Charis Europe (final report): creation process

As a starting point for the Charis Europe weekend, we adopted the theme, "Toward a love incarnate on mission." As people shared their hearts and thoughts, that evolved into "Good News incarnate and articulate on mission."

Creation processAlfredo was mandated by the representatives to take the next step toward common vision. He will draft a vision statement for Charis Europe based upon all that transpired during the Stuttgart weekend in February.

(See preceding four entries for details about this gathering of representatives from European Grace Brethren churches, Charis Partners and GBIM church planters.)

Fred and Alfredo (Charis Partners in Madrid & Lisbon respectively)

The members of the vision and direction workgroup will then refine the statement and submit it to the European Grace Brethren Churches for their modifications and approval.

Vision and direction workgroup: Marcus (left), Paul, Alfredo (yellow), Malcolm, Florent (right) and Rainer (behind the camera)

Once the vision is embraced by all, workgroups will begin fleshing out the concerted action that could possibly flow from the Charis Europe vision.

The various workgroups are:

Vision & direction
Where are we going & how will we get their together?

Discipleship, equipping, theological parameters & issues
How can we promote disciple reproduction (people who obey Jesus' teaching from a heart of love)? How can we share resources in order to equip more and more women and men in the European churches for apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding, teaching and other ministries? What are the pressing theological needs of European believers today? What constitutes the theological component of our identity (common beliefs & convictions)? What are the essential doctrines and what are the differing convictions about which we will choose to practice Romans 14 acceptance of one another?

Youth & communication
European youth are a key to the present and so must be part of the creation process; they communicate constantly and are technologically savvy. Our hope is that a select group of young people will promote frequent and engaging communication utilizing sundry media to promote connections across Europe.

Franck does the web page for the Dijon church and graphic work for various groups

Mobilization for missionThe great need of our day is to move out in the name of Christ, to GO. And in doing so we hope to cultivate deep relationships one with another across Europe, relationships nourished, purified and deepened by the Truth of God's Word. The Château of St. Albain, the Saint James Way, Serve the City, Life Project and other groups, provide opportunity to serve together in Jesus' name.

Alan at the computer heads up Serve the City Dublin

Personal & collective spirituality
Without love for God, one another, and the people of the world, we are nothing (John 13; 1 Corinthians 13; Revelation 3). How can we fan the flame in our hearts for God and people in the midst of the 21st century cacophony of time and financial pressures, and leisure distractions?

Representatives of Charis Europe seeking God for guidance toward collective vision leading to concerted action

All of the representatives believed God had called us together. All recognized that God gave us unity. Now may God be pleased to give us that clear vision that leads to concerted action for His glory on the European continent and beyond.

Charis Europe (4): paths into the future

The objective of the consortium (Stuttgart - Feb. 1-3, 2008) was to seek God, asking Him for common vision leading to concerted action for the 12 churches, 25 embryonic spiritual communities and European and American missioners of Charis Europe.
Everyone present felt that God was incontrovertibly leading and guiding; the unity was palpable and desire for cooperation unanimously expressed.

Uli and Marcus Breimaier (Leonberg, Germany) at the Charis Europe consortium

Following Alfredo's and Florent's talks ("Why are we here?" and "How did we get here?"), I led sessions entitled, "Who are we?" and "What should we do?" In pursuit of identity, I shared both negative and positive lessons from history, to help discern who God would have Charis people be, and what he would have us do in 21st century Europe.

Paul & Rainer at the consortium

Negatively, Brethren isolationism caused us to separate ourselves from other true members of Christ's Body. And insistence on uniformity of understanding caused us to separate one from another. Both types of separation marred our witness and hindered growth.

