Christmas across Europe

Thought you might enjoy these Christmas sights from across Europe:

Frohe Weihnachten from Germany !

(Grenzach-Wyhlen)

(the Aalen GBC)

(the Berlin International Baptist Church)

VESELÉ VÁNOCE from Prague, Czech Republic!

Nollaig faoi mhaise duit from Dublin, Ireland !

(the Beckers and the Sunday night Matthew study group)

Feliz Natal from Portugal !

(the Community of Grace and Riverside International churches of Porto)

Feliz Navidad from Madrid, Spain !

(the Sanchez family)

(the Satterthwaites)

(the DeArmey's and their bible reading group)

Merry Christmas from England!

(Birmingham)

(London)

(the Barlows)

Joyeux Noël from France!

(Lyon)

(Montceau-les-Mines)

(the Montceau GBC)

(the Dijon GBC)

(Dijon)

On behalf of the entire GBIM Europe team, I wish you, one and all, a very Feliz Natal—Feliz Navidad—Nollaig faoi mhaise duit—Frohe Weihnachten—Veselé VÁnoce—Joyeux Noël !

Oh yeah, all of that means MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

SRO in Dijon for Noël !

The Creator cares so much that He sent His Son to reconnect with the very people who disconnected with Him. Jesus was born. He forgives. He loves. Emmanuel is with us! declared the musical duo Den-Isa.

Den-Isa in Dijon, France (December 3, 2005)

Everyone knows the French are indifferent about the religious, right? Right, if you mean people sensing the need to belong to a religious institution. Wrong, if you mean indifference concerning spirituality. We have found Noël to be an especially propitious time to share Jesus, to connect the dots for people who have not made the link between Tannenbaums and candles, gifts of perfume and scarves, escargots and Yule logs, family, friends and… Christ’s birth.

It was standing room only for the Christmas concert in Dijon

Religious and irreligious French people attended the standing room only (SRO) performance on Sunday at the Protestant Evangelical / Grace Brethren church of East-Dijon. Only a minority was from the church (Sunday attendance averages around 55); I did not recognize most of the people. Church members extended almost 2000 invitations-many personal, others in mailboxes-which resulted in tripling, possibly quadrupling, their numbers for a family celebration of Christ’s birth.

Here's a quick panorama of the festivities:

A young woman who came to Christ through our campus group brought her mom. (At the woman’s wedding I had met the mother who was unabashedly hostile to her daughter’s faith.) I chatted with a young man, not a Christian, whom I had met while helping a friend move. He and his wife were thrilled and their three-year-old loved the event.

During the concert I had a flashback-oh, fifteen years or so ago-to a Christmas celebration that we organized with Dijon church; there were about fifteen present. As I looked at the SRO crowd, tears filled my eyes and joy welled up in my heart at what God has done here. People have bowed the knee to Christ. Believers are now reaching out to families, friends and community. The Prince of Peace has his rightful place of honor.

Joyeux Noël !

A transitional time

The France and Established Churches Teams Conference

Prayer for the transition of churches to European leadership, worship, sharing, teaching on developing church leadership in postmodern Europe, discussion about transitioning established churches to European leadership, airplane rides, volleyball, talent night, a Rubik's Cube expert, a scavenger hunt, a group game of "chutes 'n ladders," great food and friends, long discussions, presentation of the new Château chapel and more!

Rather than attempt to summarize all that transpired at the France Family and Established Churches Team Conference at the Château of Saint Albain (Oct.25-28), I thought a pictorial of our time together might speak best.

On one exceptionally clear day, we began the session about 20 minutes late so that our speaker could go up in the Château tower from where one could see the Mont Blanc.

David Brown was our speaker (he also gave a conference for the French fellowship of Grace Brethren churches leadership—the Saturday prior to our retreat). David is a three-time church planter, General Secretary for InterVarsity France, author, and one of France's foremost ecclesiologist/missiologists.

Though David is quite the engaging speaker, no conference would be complete without break time.

John Pappas (center) and Rob Saunders (right). Rob is the most recent addition to the Château team (I think he was hovering around the coffee pot hoping the fumes would stave off his jet lag!).

Pam and Steffi (Steffi is from the Aalen GBC)—"veteran" members of the new Château team.

Pastor Florent Varak graciously offered MKs flights in a ULM
(Philip S in the cockpit).

TALENT NIGHT !

Carol

Helen and Susie

Elise and Philip S (excerpts from "Napoleon Dynamite")

I'm thinking of using this as a recruitment poster for Charis Associates ;-)

Melody (center), also one of our new Château staff, led an MK youth group during the week and helped them prepare this "speaking choir".

One of our main discussions focused on the transition of the established GBCs, where missionaries are still leading the works, to European leadership. We read and discussed Tom Steffen's book, "Passing the Baton," to stimulate our thinking and now they are working on writing plans.

The elements I have requested for this transition plan are: a demonstration of faith (Mt. 17:20-21), the priority of prayer (Mt. 7:7-8; 9:37-38), the envisaged type of leadership (team of elders or pastor or full-time regional worker or…), their next role and place of service, concrete transitional steps, and a projected time frame.

Transition is a vital yet extremely precarious process in church planting, so we would appreciate your prayers for faith, wisdom, boldness, and for the missionary Spirit of God to accomplish this through his people.

Essentials of ekklesia

The emerging churches teams gathered in Porto, Portugal (Sept.28-Oct.2) to discuss the essentials of ekklesia (Jesus' idea of "church").

Charis Associates and GBIM Europe teammates from Madrid, Lisbon, Porto, Dublin, London, Paris, Dijon and Berlin gathered to cheer Julie Hawkins on during her 42k marathon!

We began our encounter with a day of listening to God. We were challenged to put everything on God's altar (personal and corporate strategies, methods and approaches, theological systems and constructs, possessions, spouses, children and self), allowing ourselves to cling only to “the whole Bible and the holy Trinity.”

Don't know about you, but mountains and surf help me listen

The crux of the encounter focused on the essentials of ekklesia (or as Tom Julien would say, the essence of the church).** We began listing essentials from the Word that Jesus’ local church should embody and practice.

Prof Mike gives a refresher course on "centered set" thinking
(see previous entry for more on bounded / centered sets)

A non-exhaustive list of essentials of ekklesia

We then compared our list with biblical metaphors for the church.

Some Scriptural metaphors that Jesus wants His church to embody

It did not seem possible or necessary to focus on all of the essentials of ekklesia right now, but they provide a clear idea of what the Grace Brethren churches we are planting in Europe should ultimately do and be.

Now each teammate will determine which crucial elements to focus on, and develop concrete steps to pursue those in the coming months.

Lots to think about

** Stuart Murray’s book, “Church After Christendom” and Paul Hiebert’s “bounded/centered” set theory "pulled the roof off" of our ecclesiology, allowing us to “think different.”