Learning and Growing!

As a general rule, I try not to be a professional conference-goer. Ministry conferences are always taking place and the option is there to attend conference all year round.  This past weekend, however,  I was so thankful to attend a special conference and witness a wonderful example of the body of Christ active.

When we talk about Austria, it is often easy to be focused on the need here. There are many people in our beloved country that have little or no access to the life transforming gospel of Jesus. To many, he is a fable hanging on a crucifix or a name that is invoked to make people feel bad about themselves. However, we often don't highlight enough the fact that God is living and active in this land! He is at work and lives are being changed!

This last weekend was a reminder of that. We had the yearly meeting of BEG (Bund Evangelikaler Gemeinden in Österreich). It took place in Bad Aussee, which is the geographic center of Austria. The delegates came from all over the country, and are either elders or leaders in their respective churches.  Here is a quick summary of some things we talked about or observations that I picked up.

1. This Country is Beautiful and Diverse

We live very much in a concrete jungle that is the city. We have some green spaces, but it is nothing compared to the natural setting outside of Vienna. It is amazing how quickly things open up. The edge of the city is far more pronounced and it is clear when you are no longer in the city. I drove up with an Austrian pastor and two other guys from our church, and i was amazed by their knowledge about the areas outside of the city. They knew names and had stories for the peaks as we drove by them or were able to share a memory of a special family time "just over that mountain top there." The beauty is there, but it is accompanied by stories and a collective cultural memory. Once we arrived, I was also struck by the diversity of accents and dialects I heard. "High German" is the formal Germany German, but the regions of Austria each have their own dialect. From Tyrol to Carinthia, Styria or Upper Austria, each province sounds different. There were even times where I either had to really focus to understand someone, or just completely missed what they would say. It was a fun test of my comprehension, and I was so glad to be able to join in on jokes and laugh with many new acquaintances.

2. The Mix of Topics was Astounding

In two days of meetings, we cover a ton of ground! We left Vienna at 11am and arrived just after 2:30 pm and jumped right in. We talked about the new church recognition in Austria and their ability to offer religion classes in schools for "Free Church" students. We celebrated the two new supported church plants, one of which is the Aspern project that we had talked about previously, the second one is in Eisenstadt, down in Burgenland (the south eastern most province of Austria). Supported missionaries from the BEG reported on ministry all across the globe and the delegates voted on budgets and accepting two new independent churches into the association. They could not have packed more into that time... it was go go go!

3. God is at Work in Austria

I hope that everything above has showed this last point to you. I was blessed by so many of the conversations that I had and the dear people I met. These are men and women that faithfully serve and love the church in Austria. I was so encouraged by how God is at work in new projects and new ideas, as well as churches that have been around for a while.

I posted photos after the break!

Thoughts from the BEG Forum

Last weekend, I (Nate) went to a conference in the mountains called the BEG Forum. Besides being in an incredibly beautiful setting, I heard from two really great speakers. They shared their hearts for the church to work along with parents to disciple children. The topic is near and dear to our hearts as we think about raising little Ellie in the knowledge and love of God.

Here are some photos from the weekend followed by some short thoughts that I gleaned from the weekend.

The conference center in the Alps

We learned to "think Orange" - church (yellow) and family (red) together

Some really great thoughts from a psychologist about talking with children

I was able to play with the worship band and get some great experience leading music in German

So in no particular order, here are some thoughts that were valuable to me coming out of the weekend.

1. The goal of parenting is not well-behaved children. Our goal as parents is to lead children to the true and living God and teach them to follow him. This idea is profound to me. I think there is a strong pragmatic force in parenting. It moves us towards what works in the moment instead of what is best for the child or what moves us towards our ultimate goal. Guiding children towards holiness and godliness involves bringing them into our relationship with God and allowing them to share in that. Jesus modeled this idea. He was far more concerned with the hearts of his hearers than their outward ability to keep the law.

2. Our culture (it was addressed to Austrian culture, but it fits with American culture, as well) has a very distorted view of what love actually is. It is highly romanticized (does every kiss really begin with a jewelry store?). The question that was really stark for me was "What kind of romantic feelings did Jesus have for us, when he was on the cross?" This thought is huge for me in exploring the "other side" of love. The speaker said that this is in direct contrast to an Old Testament view of love that is forever tied to actions and not just feelings. (I understand that this could be its own post or a series thereof.)

I think this idea resonated so much for me coming out of the last few months with Ellie. Even though there is a lot of "romanticizing" that surrounds having children, no one has deeply romantic feelings about holding a screaming baby. But, there is still so much love in that moment.

These are just some of the thoughts I had coming out of this weekend. Feel free to share your experiences if you were there. Or share your reactions to what I have shared.

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!

Churches Coming Together

This past Sunday, we traveled a bit further than we usually do on a Sunday morning to attend a large multi-church gathering. All of the churches in the Vienna area who are a part of our church association came together for a combined service. It was really great to see many of our friends, colleagues and church contacts in one room worshiping together. We heard from a special speaker, but also got to hear about the association's vision for the evangelical church in Austria and we heard stories recounted from a few specific churches. God is working!

Here are a few photos from the service:

The view from the back of the Auditorium

We were led by a very talented worship band. The music was great!

The main speaker

Reconnecting with the BEG

Reinhold, Nate and me at church last Sunday

When we visited Vienna in the Spring of 2011, we had the privilege of meeting Reinhold Eichinger. Reinhold is a leader in the BEG (you may have heard us mention this before...it stands for Bund Evangeliker Gemeinden or Association of Evangelical Churches). During our meeting last year, we got to hear Reinhold's story of how the BEG came to be, the birth of many evangelical churches in the '60s and '70s, and where they have come over the years. We clearly saw his enthusiasm for ministry and for seeing more Austrians come to know Christ personally. We discussed our involvement in church planting with the BEG, and he was excited about our arrival.

Fast forward to last Sunday. We joined fellow missionary friends at a BEG church up in Floridsdorf (a community north of Vienna). And we ran into Reinhold! Not only did we get to see Reinhold, but we ended up being blessed with an hour of his time after the church service. We spoke mostly German (hooray!) and Reinhold was able to confirm a few important things for us:

• There is still much work to be done here
• There are several communities or "pockets" in Vienna with a high population density and NO evangelical church
• Reinhold is eager for us to get started, but he understands the important of us focusing on language study until we are ready

We were so encouraged by the surprise meeting with a visionary leader of the association we'll be working with.  We talked about meeting in the coming months to pray and continue to discuss future plans. We look forward to working with Austrians and missionaries, under his leadership, to plant churches in the spiritually needy country. Thank you, God, for this encouragement!