Archive for the ‘Lausanne Cape Town 2010’ Category

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.

Posted on October 18, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Lausanne III: Truth be Told

The morning plenaries centered around the theme of ‘truth’ which was the designated congress theme for the day. Ajith Fernando got us going with an exposition of Ephesians 1. Fernando called us back to credible evangelism that displays both a powerful testimony through lives lived and through the unashamed verbal proclamation of the gospel. As so often in recent proclamation vs deed debates our old friend St Francis of Assisi’s supposed quote (I think historians are fairly sure he didn’t actually say it – but that’s another post) was brought to the table – “preach the gospel always, sometimes use words”. Fernando clearly pointed out the St Francis used words all the time persuading people to repent and turn to Christ. In Fernando’s own words ‘the gospel is fuller, grander than all the ideas people have of God’ – it’s probably worth speaking about then. I enjoyed his balanced explanation of Ephesians 1 and the way in which he balanced the life lived with the word proclaimed. He was given an impossible task: exposit Ephesians 1 in 20 minutes. He did well and blessed us with his teaching.

The plenaries that followed saw Carver Yu, Michael Herbst and Os Guinness expound on the issue of truth within a pluralistic world. All three said fairly standard things about truth, with various amounts of gusto (Guinness out-gustoed the other two) – calling for us to see the supreme truth as the person of Jesus Christ. I found the constant differentiation between proposition and person (Jesus Christ) something of a false dichotomy. I wonder if, in an attempt to escape modernist categories, we simply entrench them even more with certain rhetoric. I’d have preferred to have seen some sort of interaction with a more integrated approach that sees proposition intrinsically tied into the person of Christ who is revealed to us in a story – a story that contains propositional truth. I’d have also appreciated it if Os Guinness had expanded on just exactly what he meant by ‘truth’ – there was no discussion, or even hint of it, on the nature of Scripture – to me that’s pretty key to the Christian understanding of truth.

All in all the plenaries were good. Jesus Christ was lifted up as the Way, the Truth and the Life. It is clear what the majority of people in the room affirm – I would have just liked to have seen more interaction with why we affirm it.

Posted on October 17, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Lausanne III: The Opening Celebration

Lausanne III has officially kicked off. We sang, we danced (well some of us did), we heard Doug Birdsall’s inspiring vision for this congress and the ongoing Lausanne movement. In many ways it was a humbling experience to sit amongst so many (over 5000 in all) people from so many different countries (more than 190) at this influential gathering. It’s been reported by various groups that this is the most representative and diverse Christian gathering in all of the 2000 year history of the church to date – that’s a fairly mind blowing piece of information.

The enormous privilege of being able to cover this congress using social media is slowly starting to sink in. I felt quite emotional as 5000 voices sang ‘Crown Him with many Crowns’ which was the hymn sung at the opening of the 1910 Edinburgh conference on world mission. Sharing in the legacy, the story, of what God is doing in this world is huge. If this congress can move all involved in it to a deeper understanding and zeal for the Gospel of God then it will have been worth it in more ways than we can imagine. Pray for that.

Follow the congress on twitter as it unfolds:

@capetown2010 for periodical updates

@lcwe for live tweeting of the various sessions

Posted on October 12, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Follow Cape Town 2010: Lausanne III

In just over four days time the most significant evangelical congress to ever take place on South African shores will kick into action. Over 5000 participants, volunteers and staff from all over the world will converge on the Cape Town International Convention Center to participate in hearing and adding their many voices to some of the most pressing issues in world evangelism today.

You can follow the events as they unfold through the following links:

Cape Town 2010 official website

Cape Town 2010 blog

The Global Conversation

Alongside this you can follow @capetown2010 on Twitter or join the official Facebook page.

I, along with some colleagues will be onsite observing and microblogging the event live through the official twitter feed and on the Facebook page. The aim of the congress is to truly allow for global participation through technology and various forms of media. So we really want to encourage you to follow the congress and interact with the content through the various platforms.

Posted on September 22, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Generous Justice

The good people at Redeemer City to City were kind enough to send me a sneak peak into Tim Keller’s forthcoming (November 2010) book, Generous Justice. If you’re familiar with Keller’s preaching and teaching ministry you’ll be well aware of how central the idea of ‘doing justice’ is to much of Redeemer’s philosophy of ministry. Here’s the product description from Amazon:

It is commonly thought in secular society that the Bible is one of the greatest hindrances to doing justice. Isn’t it full of regressive views? Didn’t it condone slavery? Why look to the Bible for guidance on how to have a more just society? But Timothy Keller sees it another way. In Generous Justice, Keller explores a life of justice empowered by an experience of grace: a generous, gracious justice. Here is a book for believers who find the Bible a trustworthy guide as well as those who suspect that Christianity is a regressive influence in the world.

