This week we took a small team to Athens, Greece to meet with the Church of God there.  It was an important trip as we get to know each other and begin preparing for the kind of work we can do jointly.  We had a lot of great fellowship, a fantastic get-together on Saturday, and then I spoke on Sunday.

We also had a wonderful time visiting a particular ministry outside of Athens.  I really don’t want to write about it on the web since I don’t have permission to do so and I want to respect the privacy of the group.   Perhaps in time and on future visits we will be able to talk more openly and possibly even encourage or even assist the work in the future.

Thank you to the Church of God people in Athens for their gracious welcome as well as all of those who helped us out during our time there.

Marco Climbing the Acropolis. The Ampitheatre was below. Ted Nugent is playing on Friday with Opening Act Peter Frampton. Just kidding people. Do I have to be serious every single day?

Atop the Parthenon with my best buddy.

Check out that awesome lighting

The Simpsons, the Nachtigalls and the Hatches.

In a couple of hours, Jamie, Marco and I will be going to Athens, Greece.  We are joined by Ken and Millie Hatch and expect to meet up with 3W teammates Dave and Kathy Simpson tomorrow morning.  They are flying in from Bulgaria.

You have probably seen on the news that things are very chaotic in Greece.  Despite the European Union bail-out packages which keep getting approved, Greece is in serious trouble.  Even the best-case scenarios are pretty terrible.  Already many are trying to flee the country, unemployment is extremely high, and more benefits will be cut in the near future.  People that were middle-class a year ago, now suddenly are not.  Greece has a very long road ahead even if it does manage to stick with the Euro (which I am not convinced it will).

We are hoping that while we are there, we don’t have any riots or violence break out–since we are staying close to the area where those things often happen and we are taking Marco.  Unfortunately, we have no choice as both Jamie and I need to go on this one.  We’re all looking forward to spending time with Uncle Dave and Aunt Kathy though.  We’re so grateful that they are on this team and they are such a blessing to Marco.  We’ll keep you posted and I will do my best to take some of my world famous, blurry, useless photos for all to groan about.  The lighting should be bad and the angles terrible.  We’ll keep in touch so you be in touch, m-kay?

Pastor Jacque Zola

We would like to welcome our the Congolese Church in Geleen, Holland to the Church of God Family.  The Congolese church became a part of the fellowship of the Church of God in Holland (the Netherlands) last year and is being pastored by Jacque Zola.  Jacque and his family moved to Holland nearly a decade ago.  Their French-speaking congregation has up to 100 in attendance on some Sundays.  I had the honor of speaking there last Sunday.

African churches in Europe play a very important role.  They are filled with enthusiasm and a strong belief in the power of God to act in this world.  It is very exciting to have one of these congregations with us.

As I wrote over in BookFace:  ”I can’t get Whitney Houston songs out of my head this week. She had the most beautiful female voice I’ve ever heard. Silky, resonate, powerful. Not nasal like Streisand, more resonant than Celine Dion, and not airy like Mariah and Beyonce. It was the most perfect voice. So sad.”

I listen to a lot of music and I just don’t think there’s a voice that compares to Whitney in her prime.  Here are my favorite top 10 Whitney songs because absolutely none of you asked:

1. Star Spangled Banner: To me, there is no better version of the Star Spangled Banner than the one that Whitney did during Desert Storm 1 in Tampa Bay–(but which Youtube has removed so here’s another one).  No one else comes close to knocking this song out of the park like she did that day.  This is the way the song was made to be sung.

2. I Wanna Dance With Somebody:  This is really my favorite “Whitney song.”  Just fun and light-hearted.

3. So Emotional:  This one is so 80′s in its sound, how could I NOT love it.

4. You Give Good Love:  The first time I ever saw Whitney was for this first video.  She looked so elegant, classy, and old.  I think she was just a teenager, but her voice was so mature and full that it was hard to believe she was so young.  I thought she was close to 30.

5. Saving All My Love For You: Nobody can even cover a Whitney song without sounding hollow and light-weight.

6.  Exhale: The Shoop Song: This song is so under-stated.  But Whitney’s voice was so full and beautiful that she didn’t need to always be screaming at the top of her lungs or doing the Mariah Carey dog-whistle.  I love this quiet performance.

7. I Have Nothing:  From the Bodyguard soundtrack.  That big voice!

8. Where Do Broken Hearts Go: Get out your hankies on this one.

9. How Will I Know? Whitney being cheeky.  This was a great single back in the mid-80′s.

10. Take Good Care of My Heart (with Jermaine Jackson): This is where I first heard Whitney Houston.  She did a duet with Jermaine Jackson on his album “Dynamite.”  That album, by the way is totally underrated.  It’s very, very good and came out  just after Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Anyway, it was Arista Records and that’s how Clive Davis introduced Whitney.  He put her on that song.

