Missional Ministry in Paris (Fin)

Recently, I interviewed a Missional Pastor about his work in Paris France and on their experience of living in another culture.  This Missional Pastors name I interviewed is Tim Meier who part of the C&MA (the denomination I am a part of). This is post deals with his answers to my questions about mission in Paris, it includes Tim's answers and my commentary. (See Part one here: Missional Ministry in Paris and part 2 here: Missional Ministry in Paris (Part Deux) and part three here: Missional Ministry in Paris (Part Trois))

7. What are some creative innovations that you've developed that would work in American culture as well?
I am heavily influenced and inspired by much of what has come out of the missional church movement over the last ten years. I am more and more convinced that small groups of people in true relationship, doing true faith together, have much more of a possibility of reaching the lost than attracting unbelievers to big shows. So, I have begun huddle groups here (5-7 people) who are heavily discipled but also released in mission right away to reproduce it. They in turn are the leaders of a new missional community, birthed out of our international church here. There is a 2nd missional community coming out right now and we're seeing a ton of fruit out of these groups of 50-70. We do a ton of stuff connected to art: jazz concerts, art shows, film etc. and all of that is usually connected to pre-evangelism or relational connections that lead to conversations.

I know I have said it before in these posts, but I see our country going down the path of Europe much faster than some would care to honestly realize.  I think this type of ministry is what will reach our country best in the coming years.  As a side note, I really like the phrase "huddle groups" they seem to represent a group of people coming together but with a larger purpose in mind than just themselves.

8. What is your overall strategy of trying to present/share the gospel?
My overall strategy is to develop real avenues for relationship. The relationship is not just the "means to the end" but is the end itself. I am confident that God will lead, as He does, through the relationship to have real, meaningful conversations about what it means to fully surrender to Christ. I am highly skeptical of people being convinced in a matter of 5 minutes and praying a short prayer and that "working" at all to produce followers of Christ. It might work if God is in the magic business, but I think he's in the business of making disciples. So, my strategy is to love people, walk with them, and realize that God wants so many of them to follow Him, and if I can stay true to my commitment and let Him work, most of them will. I am also convinced, (influenced here by Scot McKnight) that the Gospel is truly found in I Cor. 15 which is the formula (Jesus came, died, resurrected, and will come again) and is not just the "plan of salvation." So, people need to come to grips with Jesus, not just the idea of salvation, although salvation clearly plays a big part in the whole deal. Hope that made sense.

I agree with Tim on this answer.  As the years have gone by the simple prayer formula hasn't seemed very substantive and in many ways I've heard people present the 'Gospel' they missed most of the life of Jesus in that and explained more about the 'Gospel' benefits than what it fully was.  Great approach and The King Jesus Gospel by Scot Mcknight is highly recommended to see the full implications of preaching/teaching the full Gospel.

9. Who is the major focus of your ministry (Disillusioned Christians? Non-Christians? Anyone in between?)

Our major target are people who aren't walking closely with Christ. IT honestly doesn't matter to me if they're disillusioned, non-believer etc. I know that sounds like a jack-ass kind of answer but there are hardly any Christians here, so we kind of feel like whoever God wants to see come to know him, that's who we want to see. I would say that I spend the majority of my time with staunch atheists and those who hate the idea of God, so if you had to answer, probably "non-believers."

Well, that concludes our Missional Ministry in Paris Blog series.  I hope you've been encouraged and blessed as I have been by this very informative set of posts.  Please keep Tim and his family in prayer as they are back in the States for a while and readjusting to life here.  Pray for their ministry in Paris, as well as their time back home!

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Missional Ministry in Paris (Part Trois)

 Recently, I interviewed a Missional Pastor about his work in Paris France and on their experience of living in another culture.  This Missional Pastors name I interviewed is Tim Meier who part of the C&MA (the denomination I am a part of). This is post deals with his answers to my questions about mission in Paris, it includes Tim's answers and my commentary. (See Part one here: Missional Ministry in Paris and part 2 here: Missional Ministry in Paris (Part Deux))

  

3. How are you presenting the gospel in this culture?
My presentation of the gospel in France, and this will touch the answers to some of the later questions I'm sure, is primarily life on life. Since 98% of the population does not have a relationship with Christ, there is no framework for a "gospel presentation" or the notions of God, sin, or anything like that. It takes a very long time to earn the right to speak the gospel. The way I present the gospel is sort of a case by case situation (I guess how Jesus did) not based on needs, but based on the capacities to understand. So, with a friend who has never heard the story, it's to start with the story of Jesus. For someone who believes that there is absolutely no God, it's to start with creating the need for God. I have never presented the "bridge" or "four spiritual laws" or anything like that because they don't make sense to people. The way to present the gospel is to present Jesus, his life, his ministry, his way to God, and then let Him begin to open their eyes. I have personally led a number of people into a place of commitment but each one looked very different and they all looked extremely different than any of my experiences in the States.

     As I've been reflecting on Tim's answer and my own experience in Oakland (the college town in Pittsburgh, PA) I am astounded in how quickly the States are needing this type of "Gospel Presentation".  I think Life-on-Life is the way we should be doing missions in the states now.  Although our culture is more saturated with the Christendom than France, I think we've lost the essence of 'Gospel' and what it means for the way in which we live.  Life on mission or "missional living" is a dedication to living the Gospel, not just talking about it.  Spending time with those who don't know Jesus is what we should be doing, yet, many times we think we need holy huddles that we try and convince people to join...Needless to say, I am encouraged by Tim's words and think adopting his methods here in the states would be helpful.

