Author Archive

Posted on February 9, 2011 - by Stephen Murray

New Cape Town Church Plant: The Vine Church

Just a quick shout-out for my friend and colleague Lenny Long (follow him on twitter) who is taking a small bunch of people off and planting The Vine Church in the Burgundy Estate area of Cape Town. They have two main informal gatherings at the moment on Sunday morning 10am and then on Wednesday evenings 7:30pm. Both the meetings take place at the Bunker Bar next to the mini golf course in the centre of Burgundy. If you’re in the area make sure to check them out or if you have friends and contacts in the area feel free to pass on the information.

Connect with the Vine on twitter.

Check out the Vine’s tumblr site.

The Vine on Facebook.

Posted on February 8, 2011 - by Stephen Murray

The Roots of the Social Gospel?

A common line of rhetoric that I’ve encountered when talking about the issue of gospel proclamation vs. doing mercy and justice is to point back to the Social Gospel as a case in point where priorities were not correctly upheld and the church slipped into a gospel that was in fact no gospel at all. But is that the reality? Did the rise of the Social Gospel occur because of vigorous debate concerning priorities?

A brief reading of the history of the Social Gospel quickly shows this not to be the case at all but rather that the Social Gospel had it’s roots firmly anchored in higher criticism and theological liberalism. This was not a bunch of evangelicals debating with each other on how best to reflect the heart of God to their society, it was a bunch of ministers and leaders dissulussioned with the authority, infallibility and reliability of Scripture – men who doubted original sin, penal substitution and a host of other doctrines key to historic evangelical and reformed faith.

So I’m not so sure I’d use the line ‘…but we lost it once before’ in attempt to safe guard the priority of gospel proclamation over doing mercy and justice. As I pointed out last week, I think there’s a better way to approach the issue.

Posted on February 4, 2011 - by Stephen Murray

Mercy & Justice as an Issue of Godliness

A few days ago I was sitting in a seminar where the whole (old) issue of priorities came up regarding proclamation of the gospel and promoting mercy and justice initiatives (which one is more important). It seems to me that many are still failing to find adequate categories to express the issues at hand and it’s causing confusion (and possibly paralysis?).

Well a few days ago I stumbled upon a gem of theological insight by Mark Meynell in a post he wrote reviewing Tim Keller’s Generous Justice. Read this…

“Having lived in the two-thirds world for a number of years, it was impossible to ignore the  appalling conditions and social realities of people’s lives. It would have been callous to do so. That, in part, is why very few African friends understand the western church’s hang up on social action and evangelism. It’s a non-question for them. But in Generous Justice, Keller convincingly argues in a coherent, accessible and readable way why it should be non-question for us all. I sensed when we lived in Uganda, and I sense all the more strongly having read this book, that one mistake is to get lost in the intricacies of working out theoretical priorities (a necessary activity, of course). You start pitting this life against the next life and … well … it seems no contest.

But suppose we take the concern for justice out of the mission equation, just for a moment (don’t panic – I do think that it is an integral part of what God is doing on earth, which is why we should be involved. But bear with me just for a moment.) Instead, place justice and poverty in matters of holiness and discipleship and suddenly the landscape changes. It’s not then primarily a question of priorities. It’s a question of godliness. We don’t ask, ‘is it more important to be honest, humble or generous?’ That would be ludicrous. We shouldn’t expect to have to choose – we should strive after all three.”

Theological genius I tell you (read the rest of Mark’s post here).

Posted on January 27, 2011 - by Stephen Murray

Holiness Through, not Beyond, the Gospel

Here’s a very important piece by Dane Ortlund, the senior editor at Crossway Books, concerning a recent article in Christianity Today by Jason Hood. Dane carefully articulates what I think is the biblical approach to holiness that, whilst susceptible to charges of antinomianism, is no antinomianism at all.

I’m more convinced about one thing in ministry now then I have ever been before: In the Christian life we start with the gospel but in the Christian life we also continue on with gospel. There is nothing beyond the gospel of radical free grace. Holiness will ever only develop as we get hold of this deep down.

UPDATE: Tullian Tchividjian (one of the best exponents of the gospel-for-all-of-life type theology I’ve ever encountered) has added some further comment to this discussion.

(Yes – it’s monkey theme day)

Posted on January 27, 2011 - by Stephen Murray

A Look Around the Web

A couple of theological items on the web in the last few days that I thought were worth a look:

1. I don’t know if you’ve picked up on the theological ‘saga’ of the last week involving John MacArthur’s ‘misunderstanding’ (you decide what it was) of Darrin Patrick’s book new book Church Planter. Well Darrin has written a truly gracious reply to MacArthur’s concerns. I got to hang out with Darrin a little bit two years ago when I visited the Journey Church and he came across as a superb guy with a ton to offer the church. His response just enhances my admiration for him and the work God is doing through him at the Journey. Well done Darrin.

