Archive for the ‘Cape Town’ Category

Posted on September 18, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

Part of Our Presentation

This is some of what we presented at the church planting center last Tuesday morning. We made everyone here fall in love in Cape Town.

Posted on April 6, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

Missional Thinker Interviews

One of my friends, John Scheepers, has become a little tired of constantly reading on various blogs about what people are doing on the missional front in the States and the UK and reading preciously little about our local scene. So he’s trying to compile a series of interviews with people pursuing missional approaches to ministry here in Cape Town, South Africa. Kicking off the series he decided to interview yours truly. Hopefully this might be something of a window into missional conversations here in South Africa and particularly Cape Town.

Posted on April 3, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

Dudes Should Want to Live in My City

AskMen.com ranked Cape Town at 27th out of the top 29 cities in the world for guys to live in. That’s pretty impressive for us little known ‘developing’ country to have our most cosmopolitan city in the top 29. Especially impressive in that we beat cities like Hamburg (28), Edinburgh (29) and other cities like Seattle, Singapore, Perth, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Munich which didn’t make the list. Beer must be too expensive in those places.

Posted on March 23, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

Praying Over Your City

We’ve got a team of theological students with us for the week as we prepare for the first preview service at Point Community Church this weekend. After spending the day talking through demographics and ministry philosophy we took the group up Signal Hill to look out over the city of Cape Town and spend a few moments in prayer about the impending week and the plant in general. What’s weird is the feeling that seems to come over me when I’m in high vantage places looking down over the area I preparing to minister in. I almost always have an overwhelming compulsion to pray, pray and pray desperately for this city (and also about my own sin as I look at the task ahead). I was just wondering if any of you other budding church planters out there ever have similar experiences?

It’s just amazing how when I get that visual view of the city and can take in the size and magnitude of the task the Lord just seems to compel me to pray. I pray that he’ll continue to burden me with the task of prayer throughout this endeavour.

Posted on March 7, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

Point Community Church Blog Goes Live

Bit by bit things are coming together for our little church plant. There’s a whole world of practical things that need to get done that no seminary will ever teach you about. Anyway, one more of the pieces in the puzzle is now available to the public: Our church’s blog. So pop around and check us out.

Posted on January 19, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

Connect with Point Community Church

With everyone cracking into gear at work in this new year I thought it would be a good time to share what the majority of my time will be made up of this year (and for a few years to come) and how you can connect with the work.

This year Jacques Erasmus (the lead-planter) and myself (co-planter) are hoping, God-willing, to plant and establish Point Community Church in the Sea Point and Green Point areas of Cape Town. At the end of this month our first three gospel communities (we shamelessly plagiarised that name from the Crowded House guys) will hopefully be up and running. So in order to get connected with us or stay up to date with how we’re doing check out our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter.

Posted on December 24, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

Top 8 for 2008: Everything

Who was I kidding? There’s no way I’m going to find the time to write a series of ‘top 8 for 2008′ posts between now and the end of the year so instead I’ll simply cram them all into one post. So here you have it, my top 8 for 2008 of everything!

Top 8 things I did or experienced in 2008:

1. Got married! (October)
2. Got engaged! (March)
3. Started planning and implementing a church plant (All year – but especially last three months)
4. Heard Piper, Driscoll, Chandler and Mahaney at the Resurgence Conference at Mars Hill in Seattle, spent time at the Journey Church in St Louis and met a whole lot of great peeps from Acts 29, and others, in the States (February)
5. Was taught Deuteronomy by Gary Millar – the best Old Testament teacher I’ve been taught by to date (September)
6. Road up Sani Pass – my first real 4×4 experience behind the wheel (October)
7. Decided to stay in Cape Town long term – gotta love this city (March)
8. Had my thinking about the gospel deepened and enriched ten times over by Tim Keller through numerous mp3s, articles and the odd blog comment (throughout the year)

Top 8 Blogs I followed in 2008 (See my 2007 list here):

