Trip leads pastors to experience Europe’s need for Christ

Trent and Pam Kirkland traveled to Prague, Czech Republic, last week to seek God’s guidance on how to lead their church in mission ministry. As senior pastor of Zion Church in Clarion, Penn., Trent and Zion’s missions director, Al Kennedy, want to discover where to invest their members’ hearts and lives through volunteer teams, prayer, finances and missionary support.

“As we go, we continue to pray about our ‘place in the world,’ where we, as a body of Christ-followers, are going to travel to again and again over a period of 5-10 years, to share the Gospel,” he said.

International Mission Board (IMB) worker Steve Brown is hoping they decide to invest their energies in the Czech Republic, where he and his family have served for four years, planting seeds and sharing Christ in a spiritually hostile culture. He knows firsthand the challenges faced by those who commit to working in post-modern Europe.

“For 1,000 years of their history, (Czechs have) had 100 years of freedom—they’ve always been under someone’s authority,” Steve said. “Now they’re saying, ‘The communists and the Germans gone, and you want us to lay down our rights to Jesus Christ? We’re not doing it.’”

Steve went on to say what Czechs need is to experience Christianity.

“They don’t need to hear about it, they’ve heard about it, they can see the (churches)–they need to experience what it means to be a follower of Christ,” he said.

Trent put it succinctly when he described what he saw in Europe.

“Religion is everywhere, Christ is nowhere,” he said.

As Trent and Pam left Prague, they had a new understanding of how God can use their church in that context. Through hearing the testimonies of new Czech believers they saw the key to pointing Czechs to Christ is a slow “life on life” process of living out the Gospel in front of them.

They learned through talking to missionaries who have invested their lives Czech people that short-term teams coming to Prague must understand they are coming to make points of contact, not converts.

“If teams can leave the missionaries with one to two good contacts to follow up with after they leave, it has been a profitable trip,” Trent said.

Trent and Pam also observed from the culture that any skills someone possesses in the America–in the worlds of athletics, education, medicine, construction, art, etc.—can be translated into a mission project in Prague; the list is endless.

Vision trip education

What Trent, Pam and Al learned in Prague could not have been absorbed through sitting in the pews at church; they had to see, feel and experience the culture firsthand. Vision trips are effective in helping American believers understand the Great Commission in context, and are primary methods the IMB uses to cast its vision to supporting groups.

Russell Kyzar is the personalizer for Central and Eastern Europe and works in developing partnerships between Southern Baptists and IMB missionary teams. He said the old paradigm of missions—“We stay home to pray and give while our missionaries go“—has left much of the job undone.

“In the places we will take them, they will meet people who have never known a true believer in Christ, never talked to one, and never heard God’s plan of salvation,” he said. “Experiencing this spiritual darkness allows them to return home more sensitized to lostness and the challenges of cross-cultural witness. It also gives them an understanding of how necessary they are, personally, in taking the Good News to the nations.”

Russell has several vision trips planned to different parts of Europe this spring. In April five men from two Texas churches plan to travel to Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro—three Balkan countries heavily influenced by both atheism and Islam.

Pastors from Texas and South Carolina are preparing to visit Lithuania and Estonia to experience what God is doing in these Baltic countries. Missionaries there hope these men partner with them to start 12 new churches in the next 12 years.

A missions pastor from Michigan will visit Volgograd this summer to see if his organization, Immanuel Hope Ministries, can help prepare and engage stateside churches to become long-term partners in Russia.

Other visits are in the works and the potential for developing new vision trips is endless. If you are interested in coming to Europe to experience the culture and spiritual need for yourself, contact Russell at CEE2SBC@everyheart.net.

A Victorious sendoff

As Steve’s vision trip came to an end, he said good-bye to Trent, Pam and Al. Three other participants, Mike and Aimee Bowles, and long-time supporter of ministry in Prague, Randell Wood accompanied Steve back to his home in Olomouc, Czech Republic, where he conducted his first baptismal service since arriving on the field.

Steve and April began a Bible study in their home three years ago, and the gathering of a few has grown into a houseful. This week they baptized two new believers in their bathtub after seeing several come to know Christ in the past year.

Though the soil is hard and fruit is rare, it does develop. God is at work in  the Czech Republic and Europe–won’t you come join the fun?

To follow Trent and Pam’s journey as they lead their church, read Trent’s blog. To find out more about Steve and April’s ministries in Olomouc and Prague, visit their team Web site.

 

Posted by Karen Pearce on Mar 23, 2009

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