{"id":620,"date":"2012-10-15T10:15:59","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T15:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicebyrd.com\/?p=620"},"modified":"2012-11-15T22:08:27","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T03:08:27","slug":"western-european-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/western-european-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Western European Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Observed by Jerry and Janice Byrd for work with International Commission-2006<\/em><\/p>\n

Western Europe can be likened to Samaria (for Americans) in Jesus\u2019 command to reach all people.\u00a0 We share a history, a common heritage, a physical similarity, and a parallel development in education, government, and language, but our similarities often cause conflicts and our subtle differences seem to loom larger than ever.<\/p>\n

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  1. W. Europeans do not see our work ethic as good.\u00a0 Hard labor, long hours of employment, our \u201ctime is money\u201d concept, and upward mobility are not valued.\u00a0 Instead, a twenty-five-hour work-week, which allows time for daily personal leisure activities, eight weeks of paid vacation annually, and a contentment with the status quo are the ingredients of European happiness.<\/li>\n
  2. W. Europeans are suspicious of individual achievement.\u00a0 They take pride in group accomplishments.\u00a0 Ambitions and goals are for their extended families, communities and countries.\u00a0 Competition is not considered a good motivation.<\/li>\n
  3. Countries in W. Europe have only recently known a \u201cseparation of church and state.\u201d\u00a0 Even now, secularism has become the new state religion.\u00a0 Many European governments demand, support, and promote secularism, tolerating nothing else.\u00a0 It is hard to overestimate how little Christianity has to do with public discourse.\u00a0 Even in \u201cCatholic\u201d countries, with a few exceptions like Ireland and Malta, the church is kept out of daily life precisely because it has a paid position in a building, on Sundays.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Over the last thirty to forty years, Western Europe has experienced radical change.\u00a0 The rise of \u201cpost-modern\u201d thinking, as opposed to the \u201cmodern\u201d thinking of the last 300 years, has further separated American and Western European values, and has caused major miscommunications, complicating even further the process of communicating the message of the Church.<\/p>\n

    Post-modern thinking is neither right nor wrong; it is a type of thinking that emphasizes relationships, processes, communities, the unknown supernatural world, and relevancy to daily life.\u00a0 It devalues scientific proof, the need to know everything, organizations, and self-assurance.\u00a0 Like all belief systems, in practice, it looks differently in the lives of Believers than it does in the populace in general.<\/p>\n

    Although post-modern thinking is now being talked about in the U.S., it is entrenched in Western Europe in anyone younger than fifty, including church members.\u00a0 Communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ to Europeans means that we must know their culture. \u00a0(They already know our language, thanks to the internet.)<\/p>\n

    Western Europe has become very ethnically diverse. Large groups of immigrants inhabit almost every country, but have not become integrated, in the American sense. \u00a0(Think salad bowl, not melting-pot.) European tolerance is actually a self-protecting indifference.\u00a0 Ethnic groups have been \u201ctolerated\u201d as segregated and isolated communities, but the host governments have done little to affect the language, religion, or customs of their newest citizens.\u00a0 That is beginning to change.<\/p>\n

    Within twenty years, large groups from the Middle East and Africa (Muslims) will threaten to dominate the national populations in countries like France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Holland where immigration policies have been the most liberal, and where population growth among the immigrants is two or three times that of the nationals.\u00a0 Assimilating the large influx of Muslim immigrants is a huge problem for European governments, but, at the same time, it is an equally gigantic opportunity for the churches in Europe.<\/p>\n

    For the first time in their lives Islamic peoples are free to discuss, question, explore, and choose their beliefs.\u00a0 These immigrants have come to realize their political clout and personal freedoms.\u00a0 Some have reacted with violence to their marginalization, while others, driven by curiosity or despair, have gone searching for the truth.\u00a0 Churches are reaching out to these immigrants, developing relationships and ministering to their needs.<\/p>\n

    Because faith communities are so important to the Believers of Western Europeans, they want IC\u2019s participants to have a vital relationship with their own churches at home.\u00a0 (Lone-Ranger Christians do not exist in Western Europe.)\u00a0 In fact, they want a \u201cchurch team\u201d to partner with so that can continue for years to come the sharing and encouraging begun during the project.\u00a0 They expect to have a long-term relationship with their guests and their guests\u2019 home churches.\u00a0 Some will come to the States to visit, and will want to correspond through email.<\/p>\n

    Most of the work on an IC project in Western Europe will be part of a local church\u2019s relationship-building strategy for reaching their city.\u00a0 They will spend the first few days of the project doing nothing but getting to know you.\u00a0 Your presence is their excuse to plan and execute events designed to connect with their culture in Western Europe.\u00a0 They don\u2019t need your abilities, and will probably question your ideas, but church members, most of whom will speak English, will appreciate your encouragement and counsel in their homes and in numerous private conversations.<\/p>\n

    Once they trust you, the church members will introduce you to their friends and you will have many opportunities to discuss your relationship with God with unbelievers. \u00a0Be prepared to dialog from your own experiences, not the Bible, but do not expect people to make a commitment to Christ after hearing for the first time the facts about Jesus.\u00a0 (We\u2019ve seen this happen, but we don\u2019t expect it.)<\/p>\n

    In everything you do, connect people to the local church.\u00a0 Trust the church members to continue the God-conversations with the \u201cseekers\u201d even after you\u2019ve returned home.\u00a0 A large part of your work in Western Europe is to encourage the Believers.\u00a0 Remember that God is at work in Western Europe. \u00a0He still speaks to the hearts of people, even post-moderns, through His Holy Spirit, convicting them of their sin and of His righteousness.<\/p>\n

    In Western Europe true partnerships can happen because we come as peers in every respect.\u00a0 We go to facilitate THEIR work for the Lord.\u00a0 Every project is an opportunity to learn from the Europeans as we serve with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Observed by Jerry and Janice Byrd for work with International Commission-2006 Western Europe can be likened to Samaria (for Americans) in Jesus\u2019 command to reach all people.\u00a0 We share a history, a common heritage, a physical similarity, and a parallel development in education, government, and language, but our similarities often cause conflicts and our subtle […] Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":877,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janicebyrd.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}