If you’re part of an American church with an interest in Europe, or you’re working/living in Europe this will probably be of interest to you.
David Phillips interviews Caleb Crider about ministry in a post-Christian Europe.
Tag Archives: europe
A Different Way
by ray on 04. Oct, 2008 in Church, Missional
Somewhere along the way it was decided, not quite sure by who, that missions and all things missions related should be primarily handled by para-church organizations (think YWAM, IMB, SIM, AIM, etc.). The IMB for example, has some 5,000 missionaries around the globe supported through the Southern Baptist Cooperative Program and direct giving from SBC church through the Lottie Moon Offering. Churches have, quite honestly, found it easier to be involved in missions by simply giving instead of going themselves. The rational that’s primarily given is that the church doesn’t have the staff, the money, or the know how to be involved overseas so they should just leave it to the “professionals”.
There are some churches, not just SBC churches, that take a lot of “mission trips”. They send a team, once a year, to a different place in need and help out in various ways. They might run sports camps for kids, or dig wells, or build houses, or…you get the point.
There are other churches who’ve made the choice to invest in a single place. They pour their resources, time, energy, and people into a country, or city, in the hopes of long term transformation. The easy one that comes to mind here is Bob Roberts, of Glocalnet and Northwood Church. They’ve adopted Vietnam and focus much of their overseas attention there.
But there is another group of churches that have a heart for investing in places and people in another country but aren’t quite sure how to go about it. They know they have to be more involved than just giving, but they may not have the knowledge base to get the ball rolling. This is where The Upstream Collective comes in. And I can’t begin to tell you all the ways that these guys can help you out (see their website for that) so let me just sum it up in a couple of words. Upstream is run by a couple of guys I admire, respect, and appreciate. After serving (and still serving) overseas they’ve decided to help put missions back where it belongs – in the church. Upstream can help with strategy, training, and vision casting. They have a heart for Europeans and want to help churches that have a heart for Europeans get started. They’ll take a group from your church on a tour of a European city to help you get a feel for life in Europe. They’ll talk through the various ways, maybe even “new” ways that your church can get involved in the lives of Europeans in the hopes of building relationships, helping someone on their journey towards Christ, and planting churches.
I can’t recommend enough the guys at Upstream. I consider them friends and know that your church would be absolutely blessed to chat with these guys.
An Invitation
by ray on 15. May, 2008 in Church, Culture, Friends, Life
My friend, Mentanna, has started a new series on her blog entitled an invitation to the table. I like where she’s going with this. It’s worth a read.
Here are direct links to the first 2 posts.
http://mentanna.blogspot.com/2008/05/invitation-to-table-part-one.html
http://mentanna.blogspot.com/2008/05/invitation-to-table-part-two.html
-shorty
A Little Confused
by ray on 13. Jun, 2007 in Gospel, Missional
I’m relatively new to the life of being a “missionary”. I’m not new, however, to what it means to “share the gospel”. My hope and prayer is that through building relationships with others they might come to know about the sovereign grace of Christ, that the Holy Spirit will awaken their soul, and that God will call them to Himself.
But how far do you take things in a given conversation when things turn spiritual? In fact, just today a colleague told me that she felt the Holy Spirit was preventing her from taking things deeper in a conversation she was having with a friend.
When is just being a friend and living life with someone not enough? When do you push things deeper, and how do you know that it’s the right time?
Just very simple, basic things I’m working through right now.
UPDATE: After reading through my post I feel that a little clarification is needed. I live in a Western European culture. But I work with Muslims. It’s highly unlikely that someone in this context is going to come to faith through good old fashioned theological debate. The sticking points will always be issues such as the trinity, the incarnate nature of Christ, the crucifixion and resurrection. The point of my post was me asking the question, how often and how deep do I push these things, knowing full well that their witness of my life is more likely to lead them towards Christ than a spiritually deep conversation. And I don’t know that this question has an answer, but it needed to be asked anyway.
First Research Project
by ray on 21. Apr, 2007 in IMB, Missional
After hearing about Ed Stetzer’s move to LifeWay Research and the collaboration that will take place between IMB, NAMB, & LifeWay, (you can read through others’ thoughts on this here, here, here and here) I have a proposal for Ed for his first research project in this new position:
What are the key characteristics, the positive influences which influence growth, and the negative influences which stunt growth in simple, organic churches of non-indegenous ethnic minorities (i.e. Iranians, Kurds, Bengalis, etc.) in post-modern cultures (i.e. London, Paris, etc.)?
I’m looking forward to your findings…
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