Christmas in Austria!

Merry Christmas from the Johnsons! Watch below to learn more about how Austrians celebrate Christmas!

Why Does Austria Need Missionaries?

Emily Roth visited us as part of the WorldVenture Media Team

We spoken and written a lot over the years about why Austria needs missionaries. It's a topic, though, that we regularly come back to because European countries are still in desperate need of more workers and for many Christians, it is still a new idea to consider Europe a mission field.

Last summer, a 2-person team of media interns from WorldVenture visited us and put together some great videos for use in recruiting and getting the word out about our ministry. (You can watch them here and here.) Emily from the team also took a lot of the ideas that we discussed and put them into a great article about Austria, which just went live in the WorldVenture website. We will post the beginning of the article here, but encourage you to read all of it by clicking the link at the bottom!


Why Austria Still Needs Missionaries
In a historically-Catholic country, WorldVenture workers follow God to plant a church.

Austria has roughly the same population as New York City. Yet the number of evangelical Christians in the whole country couldn’t fill Yankee Stadium.

Only 0.5 percent of the population is evangelical. Or about 43,000 in a country of 8.6 million people. WorldVenture workers Nate and Bethany Johnson hope to grow the Church by coming alongside Austrian Christians living in Vienna.

“Church planting is still needed in Austria because there are areas of the country and in the city of Vienna with no evangelical witness,” said Nate. “There are many people here in Austria who will go their entire life without a strong and meaningful relationship with a Bible-believing Christian.”

The Danube River slowly meanders through the middle of Vienna, creating a natural barrier between the city center and the developing northeastern quadrant. There, new construction and families moving in has opened an opportunity to plant a church. One neighborhood in the Northeast has about 150,000 residents and only one evangelical church among them. Nate and Bethany are seeking a team of local Austrians and other native German-speakers to start a new church in this neighborhood...

Click here to read the rest of the article!

So what are the needs?

We've been asked in the past questions about why Austria needs missionaries, as well as what types of gifts or skills might be best utilized here. The answer is: many!

To give you a better sense of the spiritual and ministry needs in Austria and how perhaps YOU could be a part of meeting these needs, we worked with a WorldVenture summer media team to produce the following video. We hope it gives you a sense of how varied and vast the needs are here in Vienna.

If you want to talk more about joining us team, please contact us!

Moving Beyond Misconceptions

Since arriving in the U.S. for home assignment, we've encountered some misconceptions about our life and ministry in Austria, missionaries in general and Austria in particular. I do not fault people at all for having these misconceptions. It is, of course, no one's fault that they have not had the opportunity to travel to Austria or that they haven't been exposed to some of the realities of missions, life in Europe or Austrian culture.  I thought it might be helpful, in light of these misconceptions, to try and address some of these questions, in an effort to educate and raise awareness about our life in Vienna.

1) Austria and Germany are basically the same country. 
This is BY FAR the most common misconception I have encountered regarding Americans' perceptions about Austria. I understand Austria is a small country, but it is a unique country and culture. However, because we speak German, many Americans get confused and refer to us as being from Germany. Or they ask us what it is like in Germany. I usually say, "I don't know. I've never been there."

The irony is that Austria and Germany are two very different countries and cultures. In Austria, people from Germany who move there often butt up against quite a few culture norms and standards that are unfamiliar to them. We also speak a different dialect of German than most of the people living in Germany. Austrians even make fun of the Germans a bit for their differences or "quirks" and vice versa. Lumping them together would be like someone saying that Canada and the U.S., or even the U.S. and England, are basically the same country, because they speak the same language.

2) Living in Europe is "glamorous".
I think much of Europe is beautiful, and we certainly live in a beautiful country and city. However, our everyday life probably looks like yours in many respects. We don't spend much time "playing tourist"; we have to work, run errands, buy groceries, do laundry, handle our medical needs and banking, and all of the other mundane things of life. Oftentimes, these tasks take more time for us living overseas than they do for someone in their home culture. In our free time, we often get together with friends for a meal or time together. Even though we live in a beautiful place, we still lead a normal life and nothing about it is glamorous.