1. Church Planting Novice – Jonathan Dodson. A newcomer to the list, this blog has been perfect for where I’m at in my thinking at the moment. So much wisdom and insight from a guy on the ground.
2. Between Two Worlds – Justin Taylor. Last year’s number 1 drops down one place – but still a great blog.
3. Tim Chester. Up from last year’s number 7 spot. Tim’s writing never stops enlightening, challenging and encouraging all at the same time.
4. John Scheepers. Give it up for the Saffa bloggers! John is a friend of mine who writes a great blog and brings a welcome voice to the South African Christian blogsphere.
5. Drew Goodmanson. Down from #2 – sorry Drew. Drew doesn’t post very often, but when he does its almost always worthwhile.
6. Justin Moffat. Another newcomer to the list. Justin writes an informative and challenging blog with an Anglican slant – I’ve enjoyed it a lot this year.
7. Michael Jensen. Michael drops down from last years 3rd but still turns out great post after great post. Plus he sent me a copy of his new book which I’ll be reviewing here shortly.
8. Jason Allen. Jason was one of the first people I became ‘blog friends’ with when I started blogging. I’ve always enjoyed his blog and the sanity he brings to some current trends that rage through the church blogging world.

Top 8 Books for 2008 (books I read this year – most of them are older than 2008 – please note that the books are a little one-sided topically because most of my reading this year revolved around my dissertation):

1. Total Church – Steve Timmis and Tim Chester. Ok so I first read it in 2007 but I’ve read it several times this year because of my dissertation and I still think its the most important book I’ve ever read on ecclesiology.
2. The Reason for God – Tim Keller. The first apologetics book that I feel comfortable giving to my friends.
3. Planting Missional Churches – Ed Stetzer. Great book with practical insight. Really helpful for where I’m at.
4. The Forgotten Ways – Alan Hirsch. Really good yet at times frustrating. I’m on the same page as Hirsch with a number of things – I guess I’m just a bit more conservative on one or two others.
5. Breaking the Missional Code – Ed Stetzer and David Putman. Another great help on all things missional.
6. On the Incarnation – Athanasius. I delved into a bit of church history this year and thoroughly enjoyed this one.
7. The King of God’s Kingdom – David Seccombe. Dr Seccombe (Doc) was my New Testament lecturer this year and so I got a chance to have a crack at his book. It’s a great overview of Christ in the gospels.
8. Jesus and the Victory of God – NT Wright. Vintage Wright – I don’t agree with him at every point but this is an important book.

Top 8 places I visited in 2008

1. Seattle, Washington, USA
2. St Louis, Missouri, USA
3. Castleburn, Drakensburg, KZN
4. Sani Pass, Lesotho
5. Lost City, Sun City, North West Province
6. Franschoek, Western Cape
7. Betty’s Bay, Western Cape
8. Durban, KZN (my old stomping ground)

That’s my year in a nutshell. It’s been the year with the biggest changes in my life to date. Not only did I get married but we decided to stay in Cape Town and plant churches here rather than in Durban. Things have come a long way in the last 12 months – here’s to an equally exciting 2009.

Merry Christmas all – have a great one!

Posted on December 10, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

Church Planting Foundations Conference

Here’s a line up of the speakers for the Cape Town leg of Acts 29’s Church Planting Foundations Conference (2-4 Feb 2009):

Mike Gunn:
Mike Gunn is the pastor of Harambee Church in Renton, Washington. Mike helped plant Mars Hill Church in Seattle and now currently serves as the director of Church Planting Internationally for the Acts 29 Network.

Dave Fandey:
Dave Fandey is the pastor of a growing new church called, The Fields, which he planted in 2003. Dave wears many hats as he sits on the international board for Acts 29 as well serves as an adjunct lecturer at Biola University teaching New Testament and Leadership.

Al Barth:
Al Barth oversees and encourages church planting and church planting movements in Europe and Africa on behalf of Redeemer Presbyterian’s Church Planting Center. Al is a seasoned church planter with a particular passion for church planting movements in the major cities of the world.

