Eastern European Perspectives
To what degree did you hear the voices of Eastern Europeans, and how prominent were they?
Slavko Hadžić: Just under 1/3 of all participants at the Lausanne 20/21 gathering were from Central and Eastern Europe. As the percentage of born-again Christians across Eastern Europe is much smaller than in Western or Northern European countries, this shows that the organising committee put effort in to mobilising participants from Eastern Europe. It was good, encouraging and refreshing that their voices and perspectives could be heard in all the parts of the programme.
However, the number of speakers from Central and Eastern Europe did not reflect the percentage of participants. We do not have many Christians in Eastern Europe with higher academic education but we do have many practitioners with a lot of experience. It was good that we heard some of the practitioners beside academics from Eastern Europe (and other parts as well). Perhaps we can have even more in the future, as we need both academic knowledge and practical skills. From the other side, if we want the voice of church in Eastern Europe to be heard, we have to recognise the need to encourage and help to increase the number of academics among Christians in the region.
Peter Pristiak : As delegates from Slovakia, we watched the whole event together (although from the comfort of our living rooms), so we could evaluate the Gathering together and apply what was of particular benefit to our country. The Gathering encouraged us!
Since Eastern Europe is still a younger brother of democratic Europe, we are in the process of learning many new things. Over the last 30 years, we have received a lot of help from democratic European and other world countries. However, as in a regular family, the Eastern European church is taking more responsibility for global mission and a lot of leaders are growing up. We are thankful for those who were partners in preparation of the Gathering and involved in preaching and teaching. However, if by the expression “Eastern Europe” we understand all the satellites of the former Soviet Union plus some other countries of Eastern and Central Europe (as Austria), then this voice was not very strong.
Perhaps it would be good to focus not only on specific mission projects, activities, or individuals in Eastern Europe, but also on how mission movements are becoming a matter of cooperation between various denominations in these countries. In the post-communist countries, there is still a tradition of good relations between the churches. We remember the cooperation of Christians in former Czechoslovakia (before 1989). Believers knew one another, and this special “networking” may still exist in some form
What voices and perspectives did you hear that surprised you, and what was missing?
PP: The voice of the young generation was both a surprise and an encouragement to us and confirmed Jim Memory’s statement in his Europe 20211 report “re-evangelisation of Europe depends on this next generation. We must release them into leadership.” There was an interesting talk about the church planting movement in Europe (including Eastern European countries), especially the dream “where reproduction and multiplication become the norm in the language of the church in Europe”. The challenge of the same importance for many churches in Eastern Europe is a church revitalisation.
The idea of ‘muted voices’ was also new to us. One of the Slovak delegates wrote: “It was nice to hear the voice of Jews in Church. We realise that we need to be more and more one in Christ - Jews and Gentiles as well. We need to be grateful for salvation coming from Jews, pray for them and involve ourselves in any capacity to serve Jews, and be one with those that have received The Messiah, despite our differences.”
We found the testimonies of ‘diaspora church’ very interesting, as this is a new expression for us. Asian and African migrants are only very slowly coming to Eastern Europe, but, this may change in future decades.We were challenged to create partnerships with “diaspora churches”. In Slovakia this means to cooperate with Korean, Serbian, Ukrainian churches and above all the growing church planting movement among the Roma people, who, although they have lived in Europe for centuries and are one of the largest minority ethnic groups, are still considered foreigners.
There was a good seminar at the Gathering called “Alongside Roma Christians: Working together for Holistic Change in Roma Communities” (Radko Kratsov and Melody J. Wachsmuth). This idea of “working together” could help develop the level of cooperation among native and Roma church fellowships and it would have been good to have heard more about church planting among the Roma in Europe.
Finally while there were some seminars about using the Media to communicate the Gospel, we expected more information about presentation and style of communication.
SH: Some seminars addressed issues we do not often hear about, like responding to the challenge of nominal Christianity, winning second generation diaspora for Christ or addressing human trafficking.
Some issues facing us (i.e. Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Islam, migrants...) were well addressed at the seminars, however it would have been good to have had some seminars on topics such as working in post-communist contexts and the challenges of small national churches.
How was your perspective of the role of Eastern European leaders in the mission of the church changed by the gathering?
SH: In most cases the missionaries from outside Eastern Europe are a great help to local churches and believers, however, at the Gathering we saw that we also have a lot of indigenous resources in Eastern Europe.
These have the benefit that there is no need to learn the language and/or culture, but the challenge is that they often lack financial resources and depend on help from other countries. Local churches and organisations therefore often invite organisations and leaders from the West to help them in training, outreach, and the running of public and church events.
We need to find ways to better support indigenous mission work, and how to encourage churches and organisations to use more indigenous resources.
“All our expressions of Christianity are culturally shaped. We need to understand that.”
PP: As one of the Slovak delegates said: “We could lift our heads and see the reality from a broader perspective”. The Gathering encouraged us in our determination to preach the Gospel – by words and ministry – and to contextualise its message without changing its truth.
We were challenged to preach very plainly about our new identity in Christ in order to counter the influence of unhealthy nationalism that divides the society into “us and them”. In this sense, it was enriching to see how many people of non-European nations and cultures are involved in the mission in Europe. To look at people of other ethnic groups as our true brothers and sisters in Christ can be a challenge for Eastern European Christians.
We were also encouraged by testimonies of Eastern Europeans involved in the public sphere (business, culture, science, politics ...). It is a challenge for us to pray and look for ways to be actively involved in society around us. We are “not of the world, but are sent to the world” (John 17:16,18).
How will the insights from the gathering impact your ministry going forward and what will you do differently?
PP: The Gathering informed, encouraged and inspired us, in particular:
Focus on diaspora churches in Slovakia; The expression “diaspora churches” inevitably leads us to re-evaluate our attitude towards immigrants and refugees, but also towards people from other ethnic groups living in our country - especially towards the Roma people.
Invest more in the younger generation: To communicate and cooperate with the younger generation takes time and energy. Are we ready to do it?
Trust the power of the Gospel: Is the Gospel at the centre of our lives and our churches, or do we need a revitalisation - to bring the Gospel back to the centre? Are we ready to share the Gospel with people around and do we plant new churches and support church planting movements?
SH: It was educational to hear new perspectives, encouraging to meet new leaders, inspiring to hear from each other and we are being challenged to act. I am encouraged to strengthen existing and find new connections and partnerships throughout the region and Europe; and to use resources from the Conversation and th Gathering for equipping the church and spreading the Gospel.
Endnotes
Memory, J., (2021) Europe 2021 - A Missiological Report [online]
https://www.europeanmission.redcliffe.ac.uk/latest-articles/
Peter Pristiak is a pastor of a small Evangelical fellowship (Brethren Church) in east Slovakia. His pastoral ministry was influenced by one year study at All Nations Christians College (1991/92) and although he never planned to be a missionary, he tried to be a “missional” pastor. For several years he was helping with the Roma church planting ministry. Peter and Renata have three adult children, and one of their biggest enjoyment is spending time with their two grandsons - Jonas and Benjamin.
Slavko Hadžić is evangelist and preacher. He lives in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he was pastoring Evangelical church for 15 years. His ministry is focused on evangelism (with FEUER - Fellowship of Evangelists at Universities of Europe), training of evangelists in the region (with association Good News) and training of preachers (he is Langham Preaching regional coordinator for Southern Europe). Slavko is married to Sanja and they have two grown children Jovana and David. He is co-author of the evangelistic book “Cross on a hill”.