The Upstream Collective is in an ongoing dialogue with several missional churches about how they can begin to get involved in what God is doing in Europe. We as a network particularly want to help new church plants become involved in missions internationally from day one. This summer, we met Michael Carpenter, a new church planter in Tennessee, and we realized his church was asking questions other new churches might have as well. Here, we’ve posted his church’s questions and our answers:
How would we as Americans and as Christians be received in a European context?
Would doing short-term missions in Europe be worth the investment?
What resources are available to help educate our people about European cultures and worldviews?
How do we go about “doing the being” in Europe and communicate the intangible mission trip?
Share an example about how a volunteer group came together to partner with you in Europe.
Q: How would we as Americans and as Christians be received in a European context?
A (from Larry): Let me tell you a little about my experience. First of all, I grew up in the South. I planted and pastored churches in the South. After about eight years of church planting, I joined the staff of a large denominational mission agency for North America in the area of church planter assessment.
In 1999, I began traveling a lot outside the South, and my worldview changed immensely. (I was never able to get rid of the Southern accent though.)
When the Lord started to lead my family and me toward overseas missions, I began having some of the same thoughts as you. I am just a normal American guy who has a heart for God and, I want to follow Him and tell others about Jesus. How would I be received in another country?
I remember that we talked about this as a family before we moved to Madrid in 2001. We felt there were several things that would help us connect with the culture there – but we knew that being an American would not be one of them.
As we entered into this new culture, we always tried to be aware of three things.
1. To make eye contact and smile.
2. To try our best to speak the language of our new culture – to make an effort, even if it was only a word or two. People appreciate that, even if it is incorrect grammatically.
3. To be humble. I must admit being humble was not a hard thing to do once I tried number two on the list; 5-year-olds would remind me how badly I spoke! But many people naturally think Americans are loud and arrogant. We wanted to break that stereotype and at the same time reflect the attitude of Christ.
We also chose intentionally not to bring our belongings to the field. We sold or stored everything and started over when we moved to Madrid. We wanted our apartment to look like other people’s apartments, so we bought more European stuff once we arrived.
We took note of how the people of Madrid dressed and tried to fit in with our clothing choices. We noticed that men did not wear baseball caps or tennis shoes. In fact, the guys in our area would only wear jeans on Saturday or Sunday.
Another consideration: while reading books and articles before arriving in Spain, we discovered that there is, to varying degrees, an anti-American sentiment. Not only could we not be as patriotic in our approach to life, but we certainly shouldn’t expect any kind of welcoming committee at the airport to greet “the Americans.”
We could not assume people would like us, and we had to earn respect and a listening ear. It brought the concept of preaching the Gospel without words into a whole new light.
So when we have had short-term teams, interns or co- workers come to Europe to serve, I go over these things before they land. They will help Americans to be better received.
It’s true that not everyone will accept you – some for being an American, some for following Jesus, some for totally different reasons. The bottom line is to try to remove the barriers that would separate you culturally from the people among whom you are trying to minister.
Q: Would doing missions in Europe be worth the investment? In other words, would coming to Europe on short-term trips (two to four weeks) be worth the effort as far as assisting the workers who live there? Would this be a hindrance to the work that the missionaries and others have been building, or would it require a long-term investment? We would not want the professional missionaries or other workers “baby-sitting” the American team.
A (from Caleb): It’s funny; I get this question a lot. I guess the answer depends on your perspective. Mission trips to Central or South America, for example, tend to produce more tangible results (a building built, people fed, people coming to faith) than a trip to Europe. Instead of obvious physical need, Europeans suffer tremendous emotional, social, and, of course, spiritual need. So a trip to Europe is likely to be an intangible one; the measure of success would be conversations, spiritual discussions, friendships, and invitations into people’s lives. In short, a trip to Europe would be well worth the investment – both in terms of benefit to your church and Kingdom impact.
The other part of your question has to do with an interesting philosophy of missions that seems pretty common these days: that your role as a church would be to assist missionaries who are working on the field. Of course, I understand the need to help build the work, and as a missionary, I certainly benefited from the service of short-term team like yours.
Nevertheless, it seems to me that we need to change our thinking here. We need to make the philosophical shift from, “We’re here to help the ministry of the missionaries here” to “We are the missionaries here.”
The difference is more than just wording – your effectiveness depends on how you see your place in the work in Europe. If you are called to involvement there (short-term or ongoing), you are partners in Kingdom-building.
You don’t have less to offer than full-time professional missionaries; you have something different to offer. Maybe you’ve got less cultural insight, and you may not speak the language, but if the Spirit is leading (and not preventing, Acts 16:6, Romans 1:13) you to involvement in the work in Europe, He will also give you everything that you need in order to accomplish His will (2 Peter 1:3, John 14:17).
To answer your question, the church-sent teams that are the most effective in ministry (and not hurting that of the missionaries) are those who take ownership of their calling to the people and work in Europe. Instead of being a burden on local missionaries (or national believers), these teams take responsibility for the development of their own missions strategy and take the initiative to obediently do whatever it is God leads them to do. These are the teams that tend be more sensitive to local customs and culture, stay involved over time (key to relational ministry) and keep sight of the big picture of global missions.
Q: When asked what kind of fears or concerns they would have, our church members said they were afraid of being culturally ignorant. How can we equip our church members culturally for missions in Western Europe? What resources are available to help educate our people?
A (from Tep): Most of the time, our first instinct is to look up factual information about a topic we’re interested in, which is great — but in this case, we’d encourage you to first search for a very valuable resource within your own church: people! You never know when someone within your own fellowship will have some kind of tie to a country in which you are interested.
