What we learned on this trip!

Been thinking about some things that we observed and learned while on our “back pack” trip across Europe. We talked with national pastors and church planters. We talked with cross cultural workers from various organizations and networks. We talked to believers who work  in the marketplace.

These are in no particular order of importance. I would also mention that these are not prescriptive.  I will say that we heard  and observed these activities through out the trip in multiple places and settings. I do not claim that these are universal but hopefully they will be good for discussion.
By the way we have a few more videos to post so keep on the look out on our video playlist.

Here you go.

There seems to be an significant investment into young national leaders. We saw this in each country where we traveled. Each instance where we saw this taking place we also observed good and tangible results.

Many of the leaders (national and cross cultural workers) stated that it takes time in Europe. They commented about the  absolute necessity for a long term commitment to a particular place and people.

We noticed several ministries and in particular church planting strategies such as The Berlin Project and The Hamburg Project that have a city vision. They did not begin by trying to engage the entire city but focused it’s efforts in a more specific part of the city and then spread from there.  Both of these models seem quite committed to the city center.

When we talked to people who have seen their friends and contacts become Christ followers we observed that they were bold in sharing their faith and proclaiming the gospel.

We also noticed that in most cases they shared their faith early in the relationship. It did not take many conversations at all to get into spiritual matters. It was a natural part of their conversation to their friends.
Having a solid theological foundation and knowing what they believe about church seems very important to the ones we talked with.

Many of the people we talked with clearly identified a third place as a part of their strategy.  They met in coffee shops and other places or they rented galleries or opened up cafes. Some decided to create their third place while others joined existing space and utilized those.

As we talked with cross cultural workers we noted that some seem to have more accountability than others when regarding their sending church. Those with a strong accountability seemed to have a clearer understanding of their purpose once on the field.  The ones with a strong sending church seemed to have more involvement in the church planting strategy on the field.

We also heard about setting some specific goals that are time sensitive regarding their church planting strategy. While we consistently heard that it takes time to build relationships and start a church we also observed that the ones who had some specific dates that they were shooting for seem to be making progress towards that goal.

Finally, in each place we heard: we need more people to come and live here as salt and light in the marketplace. Of course this made me quite happy as I was able to talk to them about www.skybridgecommunity.net. In fact we gained several new members in each country of both expats who are working in Europe and national believers who work in the marketplace.

We also saw a healthy relationship with the national church. Of the ministries that we observed that were making progress they all were tied to the national church at some level. They usually had clear boundaries but they wanted to make an investment to the European church and it’s leaders.

Love you to hear your thoughts on these.