Archive for the ‘Africa’ Category

Posted on August 11, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

Acts29 Boot Camps in South Africa 2009

To all the budding church planters, and others interested, this is just an early warning call to let you know that Acts29 will be holding two Boot Camps in South Africa in January and February 2009. The first Boot Camp will be in Johannesburg 29th to 31st January before moving to Cape Town from the 2nd to the 4th February. I’ll keep you posted and provide more information regarding the venues as I get it. Please pass this news on to anyone who you think might benefit from finding out more about Acts29 and what they do.

Posted on August 1, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

The Problem of Africa

Make sure you read this post by Tim Challies. It has some brief interaction with two extremely provocative articles that appeared in the Irish media recently about the continent of Africa. Read the post and the articles and have a think about some of the gray issues being raised. As Africans we owe to ourselves to think through these sorts of things.

Posted on July 3, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

Out and About

I’m out and about in Durban at the moment. I got up at a ridiculous hour to fly here this morning, but as always Durban is bathed in warm sunlight in the middle of winter. I’m here until next week Tuesday sorting out some wedding preparations with family and then its back to Cape Town for the final stretch culminating in our wedding in October and the end of my degree in November.

I’ve also been out and about at the movies this last week. Saw two movies of interest: Son of Man and Prince Caspian. I loved Prince Caspian, although I’m told it didn’t follow the book very accurately (yes I haven’t read it…gasp, horror!). As a movie I actually thought it was better than the first one – great fun. Son of Man on the other hand was desperately disappointing. For a movie that promised so much it fell horribly short of expectations for me. All it consisted of was a poorly produced and acted version of a political, liberation-theology, humanistic gospel in a fictitious township in a fictitious southern African country (that looked surprisingly like Khayaletsha – how do you spell that?). Ironically the movie did help me realise just how radical the true message of Jesus really is simply because he didn’t do or say what the ‘Jesus’ figure in this film did yet they both faced very similar circumstances. In the words of Yoda, ‘muddied the waters about Jesus it did.’ You’d do well to stick to the 4 canonical gospel accounts or maybe check out a book like Mark Driscoll’s ‘Vintage Jesus‘.

I’ll be out and about with friends tonight – and it won’t be raining and freezing! Hope you have a good one too. 

Posted on June 25, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

A Dying Worldview?

Some people have their head in the clouds when it comes to the worldwide evangelical/theologically conservative Christian movement, be it Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, Charismatic, Independent, the Young Reformed, the old Reformed, the Reformissionals, etc. etc. Take for example Father Jake’s comment that the rhetoric of GAFCON is “so obviously the last gasp of a dying world view.” – Not that obvious to me buddy. If anything it seems to me that there are numerous indications that in 20 years time the evangelicals (sure they’ll probably look different) will still have a substantial voice – maybe not so much on their traditional turf but perhaps more globally.

Is this a good thing? Well I think with wise heads like Peter Jensen’s close to the front it will ensure that the primacy of the historic orthodox gospel is on the agenda for some time to come.

Posted on June 23, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

The Global Village Failing Zimbabwe?

Right now Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, is seeking refuge in the Dutch Embassy for his own safety. Yesterday he withdrew from the run-off election for fear of the safety of his voters. The Zimbabwean economy, which is already shot through, is about to get worse. And to cap it off… today the MDC’s offices were raided, 60 people were detained and Zanu PF mobs have been beating people in the streets of Harare.

One question I have to ask is where is this ‘global village’ that we now supposedly live in? After the lessons we’ve supposed to have learned from places like Rwanda how is it that we allow what is happening in Zimbabwe? The odd little condemnation that comes from foreign ministers here and there is futile – as is gently tightening the economic screws on the county – they’ve tightened their own screws already!

If we can’t sort out issues like this then what is the point of being part of global village of peers? We only help each other in the good times? Scratch each others back economically but don’t ever get your hands dirty. I bet that foreign inaction regarding Zimbabwe is going to go down in history as a major embarrassment to the ‘global village’ and most of all for the SADC.

