Archive for the ‘Church Planting’ Category

Posted on July 14, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

On the Move for Support Raising

On Friday Robin and I head off to Johannesburg and Durban for two weeks. The first purpose of our trip is to get a bit of rest time in. Church planting is busy work and its been full steam ahead since the beginning of the year. The second purpose is to continue raising the profile of what we’re doing in Cape Town and trying to secure financial support for the next two years. If our work here in Cape Town is something you feel you could be investing in then please consider supporting us in this venture in seeing God’s kingdom being advanced in the important city of Cape Town.

Posted on June 9, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Cape Town the Global City

Here’s something you probably didn’t know: According to the Global World Cities Ranking, Cape Town is the 16th (level with 5 other cities) most prominent city in the world where English is the Lingua Franca (English is not necessarily the most widely spoken language in each of these cases but it is the language on which each of these cities run. So for example more people speak Afrikaans as a first language in Cape Town than English). Here’s the top 33:

1st New York, London
3rd Sydney,
4th Toronto, Chicago,
6th Dublin, Los Angeles, Auckland
9th Melbourne, Johannesburg, Atlanta,
12th Dallas, Boston
14th Miami, Houston,
16th Montreal, Brisbane, Denver, Vancouver, Cape Town, Minneapolis, Seattle,
23rd Perth, Philadelphia, Portland, Lagos
27th Detroit, Manchester, Wellington, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Calgary, Columbus

It’s nice knowing you live in a city that stands out on the global stage. It also convinces me more that Cape Town is a thoroughly important place for the task of church planting.

As a side note…I wonder what the World Cup will do to these rankings – if anything.

Posted on December 9, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

New Partnership Blog

As many of you know we’re starting the whole church planting thing all over again come the beginning of 2010 as we join a team planting VOX City Church in the center of Cape Town. This is both an enormously exciting and enormously scary venture for Robin and I because we’re stepping out of some of our traditional support/denominational structures to plant this church and so we’re really being reminded that the Lord is our provider.

In light of that I’ve set up a support/partnership blog, detailing the work we’ll be doing next year and ways in which people can come alongside us. If this is something you would like to prayerfully consider then please swing by and check out the blog.

Posted on October 13, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

New York Trip: Part VII

New York – Knoxville – New York. That’s been our movement over the weekend. On Friday morning at 3am we got up and flew out of Newark Airport to Knoxville, Tennessee. There we spent the weekend with folk from Cedar Springs Presbyterian. Most of the weekend was spent meeting people from the church and speaking at young adults meetings, Sunday morning and evening. On the Saturday we were treated to the experience that makes that city tick: A college football game at the 107 000 seater Neyland Stadium watching the Tennessee Volunteers (the ‘Vols’) take on the Georgia Bulldogs (the ‘Dawgs’). There were 103 000 people in attendance all dressed in orange going crazy over their team – it was something else.

We were hosted by the most wonderful South African family who are now based in Knoxville and we got a great chance to share the vision for a church planting movement in Cape Town with lots of the folk at the church, many of whom were encouraged by the potential opportunities there are in South Africa.

This morning we arrived back in New York – where someone has evidently turned the heat off (its seriously cold here now). We’ve got one more week of the intensive left and then we head out on Friday to visit the Journey Church in St Louis. Will keep you posted…

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.

Posted on September 25, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

New York Trip: Part V

So, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday update…

Tuesday we listened to some of the intensive guys give presentations about their future plants and then we watched Tim Keller’s address at last year’s Dwell Conference, entitled ‘Dwelling in the Gospel‘. After that we had a bit of fun planning a philosophy of ministry for a simulated occasion and place – interesting getting church planters to work together in a team.

Wednesday was an off day to catch up on reading (and we had a lot) and to check out more of the city. So after some reading we headed out to the Central Park Zoo – saw a snow leopard for the first time.

Thursday we spent most of the morning having a Q&A session with Tim Keller on ‘Gospel Ministry’ – we decided beforehand, after our reading, which specific questions we wanted to ask. It was a fantastic experience to be able to just sit with him in a small intimate group and talk gospel ministry with him. As you’d expect his answers to our questions were soaked in biblical faithfulness, cultural sensitivity, pragmatic wisdom and serious humility. We were all very grateful for the privilege of that meeting – and we’re looking forward to having a few more before we leave.

More to follow…

Posted on September 22, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

New York Trip: Part IV

I guess you can only appreciate Times Square (above) when you’re actually there. I think I’ve seen a hundred pictures or clips of the area but it’s quite something to see all the lit up advertising. So, yes, we were in Times Square this weekend, but let me back track a bit first…

On Friday we spent time hearing about some of the ministries at Redeemer, particularly their mercy ministry initiatives through Hope for New York and then also about their faith and work department at the church.

