Back to school: pursuing dreams together

Harmonious teamwork means serving side by side as one person, for one goal. The art of this is to be of common heart and vision leading to coordinated action, and that without demanding uniformity.


So during the apostolic workshop we focused on moving toward thinking, guiding principles that ensure that we are all moving in the same direction, while allowing for creative and contextual variance. Then as we all move in that same direction, pursuing the same goals, we push toward the center of all—Christ (Colossians 1:17).

Apostolic Workshop, Dijon, November 20-23, 2008

The participants were asked to express share a guiding principle by having us guess which one they were presenting by using a picture, an object, MP3 song, a poem, PlayDough sculpture, mime…

Then they explained what the principle means to them, why they embrace it, what it is they do not understand about it, or why they simply do not agree with it.

We then modified our guiding principles which resulted in the following list:

Pray in faith
Do good in Jesus name
Be spiritually bold and culturally sensitive
Live what you want to reproduce
Minister sustainably
Cultivate hot hearts, sharp minds, skilled hands
Embrace a moving toward mindset
Contextualize church based upon metaphors
Be inclusive, not exclusive
Share resources, do not duplicate ministries
Partner with others of common heart and vision
In partnerships, give more than you get
Deploy multinational teams serving according to giftedness
Practice the hermeneutical cycle in a learning community
Cross-pollinate toward reproduction on every level
Pursue in dynamic tension, biblical truth, relationships and mission

As leader of the GBIM Europe team, I do not seek uniformity in the application of these agreed upon principles. With a multi-national team of about 45 people serving in multifarious ministries and radically different cultures, uniformity would at best be unwise and at worst successful.


To pursue our mission together, my teammates and I need to embrace a moving toward mindset. Paul Hiebert describes this “centered set” way of living, ministering and perceiving (see May 6, 2008 entry & Anthropological Reflections on Missiological Issues, ch.7): one defines the center and describes the relationship of the person/teammate to that center. Are they moving toward the goal or away from it?

Ultimately Christ is the center of all (Col. 1:15-20) and as we cultivate our relationship with Him (Phil.3:8) we go deeper into eternal life (John 17:3) and increasingly resemble Him (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Similarly, the GBIM Europe Team is pursuing common dreams in order to honor Christ. We are not all passionate about all five dreams nor pursuing them in the same way, but everyone is participating in the realization of at least one of them somehow. And we are in agreement that these are the dreams the Spirit has given us to pursue together on this continent at this time.


DREAMS TO HONOR CHRIST

DREAM 1: See vibrant spiritual communities peppered across the European continent—scattered throughout the countryside, penetrating the hearts of the megacities, and foraying into the world.

DREAM 2: See the Charis Partners dwarf the GBIM team; see two full-time Europeans for every one American.


DREAM 3: See the European churches become spiritual farms producing bumper crops of elders, evangelists and church planters, sending them out to the regions surrounding local churches and throughout Europe.


DREAM 4: See the Europeanization of the chateau ministry (the chateau is currently an American-run ministry in the heart of Burgundy France). Our dream is to bring together a multi-national team working according to giftedness ministering at and through the Chateau of St. Albain connecting people, churches and ministries across Europe.

The Chateau of St. Albain: a place where workers are equipped, where the weary find rest, a place of solace for urbanites, a place where faith is expressed through the arts, a place of prayer for the nations.

DREAM 5: See the European Grace Brethren churches, Charis Partners and GBIM Europe develop common vision that will lead to concerted missional action throughout Europe and beyond.

At the apostolic workshop we did not attempt to agree on “how” we would pursue these dreams; we agreed that these are our guiding principals and that these are the dreams that God has put in our hearts and heads, in this place, at this time, for this team… all to honor Christ who is the center of all that is.