Europe: Re-Evangelizing?

Christian ethics and theology with an Anabaptist perspective
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Josh
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Re: Europe: Re-Evangelizing?

Post by Josh »

A variety of plain Anabaptist groups have active mission work in Europe. The membership statistics are pretty disappointing in western Europe.

A number of people in my former congregation travelled to Europe quite a bit, with singing groups, passing out literature, and speaking with anyone who was interested to hear the gospel message. As far as I know, very little came of that. As difficult as is this to hear, western Europe is just not very interested in following Jesus right now. This isn't just a plain Anabaptist problem - other evangelical Christian groups are experiencing the same difficulty.

Evangelism and discipleship in places like Brazil, India, eastern Europe, and Africa is quite fruitful. In my own church group, we have a shortage of missionaries to go to the above countries - congregations there have requested more North American missionaries to join them and would like help establishing more congregations. Every month or two when we have a missionary home on furlough, they put out a plea for anyone to come join.
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Hats Off
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Re: Europe: Re-Evangelizing?

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The Beachy's have something going on in the Republic of Ireland and the Conservative Mennonite Church of Ontario has an outreach in Belgium. There are also Amish-Mennonites working in the Ukraine and Romania but these people never had roots in those countries. These Amish-Mennonites all have their roots in Switzerland and Southern Germany while those who were in the Ukraine originally came from Northern Germany and Holland.
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Judas Maccabeus
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Re: Europe: Re-Evangelizing?

Post by Judas Maccabeus »

Hats Off wrote:The Beachy's have something going on in the Republic of Ireland and the Conservative Mennonite Church of Ontario has an outreach in Belgium. There are also Amish-Mennonites working in the Ukraine and Romania but these people never had roots in those countries. These Amish-Mennonites all have their roots in Switzerland and Southern Germany while those who were in the Ukraine originally came from Northern Germany and Holland.
Not to mention conservative Mennonites in Poland, near where "Russian" mennonites were before.

J.M.
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temporal1
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Re: Europe: Re-Evangelizing?

Post by temporal1 »

Judas Maccabeus wrote:
Hats Off wrote:The Beachy's have something going on in the Republic of Ireland and the Conservative Mennonite Church of Ontario has an outreach in Belgium. There are also Amish-Mennonites working in the Ukraine and Romania but these people never had roots in those countries. These Amish-Mennonites all have their roots in Switzerland and Southern Germany while those who were in the Ukraine originally came from Northern Germany and Holland.
Not to mention conservative Mennonites in Poland, near where "Russian" mennonites were before.
J.M.
i'm surprised no one's mentioned the Mennonite group in Germany? ..
i know nothing, except they were mentioned now+then on MD.

currently, i read about Poland, and how they are trying to maintain their churches and faith, similar to Hungary. i suppose this is mostly Catholicism and Orthodoxy.
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Re: Europe: Re-Evangelizing?

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Peregrino wrote:I have heard folks who have visited Europe say that the reasons we left still exist and they don't see it possible for us to go back anytime soon. Apparently the European governments are very involved in their citizens' lives and there is little openness to letting a "different" group of people coexist in their midst.
While there may be political difficulties (such as lack of exemption from military service), I think the biggest challenge would be the secular, post-Christian mindset of most Europeans. They might well be more tolerant of Americans (and very tolerant of Canadians) compared to Middle Eastern immigrants, but there seems to be little interest in the gospel.
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temporal1
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Re: Europe: Re-Evangelizing?

Post by temporal1 »

ohio jones wrote:
Peregrino wrote:I have heard folks who have visited Europe say that the reasons we left still exist and they don't see it possible for us to go back anytime soon. Apparently the European governments are very involved in their citizens' lives and there is little openness to letting a "different" group of people coexist in their midst.
While there may be political difficulties (such as lack of exemption from military service), I think the biggest challenge would be the secular, post-Christian mindset of most Europeans. They might well be more tolerant of Americans (and very tolerant of Canadians) compared to Middle Eastern immigrants, but there seems to be little interest in the gospel.
how do you see Poland and Hungary in this? my perception is they are trying to resist (humanism) where most European countries are embracing it (as a generalization.) Australia is struggling. well, are there exceptions?!

in years past, some from the U.S. would "sport" maple leaves on their luggage, etc., to give an appearance of being Canadian-at-a-glance, to avoid unwanted trouble. does this continue?

now that i recall, i believe this was a suggestion to us when we traveled in the late 1980's.

interesting, i'm seeing more comments from folks in Russia on news sites. they are worried about our children+young people being force-fed (early sexualization) detached from marriage+family. of course, who knows if they are really in Russia. but, given the benefit of the doubt.
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ohio jones
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Re: Europe: Re-Evangelizing?

Post by ohio jones »

temporal1 wrote:how do you see Poland and Hungary in this? my perception is they are trying to resist (humanism) where most European countries are embracing it (as a generalization.)
They might be doing slightly better than their neighbors at that, but still not very well. I'm not very familiar with Poland; in Hungary, the Reformed church did survive the Communist era better than I would have expected. Still, the only overtly quasi-Christian witness I've observed in Budapest (other than Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms) was a display manned by the JWs. This was at the height of the refugee inundation, and the biggest thing that restrained me from preaching to them from Matthew 25 was doubt as to whether we had a common language.
in years past, some from the U.S. would "sport" maple leaves on their luggage, etc., to give an appearance of being Canadian-at-a-glance, to avoid unwanted trouble. does this continue?
The last time my boarding passes sported maple leaves, I had to RUN through airports to make every connection due to late flights. Very nearly got stranded overnight in Toronto preclearance; now that would have been unwanted trouble.

There are situations where it's not a bad idea to randomly sprinkle words like "aboat", "eh", and "Timmy's" into the conversation. 8-)
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Josh
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Re: Europe: Re-Evangelizing?

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I frequently am mistaken for a Canadian, I can assure you it doesn't make things go any smoother
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Judas Maccabeus
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Re: Europe: Re-Evangelizing?

Post by Judas Maccabeus »

ohio jones wrote:
temporal1 wrote:how do you see Poland and Hungary in this? my perception is they are trying to resist (humanism) where most European countries are embracing it (as a generalization.)
They might be doing slightly better than their neighbors at that, but still not very well. I'm not very familiar with Poland; in Hungary, the Reformed church did survive the Communist era better than I would have expected. Still, the only overtly quasi-Christian witness I've observed in Budapest (other than Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms) was a display manned by the JWs. This was at the height of the refugee inundation, and the biggest thing that restrained me from preaching to them from Matthew 25 was doubt as to whether we had a common language.
in years past, some from the U.S. would "sport" maple leaves on their luggage, etc., to give an appearance of being Canadian-at-a-glance, to avoid unwanted trouble. does this continue?
The last time my boarding passes sported maple leaves, I had to RUN through airports to make every connection due to late flights. Very nearly got stranded overnight in Toronto preclearance; now that would have been unwanted trouble.

There are situations where it's not a bad idea to randomly sprinkle words like "aboat", "eh", and "Timmy's" into the conversation. 8-)
Don't forget the Tim Horton's coffee cup!

J.M.
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Re: Europe: Re-Evangelizing?

Post by MaxPC »

One book I read many years ago states:
"If you pray for a spiritual awakening among Christians, then expect to see those Christians persecuted and martyred."
Can't remember the title or author but I do remember that sentence. It illustrates how when a Christian fully lives his discipleship, that the secularists find it irritating.
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