2. David Fitch has some thoughts on the growth of neo-reformed churches in the vein of Mars Hill and Redeemer Presbyterian. His basic premise is that the models of these churches (and others like them) are ultimately growing through transfer growth by gathering large numbers of already-churched folk through excellent attractional meetings. The comments suggest that not everyone agrees – including Tim Keller. I found it particularly interesting that Keller seems to think that it need not be the case that the only people who will ever walk into a church service are basically traditional, conservative folk. I’ve often wondered about this. There is so much missional writing out there that says secular, completely-unchurched people don’t ever go to corporate worship services – I have my doubts about this rhetoric.

3. I enjoyed this interview with Michael Horton about his new systematic theology, ‘The Christian Faith‘. I particularly enjoyed this quote:

I agree wholeheartedly that we need a renewed conviction of God’s personal address in command and promise. I would only add, with Abraham Kuyper, that our confidence in Scripture rises and falls with our confidence in the gospel. We can be distracted by all sorts of good and worthy enterprises, but the gospel is “the power of God unto salvation.” The Spirit gives us faith, uniting us to Christ, through that word of redemption in Christ. Of course, Scripture also exhorts, commands, reproves, and directs. However, until we are convinced that God is actually addressing us here and now through his Word, convicting us along with the world of sin and forgiving and renewing us in his Son, the Bible will remain a closed and irrelevant book.

Posted on December 3, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Theological Education and the Local Church

This is a fairly belated fourth thought with regards to theological education it was prompted by a friend who commented on the first three. So how do I see theological education and the local church coming together? Well for starters I think that at a very base level the task of the local church is theological education. I take it that when Jesus gave the Great Commission about making disciples in his name from all over the world he envisioned people being theologically educated. I don’t think he envisioned seminaries and degree programmes but I do think that he envisioned people coming to know God, his character and his working in this world, in an ever deepening way – that’s theological education.

So at a base level everyone is being educated in the church through the teaching of the Scriptures in various contexts (preaching, small groups, one on one, formally, informally). At the same time I think the church is to be on the lookout for people with particular teaching gifts and provide some sort of pipeline system whereby they can be theologically educated appropriately. Christ says we’re supposed to be praying constantly for God to send out workers to gather in the harvest – I take it that means we’ll have some sort of thought through approach to nurturing, developing and training gospel workers.

It’s here that I think a lot of churches, through being a little bit creative, can develop some really good in-house training that ensures the next generation of gospel workers are in the pipeline. I was privileged to be involved in a kind of pre-seminary apprenticeship which, from my point of view, was even more valuable to me than my time at Bible College. That apprenticeship system has now gone on to become a fully fledged training programme in KwaZulu-Natal called ENTRUST, training many young prospective gospel-workers.

The beauty of something like ENTRUST is that the little church with minimal resources can get involved in it. Basically a bunch of like minded churches got together a few years a go in Durban with a commitment to seeing young Bible teachers nurtured and equipped for the ministry. Because it was a team of local churches it allowed the churches with less resources to benefit from the larger body. Another great thing is the way in which it allows people to explore their gifts and calling within the context of other trained and gifted leaders. I remember more than one occasion where one of the students, after doing two years of apprenticeship, went back to his/her previous job just because the process had helped him/her see that they were better placed there for kingdom work.

I’m completely committed to this sort of semi-formal training amongst local churches and I hope to be involved in this sort of work for as long as I’m able because I’ve seen and experienced the value first hand and it is immense.

Posted on November 11, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

3 Thoughts on Theological Education

Tomorrow morning I’ll be giving the final lecture in my first ever semester of lecturing at a tertiary education institution. I’ve been teaching an introductory course to the discipline of Biblical Theology/Redemptive Historical Theology at the Bible Institute of South Africa. It has been a joy to study, teach and interact with the students over these last 6 months. Below are 3 thoughts that I have coming out of this new experience (for me at least):

• Formal theological education is crucial: I’ve come out of this experience more convinced than ever that we need to raise the bar in theological education (especially in this country). I’m not one of those voices lauding the death of the institution. To the contrary I think movements of the gospel in the west (and other areas that have both religious freedom and already-existing secular institutions) are integrally tied to the health of various Christian institutions in their midst – one of the most important being the seminary/Bible college/Theological college. Some of the literature I read just seems to give me the impression that gospel movements lose their legs without the institution.
• Alternatives to formal theological education are crucial: Not everyone has the time or resources to take up full-time formal theological education – especially in Southern Africa. I’ve taught and studied with many students who came from rural backgrounds and almost every step of the way I kept wondering if there were better approaches available to them that would suit their context better. Cultural and language barriers are enormous and the diversity is too great for any one seminary or college to adequately deal with. We need more forms of grassroots, contextualized education that doesn’t always pluck workers out of the vineyard and place them in an alien environment with alien language and teaching methods.
• Theology must end in worship: I was acutely aware almost every class this semester that it would have been so easy to teach some of the material without making a conscious effort to move from head to heart to hands. Evangelical institutions must be different from all other academic institutions in this regard. Equipping/education that does not lead people to have a deeper experience of the gospel, and be spurred on to worship out of that experience, must be rejected as sub-Christian education. If we don’t maintain this paradigm in the seminary the workers will never maintain it in the vineyard and our people will never maintain it in our churches.

