About
Married to Jo-ann,
Father to Nathan
You could find me relaxing with a great book and a great coffee/beer, slogging up a mountain, walking on the beach or watching sport (mainly rugby, cricket or football) or surfing the net.
I currently work as a pastor to students on the CPUT (Cape Town) campus. I Dream about planting a multi-cultural, Bible based, missional church somewhere, somehow… Passionate about theology, missional church, church-planting, authentic spirituality, the greatness of God!
Inspired by the writings of Lesslie Newbigin, Eugene Peterson, Philip Yancey, Don Carson, John Piper, Tim Chester, Steve Timmis, Byang Kato, CS Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, John Stott, Alan Hirsch and David Bosch among others. For fun read David Gemmel, David Eddings, Tolkien and any great fantasy author.
RSS - Posts
Great to read about you and even your post on missional education. Continue on!
Where are you originally from ?
NG
Cape Town born and bred. Proudly Capetonian!
Hey man
Glad I found your blog. I’ll add it to the feed reader. I’ll be praying for you! Sometime, we’ll have to connect. Do you have skype?
Hey Mike,
Thanks.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments section.
Skype john.scheepers19
Look forward to hearing from you.
Mike, you sound like a guy on a mission. One little word and photo….the beer, is troubling….I run the risk of being pegged as not what I am….but Mike, the stumbling block issue is huge. I speak as one who has witnessed tremendous suffering from alcohol in family….truly devastating….don’t mess with is is my counsel and no one will think the less of you. It’s my word from the Lord for you tonight. Blessings on your ministry, and I love Capetown…been there and was blessed.
Hi Eugene,
Thanks for your comment, and your concern.
1) My name is John not Mike but I realise that it does not appear anywhere on this page so that is my fault.
2) I hear what you are saying and I undestand the issue, this has been a significant issue in my own family. But I think there is a flip side that we never talk about and which can be just as devastating.
In SA we have a huge problem with religiousity posing as Christianity. The rule is if you drink/smoke/date etc then you cannot be a Christian. Now that is simply not the gospel. And because I choose to drink alcohol responsibly I have found myself having many great conversations with people about what true Christianity, really is.
I have found that in areas where there has been vast alcohol abuse the temptation to associate sobriety with Christianity is more widespread. Whilst we cannot condone the widespread abuse of alcohol we equally cannot condone the widespread confusion of the message of Jesus with moralism.
The decision whether to drink or not must not be dealt with as a blanket decision. The decision for every individual and community must be contextual and situational – what will best serve the gospel in this situation?
I have no intention to cause you offense or cause others to stumble but I think sometimes in our blanket condemnation of alcohol we cause unbelievers to stumble and reject a message that they mistakenly confuse for true Christianity.
Thoughts?
John, you were thoughtful to reply with your rationale on the subject of alcohol use. If we were to contine to spar over this it might detract from our basic calling. But while much of what you say is fine…and I fully agree that we not confuse abstentions from “whatever” as a case for being Christian, it was your seeming to almost celebrate the “bottle” and in this case you were probably not “speaking” to those outside of Christ, so that was part of my concern. Recently Wolf Blitzer’s pardner in the CNN Situation Room (can’t recall his name at the moment), spoke of his long battle with alcohol and the road to recovery, and told of his gathering his daughters to sit down and told them….”this is in your genes, so stay far away from the stuff.” It was a powerful an somewhat unusual moment on a secular news program. Anyway….just take my word for what it might be worth to you and know my intention was for your good and that of your family and others over whom you may have influence. Oh yes, I have spent much time in European countries where beer is the norm and all accept my word that, “it’s the custom of my wife and I not to use alcohol….” and no further word is needed. We have been highly respected and in many cases with return visits to our home in the U.S. No need to stretch this out further. I give it simply as testimony not intended as a lecture. Blessings my brother!
Eugene thank you for your concern. And I respect your point that in the picture I almost seem to celebrate the “bottle”. It is not my intention to celebrate licentious behaviour or drunkenness. But I would question whether it is wrong to celebrate correctly the goodness of God’s creation – sex or entertainment can be just as grossly abused as can alcohol but yet in the right context and the right way we are right to celebrate it. As Christians we even encourage it…
But because I do not want to be a cause of dissension among my brothers perhaps I should change my picture…
But agreed lets keep the main thing the main thing and not be distracted – God uses all of us in our weaknesses and lack of wisdom That is to say that both of us or neither of us may be right on this issue. But let us rather consider how we may love and serve one another, our brothers and sisters and the unbelieving world.