I often will be asked in the states "where do you live?"
I tell them Western Europe. They really feel sorry for me.

Of course I could not imagine why. grin.
I think we suffer in other ways like the 1.62 exchange rate. When we moved to Europe in 2001 we could go to the grocery store and spend 100 euros and only 70 US dollars came out of our account. Now 162.00 dollars comes out. The views are expensive for sure.


But this is not why we are here. We have a desire to see people here come to know, experience and live abundantly by as followers of Jesus.


So while we may have some cool views. We most certainly have beautiful castles and churches however it does not take long being here to realize that for all of the "Coolness" of Europe it is a place in need of Jesus.

Check out this article that a co-worker passed to me this week. It helps paint a picture of the spiritual condition of the young people here. While there are glimpses where we see how young people desire spiritual conversations it is not the Christian church where they are going to find their answers. In fact they are going almost everywhere but the church. This presents a problem if your church is trying to "attract" young people (I would add anyone for that matter).
If you are trying to attract people to your church then you are assuming that you have people wanting to come. I think that day is over here. The church (people not a building, place or just the pastor) has to find ways to live out their faith in their daily lives (incarnationally) so that they have natural opportunities to share Jesus in a every day context.

I would also add that even though this article speaks of how some German youth are seeking spirituality I do not think it is the norm. For many spirituality is not a bleep on the radar screen. in Europe. I hope as you read this article you might say a prayer for the youth in Europe. Say a prayer for the people that are serving over here both as internationals trying to make a difference and for nationals who are trying to reach young people for Christ in Europe.

adios.
LMc

day one

"The church is suffering from mission amnesia. It has forgotten why it exists. The church was created to be the people of God to join him in His redemptive mission to the world. The church was never intended to exist for itself. It was and is the chosen instrument of God to expand His kingdom".

Those are some words in the book The Present Future by Reggie McNeal. The book is a few years old but it is right on. I highly recommend the book. It is a good read and a quick read. You will not be disappointed.

I cut my church planting teeth in the 90s. I worked hard at starting churches that would be relevant to the culture. Some of them were cool. I tried to start churches that would reach lost people and disciple them. But did I start churches that were focused primarily on their own growth or did I start churches that were concerned for the kingdom?

My "aha" moment was when I was working on my post graduate degree in missiology and planting a church at the same time. I started to see that the church was not to be just concerned about itself but also about it's community, city and world. We were not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but we tried to make a difference in our little part of the world. As I look back I do not know if I really took that far enough. In fact I know I did not. I kept thinking "when we get this size" or "when we have more staff", etc... then we will go to the world. I was always in the future tense with that idea.

I was wrong. We needed to do that from day one.

So I have decided that I need to do something about that. I want to help new churches think and act missionally from day one. I want to help new churches not exist for themselves but to see themselves as McNeal says... the chosen instrument of God to expand His kingdom. I am still figuring out how this will look but I have some ideas. If you have any let me know.

the first step

Do you ever get nervous about taking that first step in a spiritual conversation? I know I do. You just never know where it may lead.

About a week ago a man came to our door and told us that another man would come the following morning at 7 am to start work on our porch. Our landlord has promised that our really cool deck would be finished last Fall. We live in the Black Forest area of Germany so we really need our porch when it starts getting warmer. We have a good view. The next morning at 7 am a guy shows up at the door and says in simple English "good morning". I return the greeting. He then askes if I speak English and I then recognized his accent. I said - "si, pero yo hablo espanol tambien. Tu hablas espanol?" (I speak English but I also speak Spanish. Do you speak Spanish?) He said in Spanish - "Yes. I am from Spain. I am from Andulacia". We both lit up. I was so happy to find a Spaniard in Germany and he was happy he could speak his home language even if it were with a person (me) who mostly thinks he knows spanish. smile

I told him about my secret stash of spanish coffee. I still prefer the strong spanish blend. I am a coffee snob. I made him a cafe con leche and we had coffee together. At that point I did not care about my porch and that I was keeping him from working on it. I was having a blast. I felt a nudge and I think it was the Holy Spirit asking me to take a step and to talk to this guy about spiritual things. So I was dusting off my spanish and was preparing to go down that road. He asked me where I work and what I do. I explained my job. I do not use the word missionary but I told him that I work for an organization that is Christian. He then lit up again when I told him that my kids went to a certain school. He said that his pastor's kid attended that school. He then proceeded to talk to me about his church and Jesus and invited me to his church which is a German church. I was floored.

Susan and I attended that church the next Sunday and we talked more. It was great fun and I hope to spend some more time with him in the future. I tell this story for it speaks to me loudly. It was totally unexpected. In reality I thought that the Lord was wanting me to talk to him to help him see Jesus. Afterall less than two percent of the people in Spain are Christ followers. This time I actually did what the Lord asked me to do and that was to initiate a conversation with the guy. The Lord took care of the rest. I would like to think that I encouraged him that day but I know that he encouraged me.

An important facet of living life intentionally is to be ready to listen, act or speak as the Lord leads in whatever moment you are in. I am so far from being an expert at this but I hope I am learning "poco a poco" (little by little).

Tensions of being salt and light

Part of what I want to do on this blog is to share an important teachings of Jesus. Today one jumps out at me from Matthew 5. It is where Jesus talks about being salt and light. I think he is emphasizing how we need to live out our faith incarnationally in this world. But therein lies a tension. I remember in youth group hearing: “You need to be in the world but not of it.” Or something like that. I think we often shelter ourselves so much that we remove ourselves from the world and thus not know personally many people who are not believers.

