It is vitally important in church planting to have the right mentality. You can do the right things and be surrounded by the right people, but without a healthy mentality the church will suffer. This is especially true of church planting, where mentality takes center stage.
This is how most people describe Europe today. It’s a place where once thriving churches are being turned into clubs, bars, and youth hostels at an alarming rate. The idea behind the terminology of post-Christian is that Europe is no longer dominated by a Christian worldview.
The land of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Count Zinzendorf, Spurgeon, Whitfield, Wesley, Carey, Livingstone and Hudson Taylor, to name a few, has been swallowed up by a general secularism. Germany prepares to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and yet so little of that reform remains in the hearts of its people.
It is easy to be discouraged. Leaders in all fields, political to social, have abandoned any sense of Christianity and what is left of the Church is weak and fragmented. How can anyone start a church in Europe and succeed?
For certain we need God. We need God’s calling and anointing. We need God’s Spirit to direct us. But something often overlooked is the importance of asking God for the right mentality. If I can only see what currently exists in my community then I will be discouraged. I might even quit before getting started.
This is when having a dose of God’s mentality is vital. How does God see those people? How does God see that city or country? Does God see a post-Christian society? Or does God see a pre-revival opportunity?
Is it possible that what has been post-Christian is now pre-revival? Could it be that some of the very elements that corrupted the culture in the past could be the things used to turn the hearts of people back to God? Secularism only lasts so long before there is a longing again for spirituality. Individualism satisfies for only so long before we crave community.
Maybe Europe is on the verge of another breakthrough rather than dead with no hope of renewal. And if God is calling you to church plant how do you think He wants you to see your community? Dead and hopeless or broken and in need of grace?
A good missionary does not serve in a community because of all the great things that are already happening. No, they serve there in the hopes of all the wonderful things God is going to do. We church plant because of what God could do, not just because of what He is doing.
Maybe nothing is happening in your city. It is broken and not even aware of that fact. Ask God to give you His mentality. God has not given up. He loves the world. Maybe there is bar out there that is going to be a church someday?
Phil Metzger (@metzgerphil) is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Budapest, as well as, the ministry director of Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe in Vajta, Hungary. He has served as a full-time missionary since 1998. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he oversees Calvary church plants throughout Eastern Europe, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. His heart and ministry is focused on making disciples and seeing the church impact the world for Christ. He would like to see more churches planted in order to bring the Word of God to the lost. Phil and his wife Joy have four beautiful children: Niki, Karina, Judah, and Hannah.