I wasn’t even really a fan, but I just thought her voice was amazing.

I just got back from Holland 30 minutes ago.  Yeah, you might not have known I was in Holland since I was just in Italy.  Actually I was home for 3 days before it was time to go to Holland.  Does it all sound crazy to you diary followers?  Well, yes it is–and this week I just kind of finally hit the wall.

The missionary life can be stressful.  It is a life filled with unique blessings and unique challenges.  There is the odd, and often unpredictable schedule, there is the added factor of cultural adjustments and the unique issues of raising kids overseas.  As  Regional Coordinators, it means that the journeys of our missionaries become our journey too.  And on top of all of that—we are trying something very different in this region:  Three Worlds.  It’s a new system and strategy for doing ministry and working cross-culturally and it has been working marvelously.

I’m happy with the great teamwork and synergy.

I’m happy with the team unity.

I’m happy with the response of the countries throughout our region who have graciously embraced 3W.

I’m happy with the systems of transparency that we have set up and are setting up in this region.

I’m happy about our de-centralized approach which is allowing our missionaries to add more value not just to their assigned country but to the whole region.

And I’m happy and thankful for all the supporters and friends of Three Worlds out there making it all possible.

But all of this success has come at a cost.  It’s been an exhausting 18 months.  We’ve had a pretty crazy travel schedule.  We’ve added a new family to the team and are receiving more requests for personnel and internships than we can possibly process.  That’s all good.  But I realized a few weeks ago, I work 30 out of 31 days.  A “day off” usually involves a plane trip from location A, B, or C, back to Berlin.  

This past weekend was our first 3W Seminar in Holland.  I love visiting Holland and I’ve known a lot of the Holland friends since 2005 (long before becoming RC).  It is always great to see them.  Unlike other 3W Seminars, this one I did completely alone–and on 3 topics that are very easy for me to speak about.  The turn out was great and enthusiasm was high.  But…

I did a lousy job.   The subjects were so important, but I wasn’t able to pull it together.  This is not like me.  A few things happened here:  1) I’m just exhausted.  2) We continue to struggle with issues relating to Marco’s school and this was probably the worst week we’ve had in that regard. 3) I dealt with laryngitis while in Italy and have been taking some medication that makes me completely loopy (I can be pretty sensitive to medicine). I wasn’t thinking straight at all.

So it was–in my mind–a truly disappointing experience.  I know we all make mistakes, but this felt like multiple mistakes on multiple levels and I was really furious at myself for dropping the ball this badly.  On Sunday I preached at our new Congolese church in Holland and that went well.  And then I came home. 

And so the moment has arrived to re-group and regain some equilibrium.  It’s been exciting to see Three Worlds flourish and be accepted across the region and back in North America–but it has been exhausting.  It’s been like starting a business with myriad things to think about, prepare, present, and promote. It really has been a start-up.

Jamie and I work really hard, but neither of us are the kind of people that are workaholics or people who let family life disappear in favor of work.  We both grew up in hard working families that still made family time a very important part of life. We schedule family time, we take breaks, and we know that our kids shouldn’t pay the price for our work. But it seems like, at the very least, the next 18 months can’t be like the last 18 months.

We made some changes when we took this job:

-No emails after 6PM (that’s a hard one considering we deal with people in multiple time-zones).

-Take regular vacations instead of feeling guilty and avoiding them.

-Make sure to really take a sabbath day off in the week (I’ve been bad about this one).

-Be available for family time, reading, games etc.

All of that has been helpful, but we’re going to have to add more to the list.  Like:

Lessening the schedule: Every Feb/March we have a very important meeting in Russia, but I’ve decided to cancel my attendance to it this year.  Thank you to our friends in Russia for being so understanding and thank you to 3W teammates Kelley and Rhonda for attending it.  We have a mandatory trip to Greece coming up that all 3 of us have to go on, but at least we will all go together (hopefully there won’t be violent riots like this week).  My next “long” trip without Marco and Jamie is not until May–which is very good.

Overall, 3W Year 2 has had a lot more time set aside for being at home than year 1. I managed to work in two separate times of being at home with Marco 6 weeks in a row during this year.  But with other things going on, it’s still not enough.