4. How effective has this presentation been so far?
The presentation has been effective I guess. It's hard to define what "effective" means. Based on relationship people will hear you out no matter what because French people are relatively gracious when there is trust involved. But, without a supernatural work of God it's impossible convince people of anything, especially those without any framework of God. That being said, we have seen a number of people decide to follow Christ with their lives and many more who are on the "way" so I would say it's been effective to a degree.

5. What is the biggest barrier to the Gospel in French culture?
The biggest barrier to the gospel in France is an intellectual culture of doubt fueled by a history where the church did much evil in the name of God. France gave up on God about the same time that the US gave up on the monarchy. France was overthrowing their king, same as the US, but with the king came religious oppression and people threw out much of their belief at that point. God, in France, is currently paramount for many people, especially young people, to Santa Claus. Sure, you might tell the story to your children but at a certain age, if you're still believing in Santa, there is something very wrong with you. So, this culture of skepticism, intellectualism, and a philosophy marked by evil done by the church is difficult to overcome and only true friendship and supernatural workings of the Spirit will break through that wall.

  I love the transparency here that Tim provides.  Clearly his knowledge isn't from a book, but experiential..  He hears these arguments probably daily with folks in France.  He talks about dependance on the Spirit and realizing that only God can make people see Him and I fear he pinpoints albeit accidentally the huge sin of American Evangelism and that is the dependance on self.  Many evangelism programs in the States start with the brain, go into methods, mention the heart aspect slightly but lack teaching on dependance upon God.  We think we can do it and we teach people that they can lead people to Jesus.  Can we be used to facilitate that?  Yes, but we are not the savior.  As we think through these missional ideas, the idea that we need most in my opinion is that of Dependance upon the Spirit.

6. What is the biggest asset to the Gospel in French culture?
The biggest asset is actually tied to the biggest obstacle (which is probably true everywhere). Since people don't have much of a framework for God, there is a freshness when telling the story of Jesus. And since intellectualism and art is valued, there are many different means of telling the story: film, music, art, etc. People are actually open to talking about belief and religion and faith because it's intellectually interesting but the discussion is difficult to get to that "next level" without tons of time.

  I love how the biggest obstacle can be used to also be the biggest asset.  God truly is amazing.  

I hope that this interview is proving as helpful to your thinking as it has been to my own.  Part four will be out in a couple of days, but until then please feel free to comment, interact, disagree, agree or simply add input.

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Missional Ministry in Paris

    Due to the fact that I am still in school means I have to to certain projects for my classes.  Recently I got to do a fun project that was very meaningful and impacting for me and needed to share it.

From: http://jonathandodson.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Missional.png

   I interviewed a Missional Pastor about his work in Paris France and on their experience of living in another culture.  This Missional Pastors name I interviewed is Tim Meier who part of the C&MA (the denomination I am a part of).   Tim is a friend of mine going back to our days together as youth pastors in the Metro District of the C&MA, in fact, I was working alongside him at a district retreat when he told me of God’s call to go to France, so I was excited to get the chance to interview him for this course and this blog.

                Tim has been in France for about 4 years now so he’s finally gotten the feeling of getting his feet wet in the culture.  Taking the cues from the syllabus, I asked 9 pointed questions to see what exactly his experience has been integrating into the culture and what his approach was to such a different culture. The 9 questions I asked were: 1. What has been your process of you and your family integrating into the French culture? (simply acclimation) 2. What are the 3 hardest things presented by French culture that has caused you some "culture shock"? 3. How are you presenting the gospel in this culture? 4. How effective has this presentation been so far?  5. What is the biggest barrier to the Gospel in French culture? 6. What is the biggest asset to the Gospel in French culture?  7. What are some creative innovations that you've developed that would work in American culture as well?  8. What is your overall strategy of trying to present/share the gospel?  9. Who is the major focus of your ministry (Disillusioned Christians? Non-Christians? Anyone in between?)

                This interview was really eye-opening for me because of some of the assumptions I have made about  French culture as well as my own handle on how to do ministry to such a people group. More on that specific personal experience later; because that’s an overall learning while I learned a lot from other specific questions.

  This will be a series of posts with the questions, answers and some commentary from myself  on how I am personally wrestling, agreeing and working on things Tim brings up in his answers.  We'll start with question and answer #1

         1.  What has been your process of you and your family integrating into the French culture? (simply acclimation)

The number one most important element of cultural acclimation is language learning. I appreciate the value of language in the C&MA expectations which has helped a bunch. We spent the entire first year learning language and culture. We were immersed in a non-English speaking environment and were in church, running club, friendships etc. in French. But, acclimation is also a choice. There are many people who learn the language but refuse to be a part of the culture or really jump in. Our philosophy has been that of a learner and we just sort of jumped off the deep end and went for it. Our son is in French school, I run for a French club, we have many good friends etc. It took about 2 years to feel completely comfortable and at home but it has worked. This involves an all-out choice with media, newspapers etc. In Paris there is clearly the option to stay in an English speaking ghetto but we choose to in-culturate, otherwise, why even come?

From: http://memyselfandthem.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/jumping_in_the_air.jpg

  Looking at Tim’s first response to the process of integration I was inspired by his approach.  He didn’t go half way, he jumped in. Tim said: “We were immersed in a non-English speaking environment and were in church, running club, friendships etc. in French” (Meier, 2012).  They didn’t try to slowly creep into the culture or language but immersed themselves right away.  By his own admission it wasn’t easy and he shares: “It took about 2 years to feel completely comfortable and at home but it has worked” (Meier, 2012).  Full immersion quickly in such a culture is tough but it pays off in the long run of things.  I think I agree fully with this approach because not only does it assist in you and your family understanding a new culture but it shows the culture and people around you that you truly care about them as people and aren't trying to bring your culture to them but are bringing yourself to their culture.

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