What's the story? Wasteland or Rosegarden?
The importance of the indigenous story
In Jim Memory’s article in the last edition of Vista he finished by stating, “The challenge for all of us who seek to share the gospel there (Europe), whether we are indigenous Europeans who have come from another place, or whether we have come from further afield, is to take that challenge seriously and to think indigenously.”
Transform Europe Network (TEN) works with indigenous leaders in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. The last seven years serving as CEO at TEN has given me the privilege of time with people to listen to their stories. Such experiences have shaped my perspective on how we work alongside indigenous leaders in this often-forgotten corner of Europe.
This is a knotty challenge and in spite of lots of thinking it remains so. I believe we need to bring together thinking (reason) with story. In this article, with a focus on the Balkans and the help of a T.S. Eliot poem, I want to propose that mission among indigenous people must operate within the story of the people and place concerned, as well as the resurrected Messiah story we profess. Reason can only take us so far.
“Mission among indigenous people must operate within the story of the people and place concerned, as well as the resurrected Messiah story we profess. Reason can only take us so far.”
Balkan Stories of indigenous mission: Joys and troubles
In recent years Albania has been held up as an example of significant church growth over the last three decades. Reports are of growth from about 20 believers to over 200 churches in the last 30 years.[1] Foreign mission organisations working alongside local leaders have been a central part of that story. The Albanian Evangelisation Project claims to have over 300 individual members, representing 65 organisations from 20 nations.[2] Many of these organisations, once led in Albania by foreign nationals, are now led by Albanians.
In conversation with a pastor and church planter in Albania, I was told two stories. One is where the foreign mission comes alongside the nationals and is a great blessing, the other where they try to take over, run things in parallel, or even compete with the nationals. I was told much the same thing by leaders from other Balkan nations too. A pastor in Kosovo added that missionaries from overseas can be helpful but, if they don’t hand ministries over in a timely fashion then this can move a ministry from significant impact to struggle and failure. A church leader from Novi Sad in Serbia reminded me that, once enthusiastic missionaries faced with the ‘spiritually tough ground’ have often given up. In these examples I suggest that it is the lived story of the people within the organisation that ultimately shaped their approach. Their inability to adapt to the changing story meant the work ended with disappointment and departure.
The story constantly changes
The story in the Balkans is an evolving one. Albania, once known as the ‘North Korea of Europe’, now stands out as having significantly more churches and evangelical Christians than the neighbouring nations of the former Yugoslavia. Whereas there are currently about 600 overseas missionaries in Albania, very few missionaries go to the Republic of Srpska, one of the three political divisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are a handful of churches and just a few missionaries. “It’s easy in Albania, you go and you get a crowd, and you start a church, Tirana has about 50 churches, praise the Lord but it’s easy to start a church in Tirana,” I was told by one pastor. This may be overly simplistic, but it is true that Albania has been the hotspot of evangelical church growth in the Balkans for the last two decades. The same leader observed that relatively few go to Montenegro, South Serbia, or Bosnia and Herzegovina anymore. Albania is now training more church leaders than any other Western Balkan nation. The International School of Theology and Leadership has seen hundreds of leaders graduate over the last decade and their own publicity reports over 80 churches and ministries being started which are led by alumni of their bachelor’s programme. [3]
Local leaders and those from overseas have had an impact; all the partners of TEN that I have spoken to acknowledge this. They see that missionaries from other nations have helped plant churches, equip leaders, and bring resources.
Our environment shapes the story we believe
A piece of research published in the journal Polis, in 2024 reviews the way Albania is presented in the media. Their research examined traditional outlets such as the BBC, The Guardian, and CNN as well as social media portrayal of Albania. It concluded that whilst the image presented has changed, the traditional media still offer reoccurring themes of economic challenges, organised crime, and emigration. The writers concluded that new media such as YouTube channels, social media, and blogs, offered a more nuanced picture with a more positive portrayal of the nation.[4]
“Negative narratives inform the story we believe and that includes leaders of mission organisations. We see a problem and we want to solve it.”
Negative narratives inform the story we believe and that includes leaders of mission organisations. We see a problem and we want to solve it. The simplistic version can be, “over there they are in need,” (poverty, heathen, unreached, other religion pick your rationale depending on the agency). “We must go, send resources, and help them.”
Our faith shapes the story
Followers of Jesus have the biblical story that can re-enforce those we digest from our media. As an example, we rightly understand that in our own story we are called to go (Matthew 28:16-20, John 20:21, Acts 1:8). Furthermore, we have a personal story of ‘the call’, which we can assimilate to the call of biblical heroes such as Abraham, Moses and Jeremiah. This is not necessarily wrong but it’s power over us as those still being sanctified can create significant blind spots. We need to be very careful.
This heady concoction can skew the story from reality, meaning we miss the lived experience of indigenous Christians. Driven by a narrative of clear need, theological underpinning, a sense of call, finance, and good intentions, the organisation or individual send their resources or decide how ministry should be run based on the story constructed. As an example, I have visited tens of churches in the Balkans and seen shelves full of books by mainly American authors but very few books by authors from the Balkans. Western publishers can fall foul of this. They tell themselves a story that goes something like what follows.
We have a book. It’s a good book (in our opinion) and would help the theologically resource-poor church in North Macedonia. Let’s pay for it to be translated and distributed.
Little or no research is done as to whether the book is wanted but a generous translation fee is offered to a local leader, who understandably takes up the work. The western publisher funds the print run and thousands of books are printed and distributed to local churches, donors are told how many books have been distributed and, far from the local story, the publisher and author pat themselves on the back for their good work.