Keller’s church, founded in the eighties with fewer than one hundred congregants, is now exponentially larger. More than five thousand people regularly attend Sunday services, and another twenty-five thousand download Keller’s sermons each week. A recent profile in New York magazine described his typical sermon as “a mix of biblical scholarship, pop culture, and whatever might have caught his eye in The New York Review of Books or on Salon.com that week.” In short, Timothy Keller speaks a language that many thousands of people yearn to comprehend. In Generous Justice, he offers them a new understanding of modern justice and human rights.

On the eve of the Lausanne Congress here in Cape Town this looks like it will be an important book by a leading practitioner as evangelicalism continues to consider its mission to the global populace. For a sample have a read the first chapter of the book here.

Posted on August 12, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Honest Evangelism for a Suspicious City

I stumbled upon Sivin Kit’s blog post, ‘An Affirmation on Christian Witness‘ which deals with the Malaysian Christian Federation’s  affirming of what is really just honest evangelism – evangelism with integrity.

Perhaps there are no places more in need of honest evangelism than our highly suspicious urban centers. Besides the simple fact that a carrot and stick approach to evangelism is morally and ethically questionable it’s probably also the quickest way to sink the reputation of a new urban ministry or church within their community. Here are 2 things to avoid and 2 things to consider doing if you are part of an urban ministry or church:

2 Things to Avoid:

1. Don’t organize and run events where the primary purpose of the event, in your own conception, is to publicly proclaim the gospel but the public (advertised) purpose of event is something else. A colleague of mine recently told me of how a Jazz evening he organised, that included a 10 minute gospel presentation at the end, painted a horrible blemish on their church’s reputation in the community. People in our urban centers will never give you an ear if you’re not straight with them.

2. Don’t get involved in a mercy ministry if your primary intention is to grow your church numerically. Don’t hear me wrong – I want people to roll up their sleeves and get stuck into mercy ministry – but do it for the right reasons. Go back, read your Bible, see God’s concern for the poor and marginalized and go out and serve. Does God want the poor and marginalized to repent and believe in the gospel? Of course he does – but you can’t just interact with them on that premise alone, which is what you’re functionally doing if your church only ever gets involved in mercy ministry for evangelistic purposes. I remember reading Tim Chester (I think – might have been Steve Timmis – sorry if I mixed it up) saying that evangelism is the most loving thing we, as Christians, can do – but its not the only loving thing we can do. The way some ministries and churches engage in mercy ministry, social justice and cultural renewal makes it clear that they believe evangelism is the only loving thing we can do. That’s not biblical and it will result in evangelism that lacks integrity.

2 Things to Do:

1. Be clear about the intention of your meetings and events. If the aim of the evening is to introduce people to the claims of Jesus then say so. People are putting their ideologies out there all day, everyday. We shouldn’t be shy or embarrassed to be clear about what we’re on about.

2. Bless your city. I’ve spoken about this already but I really believe that if we honestly and genuinely love and care for our city (no strings attached) it will put a whole lot of integrity behind us when we do share the core of our faith. I’m fairly convinced that’s what 1 Peter 2:9-3:16 is all about. Honest living allows for honest evangelism.

Posted on June 29, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Bless Your City

How do you bless your city on a personal level. Many might have read Tim Keller’s advance paper for Cape Town 2010 and been really convicted by the approach to urban ministry he sets out, but you’re left wondering how you live consistently with those principles on an individual level. Here are some thoughts, and things I’ve tried out in my city, Cape Town:

1. Be Regular

I made a point at some stage to make sure I frequented the same establishments with some sort of regularity building relationships with the staff and the regular customers. So have coffee at the same coffee shop often, use the same restaurants often, shop for groceries in the same place. In Cape Town there is so much choice in terms of restaurants, coffee shops and supermarkets that it would be (and is) really easy to not be a regular and to simply dip into hundreds of different establishments never building any lasting relationships where you can be a blessing. To make any sort of difference you need to choose to be regular.

