BLOG 1: Todd Beale
The trip hasn’t been exactly what I expected. Which is odd, because I didn’t really have any expectations. I intentionally went into this with an open mind to let God do whatever He wanted… I was just along for the ride. So how could He not meet that expectation?
I guess the biggest thing was the training time. I expected we’d have a day to get over jetlag, then a day of training, and then we’d get to it. We did have the day to get over jetlag. But then we had 2½ days of training with no students. And the training wasn’t very intense. I didn’t think it should have taken that long… maybe some wasted time?
But now I realize that this time was partly to build camaraderie with our fellow workers, so that when the students arrived, we could focus our attention on them…and not on each other.
Today, we have now had 3 days with students. I believe there are 38 students from 13 countries in eastern Europe… but don’t quote me on that. It has been interesting to hear about their ministries. And when they find out that I have served as a pastor, they have all kinds of questions about the American way of pastoring. And they have all kinds of stories about how they pastor.
The most fascinating part is hearing about how they got started in ministry, to hear how God called them. The calling isn’t much different from what I hear in talking to American pastors. But the context is different. The way their church interacts with the culture is different. The support or persecution from government is different. So, the commitment they make to ministry is different.
And the primary focus is different. They are more concerned with discipleship than with attracting people to their worship service. Most of their ministry is done in secular places, not a designated building. Some of them don’t even have a building. All the churches I have heard about are missional, rather than attractional. That is a trend in America, at least conceptually. Lots of churches want to be missional, but very few actually are. We focus most of our resources, time, and money on the Sunday morning service, attracting people to the building. So, while we talk about being missional, sometimes in the America church that isn’t our primary focus…it’s more of a luxury if we can fit it in.
Even our interactions with the other short-term workers have been interesting in that same vein. There is a lot of frustration with churches being focused on minutiae rather than the mission that we state as our primary focus.
So, I guess the first week (almost) has taught me that I don’t work as hard to disciple others as I think I do, or as I may state as a goal. The sacrifices and time commitments that these students have ,exceeds that of American pastors in general, and me specifically.
And so, my prayer is that this next week motivates me to change that, to not just talk about the importance of discipleship, but to actually do it.
The trip hasn’t been exactly what I expected. Which is odd, because I didn’t really have any expectations. I intentionally went into this with an open mind to let God do whatever He wanted… I was just along for the ride. So how could He not meet that expectation?
I guess the biggest thing was the training time. I expected we’d have a day to get over jetlag, then a day of training, and then we’d get to it. We did have the day to get over jetlag. But then we had 2½ days of training with no students. And the training wasn’t very intense. I didn’t think it should have taken that long… maybe some wasted time?
But now I realize that this time was partly to build camaraderie with our fellow workers, so that when the students arrived, we could focus our attention on them…and not on each other.
Today, we have now had 3 days with students. I believe there are 38 students from 13 countries in eastern Europe… but don’t quote me on that. It has been interesting to hear about their ministries. And when they find out that I have served as a pastor, they have all kinds of questions about the American way of pastoring. And they have all kinds of stories about how they pastor.
The most fascinating part is hearing about how they got started in ministry, to hear how God called them. The calling isn’t much different from what I hear in talking to American pastors. But the context is different. The way their church interacts with the culture is different. The support or persecution from government is different. So, the commitment they make to ministry is different.
And the primary focus is different. They are more concerned with discipleship than with attracting people to their worship service. Most of their ministry is done in secular places, not a designated building. Some of them don’t even have a building. All the churches I have heard about are missional, rather than attractional. That is a trend in America, at least conceptually. Lots of churches want to be missional, but very few actually are. We focus most of our resources, time, and money on the Sunday morning service, attracting people to the building. So, while we talk about being missional, sometimes in the America church that isn’t our primary focus…it’s more of a luxury if we can fit it in.
Even our interactions with the other short-term workers have been interesting in that same vein. There is a lot of frustration with churches being focused on minutiae rather than the mission that we state as our primary focus.
So, I guess the first week (almost) has taught me that I don’t work as hard to disciple others as I think I do, or as I may state as a goal. The sacrifices and time commitments that these students have ,exceeds that of American pastors in general, and me specifically.
And so, my prayer is that this next week motivates me to change that, to not just talk about the importance of discipleship, but to actually do it.