Joint Church Service for Vienna Churches
Yesterday over four hundred people gathered together in a rented movie theater to worship God together. Once a year one of the largest Evangelical denominations holds a joint church service where we can get together and worship with one another.
As we were singing a song in German I looked over the people gathered and was thanking and praising God for all he has done in the past 40 years. You see everyone in attendance is a direct result of a small Bible study that was started by a Canadian couple. This Bible study birthed a church and within 11 years four churches were started. As of a study done in 1999 there were 4 generations of churches that started from this church!
It is neat to be a part of what God is doing here in Austria. The church based training and the Bible school are heavily involved in training and equipping active workers in these churches and helping train many church leaders.
The moderator for the church service was an EVAK (The Bible School) student and another student is leading the city wide youth group (ages 15-25) highlighted what God is doing among the youth in Vienna. Those who pray and give financially toward us and our ministry are also helping in tangible ways for us to be here right now doing the things we are doing. Investing into the lives of these men and women who are actively serving Christ in their ministries and daily lives.
There are other churches in Vienna where God is also working but I am most familiar with these “Evangelical Free Churches” (no direct relation to the Evangelical Free Church of America).
Encouraged and Energized
Last week I spent 3 days with other Greater Europe Mission field and ministry leaders. It was a time to meet as leaders with the GEM president and talk about issues and direction of our ministries.
Being rather new in the position of co-field leader it was a first for me to be at one of these meetings. Honestly I was not looking forward to leaving the family for a few days and interrupt my rhythm of life and ministry but I am very glad I went.
It was good to hear that other people are running into similar issues in ministry as I am and I think we got a clearer picture of where the mission is going. Henry has been the president for two years and there have been a lot of changes with the way things are done. As most people would testify change in any organization is not easy.
I walked away with the meeting with many questions answered and with a feeling of freedom to do ministry the way the GEM Austria team needs to.
We were encouraged that each field or country knows the unique cultural/spiritual needs better than anyone at the home office and that how ministry gets done is largely up to the team in that location.
Each country and ministry are to focus on three areas, goals or objectives if you will, and how these are fleshed out are country specific.
The three areas are:
- To be concerned with each others personal and spiritual health and growth
- To cultivate a culture of prayer
- To be reproducing disciples and rapidly reproducing churches
Personal holiness, a habit of prayer and reproducing disciples and churches are things that we here in Austria are currently doing. I feel validated and encouraged as we think about the new year and what the Lord has for us to do.
Thanks for everyone who is partnering with us in the things we are doing.
