#LausanneEurope: Wrestling with the complexity of mission in Europe

Purity Mutunge, a Kenyan living in Bergen (Norway) is frustrated that the Norwegians seem to only think in terms of paid staff when starting a new church.  “Why can´t we just listen to preachers with fire, even if they are not paid?”, she asks. Dave Benson, an Australian living in London, says that leaders need courage to release their control. 

The exchange of ideas takes place at the Networking Tables after a plenary session at the Lausanne Europe Online Gathering.

Church planter and missiologist Jim Memory had just spoken on “Issues of the New Europe-Trends for Mission today”. He pointed to the fact that Europe was once a continent people migrated from but now is a place that people are migrating to. “This is having a profound impact of our continent”, he said.

The people in the chat room wrestle with the complexity of it all. Rudolf Kabutz, a South African of German descent, says that many people in his community are leaving South Africa to settle elsewhere.  He tells of a family now living in Hamburg and having trouble finding a church, or any Christians at all.

A Norwegian myself, I try to explain the skepticism in Bergen to “fiery” lay preachers and point out that not all such preaching is sound. I ask for patience and remind the group of Jesus´ words in Mathew 12.33: A tree is recognized by its fruits.

The group agrees that we need an essential change in the way we perceive society. Part of this requires to hold true to the orthodoxy of the gospel while finding new ways of expressing it.

How to do that is at the centre of the continentwide Conversation launched by Lausanne Europe in 2020 and now continuing at the Online Gathering.