What Missions Looks Like in Austria

2009 July 8
by Will

I’ve been back home for a little over a week now from my mission trip to Austria. Believe it or not, it’s very difficult to raise funds for a trip to the Alps! The question people always ask is, “Why Austria?” Of course, that’s a legitimate question to ask of any mission field, I suppose, but there’s a certain stigma attached to doing missions in a beautiful, affluent place. It’s like saying, “Hey, please help fund my way to Tahiti.” Sure, Tahiti needs the gospel, but who wants to pay for you to go there?

So to help answer the question of why we went to Austria to do missions, I want to share a few charts with you.

US Religions

US Religions

Kenya Religions

Kenya Religions

Austria Religions

Austria Religions

As you can see from the three charts, Kenya and the United States both have a large majority of people who claim some form of protestant Christianity as their religion, while Austria only has less than 5% of the population who claim to be protestant. And that, of course, is broadly defining protestant. Yet for some reason, it is much easier to raise support if you tell people that you’re going to Africa than it is if you tell people you’re going to Austria. In fact, it’s even easier to get supporters for a North American mission trip (think inner city work or children’s ministry) than it is to get support to go to Europe.

The first question, then, that people usually ask is, “Of all places to do missions, why Austria?” Here are some initial answers I would give:

  • Austria has long ago rejected the gospel message. It is a very dark country spiritually, overcome with religion and superstition, but groping in darkness without the light of gospel.
  • The people of Austria are like people everywhere else — they desire to be happy; they desire relationships; they live in sin; they need a Savior.
  • The difference between Austria and many other countries that enjoy overflowing support of missions is that Austria is a very difficult mission field. In Kenya or Malawi, for example, missionaries can live there as missionaries; they can hold evangelistic preaching services, pass out tracts or whatever other form of traditional missions you can imagine and see the people respond. Not so in Austria.

We could choose a spiritually similar country, such as Mexico, and still get better response than we do with Austria. Austria needs the gospel just as much as Mexico does. Both countries have almost the same percentage of the population claiming to be protestant. However, missions in Mexico is a much easier sell than missions in Austria. Why?

The second question that people usually ask is, “What are you going to do in Austria?” People like to give money to groups that are going to build buildings or work with orphanages or hold evangelistic services. Our American culture loves to see results! We want our missions groups to come back home with reports of projects completed or professions of faith made. The often unspoken question is, “How much bang am I going to get for my buck?”

But Austrians don’t need our buildings, and they don’t want our religion. What they do want, though, is the same thing people everywhere want: relationships. And what they need is the same thing people everywhere need: Christ. We can’t build schools in Austria or hold large “revival” services. We can meet other musicians and play and sing with them and spend time with them. So here are the things we did while in Austria:

  • We took a jazz combo and played in three different schools (two middle schools and a high school). We taught jazz history and illustrated different eras of jazz for the students. Kelly, the man who headed up the trip, also taught African history and the Bible to one of the schools.
  • We took a choral group and sang at each of these schools–a treat many of them do not get to experience.
  • We worked with the choir from the local Catholic church in Fulpmes and presented a community concert the Saturday we were there. The church was packed out and people were standing in the back listening to us sing and play our instruments.
  • We invited the musicians from that church to have an American cook out with us, and they invited us to an Austrian feast with them. We got to know them, and the people who had been on the Austria trip in 2007 got to know people even better. They were able to move those relationships past the acquaintance stage into a deeper friendship.
  • We worked with two protestant churches while we were there and helped their musicians in their ministry.

So we can’t come back to the States with reports of tangible projects completed or with cards of people who made professions of faith. But we can definitely return with the knowledge that God is establishing and strengthening redemptive relationships.

While we were in Austria, I met up with a friend of mine who lives there. She was born and raised in Austria and works now in Innsbruck. I told her about what we were doing and her response was this: “We have mission teams come from the States all the time, and they get off their buses and pass out tracts and hold evangelistic meetings, and it fails every time and they just don’t get it. What you’re doing here is exactly what Austria needs.”

