Archive for the ‘Skybridge’ Category
Posted on June 15, 2010 - by Larry - 1 Comment
Key Business as Mission Components
I have the opportunity to talk with quite a few of our Skybridge Community members. We are indeed a community in various stages of our journey here in Europe.
• We are pastors looking at this as a viable way to send workers to the field.
• We are marketplace workers looking for a job in Europe.
• We are workers already living in Europe.
• We are cross-cultural workers who are trying to plant churches and disciple people who want to integrate marketplace place workers into our strategies.
I see these five components essential in our community. In the words of a European businessman who is a follower of Jesus recently told me: “Please tell them to find jobs and come to Europe. We need this type of worker here.”
The Sending Church
One of the first things you should do if you sense a desire from the Lord to move to Europe (or anywhere for that matter) and work is to talk to some key people in your church. Maybe it is your small group leader, an elder or a pastor. I believe it is important that you have the support of your church in this endeavor. We love Acts 13 and the story of the Antioch Church. The Holy Spirit called out Saul and Barnabas for His work. The church prayed and fasted and sent them off. The church was part of the sending process. It was not an individual effort on the part of the missionary.
Just as people who serve with mission sending organizations need the affirmation, support and blessing from the church you need the same. Your sending church can pray for you. They can help support your ministry. They can provide you with spiritual and strategic accountability and they will hopefully desire to partner with you while you are here.
The Job
Another key component is finding a job. Perhaps you are already in an international company that would allow you to move to Europe. Most people find themselves trying to find a job in Europe. This is where networking comes in. What are your marketable skills? What job do you currently have? Can you find that same type of job here? Where can you look for a job in Europe? Can you find an international internship? Start a business? This can be a very tough stage in your desire to live overseas. It is rarely as simple as it sounds. It may take a year or so for this to happen, but do not be discouraged. You can take advantages of links that we may post, utilize our discussion board, talk to people already on the ground in the city you are wanting to go to.
Preparing to Live and Work in Europe
I believe the time to start preparing to live overseas is now. Start learning about your city. Start interacting with people who live there. Read everything that you can get your hands on regarding Europe and the country where you are wanting to live. Pray a lot and enlist some close friends to pray with you on this journey. There are also some excellent books and workbooks regarding living incarnationally in your city.
Try out aspects of living that are different then what you normally do. Take the bus. Walk a lot. Shop in “mom and pop” stores. Anything that you can do to put you more in touch with urban living will be time well spent. We also have a section in our site called The Reference Library. We have over 25 downloadable articles for you to read and interact with. We also would love to dialog with you on these on our site. We also can set up a Skype conversation about a topic of your choice. Just let us know how we can help you in this phase.
Local Ministry
One key success factor is for you to be connected to some sort of local ministry or community here in Europe. This could look different depending on where you will be living. We have some cities where we have other Skybridge workers where you could connect with on a regular basis in a missional community (see below). You also may find a local church where you can worship and serve. You may find some cross cultural missionaries that you can work with in starting small groups or churches. Whatever the Lord leads you to do we find this local component a essential to life overseas.
Missional Communities
While Skybridge is a virtual community in many ways, we do have some places where our members come together to pray, for accountability, to encourage one another and to work together on projects in a local setting.
We also have two retreats a year where you will have the opportunity to gather together with other Skybridgers from throughout Europe where we can share ideas, learn new skills in living missionally, pray for one another and encourage one another.
Posted on January 30, 2010 - by Larry - 2 Comments
New Skybridge Site
We have just completed a re-launch of our site.
I hope you will check it out and join this community.
Normally we have four categories of members
1. Those thinking about working in Europe and looking for ways to do that and prepare for being salt and light here.
2. People who are already working in Europe and looking for ways to connect with ministries and obtain training for living out their lives incarnationally here.
3. We have some US churches who want to partner with people who are working over here in the marketplace. We believe it is extremely important for the marketplace worker to have a supporting church for prayer, accountability and potentially projects that will enable them to minister here. If your church is interested in this please let me know.
4. We also have church planters, church planting teams and people in existing mission networks here in Europe as a part of our community. Our Skybridge members want to connect with meaningful local ministry and this is where much of their community is found. We have Skybridge members in quite a few European cities and they are often looking for ways to connect.
If this interests you then I hope you will join Skybridge. Check it out at www.skybridgecommunity.net
Next Week I am leading a Jet Set Vision Trip with the Village Church in Dallas. I hope you will follow along on this blog, twitter and our Upstream Site. as we travel to four different countries and look at ministry opportunities, learn about local cultures and have various missional conversations.
Posted on November 23, 2009 - by Larry - 4 Comments
a new type of missionary
Paris. Athens. Budapest. Frankfurt. Rome. Madrid. Vienna. Stockholm. Basel.
The urban centers of Europe are the new frontier of missions.
Stockbroker. Artist. Lawyer. Electrician. Professor. Programmer.
And these are its missionaries.
While Europe doesn’t often spring to Americans’ minds when they hear the word “missions,” the spiritual need in the region is overwhelming. Less than 2 percent of the population of most European countries is known to follow Christ.