JD Senkbile:
JD Senkbile has recently moved to Cape Town to oversee the Acts 29 Network in Africa. Before moving to Cape Town JD was involved with justice and mercy ministry at an Acts 29 affiliated church in Omaha, Nebraska.

Sam Groves:
Sam Groves is the pastor of Church on the Ridge in Pietermaritzburg, a young growing church which he planted with two other couples just over three years ago. He has a passion for church planting and cultivating communities of gospel-centered disciples.

Siegfired Ngubane:
Siegfried Ngubane serves both as a lecturer at George Whitefield College and as pastor of Mandela Park Community Church. In the past few years Siegfried has overseen a number of church planting initiatives in township areas in and around Cape Town.

Dave West:
Dave West is the senior pastor of Melville Union Church in Johannesburg which he and his wife planted. The church is heavily involved both in ministries to students as well as ministries to street children and HIV/Aids orphans.

Send me an email (stephenjmurray@yahoo.com) if you’re interested in attending.

Posted on October 4, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

Where we’re Planting

Some of you from the other side of the Atlantic have asked me where exactly we’re doing our church plant next year. Well here are some pics of the areas of Green Point and Sea Point which are the two suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa in which we’ll be starting the work. They’re both on the Atlantic seaboard of Cape Town, right next to the central business district – in fact Green Point kind of just fades into the CBD.

Here’s a shot of both suburbs – Sea Point is the larger suburb on the right and Green Point is central – the CBD is in the background around the corner of Signal Hill which is the middle of pic. Table Mountain is in the background and the new soccer staduim and the fields around it (which are presently being transformed into sports complexes and other things) is in the foreground, the Waterfront is bottom left:

Here’s a close up of Green Point where you can see the construction underway (they’re quite a bit further ahead now) and Signal Hill in the background – Lion’s Head is the little peak behind Signal Hill which is above Sea Point (far right). The CBD is just out of picture to the left:

Here’s a shot of Sea Point from somewhere up on Lion’s Head. Sea Point is the most densely populated suburb in Cape Town along with the Townships:

And of course there’s also the world famous V & A Waterfront, one of our top tourist destinations, that lies at the base of Green Point – you can see the edge of the CBD on the left:

So that’s where we’re planting – possibly the most cosmopolitan and diverse area in Cape Town and maybe even South Africa. We will have our work cut out for us. Pray for us, or maybe if you’re able to, join us.

Posted on August 27, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

Church Plant Diary #2 – Prayer

Our first port of call in this plant has been to pray. Now this might sound obvious but its super easy to leave out. Like most Christians I really struggle with disciplined prayer – I have my good weeks and I have my bad weeks. But in reality I’m kidding myself about the entire venture if I’m not going to regularly get down on my knees and plead with God that he would be pleased to plant a church in Cape Town.

Jacques, my co-planter, got us all together just over two weeks ago for our first corporate prayer meeting. There were only 9 of us but it was the most exciting time we’ve had together around this plant so far. We’ve now committed to getting this group of people, and others who’d like to join, to pray corporately twice a month from now until January when both Jacques and I will start full-time on the plant. If you’d like to pray with us then here are some of the things you can pray for:

• Jacques and his wife Lindy are heading over to Redeemer Church Planting Center next month for a 6 week training intensive – pray that this would be an amazingly fruitful time for them.

• We’ve had a number of people mention interest in the plant to us – pray that God would start to firm up this interest so that they’ll commit full-time to the plant next year.

• Robin and I don’t currently live in the same suburb that we’re planning to plant in – pray that until we can find accommodation in Green Point or Sea Point we would make time just to explore and hang out in the area more, meeting people.

• Pray for Holy Trinity, Gardens and St Stephen’s, Claremont, our two sending churches that God would use this church plant to mature and grow their congregations in godliness and gospel-centered thinking and living.

• Most of all pray that God would, through this plant, seek to glorify himself as his Son is proclaimed in Cape Town transforming the lives of broken and lost people.