Recaps and Case Studies of Years 3 - 5 In Group Terms:

As we reach the end of year five and prepare for an extended time away from our work here in Saxony, (Look for more on next year’s adventure next week.) we are reviewing our time here and what has been accomplished. It being our first term, everything is a matter of baby steps and missteps. In looking back we have an opportunity to see case studies. We can see what worked and what didn’t and learn for the future. Lately we have been thinking in terms of “groups.” It is something that has been encouraged of us organizationally, but it is a great way to look at what has happened here over the past five years, and particularly years 3-5 when we actually had experiences with groups. So what follows will be four posts looking at the seven groups that we have started, helped start, or simply pushed over the edge into existence.

The Pre-Group Years

However, before we look at the groups, we need to see what we learned from the choices we made before any groups existed. What did we do when we couldn’t communicate?

Many people in our situation arrive in their new home country ready to hit the ground running. That is to say, they want to minister from day one. This is a noble motivation, but having grown up observing countless numbers of new personnel, we saw a danger in that direction. It is possible to do so much “ministry” from the start that the culture is never engaged. This often tragically leads to a journey of thousands of miles that stops mere blocks from the target. We knew that our first task was to integrate ourselves into the language and culture enough to truly engage the people to whom we had been sent. Doing “ministry” in English until we obtained enough German would simply elongate the time we needed to do the real task.

Instead, for the first 18 months to two years we dived into language and looked to the local established church as the outlet for our spiritual energy. We didn’t see the church stuff as a part of our job. For the first time in years we were people who had a full time job that merely attended a church and were involved as our free time permitted. Having worked FOR a church for years in the States, this was extremely liberating. We no longer had to do what the church did simply because the church wanted to. We were free to not do things that would be a waste of our time. We met people with a Missional outlook, encouraged them, and didn’t feel obligated to be there every time the doors were open.

This was a tremendous opportunity to grow in German and to make contacts. The danger that we actively avoided was to ever think that this activity was in any part what we were sent here to do. Nearly everything we do at the established church is our own personal free time. However, it also led to some group stuff later on…