Next week, Ed will be visiting Rome and Marseilles in advance of next spring’s trip with Darrin Patrick ( May 22 to June 1, 2009). A couple of posts ago, Ed wrote about the Upstream Collective, and the Jet Set Tour we’re planning together for the Spring. Please follow this site for more information. Remember that plans for a trip to Europe are a little more involved than a weekend conference- if you want to participate, please plan ahead!

Of course you can subscribe to many newspapers’ online editions and receive daily copies via email or RSS feed. But there’s something about a print edition lying around that encourages your church members to read it. Also, a physical copy may include advertisements and news that is specific to the home region. These are the things that give you a peek into the culture.

You might leave copies of Thailand’s Bangkok Post lying around your office. Asia Weekly would be great for people to peruse near the coffee bar. You could lead your people to pray specifically though The Portugal News as part of your missions emphasis.

Finding these English-language print edition newspapers is as easy as a Google search. A great place to start is onlinenewspapers.com or newspaperdirect’s list of printed newspapers from around the world. You may find international newspapers at a news stand in a more diverse neighborhood or at the airport.

If you already feel led to get involved in ministry to a specific region or people group, reading their newspaper will help you understand their worldview. If you aren’t sure, praying through newspapers from around the world might help you decide where and how God might use your church to build His kingdom among the nations.

This “first-to-third-world” understanding of missions has radically affected our missiology and our self image; and neither for the better. Our modern missiology values perceived difficulty over perceived ease or comfort. Of course, we should be willing to go wherever God leads us. We also often fall into the “savior complex.” People don’t need us, they need Jesus.

This is why missions in Europe usually falls apart- churches don’t value it in the forst place, and if they finally do make an effort to get involved, they dont’ feel like they’re doing missions. Believe it or not, it can take a while for a missionary in Europe to understand just how different the French culture is from American culture. After all, they watch the same movies, listen to the same music, and eat the same fast food as we do. Lots of them speak English. They’re educated (often more than we are), wealthy (especially with the weakening dollar!), and proud. They look just like us!

That’s the challenge of missions to near cultures. How can we overcome these prejudices in order to be fully obedient to God’s leadership?

The truth of the matter is this: neither church buildings nor history save. The spiritual climate of Europe is a dismal one- less than 2% of Europeans claim to have a relationship with God through a relationship with Jesus. In most of Europe, that percentage is less than one percent. Nevertheless, it wasn’t the great need that brought us to Europe.

We might point to the unprecedented access to the hundreds of unreached people groups that are represented in Europe as a good reason for missions there. In every European country there is significant representation of “the nations.” Besides free access to these people, there is the added opportunity to meet the immense social and physical needs that accompany immigration. We thank God for the chance to befriend, assist, and influence unreached refugees and immigrants, but this isn’t our primary motivator either.

While we’re taking a look at the list of reasons to be on mission in Europe, let’s scratch “comfort,” “ease,” and “results” off that list as well.

No the reason for Europe is not that we picked it at all, but that God picked us for it. Our desire to see all the peoples of Europe come to faith has everything to do with obedience to what God has told us. We go because He compels us. He leads us with a vision of Spanish Cathedrals reclaimed as houses of worship. He motivates us with spiritual conversations with Germans over coffee. He guides us with supernatural insight into the global influence of the European worldview.

In the end, it all comes down to calling. We’re just some regular people on a quest to seek God and obey His direction. A big part of that is seeking out others who may be similarly called.

Nevermind all the other reasons for going- is God calling you to impact Europe with the gospel of Christ?

As we travel the country talking about missions in Europe, we’re often accused of advocating the post-Christian culture we describe in our presentations. Overlooking the fact that few of the people groups in Europe are living in God-honoring ways. Nevermind that cultures are broken human constructs that only serve to help us make sense of the world around us. As though we went to Europe, converted to “Europeanism,” and have now returned to evangelize unsuspecting Americans into going “Euro.” It’s all part of our evil plan.

Tracking the trends of influence and worldview, we believe that the European reality is the (near) future American reality. It’s as though our time in Europe were a trip into America’s cultural future. We’ve been there; we’ve seen what’s coming. And we have come to realize that you, church, are not ready for it.

So all of our talk about Europe and postmodernism and espresso drinks is not born of some deeply held belief in the promise of the European worldview. It’s to sound the alarm of pending changes, and to offer our help as you prepare to face the challenges of ministry in a culture that different from the one you grew up in.

Anyway, we really like Alan, and appreciate his voice in the conversation. Especially good is Alan’s participation in an ongoing discussion about the use and meaning of the word “missional.”

The group from this meeting really picked up on the missiological shift that we’re advocating with the About Europe tour. Our message here is essentially self-defeating; if local churches really take a more active role in identifying, training, sending, and supporting missionaries, it will likely mean less direct support for professional missionaries. We’re okay with that because we believe that “the pros” could use a little motivation to move into a more serving and support role. We also try to keep more of a “Kingdom” mentality. Kingdom thinking means holding tightly to our purpose and identity in Christ and holding loosely to our jobs as paid clergy.

It’s encouraging to meet like-minded believers who are ready to embrace a more active role in obedience to the Great Commission. If you’re one of them, we’d love to hear from you.

Steak Sandwiches. Yum.

For pastors who are isolated and insulated by the American Christian sub-culture, postmodern thought is a theory to be studied or a force to be feared. But the guys in Philadelphia, (sorry, as an outsider, I can’t bring myself to call it “Philly”) postmodernism is a contextual realtiy. As we outlined the general European worldview, they related to the fatalism, relativism, and neo-moralism that both cultures have in common. What they’re doing in the northeast is very similar to what we do in Europe.

The apparent similarities, however, can be deceiving. In our presentation, we refer to some of the major blunders that well-intentioned American mission trippers have made during visits to Europe. Many groups go to Europe assuming that what “worked” in the U.S. will “work” in Europe. There’s nothing worse than inadvertently offending people to such an extent that you lose your voice before you’ve even said a word.

That’s where the Upstream Collective comes in. We don’t know all of the cultural ins and outs of every people group and every neighborhood, but we can help you learn how to study a culture. If we’ve learned anything about getting to know people of another culture, its the importance of keep our eyes and ears open while keeping our mouths tightly shut.

We had a great time as Aaron showed us around town. It’s obvious that he loves the city and is committed to investing in it. We happily played tourist as we visited the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. You kind of see all that stuff in a different light after being overseas for a few years. I’m thankful to be an American.

By the way, Real Life Church is a great case study in incarnational ministry. Check out what Ed Stetzer wrote about them back in February of 2007.

Back room. Chinese. It seemed appropriate enough.

We had Hispanic leaders, young missional suburbanites, even a Messianic rabbi. They were interested to hear about the opportunities for ministry in Europe, and surprised at the many commonalities between ministry in the US and the work in post-Christian Europe.

Our hosts, Gracepoint Church, have really been great. They took a little risk by inviting their friends and partners to listen to us. We’re glad they did.

So they understand our desire to move the para-church structure out from between the church and her mission. This group of church planters and pastors would be an ideal network of sending churches. They can work together to seek God’s direction and develop a missions strategy that allows them to use their gifts, strengths, and interests.

Ministry experience in Europe is pretty valuable for an American church. The European socio-cultural context is a window into the coming/emerging (in many ways already here!) American worldview. Missional churches are uniquely suited for service in Europe. We can’t wait to see how God is going to use those who are willing to step out in obedience to God (and defiance of the legacy system) and lead the way for engagment at home and abroad.