Most of us have probably known or met someone who has lived abroad. Whether they studied in Europe for a year, or there family moved to Japan for a job, or relocated overseas because they serve in the military, or any number of reasons that cause people to uproot themselves across the world. No one can deny that living abroad is not something that does not exist especially as our world become more global. Some live overseas for a semester, others for a few years, others longer and even some for life. Some our students some are professionals, some are families and some are retired. They come from all different walks of life, age, nationality and color. What I would like for us to think for a moment is: for those who live abroad who are Christians, what do they do for church? How do they receive the preached word and the sacraments? What I want to suggest is that there is need for church planting overseas, to provide Word and sacrament to those who are strangers in a strange land and further that the planting of such churches is a international ministry, I hope what I write might encourage people and churches to involve themselves in planting Bible believing Reformed Churches in international cities around the world.
Let me begin by telling a bit of my own story, several years ago my wife and I moved to South Korea to teach English. It was during this time I became involved with a English speaking international church. It was here that I began to see the important place that such churches have. Internationals move thousands of miles away from there family and friends, into a strange land, those who are Christian then have issues because often there language skills are not good enough to attend national churches. In Korea we would meet people who would be completely isolated from any Christian teaching or fellowship because there was literal no viable church options in there area. International Churches become very close knit because they act as a surrogate family when your continents away from your own.
However these churches are not always the easiest to come by, some areas have more then others. The heavy majority of these churches are very broadly evangelical, and have dwindled down there beliefs to as little as possible in order to appeal to every person who walks through the door. The city we lived in Korea had 8 million people a huge international English speaking population and only two English speaking churches, the broadly evangelical church and the very charismatic revival style church. Finding Reformed churches oversee is very hard if sometimes impossible to come do. Allot of charismatic, prosperity gospel churches have also set up shop in these areas. In many cities around the world international have the choice between the highly interdenominational churches the prosperity gospel churches, some times even maybe a mix of both. As well as liberal denomination such as the ELCA, United Methodists and others have also started international churches overseas.
Now international churches have an incredible opportunity for ministry to global. These churches often have numerous nationalities represented. At a church in Germany you might have a American soldier sitting next to a Japanese businessmen and the other side students from India and Brazil, we can help shepherd the nations, to care for people from all around the world. It also gives the opportunity to preach the Gospel to the nations. I once met a man in Korea, he was a Pakistani cricket player who had been drafted to a South Korean team. He did not know Korean well and was one of the only non-Koreans on his team. He was far from home and become very lonely, He was fluent in English and after awhile desired interaction with other internationals, going through the culture shock he experienced. So he did something he would never have done in Pakistan and he went to a International church. While there he head the gospel and trusted in Christ. There are people living overseas who find themselves in churches when you would never have never thought about going to church in there homeland.
Often you will find allot of nationals attending international churches, sometimes they just like the church. Others because they spent time as a international themselves, you often find cross-cultural families there, families in which one parent is a national and the other is international. If through international churches we can teach and disciple these groups, they are in some ways more able to reach nationals then foreigners sometime are. IF we can disciple and train national men for leadership, Our international churches can plant national churches or provide a bilingual services, and not only minister to internationals but the larger community. I feel that international churches truly have untapped potential to reach countries with the gospel.
Now I have tried to paint a picture of why I think International Churches should be planted overseas. Often when I try to explain to people my passion for this type of ministry I feel like people are wondering if I have a brain injury. Planting expat churches is not something that has really caught on especially in Reformed circles. Now what is interesting is there is a historical precedent for starting English church in foreign countries, the Church of Scotland has an entire Presbytery of Europe and a Presbytery of Israel. The presbyteries consist of English speaking international congregations. The Church of Scotland Geneva began in the days of John Calvin as a outreach to English speaking refugees from Britain, and then was adopted by the Church of Scotland, and still a place of worship for English speakers today. There is also a Church of Scotland congregation in Rome which began in 1862. Also the Church of England has a Diocese of Europe consisting in English speaking Churches, this has existed since 1633. They have dozens of churches that span from Iceland and Portugal all the way to Mongolia, Many of the congregations having been planted a hundred or more years go. Now both of these denominations are quite liberal, I have visited some of there websites and there theology and beliefs are problematic. Yet these are again some of the options that Internationals from around the world have for Church. If Liberal Christians are making this kind of impact should not conservative Reformed Churches also be filling the need.
There are people living in Germany without a sound church right now , Dusseldorf has 11 Million people and is one of the most international cities of Europe. Yet it has only a two churches a liberal church and a watered down interdenominational church. 50% of Geneva carries a foreign passport and yet it so only has three churches two liberal churches and an evangelical church. There is need for Biblical churches in these areas and many others across the world. We don’t think twice about a Spanish church setting up shop down the street in California, because we can see that Spanish speakers are here. We must realize that we have people out there, people that are starving for pastoral care, and those who are in a opportune place to hear the gospel. These people are in Germany and Italy, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Argentine and more. Church planting in our own cities and nations is great, and I thank anyone who does it, however I think it hinders us when we see our church planting boundaries ending with our national borders, maybe we would be better off if we pushed them to our linguistic borders.
This type of ministry is hard to peg, I have approached missions committees to talk about this topic who have said this does not cover missions, go to the session. I've talked with sessions who have said, you need to go to the mission committee, one thing that I’m certain is that as the world becomes more and more global and people live more and more outside of there passport countries the need will only become greater. As Reformed Christians its time we start now, because people in your congregation who live abroad are forced into liberal, Charismatic or watered down churches or are left with no church at all.
