A Time of Opportunity, an article by Scot Bower

Published: January 24th, 2008

My mind is a blur of planes, trains, cars, buses and boats. It wasn’t planned this way but over the past 7 weeks I have travelled to 7 different European countries, praying with, listening to and encouraging churches and communities. I confess at this point that my wife and I have a love for Europe (so I’m a little biased towards my fellow Europeans) This is a continent full of variety and history. I can take a relatively (in US terms) short 8 hour drive in any direction and experience a variety of different languages and cultures.

Travelling across so many countries in such a short space of time has highlighted these ethnic differences and yet in those; the unchangeable character of God.

There is a tendency, especially in an age when the world is perceived to be shrinking into a global neighbourhood, to adopt a ‘one size fits all’ approach to church that neglects to pay respect to the local culture. A friend who pastors a church in Belgrade said, “church, no matter what model of church, is too alien for the people here [in Belgrade] to accept”. What he brought to us wasn’t a negative comment designed to discourage but an observation which challenges. In Belgrade they must discover a way of being church which takes into account the background and cultural identity of the people there. A standard ‘out-of-the-box’ approach to church simply does not work. When I was in Finland recently with friends from all over Scandinavia we prayed for expressions of church that might reflect Jesus and retain local/national character: wholly Christian and at the same time wholly Finnish or Swedish, Norwegian or Icelandic. Some weeks before I found a bunch of people who were doing just that.

Veles is an industrial town in central Macedonia. There I met a group who are discovering what it means to be church in their town.

Ane runs a gym in the town. He is an expert in a variety of martial arts and probably the most dangerous man I have ever met. I got the impression that he could kill me with two fingers before I realised he was even in the room. When Ane became a Christian, most of the body-builders and fellow ninjas at his gym followed and so they are building, with the help of Alek, Alpin and the guys from the 24-7 community in Skopje, a Christ-centred community that values their ethnic and cultural identity. Most of them live together in a small flat and they pray and worship together either in the cramped front room or in the gym surrounded by graffitied walls and punch bags filled with rocks. They share what they have and live out the gospel with honesty, refusing to compromise on neither who Jesus is to them nor who Jesus has created them to be.  

I reflected on their story a couple of days ago whilst praying with another group of friends in Stockholm, the flat in which we were praying was on the 20th floor and had an incredible view of the city. As we prayed I found myself asking what the common thread was that God was showing me in the countries I had visited. I had enjoyed a snowball fight on a beach in Greece and a walk in the sunshine in Sweden. I made countless friends in the countries I visited and out of each situation I felt that the people I met and the prayers I prayed carried a message of hope. In each country there was a sense of opportunity such as we haven’t seen for a long time. There was opportunity in Macedonia where a new openness in some quarters of the Orthodox Faith is bringing a fresh unity to the church. We saw opportunity in Belgrade where existing models of church are too alien; opportunity too in Greece where, despite opposition, the gospel is moving forward. At the Nordic 24-7 gathering in Finland, God spoke about this being a time for ice-breakers, those powerful ships that cut a path through the thick ice of frozen seas. Again, a new time of opportunity clamouring for our attention.

The trouble is that opportunities have to be taken or they are missed. Its not enough to sit by and expect things to happen. There is also a cost involved in taking these opportunities. The prophetic word about ice-breakers came alongside a call to be John the Baptists preparing the way. Orthodox icons depict ‘John The Forerunner’, as he is known, as a  wild, Grizzly Adams-esque man with long dreadlocks and big beard. It’s easier with this image in mind to remember that this is a man who spent years eating insects wandering the desert, a man who gave his life for the gospel. When we hear about God encouraging us to become ice-breakers, we must remember that an ice-breaker is not a cruise ship, for any that take up the challenge this will be hard work. Sure, the grace of God will always be with us. But it will still be hard, cold, lonely, scary and often dangerous work. Two of my friends in Greece recently lost their jobs because they were Christians. The local priest called their boss and told him he had two heretics working for him and they must be fired. These lovely people are ice-breakers and forerunners and have to count the cost.

This is a time of opportunity for Europe; God is calling people who will break the ground, pioneering people. If that’s you, the only response Jesus is looking for is one of open eyes. Lnow the cost of what you are committing to. He also expects open hands: know that you are offering nothing but yourself. God uses the weak, the foolish and ‘the least of these’. It’s when we mistake an ice-breaker for a cruise-ship or try and bring our own strength to the task that we get in trouble. If you think God is calling you, 24-7prayer would love to talk with you, we need people like you who are prepared to count the cost, get prepared and commit long term to pioneering situations.
 

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