In societies so numbed to the institutional church, cultural rituals and historical Christendom, being a “missionary” often calls for something totally different than the traditional face of North American missions.
What if the most effective missions meant simply living life with purpose among the peoples of Europe, working in a normal job, building friendships with co-workers and neighbors?
What if churches in the United States actively participated in sending out their best church members, not as missionaries, but simply as themselves? What if churches prayed and dreamed with those workers about how to live their lives as salt and light in their new European hometowns? What if churches took back – and took full advantage of – their role in the Great Commission?
Isn’t that what it’s supposed to be about anyway?
check out – www.skybridgecommunity.net
The above post was written by a member of the Skybridge Community.
Posted on October 19, 2009 - by Larry - 0 Comments
Working in Europe
As you may know I am involved in a couple of missional networks. This week I have been working quite a bit on the Skybridge Community.
In reading a post by Grady Bauer on MissionalSpace it reminded me again why we need networks of marketplace people and study abroad students, artists, etc.. living out their lives incarnationally abroad.
The Skybridge Community is one such network that exists that seeks to identify and equip marketplace workers in Europe for effective missional living.
Here is a little more about what we want to see happen.
Discovery: Identifying and engaging marketplace workers and students in North America and Europe for these purposes.
Sending: Strengthen ties to a church in North America who will “adopt” the individual / family who is working and living missionally overseas.
Equipping: Equipping these people for evangelism, discipleship and church planting within their natural circles of influence in their workplace and daily lives.
Community: Creating healthy support systems throughout Europe where “Skybridgers” can have community and support.
What do we hope to see as a result?
We want to see people coming to faith in Jesus Christ and discipled. We hope to see new churches being planted throughout Europe as a result.
Our network is growing.
We typically have four different types of people who join Skybridge Community.
- Churches in North America who are looking to adopt a worker in Europe.
- Church Planting teams or missionary teams in Europe looking for people to partner with as they engage their people in Europe.
- People who are already working in Europe.
- People who are looking for jobs in Europe.
The last category is our most popular and it can also hold the biggest challenge. It can be tough finding a job in Europe.
I ran across a site today that you may want to check out. http://www.eurojobs.com/
Please feel free to tell others about this network. We really want to make a difference in Europe. We hope that the Skybridge Community will be used by the Lord to see the peoples of Europe come to know Him.
Posted on January 10, 2009 - by Larry - 5 Comments
Why Have a Normal Job?
I wanted to give you a short post about an initiative that we have been working as a part of the Upstream Collective.
Somehow, intentionally or not, many American Christians were taught that being a professional missionary is a higher calling, the best and most appropriate way to respond to a call to missions. But the Skybridge Community would propose that being a full-time Christian worker is not the only way to be an effective missionary.
In fact, in some circles, particularly in Europe, the best way to be a missionary is NOT to be a “missionary.” The most effective way many people can make an impact on their friends in Europe is by entering the culture as “one of the gang” – someone facing similar work and life situations as their peers. That’s where having a normal job comes in.
It’s time to elevate and validate the calling of these unpaid missionaries who take seriously their responsibility to live out their faith incarnationally overseas. It’s also time for the local church to step up and take back its role in the Great Commission, sending out its best and brightest to live and work abroad, getting more personally involved in God’s work through prayer, being present on the field both short- and long-term, and learning how to take good care of their newly commissioned business executives, students, waiters, graphic designers … you get the picture.
That’s what the Skybridge Community is for: networking, encouraging and equipping these “secular” workers who see their part in the Great Commission as being as valid as any commissioned missionary – and helping them, in turn, to equip their local church body to play its part in global missions as well.
Posted on October 29, 2008 - by Larry - 0 Comments
Doing Business WITH Mission
Ever heard the phrase in missions, “doing business as mission?” I’ve heard it used to describe professional missionaries who go to their respective fields with a platform (such as a business) to gain access into a closed country legally or to gain credibility among the people of a culture. We see some solid biblical examples in the life of Paul.
But in today’s culture, while we might hear the phrase “business as mission” used, I believe we should consider changing our wording to doing “business with mission.” Though replacing “as” with “with” may look like a minute change, it actually alters the meaning significantly in my opinion.
Doing business with mission can be an accurate description of living and working in a place (either at home or in another culture) missionally. It’s not simply creating a “platform” only to gain access into a culture and then not actually carrying out that task. If we create
Living missionally is an effective and authentic way to be a missionary (with or without the title) in a culture. It simply means integrating missionary efforts naturally into daily work and play.
If we all lived missionally, it wouldn’t matter where we lived or what we did. If every part of our lives is meant to be worship, and if everything we do counts as worship, then we should do it all for the glory of God.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. – 1 Cor. 10:31
Not only can we give glory to God through our work in business, social activism, art, or any other field, but it’s through our work that we can also win the respect of outsiders.
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. – 1 Thess. 4:10-12
So how could this affect global mission efforts? I see a day where thousands of believers intentionally take jobs overseas to live out their faith incarnationally in the marketplace and communities of the world. I see this as a new wave of missionary efforts in the future. And I think the local church can support them not so much with finances but with prayers, accountability, encouragement and emotional support. PLUS view them as real missionaries sent out by their church by commissioning them when possible.
