From the January-April 2011 Issue
Overshadowed by a sense of change
Daniel Webber
Particularly for those of us based at the EMF headquarters in Welwyn, 2010 has been marked by an increasing sense that we as a Mission are passing through a significant period of change. Many of the decisions taken during the year have been made with a view to the future. It is not that the present has been forgotten; just that it has been overshadowed by the changes that will soon be upon us. Therefore, I want to use the occasion of this Annual Report not only to look back, but also to look forward; to bring together some of the main decisions that have been taken in 2010 and to provide a small insight into the implications that these will have for the coming year, and quite likely for some time to come.
A New Mission Director
First of all – and as I am sure many regular readers of the Vision for Europe will already know – the EMF is soon to have a new Mission Director. Having occupied this role for more than twenty years, I am due to retire next year. The actual date set for my retirement is 31 July 2011. By then I will have reached the normal age for this to happen and I have long been convinced that this is an appropriate moment to hand over the reins to a successor. Indeed, in a number of different ways, I seem to have been involved in making preparations for this event for the past couple of years.
In thinking and praying about it, I have often thought of my predecessor, T. Omri Jenkins. In handing over to me in 1990, he was actually retiring for a second time! It is the only thing about his illustrious example that I have no wish to emulate. And I am pleased to say that, in the goodness of God, it does not seem necessary that I should. My successor is already in place and so, after what will by then be eight happy and harmonious years of working together, Martin Leech will take over my responsibilities. The regular demands of this position require significant amounts of energy and vision and, in the provision of Martin, I am pleased to acknowledge that the Lord has graciously provided us with the person and gifts this work requires.
A New Assistant Director
Of course, with the appointment of a new Mission Director, there arises the need to call an assistant. Even before 2010 dawned Martin and I were in search of a suitable replacement to occupy this position. Although much more will be said about this in future issues of the Vision for Europe, I am pleased to announce that this process has been completed and that the Executive Committee has issued a unanimous call to Jörg Müller to take up the position of Assistant Mission Director. Jörg and Heike Müller have already been associated with the EMF for more than twenty years. Throughout that time they have been involved in the planting of a new church in the German town of Warburg. This congregation has not only become established but, in more recent years, has completed the transition to its own building. As an important part of this process they have been enabled to bring together two ethnic communities – native Germans and a community of German-Russians – and witness their happy integration into a single congregation. I am also encouraged to report that this church has indicated its unanimous support for this change of role and sphere of service for them.
New Executive Committee Members
One of the many joys of involvement with the EMF has been to work alongside men of like-mind on its Executive Committee. These men meet together once every three months and each time give the best part of a full day to the decision-making processes that are an inevitable part of home-base mission life. Without their support, co-operation, and camaraderie, the work of this Mission in Europe would be seriously impoverished. But time moves on for these members too. Changes take place in their individual lives. Apart from my own expected departure next year, Ken Huxtable retired towards the end of 2009, and in September 2010 Stephen Bignall returned to his native Australia to take up mission work among the indigenous peoples of that land. Therefore, with the future still in mind, we have been seeking to replenish the number of people serving EMF in this way. Again, I am pleased to say that two pastors – Peter Kinley (Needham Market, Suffolk) and Steven Bowers (Brighouse, Yorkshire) – have agreed to join us. Both are well known to the EMF as teachers in the School of Biblical Studies. Two other men are currently attending these meetings on a trial basis and it is hoped to have a full complement in place before the close of 2011.
A New Method of Providing Support
During 2010 the Executive Committee has also been considering a series of proposals which should mean that individuals and churches supported by the EMF are more purposefully encouraged towards the support of their own works. This has always been one of the main aims of the Mission and in this we have witnessed a measure of success, especially in Spain and Portugal, with churches not only taking on the running of their day-to-day operations, but also the support of their pastors. But more needs to be done.
Furthermore, we are persuaded that there are good reasons for giving greater emphasis to this matter. First, we believe that this practice has the overwhelming support of the New Testament. In those times it seems to have been the norm for churches to take full responsibility for their own affairs. We also think that the current spiritual climate requires that more be done to encourage self-support among the new churches. Spiritual vitality among the people of God is required if the present decline in the support of missions is to be reversed. Furthermore, arising out of this practice is the need to put in place a strategy that will have the effect of releasing funds for the support of a new generation of missionaries.
The new proposals we have agreed upon, and which will be introduced during the coming years, will emphasize that financial support through EMF is not to be open-ended. This will need to be handled sensitively, and with due respect to the peculiarity of each local situation. Nevertheless, the intention will be to make the Mission’s long-held aim of establishing self-supporting churches a more definite priority.
An Ever-Changing Ministry
Finally, it is true to say that the work of God never really stands still. Neither does our involvement in it. The nature of our involvement in gospel work, and the sphere of our service, is constantly evolving. This is inevitable.
From our perspective, however, this experience can be traumatic. Sometimes circumstances, seemingly beyond our control, suddenly uproot us from a sphere in which we had hoped for a more obviously fruitful ministry. Instead we experience pain and bewilderment. Something of this has been the particular experience of both Matt and Judith Hill (Cuenca, Spain) and Michael and Ariëtte Robinson (Eeklo, Belgium). They have temporarily stepped into other spheres of gospel service as they wait for clearer indications of what the Lord’s will is for them.
But even when our ministry has been attended with considerable blessing circumstances may come together in such a way that we are persuaded that the only course for us is to uproot. In the case of Jan and Lucie Hábl (Czech Republic), this will involve a move in 2011 from Nove Mesto nad Metuji to Usti nad Labem. Alternatively, we may think of the very serious accident that took Pál Borzási (Romania) out of a fruitful ministry and, after a year of convalescence, relocated him and his family in the less strenuous responsibilities in Luna de Sus. Often such changes are a mystery to us.
At other times – and especially with the benefit of hindsight – we can see that the unsought hardships and changes thrust upon us were clearly part of the purposes of God to progress his work in the world. Here we might think of the ministry of Mihail and Albina Nikitov (Belarus) and their eight-year-long struggle to erect a church building in Ruba. Now that small, though growing, congregation is enjoying the blessing of its hard-fought struggle. Then again we may consider the many years of gospel foundation-laying of men and women in Spain, which now appear to be giving birth to spiritual life and church growth in places like Alcázar de San Juan, Ciudad Real, and Palma de Mallorca.
Then there are the more natural changes with which we began this report: in Poland a number of men who have served the Lord faithfully through tough times and good – Henryk Karzełek, Zbigniew Modnicki, and Sławomir Rutkowski – are now in the process of stepping down from their positions of pastoral responsibility and handing over to a younger generation. Or, last, but by no means least, we might remember the ministry of John Manousarides in Piraeus, Greece. Here is another faithful servant who retired from the pastoral ministry more than once, but who was graciously called home in September, shortly after the appointment of a successor for the pastoral ministry in the church that he had so unstintingly served for so many years.
Many other examples of the ever-changing nature of the work in which we are involved could be cited. But the really important thing is the presence and power of God working in and through the changes he in his providence initiates and sustains. This is what we ever look to and long for “in all the changing scenes of life”.