Archive for the ‘Love’ Category

Posted on August 2, 2007 - by Stephen Murray

Africa and the Minneapolis Disaster

As Michael Spencer points out the Christian blogsphere is ablaze with post regarding the recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis which, at last count, had killed 4 people and injured another 20. Spencer also has some down to earth suggestions about what sort of questions we should be asking. But I have a question of my own:

How is it that a disaster like this stirs up so much ‘theologizing’ and ‘Christian’ response, when on a daily basis here in Africa tragedies like this are so common place? We have Robert Mugabe just over the border literally starving an entire nation to death – but nobody’s ‘theologizing’ about that or thinking through ‘Christian’ responses to the situation. We have people literally dying hourly in sub-Saharan Africa due to HIV/AIDS – but little ‘theologizing’ and ‘Christian’ response.

Ah – but most of the bloggers are in the US you say? Surely that’s no excuse – surely as Christians our ‘theologizing’ and ‘Christian’ response should be a global response? Or am I being to harsh? I don’t think so. Open your eyes bloggers – start writing about Zimbabwe, HIV/AIDS, economic oppression, dictatorial governments, extreme poverty, corruption – and write with the gusto and determination that sees the blogsphere light up on occasions such as these. There are other issues out there that Christians (and yes US Christians too) need to apply themselves to.

An African who wishes the world would see things with a bit more balance (at least the Christians anyway).

Posted on August 2, 2007 - by Stephen Murray

Application Beyond the Structures

Ever heard a sermon a sermon on ’serving each other’ where the application goes something like this:

“…so where do you think you can serve. Have you ever given thought to being a welcomer at the door, what about the band – can you sing or play an instrument? Maybe you can’t but you can operate sound at the back. What about children – do you have repore with children – has the thought of teaching Sunday School ever crossed your mind? Maybe you have great upfront gifts – what about leading a service, or at least praying or reading publicly in a service – what about leading a home group during the week? There are so many opportunities for you to serve, so pull up your sleeves and get stuck in.”

What’s wrong with that application? It all centers on the formal structures of the church’s gatherings – the Sunday service and/or Wednesday night cell-group. Now I’m not suggesting that it isn’t important for people to get involved in keeping the structures going – they have an important place – BUT how can we serve each other outside or beyond the structures?

If the church is the people and not the Sunday gathering then surely service needs to extend beyond the structures – on second thoughts, surely the majority of our service to each other should be taking place outside of the structures. When the New Testament writers spoke about spurring each other on to love and good deeds do you think they had the sound desk in mind? Or do you think they were concerned that the Christians were living together and loving together all the time? In that case love and good deeds would be taking place on a daily basis.

This puts the premium back on community – if you don’t see yourselves as a community then your service is never going to extend beyond the structures. That mentality has to be incorporated and in many cases, as in the individualist west, this mindset change will be counter-cultural. We can’t love each and do good deeds effectively if we’re not living in community beyond our structures. The difficult part is figuring out what that looks like in practice – but we’ve got to start thinking if we’re convinced we should be following Jesus.

Posted on April 13, 2007 - by Stephen Murray

Missional Influences

‘Missional’ is a tag I use a lot for many of my posts and it also characterizes the type of ministry that I wish to be involved with in the future. I suppose its pretty near the forefront of what I think about all day when I think about ministry. Today I stopped and reflected as to how things came to be this way in my thinking. Which influences shaped my missional thinking. So I’ve decided to list a few (in no particular order – some are more recent influences, others influenced me a while ago. I’ve particularly not included Scripture as an influence because pretty much all of these influences below have helped me to reflect thoughtfully on the Word of God):

• • My good friend Sam who is now a church planter and pastor in Pietermaritzburg.
  • The writings of Steve Timmis and Tim Chester – Sam and I read ‘The Gospel Centered Church‘ together when I was still quite a new Christian.
  • The writings and talks of Tim Keller – I think most would agree that Keller is the unofficial bishop of missionals in the reformed tradition.
  • My studies in Biblical Theology – thanks especially to the writings of Graeme Goldsworthy for helping me to see God’s unfolding plan for his Kingdom.
  • A group of gospel-centered pastors in Kwa-Zulu Natal who took me through a 2 year apprenticeship programme. Thanks Grant, Ray, David, Michael, Wayne and Duane.
  • Christ Church Glenwood (the church Grant and Ray pastor) in Durban – I’d never seen a church like this before with such an emphasis on local mission, especially with the students of UKZN.
  • St. Stephen’s, Claremont – my current church continues to inspire me as they continue to be missionaries for Jesus in the Cape Town community.
  • Bishop Frank Retief – the current presiding bishop of CESA. His commitment to the gospel and church planting over so many years is astounding.
  • Phillip Jensen and the Sydney Anglicans - I’ve never been to Sydney but I’ve read a lot of Jensen’s books and listened to his talks and they’ve left me wanting to help people to come to truly know Christ.
  • Short term spells of working in townships and low income areas in Cape Town – when you’re there on the ground with them you can’t but help becoming missional.
  • The great friendships I’ve built up and discussions I’ve had with my colleagues from Sub-Saharan Africa – thanks Asaf, Leo, Velile, Jean-Blaise, Pastor Pirai, your stories have encouraged me to use whatever gifting I have to be missional here in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • The wonderful self-sacrificial missionaries I met in Malawi last year – you redeemed the concept of ‘missionary’ for me.
  • The crew from U-Turn who work tirelessly with homeless folk everyday – you show that Jesus’ love is very practical.
  • Mark Driscoll – he makes me laugh and he loves Jesus and wants people to be in a right relationship with God.
  • Donald Miller – whether you like him or not ‘Blue Like Jazz‘ is brilliant – it helped me to treat people as human.
  • The Emerging conversation – I have a love/hate relationship with the EC, but the things I love in the EC I really do love.
  • The writings and talks of Don Carson – No one has helped me understand the gospel with more richness and fullness.
  • The Faculty of the Bible Institute of South Africa – you’ve taught me to love people.
  • My friends Mark and Anthony – you both often talk to me about ‘missional’ things. These times have been good, let’s pray that God will help us translate these conversations into faithful ministry on the ground.
  • The world of blogging – its been a lot of fun and I’ve learned stacks from taking part in it.
  • Emergent Africa – seeing your guys’ hearts on these issues has been a privilege.
  • My beautiful country – South Africa – she inspires me to see Jesus as her King.