3) Taking a vacation to another European country must be expensive and lavish.
Getting away from home as a family is something we value. Like most people, though, we live on a budget. When we plan family trips and vacations, we try to be careful about how we spend our money so that we can be wise stewards, while still having enough time away to get some rest. Living in Europe, this often means driving to a neighboring country or taking the train somewhere. A trip to Prague, Italy or Croatia might sound lavish and expensive to an American, but if done right, these trips are the cheapest options available to us (especially thanks to AirBnB!).

4) Language fluency is clear and measurable. You're either fluent or you're not.
We are often asked if we are fluent in German. This is a difficult question to answer, because we never woke up on a particular day and said, "finally, today, I am fluent!" Reaching fluency is something that is not able to be measured, and language learning is a fluid process. It is easier for us to describe our language ability, not in terms of language fluency, but in terms of particular situations where we are comfortable or proficient. For example, we could say, "Nate was able to preach in German 7 times during his internship," or "I no longer get nervous going to the visa office by myself," or "I have friendships in German where I feel like I can be myself and express myself".

5) Coming back to the U.S. is like "coming home".
I think I've written about this before...Many people greet us in the U.S. by saying "Welcome home!" While this is said with good intentions, it usually makes us squirm a little. Being in the U.S. no longer feels like our home and hearing the phrase brings up all sort of complicated emotions. Our home now is where our life is in Vienna, where we live, where our dog lives, and where our friends and church are.

6) Our home assignment time in the U.S. is a restful break.
This is a complicated one. Part of the reason WorldVenture asks us to come back to the U.S. is to take some time to rest and be back in American culture. We understand their reasons for this. The time here has been incredibly valuable. However, resting here has been a struggle for us. Traveling around, being away from home, lacking regularity and routine, staying in over 20 places over the course of 7 months...this temporary lifestyle is not very restful. It definitely has come with many blessings, but we don't ever feel fully at rest being away from home.

7) We are teaching Ellie German, and she's already growing up bilingual.
Many people are surprised when we tell them that Ellie doesn't know any German yet. However, our decision not to speak German with her has been very intentional. First, we want English to be our primary language at home so that we, as parents, can be most comfortable in our home environment speaking our native language. Second, our German is not perfect and never will be, so Ellie shouldn't be learning German from us. She should learn it from native speakers. Third, living in Austria and going through the school system, there is no doubt Ellie will become a fluent German speaker. We want to make sure she gets enough English in her life that she is truly bilingual and doesn't ever lose the English. Therefore, we are focusing on that first. She will start preschool this fall and be fully immersed in German for the first time.

8) It's easy to describe a foreign culture to someone who's never been there.
We get a lot of general questions about Austria, like "How are Austrians different from Americans?", "What is it like there?" or "Can you describe the culture?" These questions are so hard to answer, especially the longer we live there. Cultural differences are very complex and the longer I live in Austria and get to know more Austrians personally, the more I experience all of the different personalities that exist there, just like in every other culture. In every country, there is variance amongst people and for every "cultural norm", there are plenty of people who defy it. It gets harder and harder for me to fit Austria and it's people into a neat little box or tidy descriptions.

9) We live in the snow-capped Alps.
When many Americans picture Austria, they envision snowy mountains or scenes from the Sound of Music, where "the hills are alive". Yes, these places exist in Austria, but we live in the middle of an urban area in a city of 2,000,000 people. We do not ski, and we do not hike through the mountains regularly, nor do we spin in green fields like Julie Andrews, We only see the mountains a couple of times a year.

I hope these descriptions and answers shed a little more light on our life in Austria. We truly appreciate every question someone asks us about our life there, no matter how difficult they can be to answer.

Our Kangaroos are only at the Zoo

Part of being in the US is getting to share about our wonderful country! We get to tell people about the needs there and also how God is at work..

But one thing never changes...people confuse us with the "land down under". 

This came to the surface this morning when I opened up my news reader to see this photo from CNN. It came from Twitter. Although it is probably just an unfortunate typo, I thought it was pretty funny. "G'day mate, throw another shrimp on the barbie!" 

Exciting News for the Evangelical Churches in Austria!

For the first time in the history of Austria, the evangelical church here is being recognized as an official faith!

Yesterday, this ruling became official and the news is now public. Being fully recognized by the government is something that that has been in process for years and brings with it many benefits for the church here.

Before the church became recognized...