Positively, Tom Julien has recognized that full-orbed Truth includes relationship and mission, both of which challenge and enrich our understanding of the Truth. Striving for a catalytic combination of biblical mission, relationship and truth, as Charis people in 21st century we therefore:

seek to love Jesus, his sisters and brothers, and all the people of the world. According to Jesus, love is the mark of the Christian — Mt. 22:37-40; Jn. 3:16, 13:34-35; 14:23; 1 Jn. 4:19-21

are theologically conservative and culturally progressive. We are the daughters and sons of Henry Holsinger (1) & Alva McClain (2), both Progressive and Grace Brethren — 2Ti. 3:14-17; 1 Cor. 9:19-23

are Jesus’ disciples on mission, like Jacob Cassel (3) & Tom Julien (4). We evangelize, make disciples and plant churches. — Mt. 28:19-20; Acts 2:42-47; 19:8-10; 2 Ti. 2:2

Learning from history and flowing from these identifying traits I believe some helpful paths into the future are:

• Being disciples on a mission to reproduce ourselves
• Valuing & mobilizing all five-people-who-are-gifts for itinerant ministries
• Graciously embracing God and His Word as absolute Truth
• Unrelentingly applying Romans 14 to interpretation & strategy
• Cultivating relationships between members of spiritual communities by serving on mission together

We often pooled and sharpened our thinking in regional discussion groups

More specifically…
All too often, in standing for the Truth we have been harsh. In addition to standing for the Truth of "saving grace," we must embody the qualifier "Grace" by being gracious (Eph.4:32; 2Ti.2:24).

All too often we have violated the Truths of love and unity that are to characterize Jesus' disciples, dividing over theological constructs and missional strategies. We must live the biblical acceptance of Romans 14. While fully embodying the traits of our identity, we must have relentless respect for differing convictions & strategies. Maintaining unity must enter our praxis (John 17, Philippians 1:27 & 2:2, Eph. 4:1-6).

All too often we have swung from an emphasis on one gift to another; all are necessary. While valuing equally all five people-who-are-gifts (Eph.4:11) could lead to gridlock, doing so should lead to fruitful dynamism if we incarnate self-abnegation, acceptance, unity and love. We should seek a Spirit-led, nationality-blind consensus in convictions and strategy by synthesizing the perspectives of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers and shepherds among us.

All too often our autonomy has degenerated into debilitating isolation. We should commit to connectedness and interaction between European churches through concrete initiatives. By regaining itinerant ministries, the people-who-are-gifts can serve as tendons and ligaments connecting various parts of the European Charis Body.

All too often we have made evangelism or church planting our emphasis; Jesus put the focus on making disciples — believers obedient to the Word out of a heart of love for Him. All to often our attempts at making disciples have merely yielded intellectually instructed bible students. We must be disciples on a mission to reproduce ourselves.

Members of the German contingent

We need to embrace our historical identity founded upon biblical mission, relationship and Truth; we must embody all three components without compromise. We need to birth missional, relationally-connected spiritual communities nourished, guided and purified by Truth.

Postmodernism questions the existence of Truth; we must cherish our heritage of embracing the absolute Truth of Scripture. An equally great challenge in 21st century Europe, however, is that of postchristendom that perceives Church as, at best irrelevant, but most often as culpable of heinous crimes and a stifler of spirituality. We should therefore make biblical mission our highest priority. People will no longer come to church, so we must "Go and make disciples" of Christ. In so doing we will cultivate biblical relationships, as together we incarnate and articulate biblical Truth.

My hope is that we will send Euro-International, gift-based church planting teams throughout Europe. And possibly the Europeans who will go are in European Grace Brethren churches right now.

Next up Charis Europe (last): the creation process

1 Henry Holsinger led the so called "liberals" (culturally so in the 1890s) to become the Progressive Brethren by rightly distinguishing between essence and form.
2 Alva McClain in the face of liberal theology's assertion that the Bible is a book of merely human origin (1940s) rightly embraced the Bible as absolute Truth.
3 Jacob Cassel At an annual meeting of the Brethren (1900) the session considered the choice of color of the yet-to-be-purchased hymnals to be a higher priority than world mission; Jacob Cassel rightly disagreed.
4 Tom Julien rightly helped us to distinguish between absolute Truth and our understanding of that Truth (1980s), stating, "we must not attribute certainty to theological inference."