My hope is that as we add to the team, more and more of what I do will be done by the incoming team members.  This is very likely, but getting there can’t just be done overnight.  People have to be carefully selected, they have to raise funds, and then they have to be integrated.  It all takes time.   It’s been great having the Oldhams join the team and they are already doing so much that makes things easier for us.

Saying “No”: I also feel such guilt turning down offers to speak, but I’ll have to start doing that more.

Taking a break from Diary More: The last 2 years, I’ve taken a 4 week holiday from the Three Worlds Diary.  That’s a regular thing I am doing now and I think it’s a good idea once or twice a year. I’d like to have a guest diary writer in this upcoming year–someone who will keep the diary going with lots of interesting things while I’m away.

Delegating more: The 3W team was made for delegation and de-centralization and already we have been able to pass things off to teammates to assist us since they are just as competent if not more so than we are.  The Simpsons, for instance, will soon be going to Liverpool, England.  A trip I would otherwise have to make. The Philips are already our 3W reps to Russia, and the Varners are busy doing all the massive, logistical things for the 3W Care-a-Van which is our big event in April.  Thanks guys.

“More Prayer/Meditation:” I tried having solid blocks of silence and meditation recently (Marco joined me) and it was amazing the relaxing power it has on the brain.  There have now been a lot of studies that show the brain expects and really wants a minimum of 30 uninterrupted minutes of relaxation without analyzing or computing—just relaxing. Interesting that the brain is being proven to be hardwired for prayer.

“Less News/More Fiction: I’m a non-fiction junkie and a news junkie.  But I recently read how fiction relaxes the mind considerably more than non-fiction because it provides escapism and the story is not written by your mind–but rather your mind follows someone else’s thinking into a story where you don’t know the ending. That kind of interactive, yet passive mode of thinking is very good for the brain.  I’ve changed the kind of books I read this year (on a test run) and it’s been nice.  Reading a novel is more relaxing than reading non-fiction projections for world-wide environmental water table damage, as it turns out.

“More Excercise:  This one is the hardest one for me.  I’ve lost a lot of weight this year because I eat better, but the excercise stuff is hard for me.  I like team sports, and really don’t feel like being cremated in football by a bunch of Germans.  When I am not on the road, I just want to be in my house with my family.  Even going to the corner store feels like a huge chore.  So an exercise machine is in the near future.

“More Board Games:”  Marco is now at a great age for playing board games and they are apparently a great idea for relaxation and for families.  He’s ruthless at Monopoly.  These games always include a lot of laughter and the whole family faces each other the whole time–instead of the TV or something.

Well sometimes it takes hitting a wall in order to get our attention.  I’m disappointed that the church in Holland had to feel the effects of my crash.  They were very gracious and patient with me.  But hopefully I can take some time in the next 2 to 3 weeks and really gain some equillibrium.

And now,  to find that equilibrium….

Belinda, Gary and George at the Coliseum at in Rome

The first Rome 3W Seminar is in the books!  I just got back Monday from a wonderful week in Rome where we did our first 3W Seminar at the Church of God in Ostia.  The subject of this 3W Seminar was “How to Organize Your Church.”  Time and time again, I’ve seen that poor organization is one of the things that most holds back a church’s potential.  For this seminar we had Gary and Belinda Kendall—founders of the mega-church Indian Creek Community Church in Olathe (Kansas City), Kansas, which not only has 2 campuses but has planted other churches.  Gary is an absolute wealth of knowledge on church structures  and organization and a mentor to many.

Joining us was George Lutzer who is the Senior Pastor of GracePoint Church in Edmonton, AB (Canada)–the fastest growing church in Western Canada. But what makes these churches so great is not their size, but rather their leadership and the impact that a well-led church can have on a community.

Pastor Gary taught us about the Vision Ladder–and the way a church goes about identifying the particular mission and gifts that it has.  Pastor George taught us about the excellent leadership structure which keeps GracePoint so healthy.  Both churches show the kind of balanced leadership that really produces great results:  strong, empowered leadership that can set the tone combined with a de-centralized but accountable structure which allows people to be creative and innovative.  Too much one way or the other can easily be a disaster.  And poor management leads to stagnation and death for the organization.

I had 2 days to show George, Gary and Belinda around Rome.  I always enjoy being the tour guide–especially in these awesome European cities.  Shockingly, on our 2nd day of sightseeing, it snowed for the first time in at least 35 years in Rome.  It was absolutely wild.  The city shut down and no one was fed to the Lions that day.  The snowflakes were huge, and because we were on the Mediterranean, the air was wet–making it feel much colder than 30 degrees F.  While it made for frigid sightseeing, it was amazing to see the city in snow.