Perhaps someone did a study abroad semester in Europe, or maybe someone has worked for a company with offices in Europe. Maybe someone has a relative or ancestors from a certain country, or perhaps he or she is from that place! The best thing to do is ask around and let people know you are interested in learning more about that place.
To complement that information-gathering, a Google search online can also yield some interesting information. Prayerfully do a search on any number of things, not just Christian or ministry-related terms. Search for Web sites that tell you about the people of a city or country – both what the people themselves say about themselves, as well as cultural outsiders’ views, such as expatriates.
You can find a variety of books and other resources online as well. Particularly helpful will be books that address a country’s or a people’s history and worldview. A local university’s language or intercultural studies departments may be great resources for suggestions for books, articles or journals about world cultures.
Another great thing to do is a little community research. Is there a population of Europeans in your city? If so, where are they from? If appropriate, think about combining prayerwalking with research of certain areas – not going door-to-door, but simply praying, observing and looking for a way to connect. Also, consider attending any kind of intercultural or language exchanges that may take place within your city. You may not only walk away having met a European, but simply having a new friend. Finally, look for any community initiatives or educational opportunities that may involve Europeans in your area, such as ESL or foreign language programs, and see who God might connect you with as you try to find out more about a particular country and its people.
Finally, of course The Upstream Collective would be happy to talk to you more about our experiences in Europe, but you may just be surprised at what resources God has already placed in your own church. When you begin looking for European immigrants in your city or town, He may even be giving you a chance to get involved in His work right there. If your church feels led to pursue this interest on the other side of the pond for a short-term vision trip, we’d welcome you on one of our Jet Set Tours. See our Web site for details.
Q: In my conversations with you and the others involved with The Upstream Collective, the idea of the “intangible mission trip” has been tossed around a lot. How do we go about “doing the being” in the communities of Europe, and how is that best communicated to people who only want to know what they’re going to do and how much it will cost?
A (from Caleb): The major difference between the church-centered, incarnational/relational missions that we advocate and the more missionary-focused, programmatic approaches that are so common today is our perspective on that tension between doing and being.
Most of the time, missions is something we do: we put effort into an activity, and that activity gives us a sense of identity (we’re doing evangelism/discipleship/service/missions, so that makes us evangelists/disciplers/servants/missionaries). But if we start instead with identity — who we are in Christ and the unique qualities of who God has made us to be — we get another thing altogether. God has equipped us for mission by making us who we are. This can be seen very clearly in ministry in the European context. Some people “click” socially, and others don’t. It’s really hard to predict who will connect naturally (or supernaturally!) with whom, so it’s really important that church members see their gifts, experience, likes and dislikes as resources for connecting to people and influencing them.
From this perspective, someone who loves mountain biking might come to Europe and seek out people to ride with. Artists tend to view things from a unique perspective, so they usually connect well with fellow artists. When a church comes to Europe to be who they are instead of coming to do what they’re told to do, some wonderful things happen. We celebrate the diversity of the Body; we validate the different gifts and personalities among us; and we use what we’ve been given to do what God has asked us to do. This is the better world that we envision: churches developing unique ministries based on who God has made them to be.
For a church member who is thinking about going on a trip, this idea can be both inspiring and overwhelming. Say you’ve got a plumber in your group. You tell him that he is specially equipped to connect with people in Europe, and that instead of passing out Jesus films or performing drama in the park (things he would never do normally), he just needs to be himself (okay, an intentional, focused, and prayerful version of himself). This guy will spend the week or two in Europe connecting with people by doing what he would naturally do: seeing the sights, learning a language, sports, going to movies, plumbing — but with the added intentionality of looking for not-yet-believers to do these things with him.
People may not realize it, but they tend to know how to connect to people like them. We can help make that less overwhelming by suggesting ideas. If they can get past that, church members usually find a freedom and a great sense of ownership in the work.
Q: Share an example about how a volunteer group came together to partner with you in Europe. What did they do? How did they work together? How did they unpack the experience when they returned so that it became stitched into the fabric of their church rather than a far away one-time event?
A (from Tep): In the spring of 2008, some Christian workers in Spain hosted a team who came on a vision trip to learn about what God was doing in Madrid. One of my co-workers knew the team leader from language school years ago, and I visited the church when I was in the States one summer after the team leader expressed interest in a potential partnership between the church and our team of workers in Madrid.
We dialogued for several months about what a partnership between the church and us as workers might look like. While my co-workers and I hadn’t met the rest of the team, the team leader and other five trip participants came to Madrid and really hit the ground running.
From the start, they exhibited such humble attitudes and really embraced the role of being learners, but at the same time, they didn’t hesitate to strike up conversations with people and take genuine interest in our Spanish friends. I watched throughout the week as God began opening their eyes to the need in Europe. As they saw the different types of work in Madrid and also heard about the vision of The Upstream Collective and the Skybridge Community, I could sense God was really moving in their hearts.
As we closed out a week full of experiences, they talked about what they had learned and immediately wanted to know what else they could do to stay involved. Since the group returned to the United States, they have been so faithful about communication with me and in putting together a task force of sorts to keep exploring what partnership could look like.
The team has had follow-up meetings and has appointed one of the vision trip team members to head up the church’s emphasis on Europe. We’ve explored several options for the church’s continued involvement in Spain, some of which they’re already doing, including prayer, promoting study abroad opportunities, and commissioning professionals to live overseas and work in the marketplace.
Since that trip, I personally not only feel like I have an amazing church and ministry partners behind me, but I also have new friends. I’ll be excited to see how God leads us all on this journey together.
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Want to talk more about consulting with The Upstream Collective? E-mail Larry.
