop doesn’t it?
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April 30, 2008
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jeremy said:
Yeah…I’m a little slow to respond. I’m actually in process of writing, so I’ll keep the topic a secret for now.