We also had plenty of time to visit with Pastor Daniele Santonocito of the Ostia Church.  He was a great host taking us for cappucino just about every day.  And we also made lots of new friends and saw some old ones.  Thank you to Marco, Timos, Maria, Francesco, Albert, Eleanora, David, Jessika, and everyone else for welcoming us in your homes and giving us great food.  You guys are a great church!

Thank you for turning out despite the snow and the big Roma football match!  We were amazed!

Hopefully this will be the first of many Rome 3W Seminars.

We continue our Next Christendom Discussion picking up in Chapter 5.

This next section deals with demographic trends—a subject that is very relevant to the study of religion but is often overlooked or not talked about.

Overall, the bulk of the world’s population lives in underdeveloped or developing areas and this trend is projected to continue into the foreseeable future.  Countries in Europe like Italy, Russia, and England are seeing steep population decline.  Outside of Europe, Japan is declining at a very fast rate.  Meanwhile, India, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Uganda are rising quickly despite the toll AIDS has taken on these nations.   The highest fertility rates are in Yemen, Uganda, Afghanistan, and Angola.    Chad, Iraq and Bolivia are also fast growing populations.

Trying to decipher which religion people follow in countries is not so easy.  In countries such as Poland, everyone is overwhelmingly baptized into the Catholic Church whether they practice the faith or not.  If they leave the faith, this is never counted by the church. “A mother church doesn’t abandon her errant children.”  So the numbers of believer or practicing Christians can be very wrong.

Furthermore in many countries (like Brazil), people may mix their Christianity with other folk religions such as Santeria.  Jenkins says that oddly, figures about practicing Christians are probably more likely to be accurate in a place like Nigeria than in Romania because there is no established church.

So which countries will have the largest Christian Communities by the year 2050:

1. United States

2. Brazil

3. Mexico

4. Philippines

5. Nigeria

6. Democratic Republic of the Congo

7. Ethiopia

8. Russia

9. China

10. Germany.

He singles Uganda out as a country where Christianity has grown so much that it is one of the “triumphs of the missionary movement.”  The Philippines which was introduced to Christianity by the Catholics in the 1500′s, also has a huge Christian presence as does Brazil-which he suggests may be primarily Evangelical as opposed to Catholic in the future.

Europe is the area where it is most secular with 44% of British people not affiliating with any religion whatsoever, with 2/3rd of young people not practicing any faith.  In Eastern Europe, the Eastern Orthodox church will lose a lot of followers since so many countries where the Orthodox church is strong are seeing huge population drops.  New immigrants to Europe, however, do tend to be very religious.

The same is true in the United States where Latin Americans and new Asian immigrants.  The infusion of growth into American Christianity will most likely come from immigrant communities and other ethnic groups.  White America is secularizing quickly in the United States, but that is not the sum total of America’s religious experience.

He makes a final good point that a lot of Middle Eastern countries have more religious diversity than the United States where only 4 to 5% of the population does not adhere to some form of Christianity.

Patrick’s Comments:

This chapter is especially helpful for Americans who are often in a panic about Christianity disappearing from the United States.  It is white America that is seeing a pretty steep decline and that skews people’s perspective.  But the US is still a place filled with religious dynamism.  Many of the older institutions and mainline communities (and newer institutionalized denominations like ours) are in serious trouble.  It’s no coincidence that some of the greatest dynamism we see comes from Mexican immigrants who often become die-hard evangelicals and church planters.  I got to meet some in Baltimore while making “Mosaic.” Any denomination would be lucky to have them–and they work toward becoming legal if they are illegal.  Law-abiding, Evangelical, new citizens of the United States.

Consequently, it’s very ironic when Christians in America get in such a panic about Mexican immigration.  They may be one of the last bulwarks against total secularization.  And furthermore, Mexican immigration is dropping very fast as Mexico’s economy takes off.  It’s increasingly not worth the effort to work in low-wage American jobs when there are many more opportunities in Mexico.

As with the economy, the US’s Christian future is being challenged.  But as with the economy, the answers can all be easily found within our own borders and within our own structures. Reform and re-calibration are completely possible–it’s just a matter of will.  Not so for some the countries in the rest of the world where they are in serious trouble.

The faith will become mover diverse, however.  And this is true across the board–hence the importance of this book and the work 3W is trying to do.  Christianity, which has often been represented by the theology and the media of one particular culture is now becoming more diverse.  If any country has the opportunity to really navigate this it is the United States where there are so many opportunities to experience that diversity in a safe environment–as opposed to much of the rest of the world.

Our discussions will continue here at the three worlds diary…