Front Yards and Europe

I recently was introduced to the word “Apo-stolen.” This word of course looks remarkably similar to the word Apostle. Now, Apo means “to go before” and stolen gives us the word picture of a plant that sends out runners to establish new colonies. I was immediately reminded of our front yard four years ago. This is when my wife and I moved to our house in Norfolk and inherited a freshly planted front yard. The previous owner had cleared all of the old grass and replanted new, fresh, green, in fewer words, attractive grass. There was of course a problem and within months this grass started to die. Now, in Virginia, there is a grass that some would call “crab grass” but it is commonly called St. Augustine. This is a type of grass that grows by runners and could best be summed up as relentless. This grass is hearty, somewhat messy looking and will take over your entire yard. I suspect that this St. Augustine was present at one time and rooted deep in the earth so it was only a matter of time for it to surface and begin to thrive. I think this resembles the history of the church in Europe. It was once a vibrant Institution influencing the lives of multitudes around and beyond. Today, however, there are multiple generations who have not heard the gospel in a meaningful way. We feel that Europe is at the forefront of global culural trends philosophically, socially, artistically, and politically. To a large degree, as goes Europe so goes the world. How can the church engage this rapidly changing European culture? We believe it is God’s desire to see all people enter into a relationship with him, including the peoples of Europe. Through the Holy Spirit we believe this will happen when we have a passion to manifest God’s kingdom presence by healing the wounded, reaching the lost, making disciples, developing leaders and multiplying missional communities of faith. A grass roots movement is taking hold in Europe and just like our front yard we believe Christ is living, organic, and is moving through Europe.