Marie and Fred were sent from the Lyon, France GBC to serve with the GBIM team in Madrid. Fred organized and hosted the Charis Partners in Madrid encounter
The Grace Brethren were born in Wittgenstein (Schwarzenau near Marburg) out of the German pietistic movement in 1708. Flight from 18th century persecutions wedded with a heart for mission have today resulted in Grace Brethren people living out their faith in 28 countries around the globe. Unhappily in 2007, one finds limited numbers of the Grace Brethren in Europe (1).
Among them, however, are some truly Europe-class people. Some are lay workers, others receive remuneration in order to dedicate larger quantities of time to disciple and church multiplication.
Susanne and her husband, Rainer, have been on mission in their home country, Deutschland, for over two decades
Concerning the remunerated-to-serve Grace Brethren in Europe, well, in my opinion our ratios are inversed. We currently have a team of 42 Americans who dedicate their full workweek to mission, but only 13 Europeans.
(Nota bene: we are experimenting in order to uncover sustainable complements to the “full-time” paradigm.)
So our remunerated team ratio is 3/4 American to 1/4 European. Why is this? What if… we were to reverse that ratio?! How could we do it?
Alfredo was formerly the Portuguese General Secretary for InterVarsity. He also initiated the handwritten Bible project that swept through Portugal
My dream is to see European-led, multinational gift-based teams prayerfully make and mentor disciples who in turn spawn spiritual communities.
Don Quixote de la Mancha, the idealist, and his faithful compagnon, Sancho Panza
The Charis Partners (2) gathering in Madrid (Feb. 23-28) was orchestrated to present my ideas on why our ratios must be reversed (3) and to have Europeans deliberate how that might be done.
So 15 of us gathered together, not as Europeans or Americans, but as sisters and brothers in Christ, to prayerfully ponder the overarching question, “How might we see the Charis Partners multiply in a dramatic way?”
I will forego a blow-by-blow account of our six rich days together, but here is a list of our discussion topics that we established, inviting the Holy Spirit to guide us as we dreamed together about seeing the Charis Partners dwarf the GBIM Europe Team.
DISCUSSION TOPICS
“State of the Union: the Charis Associates speak out !”
“Our common guiding principles and values”
“Our vision, purpose & objectives”
“Where & how do we find people of common heart & vision ?”
"The origins of Charis International and Charis Partners.”
“The creation of a Charis Europe mission agency ?”
“Coordination between the European Grace churches, Charis Europe & GBIM.”
“Tips on keeping in contact with and stimulating prayer for Charis Partners.”
“Financial, administrative infrastructure for Charis Associates — support, expenses, medical and retirement.”
“The sending church’s perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of the current Charis Partners strategic, financial, administrative systems.”
“Why must we see the Charis Partners dramatically increase their numbers? political, sociological, economic and missiological reasons."
30+ year veterans Larry and Vicki DeArmey shared highs and lows of life on mission in Europe. Fred, Alfredo, Rainer and Susanne shared their perspectives on the strengths and weaknesses of being a Charis Partner in Europe today.
Eating together was not listed among our guiding principles, but you can see why it is highly valued. But one of the purposes of this gathering was to deepen our relationships, for if we want to journey together we will need strong ties. In Europe, community most often happens around the table. Twinky certainly knows how to build community!
Florent was Charis International's first president. His church has sent missioners to Madrid, Marseille, Dijon… !
In addition to missiological principles, I shared about resurgent anti-Americanism and the abysmal exchange $/€ exchange rate (which explains the sneer)
BIBLE MEDITATIONS
John 3:30: “He must become greater; I must become less.”
Edite posed the question, “Why did John need to become ‘less’?”
John 20:21 “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
Alfredo expounded on “what it might be like for us to be on mission in 21st Europe in a way similar to Jesus’ way of being on mission in 1st century Palestine.”
Matthew 9:38 “Ask the Lord of the harvest… to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Louise passed out postcards cards that served as “prayer cards.” Just as in a soccer match, a yellow or red card stops the game, whenever someone felt we had reached a critical moment or sensed a need to pray, s/he held up her/his card and we prayed.
Edite gave Tim, Susanne and Rejane 10 minutes to put together a puzzle. But there was one condition… they could only speak in their mother tongue (thus English, German and French)
This was the context in which we dialogued, hoping to pray and plan our dream into reality. (To be continued…)
(1) I am not concerned with denominations here. This is simply the origin of a particular Protestant Evangelical tribe that issued from the widespread Anabaptist tradition. History matters to Europeans and most people find their family genealogy fascinating —knowing one's "roots" is an integral component of identity.
(2) I will develop the new profile of a Charis Partner in my next entry. These people, formerly known as Charis Associates, were nationals involved vocationally in evangelism and church planting ministries.(3) I believe that a good team composition would be 50% European, 50% International — Africans, Asians, S. & N. Americans, Antarticans…