Posted on October 22, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Exporting Africa

I’ve resisted to write this post all week but I feel it’s appropriate to share it at this stage (some might doubt if there is ever actually an appropriate time to share it). Right now, as I write, the 3rd Lausanne Congress of World Evangelization in Cape Town is celebrating the joy, contribution and potential of African Christianity. The atmosphere is lively and vibrant as the African flavour spills out across the conference hall. The gospel has made enormous inroads into this continent over the last century – to the point that people are speaking about Africa being in a position to now re-evangelize post-Christian Europe as Christian French and Portuguese speaking Africans flood into the great cities of Europe.

The general feeling is that Africa will shortly be exporting its own particular brand of Christianity to the world – and this is a good thing. For too long Africa has suffered and continues to suffer under imperialist oppression, be that political or economic. That the African Church is in a position to give back is a work of God. The rejoicing that accompanies this is definitely warranted.

What will Africa export? Vibrancy? Community? A fresh and more engaging understanding of the spiritual world? A robust and biblical theology of suffering? Ethics and values in line with the Bible? Homophobia?

You see as I’ve been sitting at this congress I’ve been convicted by the need for the church to win back credibility in order to be heard evangelistically. That message has been preached and taught throughout the week with varying degrees of passion and vigor. I just got my paws on a copy of Tim Keller’s Generous Justice – calling on us as the church to let justice roll out from our churches because of the justice we have experienced and seen displayed at the Cross and the perfect justice we will enjoy in the new heavens and the new earth. And at this point it just completely escapes me as to how we can rejoice so much about all the good in the African church (and there really is so much good) and yet not speak out against the awful injustice of homophobia taking place in christianized cultures across Central, Southern and East Africa.

I doubt anyone will speak about it tonight from up front – I even wonder if anyone is speaking about it in the corridors. For the first time in my social media career(as if I get paid) I feel like I must blog about this – I must speak against this injustice because it is NOT consistent with the gospel. But I mustn’t just speak, I must pray. Our African evangelical leaders face many difficulties on this continent and their priorities can easily be torn in two. We must pray for them – that the God of justice would cause them to speak out against injustice. I don’t know what else to say – but I thought something should be said.

Posted on October 22, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Lausanne III: The Priority of Word Ministry

Vaughan Roberts (Rector of St Ebbes, Oxford and President of the Proclamation Trust) taught the congress this morning from Ephesians 4. It’s actually a passage I’ve spent some significant time in recently and so I was fairly familiar with the content. Roberts did a fantastic job of presenting Paul’s agenda in Ephesians 4: to call for a unified, mature church that is brought together by the  call of God and built upon the centrality of his word. From this platform he broke into a passionate plea for word ministry to be central in our churches and ministries (as I think Paul does in Ephesians 4).

According to his convictions Roberts heads up the Proclamation Trust which has, for many years now, given themselves to the training of Bible teachers in the UK. In a roundabout way their ministry has been very influential in forming my own theological framework of Bible teaching and preaching. I attended an apprenticeship programme early on in my training that was led by people trained through the Proclamation Trust and so naturally I was delighted by Roberts’ plea and vision for word ministry and its place in the church.

In my last post I expressed my desire to see a robust, urban church planting movement embarked upon, here I want to express my conviction that a thorough ministry of the word be at the absolute center of such a movement. Interesting to note that Tim Keller has been (in his own words) influenced much by Dick Lucas the founder of the Proclamation Trust in much of his preaching and teaching. We can be thankful for people like Vaughan Roberts who are leaders in calling us back to the simple, Christ-centered, exposition of the Bible that will, according to Paul, cause the whole church to grow up in maturity in Christ.

Posted on October 20, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Lausanne III: The Priority of Cities

I could have listened to Tim Keller speak all night. In one sense I almost feel it would have been justified to allow him the time. Here’s my logic (bearing in mind it’s no secret that I’m a huge advocate of Keller’s ministry and approach): The issue of ministry in cities seems to, in many ways, incorporate (simply due to the breadth of the issue) many of the other issues covered at the congress. Urban ministry is the challenge of our age and the sad fact that people are moving into cities faster than churches means that we’re on the back foot already.

Nothing less than a robust, gospel-centered church planting agenda is going to address this growing phenomenon. There is an intrinsic link between reaching cities and church planting. If our strategy for urban ministry is an arrow-head then the tip is church planting. It’s already well documented that nothing rejuvenates existing churches, para-church organizations and networks more effectively than the consistent and extensive planting of new churches.

Can we plant urban churches that, in Keller’s words, are ‘committed to evangelism and yet also famous for their concern for social justice’? Can we? I don’t see many yet. Pray for more and get it on the agenda.