Their approach to mercy ministry was really fascinating. Basically they don’t run any mercy ministries directly out of the church but rather work, in partnership with a handful of other churches, to resource and provide volunteer help to the various affiliated faith-based organisations around the city. Definitely a concept  worth exploring in Cape Town. The faith and work department was something that really resonated with both Robin and I as its probably the area in which we’re weakest in the evangelical church in South Africa – at least as far as we’ve experienced. Redeemer is committed to demonstrating that the gospel makes a difference to work in this life, this side of heaven. And so they invest a lot in helping professionals work out what it means to use their work in a gospel-centered way (and, shock and horror, that means a whole lot more than trying to track-bomb evangelise your colleagues). We desperately need to learn from them in this area.

On Friday evening we headed up to Times Square and had supper at a little Brazillian restaurant to celebrate the birthday of one of our fellow intensive church planters. Saturday morning I watched Arsenal beat the stuffing out of Wigan (streamed on my laptop) and then we headed on the ferry to Staten Island – got to see the Statue of Liberty but not a whole lot else (there isn’t a ton of stuff happening on Staten Island). On the walk back from the ferry launch we walked through the financial district and saw Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange. We also saw the giant hole in the ground where the World Trade Center stood – they’re busy preparing to build a new tower there.

Sunday we attended two Redeemer services in the morning hearing Tim Keller and John Lin preach respectively. We then attended Trinity Grace Church in the evening and heard Jon Tyson (an exiled Aussie) preach.

Today we debriefed those three services and got to talk with Jon Tyson and John Lin about their stories and approaches to ministry and preaching.

Things are seriously pacing along – can’t believe we’ve been here for over two weeks already. But we’re doing great and enjoying it more and more. We miss all you Saffa’s – New York is amazing, but it still hasn’t got a patch on Cape Town!

Posted on September 18, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

New York Trip: Part III

I think I’m going to lose some weight over the course of this trip with all the walking – none of the places we need to go to regularly are right next to a subway station, we always have to walk a few blocks so I’m getting plenty of exercise (although that huge calzone pizza I had at lunch today probably didn’t help).

So yesterday the wives slept in and us boys (me, Tobie and Endre) heading out to the intensive. We started the day by listening to Felipe Assis and the replanting work he has done in Miami, Florida – sounds like an interesting work being done by an interesting guy. Then we spent most of the day with Network Leadership Forum. So alongside the GCI conference some of the key leaders stayed over this week and attended a week long forum on developing and leading church planting networks and movements in major global cities. Some of you might know Shaun Storer – he was our rep for Johannesburg. So we sat in on their sessions for the rest of the day learning about network dynamics and the key types of people you need to have in place for sustainable networks.

This morning (Thursday) we had a slightly later start and spent a session on the factors involved in church planter’s call to church planting and then a session based on Paul Tripp and Timothy Lane’s book ‘How People Change‘. After that it was time to shop for food – which is a serious pain because you’ve got to walk a fair distance with heavy bags. Now I’m about to have supper with our apartment crew and Shaun so I’ll check in with you all later…

Posted on September 3, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

New York Trip

Two days to go before Robin and I fly off to New York City. We’re going to use this blog as the base of our communication with people all over the place, giving you daily (or at least every second or third day) updates from our trip. We’re heading to New York primarily to take part in the church planting intensive programme run by Redeemer Church Planting Center. The bulk of our time will be spent on this (first 6 weeks).

Our second reason for the trip is to establish partnerships with US-based church plants and to raise awareness amongst US churches of the church planting opportunities that lie before us in Cape Town and South Africa in general. So we’ll be heading down to Knoxville, TN in early October for a weekend and then we’ll be heading to St Louis, MO, after the intensive, to spend a few days with friends and peeps at the Journey where I camped out a bit last year.

Follow us on this trip by checking the blog regularly, praying for us that God would teach us a ton and that he’d help us establish strategic partnerships to further his kingdom in Cape Town. Plus if you’re reading this and you’re anywhere near any of those places while we’re there then give us a shout and we’ll try hook up.

Here’s our itinerary:

Arrive in NYC on the 7th of September

Head to Knoxville from the 9th to the 12th of October (then back to NYC)

On the 16th of October we fly to St Louis and then head back to Cape Town on the 21st (we only get back to Cape Town on the 23rd – 36 hours of travelling!)

Posted on August 19, 2009 - by Stephen Murray

Revive 09

No it’s not a major worship conference happening in Cape Town anytime soon – it’s an attempt to re-launch my sorry efforts at blogging this year. I know you’re tired of reading sob stories on blogs with pseudo-bloggers crying over their failed attempts to write consistently or find the time in their busy schedules to actually blog. Well I hope 3 years of consistent blogging is enough of a track record so that you take my “I’m gonna make a go of it” seriously. Yes this year has been a blip, but things happen (i.e. marriage, new job, church plant etc.)

Here’s my plan for the next few weeks:

I hope to post a bit about the build up to Robin and I heading to Redeemer Church Planting Center for most of September and October (I’ll be covering the trip with some detail on this blog when I’m over there).

I hope to finally post my review of Michael Jensen’s great little book ‘You‘. (Michael – Yes I feel like a Dog!)

I hope to give you a bit of run down in terms of what I’ve been preaching on lately and links to some of the audio.

And I hope to fill your time with a bunch of other interesting (although sometimes random) things I’m learning about church planting this year.

Here’s to this blog being revived while it’s still 2009.