In October, I was on a riverboat in Cincinnati, OH, celebrating at the wedding reception of my childhood best friend, "Bucky." I voiced a prayer of blessing over the meal and the newly-married couple. A lady (whom I didn't know) asked my friend who I was. He responded that I was his friend, I was a minister, and I was a new missionary going to the Netherlands.
This lady came over to me and introduced herself. She wanted to know more about what we were going to be doing, and she was really taken aback that we were commissioned to serve as missionaries to the Netherlands. "You normally think of people going as missionaries to Africa or South America. I've never thought of someone going as a missionary to Europe..."
This wasn't the first time I had heard such a comment.
Why the Netherlands?? When I present our ministry to congregations, I tell them that we are only going to the Netherlands because that is where the Lord has directed us to go. Clearly, we've got nothing against missionaries being sent to other parts of the world, or ministers staying in their home culture and ministering there (wherever "there" is). However, that is not what the Lord has directed us to do.
A second question to confront is "Why Europe? Is that necessary?!?"
As I have written previously (HERE), the very nature of what we will be doing in Holland is obviously quite different from the stereotypical missionary to sub-Saharan Africa, i.e. However, it is of equal importance in the Kingdom of God.
Consider this quote I just came upon:
"In reality, Europe is a mission field today, and should be regarded as such. There are pockets of vital Christian life and work, leavening centers. But that is about all, for most of Europe has been de-Christianized to an alarming degree.
And what about America? Are we traveling the same road? Is our Christianity becoming too superficial to deserve the name? Is secularism in the saddle? Will genuine revival come, or are we destined also to become a mission field, perhaps one served by the more fervent and younger churches of Asia and Africa?"
---Harold L. Phillips (1913-2006), published in The Gospel Trumpet on November 19, 1955.
1955...
Harold Phillips was a long-time editor of Warner Press, and specifically The Gospel Trumpet, a publication of the Church of God (Anderson, IN). While I never knew Harold, I attended his funeral in 2006 at Park Place Church of God along with many others who in some way are who we are partially because of the way his life was lived as a Follower of Christ.
He wrote those words (quoted above) in 1955, almost 60 years ago. And yet, they still ring loudly true today.
"There are pockets of vital Christian life and work....[but] most of Europe has been de-Christianized to an alarming degree."
In 2013, in Three Worlds, we use the term "Post-Christendom," not "de-Christianized." But Harold Phillips hit the nail on the head with his assessment. He prophetically saw the hand writing on the wall when it was maybe the 7 o'clock hour (1900 hrs). Now, 6 decades later, the spiritual status of Europe is more or less at the 11 o'clock hour (2300 hrs).
That is why it is not just good, but necessary and vitally important that we serve the Church as missionaries in Europe. Physical needs may not be lacking, but spiritual needs certainly are.
In the diverse worlds of Europe, one thing is almost universally true: Secularism.
For the congregations of believers who have remained faithful down through the ages, they are majorly swimming against the stream, proclaiming Faith in Christ in the midst of an overwhelmingly secular society.
One of our primary responsibilities is simply to strengthen these congregations and help them as they strive to be the Light of Christ in a very dark world (Matthew 5:14-16).
Additionally, one of the reasons why this is so important is referenced in the second paragraph of Harold Phillips' quote: "And what about America? Are we traveling the same road?"
It is pretty easy to see that the cultural shifts occurring in North America are leading these countries evermore towards Secularism as well. The Post-Christendom World of Europe today is the Post-Christendom World of the US tomorrow.
The experience we will soon gain navigating ministry in secular Europe will serve as guidance for Church leaders in North America in the coming years (Read prior blog post HERE).
O, may Harold Phillips' quote from 1955
be laughingly irrelevant in 2055.