Sure, Austria is a beautiful country. And yes, we did take time to enjoy the scenery. But the real value of the country is not in its mountains and farms and skies, but in its people, many of whom are deeply religious, but most of whom do not know Jesus as the Messiah and Lord.

Because the vision of relationship building in Austria has been a difficult vision for American Christians to grasp, we took our trip and returned home with the trip just barely over half funded. We need to raise a significant amount of money now to pay for that trip. Here are three ways you can help support the work we have done and are continuing to do in Austria:

  1. Buy artwork from Living Expressions. Visit www.livingexpressionsonline.com to purchase some beautiful artwork for your home or office. These original works of art make great gifts, and 100% of the proceeds go to support the Austria mission team.
  2. Donate online. You can click here to make a donation directly to the Austria mission team.
  3. Write a check. If you would like your contribution to be tax deductible, simply make out your check to WRPC and send it to Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church, 3488 Godwin Blvd., Suffolk, VA 23434. Be sure to write “Austria Mission Team” in the memo portion of your check.

Here are some pictures from our trip that help show the beautiful creation God has made in Austria and the beautiful people God has also made there. Please pray for Austria!

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

from → Evangelism, Ministry, Missions, Music

6 Responses
  1. 2009 July 9
    david permalink

    Hi Will. Was interested in your description of your work, and fascinating to consider the perception people have regarding giving and missions.

    One thing I haven’t really been able to figure out is the connection to the local Catholic church. Where does that fit in to spreading the Gospel and redemptive relationships? I’m curious about your perspective on that, without knowing the extent, purpose, or connection with this church.

  2. 2009 July 16
    barrydean permalink

    Hi Will,

    Thank you so much for the work you are doing there. It looks as though Austria is much like most of the countries in Europe. They may recognize their selves as mostly Catholic but really are not even practicing their religion. It that a good estimate? I love the pictures. I recognized you in at least two of them. The Fulpmes church looks beautiful from the pictures. Again, like most of Europe, do they have beautiful churches that are sparsely occupied? I will definitely look into ways to help you guys.

    Like David above, I am curious about the extent of the work you did with the local Catholic church. What is the relationship in light of 2 Cor. 6:14?

  3. 2009 July 18
    Will permalink

    Barry, thanks so much! Our work with the Catholics in Fulpmes was an amazing opportunity to build relationships with people with whom we share a common heritage and even many common beliefs. We obviously have some significant differences with the Catholic church. However, in places like Fulpmes, the Catholic church is the cultural center of town. That’s who hosts music events and art events in many cases. We’ve been able to develop some very productive and redemptive relationships there.

    Just as a quick note regarding 2 Cor. 6:14, I’m not sure that proof-texting is a good practice to begin with. Besides that, to use that passage here without any kind of qualifier is especially dangerous, since it seems to imply that Catholic=unregenerate, which simply may not be the case. We’re trying to be very careful in our assumptions since those are precisely the people we want to build redemptive relationships with.

  4. 2009 July 21
    barrydean permalink

    Will,

    I don’t believe I am proof-texting with the question. Although I may need to elaborate. The text in 2 Cor. speaks specifically of not yoking yourself with an unbeliever, especially in spiritual endeavours. I guess I need to know what you mean by redemptive relationships. The Roman Catholic church teaches that salvation comes with Christ + mass, the sacrements, etc. The bible teaches that salvation is in Christ alone. He did it all. In that sense Catholic does = unregenerate. That is such a difficult teaching for the practicing Catholic to get past. Maybe my assumption is wrong. Based on your chart of Austria that shows 74% of the population is Catholic, does this mean practicing Catholic? Are you working with their priests? Do they even know what being Catholic means? There may have common beliefs, but the doctrine of salvation is in Christ alone is huge and should never be compromised.

    I totally agree and amen to what your missions are doing. Believe me, I know that having revivals, and passing out tracts is not the only interaction believers on a mission should be focused on. In your posting, aside from the “redemptive relationships” term, I do not read where you were you also teaching them where true redemption comes from?