2. Use Public Transport

Okay so not all cities have the same type of transport setup so you’ll have to figure this one out for your own city. In saying that, there are many cities that have more of a car culture than a public transport culture. Often in car culture cities poorer folk are encountered on public transport whilst the wealthy use their cars. Cape Town, with the exception of the down town area, is definitely a car culture city amongst the middle-class and the wealthy(although things are slowly changing in this area – for the better I think). Shortly after my wife and I moved into the central city I made a commitment to travelling the way the majority of our city travels. I’m happy to say that my car sees very little daylight nowadays. We have a  minibus taxi system that I utilize most days for going to work. The benefit? I rub shoulders with the city, hear their stories, again build relationships and contribute to the livelihood of the industry. It beats sitting in traffic.

3. Buy Local

If you’re in a global city you’ve probably got limitless options in terms of buying goods. Depending upon the local industry of your country many of those goods are probably imports. Now this is an area I need to get better at but on occasion I’ve tended to look out for the smaller industries in my city and try and bless them by giving them my business. Again you’ll find that this will open up relationship and will also allow you to add to the economic development of your city.

4. Serve in Local Social Development Projects

Chances are your city has a number of social development projects on the go. Find out what they are, role up your sleeves and get involved. We’re at an early stage of developing relationships with feeding and rehabilitation schemes for the destitute in our city as well as networking with people who work against human trafficking. This is probably the most obvious way to serve and bless the city.

5. Celebrate the Festivals (and invite your friends)

This one’s a little selfish but it is missional and can add, in a small way, to a better ethos. It’s been a whole lot of fun celebrating the Soccer World Cup with the city over the past few months. As I write this people are making their way to the stadium to watch Spain vs. Portugal. I’ll be downtown at kick-off with a bunch of people celebrating this once off sporting festival. I’ll be going to a regular spot, using public transport and buying local and in the process I’ll meet many people, some will know Jesus others won’t. My prayer is to be something of a blessing to those people and to the city in the process.

Posted on June 25, 2010 - by Stephen Murray

Multifaceted Mission for a Multifaceted City

One of the great challenges of urban ministry is the versatile and dynamic nature of a global city. On the one hand global cities are becoming more and more like each other in sharing a very broadly defined global culture, but on the other hand as these global cities grow they each become more diverse and multifaceted, in and of themselves, than they were before. As people move from rural areas to cities they each bring a little bit of their background to the melting pot of the city and add it into the mix. So as the city grows the number of different cultures in one geographical location grows, as do all the various components that make up any one given culture. Here’s a list, off the top of my head, of some of the biggest challenges this creates for urban ministry:

1. Economic Inequality
Building authentic gospel-centered community in the city is difficult when people are so comfortable in their own ghetto-like communities. Often these communities are built on economics and so when all of a sudden the gospel gets people in the room from different economic communities it starts to get interesting. A thorough biblical theology of wealth and possessions is necessary for urban ministry.

2. Racial/Ethnic Division
If it’s not economics that makes for interesting community then try racial and ethnic division. It takes a long, careful process to walk through all the mistrust, misunderstanding and other issues that occur when people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds come together. A robust, gospel-centered theology of race and ethnicity is a prerequisite for urban ministry.

3. Multiple Languages
Given that much of Christian ministry is centered upon the proclamation of the gospel this creates a unique challenge in that many sitting in urban congregations today will have the language in which the sermon is preached as their second or third language and not the language they speak at home. This will have far reaching implications for preaching and the development of curriculum.

4. Diverse Tastes in Music and Arts
Whilst I’m very much pro heterogeneous church models that aim to reflect the throne room of Revelation where all nations are gathered together worshipping God I’m also well aware that congregations, or services, will essentially develop their own styles and cultures. Conducting a corporate worship gathering that values heterogeneous ministry whilst at the same time finding a well contextualized ‘style’ for that meeting will be a great challenge.

5. Different Idols
People with different worldviews all converging in one place will mean a number of diverse and different idols being manifest which need correction. In some ways it was easier ministering in a wealthy western suburb where people’s idols revolved around the material, hedonism and family. The city daily brings me into contact with idols I’d never even thought of before. This makes communicating Christ, as the supreme object of worship, rather tricky at times. And if we’re not careful in our study and interaction with our people we can easily end up expending large amounts of energy confronting gods that have little or no hold over our congregations.

Urban ministry really requires multifaceted mission to deal with the multifaceted city.