• Many Austrians saw evangelicalism as a "cult", rather than a legitimate faith
• Evangelicals pastors who worked on Sundays were technically breaking the law because of labor laws in Austria (though the law was never enforced)
• Religious worker visas were not available for missionaries or church workers coming here from other countries, as they are for other official religions (which is why we endured our complicated visa process)
• When Austrians are born and registered for the government and their parents wanted to mark their religion on official documents (which is standard here), evangelicals had to check the box "other" on the form
• Financially, evangelical churches functioned as "clubs" here, required to follow some regulations that really didn't apply to them (for example, having regular leadership meetings that had to follow format and voting rules)

Now that the "free church" is recognized...

• It will be considered a true, rather than half-way recognized, faith by many Austrians! It joins a group of 16 other state-recognized religions (to which Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, already belonged)
• It will have easy access to missionary/ministry worker visas!
• Austrian evangelical churches will get the same tax benefits as other churches in Austria
• The news has gone public and talking about this new reality can open up new opportunities to share with Austrians about the evangelical church, what we're all about, and what distinguishes us from other religious faiths in Austria
• The free church now has the right to teach religious education in public schools here in Austria. (I'm not sure of all the nuances of this, but I know it will open up new doors! But it will require the church to provide teachers, so we need to start recruiting.)

Join us in praising God for this amazing answer to prayer. This is a historical day in the history of the evangelical church here and something we've been praying for for a long time (and many have been praying long before we knew about it!).

To read more, you can see an article here. Use google translate to read, if you can't speak German, of course!

Adventkranz - An Austrian Tradition

On Friday night, I joined about 30 women at New City Wien (a bilingual church in Vienna) for Adventkranz binden. Translated, this means "Advent wreath making". It was a fun time of meeting new people, learning about Austrian advent wreaths and getting to know the two girls I had invited better. One friend was from our German class and the other was the girlfriend of a fellow student.

Now that we have an Adventkranz at home, Nate and I will be lighting a new candle each Sunday of Advent and reading passages from the bible in English and German. We're excited to start this tradition in our family!

Verena, Dora and I working on our wreaths

Verena and I posing at the party

All of the ladies getting instructions on how to make an Adventkranz

The supplies!

My finished product

Baking for Ministry

Last night, Bethany and I spent a chunk of time baking. We were preparing to spend some time with folks from Encounter Church in Darien, CT and to give them an authentic Austrian experience, we made a chocolate torte and an apple strudel. We have gotten to know everyone down at that church over the last few months, and we are excited to have this time together to talk about what God is doing in Austria and how He is preparing us to minister there.


Here is a quick photo diary of our baking adventure!

pealed and waiting to be chopped

Apples and raisins getting the sugar and lemon juice treatment

One last brush of melted butter
(there is a lot of melted butter in this thing)

Baking in the oven

Finally dusted with powder sugar and looking crispy and flaky

A See-Through Church

Skye Jethani is a writer, speaker, friend and all around great guy, and he has an excellent blog that we would encourage you to check out.  One of his recent posts grabbed my attention.

Two Belgian architects have worked together to create an art installation that makes a bold statement. The photo to the right shows their work of art - a church constructed with stacked steel plates. When viewing the structure from some angles, it appears to be a solid building; however, move to one side and you can see right through the church, as if the walls are disappearing before your eyes.

Belgium, like Austria, is a secular, post-modern culture where God and church are seen by many to be empty, meaningless pursuits devoid of truth and value. Through this artistic portrayal, these Belgian architects are seeking to make a statement about churches in many European countries that are increasingly empty. But perhaps the statement goes beyond that, suggesting that the church is not only an empty building, but also an empty pursuit. If we read between the lines, what else can we see in this art installation?

Last year in Austria, 90,000 people officially revoked their membership from the Catholic church and the number of people walking away increases year over year. There is much darkness and need for the gospel. Please pray for us as we go to a country where, like Belgium, the church needs to be rebuilt, restored and revived in the hearts and minds of the people.

A Ministry Opportunity - Aspern Seestadt

When Bethany and I traveled to Austria, we met with the leaders of a new and exciting project.    On an old airfield east of Vienna, the government will build a brand new development with offices, store fronts, housing, schools and even a man-made lake.  In the midst of this community that is yet to be built, Austrian evangelical church leaders will plant a thriving church.