Posted on June 21, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

GAFCON Starts Tomorrow

The ‘Global Anglican Future Conference‘ (GAFCON) starts tomorrow in Jerusalem. For evangelical and conservative Anglicans around the world this is a potentially enormous and important conference. My own denomination – the Church of England in South Africa (CESA), who have long been out of official communion with Canterbury, have been invited along as observers. This conference could potentially mark a significant turning point in the history of one of the largest denominations in the world. It is also a conference that is beginning to concretize much talk about the church of the Global South rising up to replace the West as the future of global Christianity. In that light its of no surprise to see Lamin Sanneh of Yale University as one of the speakers.

This is a conference all evangelicals should be praying for – that God would be pleased to bring fruit and resolution to the crises facing Anglicanism.

For more information David MacGregor is constantly updating his blog with stories about GAFCON.

Posted on June 18, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

My Dismay and Apology

I’m dismayed for a number of reasons that I’d like to share with you and especially everyone who read the now infamous ‘Hillsong Cape Town ???’ post. First off I’ve deleted the original post because I felt that it got to a place that was simply unhelpful to anyone. Yet I remain dismayed…

Firstly I’m dismayed at myself for the way I phrased the post and the use of sarcasm and hyperbole that I exploited to make my point. A friend of mine pointed out to me that I probably could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I’d worded it better (thanks Matt for your wisdom). I’m sorry for the offence I caused – in retrospect it really wasn’t my intention.

Secondly I’m greatly dismayed by the way some people chose to attack me. What really discouraged me is that I found out that the two people who wrote the harshest response to me (questioning my salvation) are actually both in full-time Christian ministry – one is even a senior pastor of a church. Yes I didn’t write the post as graciously as I could have but to be honest I think some of those comments were way out of line and deeply insulting to God’s honour. I want everyone to know that those particular comments (and if you read them you’ll know which ones) did not come from people directly connected with Hillsong Cape Town and should in no way be attributed to the Hillsong community.

Ultimately I still have concerns about the methodology employed by Hillsong Cape Town for their plant and I think others share my concerns. Yet at the same time I hope and pray that Hillsong will go on to be a source of blessing and hope in this city and result in many coming to Christ and so I want to encourage you all to be praying for Phil Dooley the pastor as he takes on this big task.

I hope the Hillsong community will accept this apology but I also hope and pray that as a church (global) we will not stop asking the hard questions.

Posted on May 22, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

A Response to the Xenophobic Violence

Dion has posted a letter from a friend of his in Johannesburg who is doing something concrete about the xenophobic violence through Calvary Methodist Church. He’s got a few suggestions on how we can help. Please go over to Dion’s blog, read it and seriously consider how you might help.

Thanks Dion and Alan for your efforts.

Posted on May 20, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

Xenophobia and Feeling Helpless

I’ve been browsing through news stories all over the web concerning the xenophobia crisis in Gauteng at the moment. What I’ve seen is completely sickening and heartbreaking (Warning some of the material is graphic). Sitting here behind a computer screen I feel completely frustrated and helpless to do anything worthwhile other than to pray and write blog posts about this tragedy. I’m sure that there must be other people out there feeling the same way. Can I call on you to be extremely prayerful about this situation and then also to leave a comment if you know of any practical ways we can help. May God have mercy on us.

Posted on May 20, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

Xenophobia and the Church – an Open Forum

Xenophobic attacks in Gauteng are rocking the press and media world here in South Africa – I think its been reported on CNN as well. This morning I was listening to SAFM and a bunch of guys talking through the whole issue. One phone caller made a rather outlandish comment which I think begs some discussion. This particular caller suggested that the xenophobic attacks we are witnessing are a result of the failure of the church to hold the government morally accountable!? Do you think this is the case? Are we the government’s moral watchdogs? In what ways can we be proactive in this instance?

This is a difficult discussion because categories like ‘the church’ are rather slippery and used differently by different people. When this particular caller used that category I think he had in mind the likes of Frank Chikane and Desomond Tutu. The other difficulty is the root cause of the xenophobia – is it outright xenophobia or simply reaction to unbearable economic pressures?

What do you think…?

***UPDATE (13:50): Tutu has come out quite vocally this morning against the violence pleading for it to end. It would seem to me that Tutu has been, for the most part, a constant moral thorn in the government’s side, irrespective of who the ruling government has been.***