After writing this blog, I've decided to break it into two sections...
It's been a while so we thought that we would give you a brief update to how things are going, a few ideas to ponder and some prayer points.
We've been continuing to live a sort of hybrid-lockdown the last few months. Many events have been able to continue (school, stores being open, churches partially open) while some have been stopped (sit down restaurants are closed, cinemas are also closed, travel has been very limited).
As I (Greg) write some of these rules are evolving. Travel bans are being lifted in the country, restaurants are preparing to be opened to outside eatings and soon cinemas will be allowed to show movies.
All of these rules have been quite taxing on many people. For some, they have not been able to work for quite some time. For others, they have had to adapt their normal way of doing things to something different.
For us personally, we have gone nearly a year without having much of anything other than church services. We haven't really been able to share coffee at church, our kids events have been postponed. In a few weeks we can start the hospitality side of the service again. Perhaps in June or in the summer we can start doing some of the "funner" (because service is fun) events which are designed to get people together.
As you can imagine this has lead us to several crucial questions. One of these questions is how we do what we do. Even before the first lockdown in 2020, we already began to ponder certain important strategies we were engaged with.
Did we need a dedicated meeting space?
How do we bridge the gap between the entry point and meaningful discussions on faith?
The meeting space:
As many of you know (and some of you invested in) we rented a building fairly quickly after arriving in Descartes. This building was used as an office, a meeting space, an activity center and a worship space. We specifically did not call this space a "church" (at least locally) because it doesn't really fit the cultural profile of what people here consider a "church".
Here, that would be seen as a building with a steeple, usually made out of brick and or stone, which is at least 100 years old. Normally a church is open and is technically property of the government (there's an uneasy tension between the separation of church and state and the real idea that the buildings belong to this neutral government). Most of these buildings still have church services in them (but not all).
Church buildings are seen as a combination of an art gallery, a quiet place, a shelter from harsh weather conditions and even places where sober war monuments can be maintained.
The rural French mindset, which is where we live, doesn't really know what to do with Evangelical church scenters. There aren't the cultural benchmarks needed to understand what is going on. There are times our building is locked. One of our core values is to go meet people rather than force them to meet us. There have been Times no one is there for a few days at a time. During the lockdown it was hardly ever open (we offered free discussion or counseling times, as churches were allowed to stay open).
In short, we've made the observation (for our individual context) after many years that they don't have a problem with the Christians, but they don't want to go into the building. This same phenomenon is happening also in some places in the States. We knew 2020 would be a linchpin year for the church and I suppose we had a moment of clarity.
We decided to stop our rental agreement for the building in Descartes. It was difficult, there was a lot of work to be done, but ultimately it is (in our opinion) the best and right way to go. We recognized that in the haste and rush to get things rolling, we have been doing things the opposite way that we should have been doing them....
So what did we do?
We decided to ask the local Catholic Church if they could help us. One of our friends who is a part of our ministries here thought of this as a reasonable step for us. I asked the priest (who I have known from when he was in a different parish) if there was a space for such a meeting. Twice a month, when we as a church could use a room to meet.
He said yes without hesitating. So we started to meet in their parish multi-purpose room.
We will pay them a very small rent (to help cover electricity). This was our decision, as he wanted to let us use it for free. In return we fill the space and neighborhood with music and praises to God on Sunday evenings (their mass takes place on Saturday in the church building a street over).
We challenge our folks and ourselves to live called. We challenge ourselves to go to people and meet them where they are. We simply want to be people who are faithful to God and willing to live this out. This is, I am convinced, the only way to really grow God's Kingdom in our context.
This doesn't mean we don't have cultural events. We just want to break down as many walls as possible.
More to come tomorrow!