We were excited to hear how God is preparing the way for this new ministry.  The leaders are assembling the team, praying and trusting that God will raise up the right members for this wonderful new ministry opportunity.  We are pursuing this project and pray that God leads us in how we should be involved.   

Please pray that God will lead clearly and raise up the team He has for this 2015 church plant.

Mental Exhaustion

After our 2-week trip to Austria in April, we were often asked about our trip and what we learned. And I think the best way I’ve come to describe it is to explain the sheer mental exhaustion we felt at the end of some days in Austria. We were learning and absorbing so much every day that by 8 or 9pm, we were eager to turn off our brains and crash into bed! Conversations with missionaries on our team, missionaries from other countries or organizations, church and ministry leaders, and Austrians were consistently teaching us new things and it was a lot to process, but SO VALUABLE…

I believe we came home from our two weeks better equipped to share and answer questions about Austria. Before our trip, all of our knowledge came from the words and stories of others, but now we can share our own stories and speak from personal experience. We learned a lot about…

• Cultural expectations, traditions, and standards in Austria
• Church dynamics in Austria and the differences between Catholicism there and in the U.S.
• The complex ties between church and state and how is has affected many Austrians perception of the “church”
• What evangelical church looks like in Austria and how the gospel is manifested in their culture
• The role that missionaries play in the evangelical church in Austria and why more are needed
• The challenges we should be prepare for when crossing cultures
• The adventure of language acquisition and culture study, which will be our focus for our first 2 years in Austria

This only scratches the surface of what we absorbed. Our learning may not be something we can tangibly show someone as a result of our trip, but I believe it was the most valuable part of our time there and the take-away that will most impact how we prepare over the next year.

I'm sure this is only the beginning of our mental exhaustion. Once we begin two years of full-time language school, I'm sure our brains will feel "fried" at the end of the day most times as we try to master the German language. But it is all so worthwhile and even though it will be hard, I'm so excited to begin. Bring on the exhaustion!

Video Blog: Wrapping Up 2 Weeks in Austria

The day before we left Austria and concluded our Vision Trip, we spent some time looking over Vienna and reflecting on what we learned. Here are some of those thoughts...

Vision Trip Wrap Up from nate johnson on Vimeo.

Vision Trip Recap

We're home, safe and sound! We arrived back in Chicago Thursday night and since, have been reflecting on how valuable and educational our two week trip to Austria was. We learned and absorbed so much about the Austrian culture, church dynamics, our WorldVenture team, and ministry opportunities. The trip deepened our passion for serving in Austria and gave us many stories to share with friends and family here. We're so thankful for the opportunity we had to visit. Thanks to so many of you for helping to make the trip possible and praying for our time there!

We are still sorting through all of our photos and video from the trip. Over the next few months, we will be blogging and sharing about what we learned during our visit. For now, here are some highlights...

Our first 5 days in Austria were spent on a retreat with the WorldVenture teams from Germany, Austria and Slovenia. It was a great time of developing relationships, discussing ministry, and learning about missionary life.

We met with the leadership of an Austrian evangelical church association called the BEG. We will likely be partnering with the BEG in church planting projects in the future.

We visited the site of a future building and development project east of the city called aspern seeschtadt. By 2028, this area will house 20,000 people. When the first 5,000 move in 4 years from now, the BEG envisions planting a church and sharing the gospel in this new community. We hope to be a part of this project!

Caro, a friend from church, took us climbing in Modling. We enjoyed getting to know her and hearing about her experiences in an evangelical church in Austria.

Celebrating Christ's resurrection Easter Sunday morning.

We learned a lot about the Catholic church in Austria and the challenges it is facing today. Many Austrians are cultural Catholics, but do not know Jesus Christ personally. We are passionate about giving more Austrians access to the gospel!

Walking the grounds of Schonbrunn Palace with a WorldVenture teammate. Thank you, Greta, for taking photos of us!

We helped set-up and participate in a Passover Seder service at the Evangeliumsgemeinde (our team leaders' church). We enjoyed meeting church members and reflecting on Christ as the passover lamb.

Making new friends at church on Easter!

For more photos, visit www.facebook.com/nateandbethany. 

We've arrived!

Here are a few photos from day 1 of our Vision Trip to Austria...

Nate going into the "Opera Toilet". It plays music while you do your business!

