Invitation to the journey (1)
I am going to invite you to join me on a journey. But before I do that, I'll share some stories from a book which I never wrote, "Confessions Of A Recovering Missionary."
The number is 6909
In 2007 I moved with my family to the U.K. to work with Wycliffe Bible Translators. "Not as a translator," as I would always add to avoid confusion. The official job title was 'desktop publishing support specialist,' which means that I was basically a programmer. But I was not a programmer at all, I never took programming lessons, I was merely a typesetter who was taming an unwieldy amount of database output with a few nifty programs. After 2 years we produced a 1248-page pdf of an encyclopedia of all the languages of the world. All 6909 of them. Complete with some 200 maps and an index with 50.000 names. It was a crazy project and it was a relief to be done with it. How on earth did I end up here?
How indeed?
Because of something of a calling. A loaded term and no guarantee of clarity and easy answers. Not that I was looking for easy answers. But I was certainly looking for something because faith as I had once known it was evaporating. I first noticed it before we moved. I was reading a book called Jesus as Lord in Flatland, about missiology in the Dutch context. I realized that I enjoyed the book, not because I was looking for a way to talk with my non-Christian colleagues, but because it convinced me that it was true after all. What I was looking for was a language for thinking about faith. I realized that the divide between faith and unbelief was not to be found somewhere between 'us' and 'the world'. It runs through my self. So when I realized I had lost my faith (as a missionary no less!) I was just deconstructing before it was hip. And I started reading post-modern philosophers, especially the father of deconstruction, which did much to prepare the ground for recovery. At some point, I will tell you how that went.
About home
Between 2010 and 2012, my home was in Toronto, Canada. I went to grad school there. I was in my late thirties, married, and father of four children. Our neighbours were English, Italian and Iranian immigrants. We went to a church started by Dutch immigrants and the girls went to the school next door. We shared the language and at least some of the culture. We enjoyed every moment of it. And yet... One of the things North America does to me is to make me feel how European I am. I was not homesick, but I was also not at home. Later we lived in Croatia for four years. The culture was again different and the language was a challenge. But it was home enough that we could enjoy it. We were in Europe, so there was a shared cultural background.
In the pressure cooker
In Croatia, we worked for a small mission and a local church. I taught at a local seminary and attended meetings. It was like being in a missiological pressure cooker. Here the questions emerged: What do the cultural shifts and social developments actually mean for the mission of the church? And why is no one in the churches around me paying attention to radical changes in religiosity? Why does most mission work here feel so out of date, out of touch, and dumbed down? (And why so loud?) These questions bothered me. I reconnected with some of the things I had learned from Catholic and Orthodox theologians and the question became: what is the future of European Christianity? What are the fundamental forces shaping the field in the next ten years? What are trends to watch and patterns to notice? I had a good friend and mentor who helped me make sense of them. We came up with a name for a newsletter and if you are reading this you have found it. And then he died.
We have a problem
So we are now in this meta-crisis, the "more than just a sum of the ecological crisis + the economic crisis + the geopolitical crisis + the meaning crisis & the culture wars"-crisis. It feels like the unravelling of culture itself, the great shake-up of all things. Religions are back but in a post-secular shape within a multi-religious space, with plenty of options. Some young Christians, both converts and re-discoverers, join the more traditional, liturgical churches. Others are rediscovering the great classical works of philosophy and literature which once formed the basis of the thing we call 'culture,' the culture of European Christianity.
These stories are all part of a journey, my journey. Confusing perhaps, but not nearly as unique as I once feared. As I listen to people around me or read stories of others online, I see many common themes. For me, two questions are central to this journey:
- how do we understand our time? (I want to understand it deeply)
- is there a future for European Christianity? (I want to be part of it)
If you want to explore these questions, you're welcome! I can imagine that you have your questions as well. Please let me know here. Here is the answer to two questions that people have asked.
Q: What are we going to do? what can I expect when I sign up?
A: I am hosting an online reading group in February. Subscribers will get emails about it. I am also working on a few articles for this website and I will let you know when to expect emails. I am also interested in hearing who and what inspires you.
Q: You live in Europe, so is this relevant for someone in Canada or the U.S.?
A: Short answer: Yes! The long answer is that we are dealing with the same issues across the Western world, whether in Europe, North America or Australia. In some ways, Europe goes in front, but North America is never far behind. As I look at what I see happening in Northern Europe, I always keep the international and intercontinental connection in mind. When I talk with second- or third-generation Canadians, I hear people interested in their ancestors, in their roots in Europe. The aim of Europe At Midnight is to help you understand Europe better.
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