Spring break!

I hope everyone's break is going well. Since you have some time on your hands, I thought I'd pass on a video that deals with some of the theological issues surrounding mercy ministries such as ours. You will probably recognize John Piper, pastor and author of Don't Waste Your Life, and he is joined by Tim Keller, a pastor in Manhattan and Don Carson, author of over 50 books from Reformed Seminary in Illinois. Enjoy!

Caleb Says Goodbye to the Impact Team Leadership

Three years ago I had no idea what the Downtown Impact Team would look like today. I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to serve the team through two years of leadership. And the thought never crossed my mind that God would grant to our little team such great influence over hundreds of lives in multiple cities around the country. How gracious God has been! I am so thankful to have witnessed God do so many incredible things through the Downtown Impact Team. He has shown his gracious faithfulness, he has advanced his gospel-kingdom, and we have had the joy of participating with him. What a joy it has been.

Many needs remain in Greenville, though. Countless neighborhoods and apartment complexes suffer from material and social poverty. Thousands of citizens wander the streets without any knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you attended the impact team meeting on Tuesday, you remember that I stated that the mission to Greenville will last far longer than our short time at college. We belong to a small movement; God's mission to rescue the people of Greenville from eternal suffering involves more missionaries than we could ever know. This truth makes our efforts significant. God is working in the city, and we believe he has called us to join him in his work.

As God's work advances, the leadership of the Downtown Impact Team must pass to others. Serving the team through my leadership has brought me such overwhelming joy in Christ. Your love, commitment, and passion for the advance of the gospel has humbled and challenged me every week. However, the team has much to gain by my stepping down from leadership. God is calling others to lead. I am honored and overjoyed to hand leadership of the team over to two very qualified men. Paul Conner and Zach Willis will lead the team in ways that I never could. Imagining how the Downtown Impact Team will grow thrills me with excitement.

Those of you on the team, I thank you for your faithfulness. I ask that you receive the leadership of Paul and Zach with enthusiasm and prayer. I love these men, and I have full confidence that they will follow God's leading for the team's future. Center your lives on the gospel and remain faithful to your calling.

For the fame of Christ,
Caleb Murphree

4 of 10 Prayers | 3 Days

Pick three days of your week and spend some twenty or thirty minutes praying these ten prayers for our city.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).

We thank God for reconciling us to himself through Christ. We confess that we think too lightly and too seldom on this glorious reality. We plead with God to help us grasp the explosive truth of Christ becoming sin for us so that we might become righteousness. We long to comprehend this message of reconciliation.

We thank God for calling us as his ambassadors to Greenville. We admit that it is a complicated city that we don’t entirely understand. We ask God to affect us with the serious responsibility of bearing the message of reconciliation. We ask him to teach us how to communicate the gospel to the people of Greenville in a way they understand.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare… (Jeremiah 29:4-14).

We thank God for sending us as exiles to Greenville. We know that our home resides with Christ, but we also recognize that God loves Greenville and desires to rescue its citizens from suffering. We pray that God would be good toward Greenville’s citizens, though they don’t deserve it. We pray that God would alleviate the mental, emotional, financial, physical, social, and racial suffering in the city. We ask that believers would give God credit for his goodness to the city as he rightfully deserves.

We ask that God would be good toward Greenville’s citizens by saving many people – more people than we could imagine – though they don’t deserve it. We admit that we resist participating in this work because of fear, pride, and selfishness. We ask God to change what we want to become what he wants. We pray that God would use us through the churches of Greenville by the power of his Spirit to bring the gospel of Jesus to many citizens. And we pray that God would save thousands.

6 of 10 Prayers | 3 Days

Pick three days of your week and spend some twenty or thirty minutes praying these ten prayers for our city.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20).

We rejoice that God’s plans far surpass our own, and we thank him that he is carefully and patiently unleashing his gospel in Greenville. We confess that we are impatient and self-focused. We ask God to thrill us with the prospect of being a small part of his work, thanking that his work in Greenville extends beyond our impact team and beyond BSU.

We ask God by his Spirit to teach and guide Pendleton Street Baptist Church, Downtown Baptist Church, Grace Church Downtown, North Hills Community Church, and Upper Room Fellowship.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8).

We ask God by his Spirit to empower church planters and to call them to Greenville.

We ask God to create a passion for church planting in local churches. We ask God to guide local churches to support church plants through funding, resources, training, and people. We confess our craving for comfort and regularity, and we ask God to send us wherever our money, gifts, and talents can best be used.

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved (Acts 2:44-47).

We confess our indifference toward the needs of Greenville’s poorest citizens. We admit that we hoard and we defend and we adore the very things that God gave us to give to others. We ask that God would greatly disturb the smug comfort of believers in Greenville. We ask God to invade our consciences with the bitter suffering of the urban poor.

We ask that God would create in us the self-sacrificing, self-denying love of Christ for those in Greenville who suffer and for those who are destined to suffer eternally. We ask for the creativity and opportunity to sacrifice more and more of what matters most to us for the cause of relieving suffering in Greenville.

Spring 2009 Family Talk

Friends,

I've always wanted to be a part of something much bigger than myself, and I'm humbled that God has rescued me and made me a part of his movement of missionaries, the Church. As college students, we have the choice before us to serve the Church in advancing the gospel into the shadows of our city or to demand services from underpaid staff members who strive to entertain us with funny-titled sermonettes. Which will you choose?

I know most of you very well, and I believe you are on board with Christ's mission to redeem the city of Greenville. The question our team faces is "How are we going to do it?" What part do we have to play in God's kingdom work? 

I believe Spring 2009 holds incredible opportunities for our participation in the gospel's progress. We are going to hold a family talk for all impact team members on January 15 immediately after the first Fusion of the semester. Our family talk will be held in the smaller Joyful Sound conference room; that is the room in the Student Center at the end of the Student Services and Campus Ministry halls (signs will be posted).

We are going to be asking God to do some ridiculous things this semester. I want to share with you the vision and strategy of the Downtown Impact Team for the current stage we are in and talk about where I see our team moving in the next several months. We must submit to Scripture and act like members of one Body if we hope to do all we set out to accomplish. I encourage you to set your eyes on Christ, lock arms with your brothers and sisters, and march forward with the light of the gospel.

For His fame,
Caleb