A statue of Mozart in downtown Vienna, with a floral treble clef.

Hit the 'Read More' link to see the rest of our pictures!

Video Blog - Austria Bound

We are excited to board the plan Thursday night for our two week visit to Austria! (Can you tell?!?!) We also just got some video editing software a few weeks ago that we've been practicing with. The result?

Here are our thoughts on our visit to Austria...

Vision Trip Thoughts from nate johnson on Vimeo.

Vision Trip Schedule

In less than 2 weeks, Nate and I will board a plane for our Vision Trip to Vienna, Austria! We are so excited to finally visit Austria, after years of anticipating our ministry there and learning about our future mission field.

The plans for our trip have been coming together over the last few weeks. To give you a sense of how our time will be spent, here is an overview of our current itinerary:

Thursday, April 14

• Depart Chicago at 10pm

Friday, April 15

• Land in Vienna
  
• Travel to our team leaders' home (Peter & Celeste Persson), where we will stay throughout our time in Vienna

Saturday, April 16

• Spend the day visiting downtown Vienna with Celeste
• Meet Wheaton College friends for a traditional Viennese dinner
• Get over jet lag!

Sunday, April 17 - Thursday, April 21

• Attend church Sunday morning at the Gospel Church of Vienna, where Peter and Celeste serve and where we will likely serve during our first 4 years in Austria
• Spend 4 days on the WorldVenture Austria team's annual retreat at this hostel, spending time in prayer, study and fellowship. We look forward to connecting with our future team members and throwing many questions we have about Austria their way!

Friday, April 22

• Visit the city and gather photos/video to share with supporters in the U.S.
• Attend Good Friday services at Gospel Church of Vienna, including an exciting baptism service!

Saturday, April 23

• Travel to the other side of Vienna and attend an evening house church service with Tim and Mary Lou Tiner (fellow WorldVenture team members). This church could also be a potential place of ministry for u

Easter Sunday, April 24

• Attend Easter morning services and a fellowship breakfast at Gospel Church of Vienna

Monday, April 25

• Travel out of Vienna with a church member to go rock climbing and to learn more about the outdoor culture of Austria

Tuesday, April 26

• Meet with some missionaries with TEAM (another missions agency) and the leadership of an Austrian Evangelical Church Fellowship to discuss a 2015 church planting opportunity
• Visit the future site of the 2015 church plant
• Spend the afternoon visiting with the TEAM missionaries, getting to know them and their family

Wednesday, April 27

• Take final photos and video to add to our ministry presentation
• Purchase food and items to bring home to share with family and friends

Thursday, April 28

• Fly back to Chicago
  

We would appreciate your prayers as we embark on this adventure. Please pray for...

• A renewing and restful spiritual retreat with our WorldVenture team
• Great times of connecting with our future team members, including the opportunity for all of our questions to be answered
• The Lord to clearly lead us in how to spend our time
  
• Effective and encouraging ministry meetings
• Safety in travel
  

Religion on its way to extinction in Austria?

We were shocked to read about a recent study (by the American Physical Society) that religion may become extinct in 9 different countries. The nations on their list? Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, and...Austria. According to an article from BBC news, the group used a mathematical model that takes into account the social and utilitarian reasons that people affiliate themselves with a religion. In these 9 countries, the trends towards people identifying themselves as "non-religious" were pointing towards eventual extinction. According to the article, "In a large number of modern secular democracies, there's been a trend that folk are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with religion."

Nate and I know that ministry is going to be challenging and slow moving in Austria. This study confirms what we already knew, which is that God, church and spirituality are increasingly considered irrelevant by many Austrians. Our prayer is that our lives and our witness would break through those perceptions, displaying who God is and showing that the gospel is always relevant. Seeing more Austrians come to Christ may not be "statistically probably", but nothing is impossible with God. And we know that any progress we make in Austria will be because of God working and not because of us!

Thoughts on fundraising...

For most missionaries, fund raising can be pretty intimidating. Even if you're raising money for something you care a lot about, it can be a vulnerable experience to lay your heart on the table and ask someone to partner with you financially. You face fears of rejection and when someone says no, it can be easy to take it personally or fear going out again to ask someone else. No matter how much you trust God to provide, the experience can be difficult and sometimes scary.

