Today was the last day of the trip. After all the walking, listening, and talking, the group was exhausted. We talked a lot about missiological concepts this morning, and considered how we had seen them being put into practice by the various teams we’ve connected with here. Here’s the short list:
- Segmentation- decide what people group/population segment you are working with.
- Contextualization- working to communicate/model the gospel in a way that is appropriate to cultural context.
- Indigenaity- the work is native to the soil in which it’s planted.
- Reproducibility- How easily can your people do what you’re doing in another place?
- Syncretism- avoid combining Christianity and other religions/beliefs.
- Laity vs. Clergy- is the distinction helpful?
- Oikos- people are already in groups. Those groups can be radically transformed by Jesus.
- Person of Peace/Goodwill- God prepares people beforehand to receive the message and help us engage people.
After saying goodbye to our French church planter friend, Jullian, we split up to get souvenirs and see what we hadn’t yet seen of Marseille. It’s a beautiful city, right on the Mediterranean. Remember the “Chateau D’if,” the island jail in the movie “The Count of Monte Cristo?” That’s in Marseille.
We spent a little while on the beach. Not too long, it was a French beach, and then walked the downtown area with the Marseille team. It was encouraging to hear their stories of successes and failures in ministry and church planting here.
We finished the day with a big dinner (crepes, of course!) and took some time to evaluate the trip. We decided the following:
In pre-trip communication, it would be helpful to have suggestions from Jet Set alumni.
Even after visiting with the teams in Rome and Marseille, it’s still difficult to imagine what a partnership with them would look like. It would be nice to have a few concrete examples to take home to the churches.
Videos of the teams sent out beforehand were extremely helpful. We might want to add some “in-flight” reading to the mix- something that would allow group members to prepare mentally and spiritually on the way.
We leave bright and early tomorrow morning. What a great group! We loved to visit with these guys, and to dream together of the day when churches truly start thinking like missionaries.
We’ll add some more thoughts about the trip as we have time to process all that we’ve seen and heard. Thanks for reading and praying for us.
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