    Please understand, I am not trying to be difficult. We had a similar issue arise last year when Luis Palau came to out town. His ministry allows the Catholic church to work along side the evangelical churches to evangelise the city. Even allowing the setting up of confessionals and such. It was a very difficult decisions for our elders to make. We were being pressured from neighboring churches to join arms for this event. Again, in light of 2 Cor. 6 we could not participate. With so many American churches bending and watering down the gospel in order to reach the masses, the masses are not hearing the true gospel. Instead it causes confusion and insincere conversions.

  5. 2009 July 21
    Will permalink

    Barry, I’m very thankful for your thoughtful and careful response. I need to clarify a couple of things that may help.

    First, As I said in my post, we have a long term goal in mind. We were not there to simply get conversions, but to establish relationships. We do have some goals about what those relationship should accomplish in the long term, but again, the key words are “long term.”

    Second, I must disagree with an equation that says, by default, Catholic = unregenerate. I agree with you that we are justified by faith alone. However, we are not justified by believing in the doctrine of justification by faith alone. I realize that I run the risk of being called non-Reformed here, but there are certainly people within the Catholic church who are true believers, even if they are confused in some ways about the relationship between faith and works. If someone were to ask them the famous EE question, “If God were to ask you why he should let you into heaven what would you say?” they may not respond with the “right” answer, but they may very well still believe in the saving work of Jesus’s death and resurrection. Again, if Romans 10:9-13 means anything to us as Reformed folk, it should make us very gracious with people who don’t have the same understanding of the relationship between faith and works that we have. Some of the people we met clearly believe that Jesus, God’s Son, died to pay for sin and rose from the dead. They clearly call him Lord. I must be very careful not to say, “Yes, but you don’t understand sola fide, therefore you are not saved.” I think the gospel is bigger than that.

    Third, it was not our goal to go correct all of the doctrines of the believers within the Catholic church. It was our goal to build relationships with them that God can use to strengthen them in whatever ways are necessary. For some, that may mean that as we have opportunity we can now discuss with them the nature of saving faith. For others, it may mean that through our discussions together they come to reject certain aspects of Roman Catholicism but never actually leave the Catholic church. For others still, it may mean that God has some other area of discipleship he wants to work on in them right now.

    Again, there are people in the Catholic church who are genuine believers and are saved. If we disagree on that point, then what we did in Austria simply won’t make sense. Like I said in my post, we pray along with Piper for doctrinal renewal in the Catholic church, not merely an exodus of people from the Catholic church.

    Let me offer one more brief explanation about what we did. We believe that part of the gospel is the transforming of all parts of society. It is pleasing to God when the world he created reflects his reality. Therefore, when art is done well, God is glorified. When business men and women conduct transactions in honesty and integrity, God is glorified and gospel realities are at work. When someone sacrifices of himself to help the poor, God is glorified and we see new creation realities taking place even among unbelievers. One aspect of what Jesus accomplished through his death and resurrection was the beginning of the new creation. So part of our goal was to go be culture cultivators. Even apart from “preaching” the gospel, we proclaimed new creation realities–we demonstrated gospel realities–through our art. So, to clarify, part of our mission was to create culture, not just converts. We had a two-pronged approach in that sense.

    Barry, I very much respect the difficult decision your church made when Luis Palau came to town. I remember reading about it on your blog. I know it took a lot of courage and conviction. I hope you understand, though, that the ministry model we used in Austria took just as much courage and conviction, and it was born out of just as much thoughtful reflection on the nature of the gospel and what it means to proclaim that gospel. We may end up disagreeing about how best to go about this work of building for the kingdom of God and working to see his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, but I pray that we will not come to see ourselves as being about entirely different tasks. I think we are working together towards the same goal even if we are using different tools.

    I hope that helps.

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. Austria « Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Worship Blog

Comments are closed for this entry.