Should I reach out to my immigrant Mexican and Filipino neighbors? If so, how will they fit in with Caucasian middleclass Americans at church? That was my dilemma growing up in a mid-sized California town in the 80’s and it’s a growing reality in our melting-pot world today.
Remember the account of the day of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2? An indoor tornado with pyrotechnic flaming tongues of fire that “zapped” the 12 apostles with the ability to speak many languages? It’s a scene that would dazzle any movie-going audience.
Of course God could have done without the pyrotechnics and language morphs, but on that day people heard, understood, and believed as a result of listening to the Gospel in their mother tongues.
Our church in Porto, Portugal ministers across social and language barriers in a number of ways, and people have responded to the Good News of Christ. The challenge became, how can our believing community maintain a unified identity while being multilingual and multicultural?
COMUNIDADE DA GRAÇA - PORTO
The Comunidade da Graça (CdG) was started in 1997 by a group of Portuguese university students who wanted to live ‘church.’ They did it through spiritual families that met formally on a weekly basis for worship, Bible study, prayer, and fellowship, while also connecting at other times of the week in less formal settings.
In time, more spiritual families sprang up, connected through relationship to God and one another. These groups were spread throughout the greater Porto area, and each had its own natural ‘flavor.’ Some were based around university life and sports; others were more appealing to young moms, youth and families. The groups had a common identity in the CdG, but each had unique qualities that allowed them to minister to different kinds of people.
Due to the presence of GBIM missionaries and a British family, an international flare developed within the CdG. Not wanting to overshadow the Portuguese focus, they were unsure what to do. But God was already preparing ministry partners in Lisbon—the Masons, a British ‘tent-making’ couple from the Riverside International Church Lisbon, a Christian Associates (CA) church plant. Bill and Tina had a heart for reaching internationals in Porto.
RIVERSIDE PORTO
A handful of Porto-based local church leaders met, and by the fall of 2004, CdG, GBIM, Christian Associates, and Riverside Lisbon realized the first formal meeting of Riverside Church Porto in the home of Tim and Julie Hawkins.
Riverside is the only evangelical, English-speaking church in the Porto area. So, in less than two years, Riverside Porto has ministered to dozens of internationals in English, the common language of millions of expatriates worldwide.
If not for partnerships, Riverside Porto would probably not exist today. We believe that wisely formed alliances such as this are increasingly key in spreading the gospel and strengthening the church in Europe.
The Holy Spirit could have created another mini tornado with fiery tongues, but instead he chose to use the local expression of His body to be the hands and mouth of ministry to internationals that had no church to call home.
Please pray for both the Comunidade da Graça and Riverside International Church spiritual families here in Porto as they are united to reach out to all peoples of all cultures and languages.
-Sam Schwartz
I guess that one could say I have a homework assignment. My boss asked me to furnish him with “a contextualized definition of the church.” Hmmm...
In all transparency, for years I have pushed off defining something that Scripture intentionally uses fuzzy metaphors to describe. And I believe that a "begin with the end in mind," crystal clear definition of church is a modern tool that may be ill adapted to church planting in the European postmodern (pre-what?), postChristendom transitional period in which I find myself.
A few thoughts motivate me to complete this homework assignment. First, my boss is a good guy and I want to be a good team player. Second, many of the church planters on my team are modernists and such a definition may be helpful to them. Third, this sort of exercise forces me to bring together a lot of data and hone my own thinking.
I am a bit clarity challenged (you will note that my convoluted "definition" still looks like a combination, description-of-church/mission statement) and my wife told me it is too "dense." So I thought it might be fun to see if you would like to help me with my assignment!
After reading the following, if you have deletions, additions or other non-snide observations, please feel free to leave a comment. (A number of people have told me that they are somehow hindered by blogger or do not know how to do that. So please feel free to drop me a note at paulklaw@gbim.org) Merci !
We desire to see Europeans become believers who recognize Christ as prophet, redeemer and King. They become disciples.*1
These disciples locally embody the universal priesthood of believers, nurturing loving relationships with Christ and one another through sustainable,*2 hospitable spiritual communities (ekklesia).
These spiritual communities recognize the concomitant authority and guidance of the Triune God and His Word.*3 These communities are shepherded by spiritually qualified European elders*4 and equipped by the five people-who-are-gifts (see Eph.4:11); they are spiritually related to the local-international and historical-future Church.
The Spirit guides and empowers these prayerful, dialogical communities*5 for mission; they therefore co-labor with others of common heart and vision. As part of their worship, the disciples of these communities creatively engage and transform the world around them through caring, sacrificial service so that other Europeans and peoples of the world also recognize Christ as prophet, redeemer and King.
*1 Baptized and obedient to Christ from a heart of love.
*2 Refreshing more than exhausting, creating more than they consume.
*3 Thus the aphorism, “The whole Bible and the Holy Trinity.” The Bible is both their code and search engine for life; they therefore employ a grammatical-historical-contextual-Spirit-guided hermeneutic. “Calvin brought together the Spirit’s work in the inspiration of Scripture with the Spirit’s illumination of the interpreter of Scripture.” Mickelsen, 40.*4 Who are themselves seconded by deacons and deaconesses.
*5 i.e. hermeneutical communities.
