Posted on October 7, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

New York Trip: Part VI

Two Sundays have come and gone since I last updated you (ya – sorry about that – things have been crazy busy). A lot has happened and this post will turn into an essay if I give you all the details so I’ll pick out the highlights of the last 12 days or so.

From the course point of view we’ve had some important discussions on very practical issues pertaining to church planting. We’ve covered fund raising (the politically correct term is: development), the strains church planting places upon marriages, drawing up church documentation, having difficult conversations with colleagues and thinking through contextualization, both for our preaching and for our styles of ministry. We had another Q & A session with Tim Keller – this time dealing with preaching. This session was hugely beneficial in hearing Tim’s approach both theologically and practically to his preaching. So they’ve kept us really busy – given us a ton of reading – but its all been great and really worth it.

Thursday evening last week was a benefit evening for the church planting center (I got all dressed up)- it was a chance for the center to showcase their work to important supporters. It was truly an inspiring evening to get a sense of the movement of church planting that is literally spreading across the major cities of the world through the help and influence of Redeemer. It’s a great privilege to be part of that movement.

We’ve visited three churches (besides Redeemer) in the last two weekends, Emmanuel Presbyterian, Apostles Church and Forefront Church. All three were plants that have been assisted by Redeemer, Emmanuel was a direct plant from Redeemer. Apostle’s Church is an Acts29 affiliated church and it was great to see what they are doing in the city. I got the chance to have lunch with JR Vassar, their pastor, and some of their elders to hear more about their work and for them to hear about what we’re doing in Cape Town.

From a sightseeing point of view we’ve hung out in China Town, been to a gig in the Village, been up the Rockefeller Center, had cupcakes with a South African diplomat to the United Nations, seen Grand Central Station and the library, eaten lots of Reese’s, drunk lots of Starbucks and had the odd double-quarter-pounder from McD’s.

Today is Wednesday, rest and reading day – I’ve also got a sermon to prepare and a few presentations to tweak. We’re off to Knoxville this weekend so we’ll keep you posted.