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Being born on the east coast of Scotland in the city of Edinburgh, I spent my formative years in typical Scottish lowland home. I could have described my parents with many adjectives, but religious was not one of them. Visits to Church were sporadic and usually as a result of the pressure applied by grandparents. In the first twelve years of my life I cannot remember ever hearing the gospel, and if I did, certainly did not grasp its essential meaning.
With parental separation and a move to the south of Ireland, life within the Murdock family was rather dramatic. This however was to prove insignificant when placed alongside the change that occurred in family life with my father’s conversion. From then on we were found in Churches, Mission Hal ls and children’s meetings nearly every night of the week.
Slowly but surly the light of the gospel began to shine in on my darkened heart. I began to understand that Christ had given Himself for my sin and I could escape the wrath of God if I turned from my sin and placed my faith in His atoning work. One night after a barbeque in the heart of Co. Cavan, enabled by the Holy Spirit, I trusted Christ as my Saviour.
From there I embarked on a spiritual pilgrimage, I was Baptized, joined a local Church and began to grow in my Christian life. Coming near the end of a joinery apprenticeship I felt the Call of God into Christian work. Efforts to suppress this were futile and it wasn’t long before I found myself in the “Faith Mission Bible College”. I spent two years there and a year in the work as an evangelist.
In 1992 Elaine and I were married and having sensed the leading of God into Church based ministry I embarked on a three-year BD course at the Irish Baptist College in conjunction with Queens University Belfast. I served as the assistant Pastor in Ballymena Baptist Church (Hill Street) for two years and came to Emmanuel Baptist Church in Lisburn in June 1996.
It has always been by desire to know God more intimately and understand his word more clearly and out of that experience to explain His word to others. Our study of the Bible Sunday by Sunday is systematic and expository with an emphasis on application. With our motto being “God’s Word For Today’s World” it is our belief that men and women will remain incomplete and forever unsatisfied until they understand the message of the Bible and thus come to know the God of the Bible. It is therefore our aim to highlight the relevance and necessity of God’s word to people of the 21st century.
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