What are your influences?

Posted on April 13, 2007 - by Stephen Murray

Love and Life

As I continued reading through the Psalms this morning I came across what for me is one of the most profound verses in Scripture. If I remember correctly I first really reflected on this verse when I read a sermon of John Piper’s dealing with it. The verse is Psalm 63:3

“Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.”

What strikes me is the frame of mind David has to be in to write such words. To reckon that God’s love is greater than one’s very own life – and not just intellectually, but to the point of action – is completely mind boggling for me. Everyday I love this life, and my life, more than God’s love – it is a constant challenge for me to reckon that God’s love is greater than life. Intellectually I’m there completely but in practice I’m miles away.

I pray for God’s Spirit to transform my heart and my actions so that I can sing this Psalm with David with great conviction.

Posted on April 10, 2007 - by Stephen Murray

Transforming Gospel

I’m back in Cape Town and today I just spent a short time today with some really, really, godly, loving, kind and caring people and I was just struck by the transforming power of the Gospel. We’re such sinful rebellious people and I’m just amazed at how, over time, the truth of a crucified Jesus changes people in such a powerful and evident way.

I pray, that this Gospel will change me, I pray that it will break, bend and mould me into someone who loves and serves Jesus with every ounce of energy. To my mind, that’s the incarnation of the kingdom of God in this world.

Posted on March 27, 2007 - by Stephen Murray

The Thankless Work of Homeless Ministry

I spent this morning on the streets of Claremont in Cape Town with the homeless folk who go day to day living from hand to mouth there. It was part of U-Turn, which is a ministry to homeless people in the Claremont area which is closely tied to my church. We had a team from BISA spending a morning observing the day to day work of the street volunteers who work tirelessly to make conversational connections with this marginalized group of society in the hope of offering them a life of rehabilitation through the transforming power of the gospel in its entirety.

I was struck by just how hard the work really is. Its a completely thankless and seemingly fruitless (at times) labour. Now I don’t want to downplay the effort required and difficulties of other ministries but for today’s blog post I’d like us just to consider those who labour in this field – inner city homeless ministry. Let’s uphold them in prayer, let’s be aware of the challenges they face and, as churches, let’s encourage and support our workers with deep fellowship as much as possible.

So to David, Joe, Alun and the rest of the street crew – keep going and be encouraged that those who work for God, never ever work in vain.

Posted on January 18, 2007 - by Stephen Murray

Loving in Hard Places

In a body if your big toe is a pain you don’t cut it off you take care of it.

I came across this quote in a long list of comments on a blog that I often frequent and it caused my mind to set off on a bit of tangent from the discussion that was at hand. I found myself asking a question about the body of the church: What happens if you want to take care of that toe, you want to love and care for it, but the course of treatment you feel convicted to adopt will mostly likely come across as unloving and arrogant to that toe? In fact the toe will be pretty ticked off to find out that you regard him as being in pain or ill in the first place. As I interact with various expressions of the universal church I find myself in this predicament often. Now I’m pretty sure there are times when I am being arrogant and unloving, and I need to repent of that and deal with it. But what about other times?

I think our current environment of super-tolerance has made it increasingly difficult to approach this problem. I had a discussion along this lines whilst sipping wine with a former Pastor who had planted an emerging church a few years ago (I felt very emerging at the time, sipping wine and all. I was one step away from blogging about it on my Mac at Starbucks – except, I don’t have a Mac and there aren’t any Starbucks in South Africa). At a point in the conversation, about the emerging church (EC), I remarked that I felt many issues in the EC were getting to a point where you felt like there was never an occasion when one could say, ‘no that’s wrong’ without being labeled unloving, dogmatic and arrogant. Both he and I agreed that it would be extremely dangerous for any movement to get to a place where it can’t say ‘no that’s wrong’ when discussing fidelity to the gospel or faithfulness to following Christ. If that is the case, and I think it is, then I’m afraid there are going to times when I’m going to have to love and care for people and they’re going to perceive it as unloving and arrogant. I pray God might grant me grace and humility to the utmost in these situations.