At our last training at WorldVenture, they talked about the danger of looking at raising financial support as "subtractional", seeing someone else's giving as the act of subtracting from what they have to fund our ministry. Instead, partnering with us in ministry should not be subtractional, but transformational, allowing both us and our support team to be transformed as we partner in sharing the gospel in Austria.

We are about a month in to the process of building our support team and so far, it has been a great blessing. I know we will have ups and down, but 4 weeks in, I am enjoying it. My favorite parts of raising support have been...

• Meeting with friends gives us a chance to educate people we know and love about the need in Austria - something that many people are not aware of and that we are passionate about!
  
• We have an excuse to get together with and catch up with everyone we know!
• We are building a team of prayer warriors. Seeing friends reminds me that we will be well supported in prayer
• I have been challenged and blessed by the experience of supporting missionaries over the years. I truly believe that it is something God calls us to. It is exciting to see friends make the decision to support a missionary for the first time after meeting with us!
• Sharing our story has allowed us to clear up many unanswered questions related to our plans and our timeline. It is helpful to have people we know be up-to-date on our goals and when we hope to depart for Austria, as well as our long term commitment.
• The more we share our hearts for Austria, the more my heart grows for the this country in need. The statistics and stories become more real to me every time I share them with someone else.
• We have been blessed by the support already pouring in and I am completely humbled by the response we've received already. God is using this to remind of us of the wonderful community he has surrounded us with, a community that loves the Lord and is eager to enable us to serve Him.

I am thankful for the experience we've already had and look forward to the coming months of sharing our story!

Walking away from the Catholic Church...

New stats were recently released on the vast number of people leaving the Catholic Church. Membership in the Catholic church in Austria has steadily been dropping for decades, but this year has set a new record. In 2010, 87,393 people decided to officially revoke their Catholic Church membership. Not only that, but mass attendance has also been drastically down. In the 1980s, attendance on a Sunday morning was at about 1.5 million. By 1998, the Church counted just under a million in the pews and by 2008, attendance dropped to 729.879. (Check out the website - translated into English by Google Translate here. Another great article is posted here.)

What does all this mean to us? Since the Catholic church has a different mission that most evangelical Christians in country, you may think that we are happy about these stats. Perhaps people are leaving the Catholic church and going to evangelical churches after hearing the gospel message? Unfortunately, no. I think what these stats really point to is this:

• A declining interest in faith and "organized religion" in Austria


• A belief that the Christian church, in any form (Catholic, Evangelical, Lutheran, etc.), is no longer relevant for real life


• An increased secularization of Austrian society


• An increased need for the gospel! And an increased need for Austrians to understand what it means to have a personal relationship with a living God, not just formal membership to the Catholic church...something that is transforming!

A Random Encounter

I was flying back from Orlando this week and had a random encounter at the Orlando airport with well-known pastor Mark Driscoll. I was waiting out a flight delay, curled up in a lobby chair with my Perspectives in Missions textbook, completing homework assignments. Two gentlemen sat down next to me and one of them noticed (and recognized) my textbook. We struck up a conversation and then I realized who I was talking to! I actually recognized Mark's voice before his face, since Nate and I listened to his fantastic sermon series together on Song of Solomon last year (check it out here, if you're interested.) We got to chat for about 5 or 10 minutes and I enjoyed telling him how much we appreciated listening to his series. He was very chill, kind and down to earth.

Even though Mark might not be considered a "celebrity" by most, he is well known in the Christian community. After meeting him, I felt a little "star struck", like I had met a movie star or something. I think that feeling stemmed mostly out of the great respect I have for his teaching ability and charisma, which I believe are the reasons why he has become so well-known. But part of my star struck feeling made me feel a little juvenile. In reality, Mark Driscoll is just like you and me... he is a regular guy who has been given a gift and has obediently made that gift available for God's use. Rather than putting him up on a pedestal and praising him for how talented he is, I should instead be praising God for the fruitful ministry He has accomplished through Mark and many other gifted pastors. Mark isn't the star - God is!

Twenty years from now, after much experience and ministry in Austria, my hope would be that my life and ministry always point others to Christ and not to myself. Whether we help lead 1 person or 1,000 people to Christ in Austria, I hope no one ever puts me up on a pedestal. I'm guessing Mark feels the same way and my conversation on Wednesday was a good reminder of that.