One huge shift that I see happening in the western world is that people are not knocking down the doors to get into church. In Europe you often pay an entrance fee to see / tour the church. In quite a few cities in the United Kingdom many of the churches are being sold and converted to Mosques.

While it may not quite be that bad in the states we continue to see decline in church attendance. My point is not whether people attend church or not. I don’t think that was what Jesus was teaching about. He gave us the Great Commission and he told us to be the salt and light in our daily lives. At home, school, work, clubs that we are a part of, etc..

So I was reading a book the other day called UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity … And Why It Matters. The book was written by authors David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. In a chapter about how we often as Christians live such sheltered lives from the fallen world they quote Mike Metzger: From Fine Tuning Tensions within Culture: The Art of Being Salt and Light
(Suwannee, GA: Relevate, 2007), 4.


Being salt and light means two things: we practice purity in the midst of a fallen world and yet we live in proximity to this fallen world. If you don’t hold up both truths in tension, you invariable become useless and separated from the world God loves. For example, if you only practice purity apart from proximity to the culture, you inevitable become pietistic, separatist, and conceited. If you live in close proximity to the culture without also living in a holy manner, you become indistinguishable from fallen culture and useless in God’s kingdom

So it is not an easy deal but it is a tension that we have to live out. When I was a church planter / pastor in the states I worked hard at creating some cool publicity pieces that would attract people to our church. I am sure some people came to the church because they received such a marketing piece but I now struggle with that fact. Instead of trying cool ways to get people to come to church we (the church) need to be about living our lives daily in front of people as followers that will attract them to Jesus because of the way we live. This is the incarnational approach to life and ministry that Jesus gave us.

The GrossMunster Church in Zurich

We went to downtown Zurich the other day. What a cool city.
We came upon a church that was important during the reformation days.
As I was inside I was struck by the simplicity of the church. I then noticed a pamphlet that talked about the church and it’s history.

Here is a paragraph from the pamphlet that helped me to understand what I experienced.

As you enter our church today, you may be struck by the simplicity and sobriety of the sanctuary. This is the result of one of the Zwingli’s reforms at Grossmunster in 1519. Whatever gave a worldly appearance to the church was removed: pictures, altars, sculptures and even the organ. The intensive study of the Holy Scriptures and the preaching of the Gospel were to be the focal point of the religious community. Zwingli argued that reforms were necessary if one was to live according to the Gospel.

As I sat there in the sanctuary I thought about church today and how we make it so complex but not just with our windows, altars and organs (or the latest and coolest media equipment) but our methodology.

I think that our programs in the church today can so much distract from the simplicity that the church was intended to be.

The Fellowship of the Believers - Acts 42 - 47

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Missiology in Western Europe

A week ago I had the privledge of hosting Ed Stetzer and several pastors from the U.S. in Barcelona. After he returned I was wrote a blog post for him on www.edstetzer.com and I want to post it here today. I will talk some about these three streams in the coming days. So I invite you to respond. By being a church planter first in the United States for over 10 years and now in Europe I see some things that shape our lives and ministry in Europe that I think would help me if I were to plant a church in the states again.

So grab an espresso and enjoy.

My name is Larry McCrary, and I have lived and worked in Western Europe since 2001. What can I say? The history is fascinating, the sights are out of this world and you can’t find a better cup of coffee. However, when it comes to living out one’s faith incarnationally in the day-to-day here, you have to consider the cultural context.I like to think of Western Europe as a river with three major cultural streams affecting it right now. Each stream is a spiritual challenge in itself, but combining the three makes for extra-difficult navigation when it comes to engaging people with the gospel.

The first stream – which is decreasing in size – is that of the institutional church’s decline. This may be the Roman Catholic Church in some countries, the Church of England or the Lutheran church in other parts of Western Europe, but as a whole the churches are declining in attendance. What makes this stream interesting is that, while it is decreasing in size and influence, the veneer of the institutional church still has an impact on the culture.In Spain, where we served for the last five years, my friends would say they were not part of the church and would speak out against it. In the next sentence, however, they would claim that they were Catholic, thus identifying themselves as religious. The opportunity for those of us who live here among these people is to help them see it’s not about religion, but about a relationship with God.

The second stream worth mentioning is that of the post-Christian or secular worldview held by many Western Europeans. Evangelism research shows that, in most Western European countries, less than 2 percent of the population is evangelical. (“European Believers Report”, 2007 by Ruth Robinson, Greater Europe Mission)The only exception to this is Scandinavia, and they have a whopping 3 percent according to most studies. (“European Believers Report”, 2007 by Ruth Robinson, Greater Europe Mission) The worldview of most indigenous Europeans is post Christian/secular. While most are generally closed to the idea of institutional church, the hope lies in believers who will live out their faith incarnationally in Europe.

The third stream is also growing rapidly, and that stream is Islam. The flood of Muslim immigrants moving to Europe over the last 10 years is incredible. Most major Western European cities have several mosques, and in some cities, mosques are literally replacing the empty cathedrals.The increase in the number of Muslims moving to Western Europe makes an impact on the cultural and religious climate. Believers have a great opportunity for ministry in that we don’t face the same restrictions on sharing the gospel as those in closed countries. This gives us some freedom in how we can minister among people.