A poet’s perspective
Having painted a perplexing, fruitful and at times confusing picture of mission in the Balkans, I move to consider a way forward. To do this I want to draw on the work of Eugene Peterson. In his article ‘Teach us to care and not to care’, Peterson reflects on the Christian vocation in the light of the two T.S. Eliot poems the Waste Land and Four Quartets.[5]
Peterson’s contention is that “We have gone to work with the best wills in the world, but ignorant of our environment; we think we are working in a wasteland when we are working in a rose garden. Instead of making things better, we are trampling the roses and making this worse.” [6]
I think the picture that he pulls from Eliot’s poetry speaks into the task of mission when the picture is complex and full of contradictions.
The wasteland was how Eliot saw the world before his encounter with the resurrected Christ; desolate, hopeless, chaotic, fractured. The Rose Garden is not perfect but it is a place where a gardener is at work. This is his picture of the world with a resurrection perspective.
What we see impacts our version of the story
When I read most of the publicity about mission in Europe I read on the website of mission organisations (including my own) statements like, “Europe is now the least evangelised continent on earth. It’s estimated that fewer than 2.5% of the population are Bible-believing Christians.” The statistic may well be true, although the website offers no source, so it is hard to verify.
For understandable reasons, western mission agencies often tell a partial story and one with startling and concern-raising statistics.
The underlying assumption of some missions can be that they only recognise and report that God has been at work once they have got a footprint in the city, region, or nation concerned. An example, from one of our partners in Moldova, was of a U.S. agency that sought to partner (buy out) a local ministry in Moldova and insist they take on the western model the organisation proposed. Thankfully the Moldovan ministry refused.
The resource sending approach of most mission agencies, whether people, money, books, or training, can trample some or all of what God is already doing simply because of ignorance. This may be for all sorts of reasons. Understanding the story takes time and it may not always be conducive to raising funds. One of the organisations that distribute Christmas shoeboxes insist that different children are given shoeboxes each year. Having talked to our partners who work with the organisation, this is unhelpful when seeking to build trust and relationships. Partners either have to stop using the shoeboxes or lie in their reporting.
“The resource sending approach of most mission agencies, whether people, money, books, or training, can trample some or all of what God is already doing simply because of ignorance”
Christians, whilst professing a resurrected Messiah, can inadvertently operate with a wasteland mindset that sees little of what God is doing before they show up. How can we address this?
We must know and minister in the story of the people and place concerned
How we think is important as it helps us understand truth, but it is not enough. Good theology, missiology, and sociology needs rooting in the true story to bring meaning and locate the people and place of mission within a narrative. Thinking without story can end up removing the lived experience of people from our understanding.
What if the shoebox organisation prioritised the local story over their own agenda? What if the publisher mentioned above started by learning the local story? Starting with listening to, encouraging and empowering nationals to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance on what he is doing in this particular rose garden and then seek to bring what they can with humility to the context. Jim Memory again, “Someone who is indigenous to a particular place has a special connection to the location and community. They understand the culture, the values, and the shared convictions of the people who live in that place.” In other words, they understand the stories of both their people and place much better than those from other countries. Therefore, we can work together. Partnership between indigenous Christians in the Balkans and western agencies has been, and will continue to be, important.
Evangelical Christian numbers, since the end of the wars in the Balkans, have grown slowly but are now, in most countries, recognised by their state. Their numbers are small, but they have a bigger impact in the Balkans than their numbers suggest they should. Kostake Milkov writes, “evangelicals are the most prominent in addressing contemporary social issues such as the role of women in the church, gender equality, substance abuse and addictions, domestic violence, prison ministries, and care for the elderly and other vulnerable groups.” [7] I’ve seen this at the Rainbow Rehab Centre in Novi Sad, where addicts come to faith and are set free from addiction and where the leaders of the centre have a voice in state forums seeking to address addiction in Serbia. I would suggest it is because they know their story and God’s story and operate within it most effectively.
Western resources have played their part in augmenting the profile of evangelicals in countries like North Macedonia and Serbia and this is acknowledged by all the leaders I spoke to. They told me that when they are given freedom to use resources to strengthen the local ministry it has the most impact. This can be true whether the resource is people or funding.
“when [local leaders] are given freedom to use resources to strengthen the local ministry it has the most impact.”
In Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, our partners welcome teams from other nations to support their work but it is understood by those teams that they come under the authority of the local church whilst they are there. This approach, driven by the indigenous Christians, has borne fruit within the student community of the city.
A rose garden view will understand that time is needed to consider what is happening in the garden. It will note what is already growing, even if growth is small. It will see possibility. It will acknowledge the gardener has been at work and ask, “where can I join in?”
We must know and minister in the resurrection story of God
However great we judge the need to be, and whatever the statistics say, God is at work before us and his resurrection power has been efficacious in the Balkans for two millennia.
Peterson suggests that God is already at work in the rose garden, redeeming all creation. If that is true, he goes on, then our getting involved in people’s lives and circumstances risks trampling the roses if God’s people do not both recognise God’s work before we ‘got there’ and live in the resurrection story.
A commitment to tether our thinking with humble listening to the every-changing story of the people and place, to the eternal story of the resurrection that has been planting, tending, and nurturing ahead of us, will help us in the cross-cultural task of mission in Europe for the years ahead.
James Vaughton is CEO of Transform Europe Network (https://ten-uk.org)
Endnotes
[1] https://evangelicalfocus.com/features/14419/30-years-of-rebirth-of-evangelicalism-in-albania
[2] https://aepfoundation.org/about/aep/
[4] Budini, Assoc. Prof. Dr B & Lushi, A., The International Image of Albania in New Media: A Comprehensive Analysis of Visual and Textual Representations, Polis. No. 23, Issue 1 / 2024
[5] Peterson, E. (1997). Subversive Spirituality. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Macedonia: The Witness of Evangelical Communities in Contested Balkan Identities - Fuller Studio