Why Ireland?

“Catholicism was once so all-pervading in Irish life that it seemed a definition of Irishness: but now, according to a survey by the pollsters Red C, the Irish are losing their faith quicker than most: seven years ago, 69% of Irish people described themselves as ‘religious’: this has now fallen more than 20 points to 47%.”

Mary Kenny, ‘The End of Catholic Ireland’ The Guardian 8 Aug 2012

“Statistics on weekly Mass attendance have revealed an overall decline over the last 30 years, which is most marked in urban areas. A 2006 Poll conducted by the Irish state broadcaster RTE revealed that 48% of those surveyed attended mass at least weekly, as compared to 81% in 1990. A 2011 Survey found weekly attendance rates in the Dublin area to be 14%.”

faithsurvey.co.uk

“A man waves the rainbow colored flag as he celebrates a landslide victory of a Yes vote after the referendum on same sex marriage was won by popular ballot vote by a margin of around two-to-one at Dublin Castle on May 23 [2015] in Dublin, Ireland. The referendum saw 62.1 percent of Irish voters say 'yes' to changing the nation's constitution to define marriage as a union between two people regardless of their sex. With the move, Ireland became the first country in the world to approve gay marriage in a popular national vote.”

nbcnews.com, 2 June 2015

The Republic of Ireland is a nominally Catholic country with the smallest percentage of evangelical Christians of any English-speaking country worldwide. Empty ‘religion’ in some circles and the economic boom and crash of the Celtic Tiger has resulted in cynicism and ambivalence among many Irish. It’s common to see mistrust both of church authority and the promise of economic prosperity. However, views on faith among the Irish are becoming less cultural and more authentic and explicit as individuals either move away from the church completely or desire a deeper experience with God.

Serge Ireland has a primary focus of strengthening the Irish church in all of her expressions and supporting Irish believers as they engage their neighbors with the gospel. 

Just back from Dublin!

“So what do you do?” ask the people I’m sharing a meal with at a local restaurant. “Oh, I’m a Presbyterian minister and seminary professor, but I focus on theological education in the developing world, so I travel a lot.” That's about as much as I figure the average person I've just met is interested in hearing. But in fact many of them are curious for more: “Yes, but what do you actually teach them when you get there?” they ask. “Well... mainly I teach them to read the Bible for themselves, so that people in Africa or India or wherever can relate to God in their own cultural ways and aren’t dependent on white westerners’ ways of understanding Christianity or doing church.” “Wow,” they say to my surprise. “That’s so great!” I have this conversation more often than you would think, since I’m involved with several community groups here in Charlottesville and meet lots of mostly not-church-attending people. Ironically it’s often the enthusiasm of these people – who have no specific faith or commitment to Christ – that God uses to remind me just how unique and exciting the call he’s given me really is. I get to help train the next generation of leaders for the global church. Amazing.

As you’ve probably heard, in my new role as a missionary 'theological education specialist' I’ll be based with Serge's team in Dublin, Ireland. Sounds a bit random, I know. But in the Lord’s wisdom, the Republic of Ireland is actually a great place for me to be home-based with Serge. I’ll help train people planting new churches among Ireland’s post-Catholic and unevangelized communities (see more below), and it puts me five time zones and seven hours by plane closer to Africa, Asia and post-Christian Europe, where for most of each year I’ll be teaching and helping with various aspects of leadership training for church planting. And, I get the personal support and encouragement of being part of Serge’s team in Dublin. It’s a win-win-win.

Or, I will do all that, as soon as God puts together the sending team for this new ministry. Maybe you sense he’s nudging you to be part of this? Thank you! One-time gifts are great, and ongoing monthly or yearly pledges are even better, because it’s that assurance of ongoing support that tells Serge and World Outreach when they can ‘release’ me to move overseas. I hope to have enough promises for ongoing support by the end of the year so that I can begin in January 2017. But I won’t get to go unless those promises are made. Would you be willing to prayerfully consider what role God may be asking you to play in this work? Thanks!

My big news right now is that I’m just back from a whirlwind one-week visit to Dublin and the Serge team there to begin to see how I can fit into what they’re doing in church planting and theological education. I got to meet most of the Serge people at their prayer day when I arrived on Wednesday (Apr 13), had a wonderful time staying with and getting to know Tom & Vicki Gilliam, the Dublin team leaders for Serge, met leaders of Irish Bible Institute in Dublin on Thursday, met with the Gilliams’ Irish pastor on Friday, attended a day-long conference on 'history, faith and the arts in Ireland' on Saturday, worshipped with a new Irish Presbyterian church (a recent church plant) on Sunday, drove to Belfast, Northern Ireland, with Tom on Monday to meet with the principal and the academic director of Belfast Bible College, and flew home on Tuesday (Apr 19). Crazy, but it was great. I think the biggest and sweetest surprise for me was discovering how much they want me there and how many ideas they have for things they're hoping I can help with based on my theological education background and ministry experience. It's nice to be wanted!

Now for the immediate future my main responsibility - besides teaching my online courses for Fuller Theological Seminary (which I love) and writing the thesis for my MA in higher-education ESL (which, um, I rarely get around to working on) - is to keep taking steps forward to discover the support team God’s bringing together for this ministry. I’ve been reaching out to churches and individuals, including some of you. This weekend I’ll have a display table at the Mid-Atlantic Presbytery meeting of my Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), and in June I’ll go before the EPC’s annual General Assembly to be commissioned as a missionary with EPC World Outreach. Please pray with me for the right balance between trusting God for the outcome in terms of support-raising and doing the work I need to do. It’s a challenge spiritually and emotionally, as you can probably imagine. Yeah.

And while you’re praying, here’s my upcoming travel schedule, which I’d love your prayer for as well:

• April 29-30 EPC Mid-Atlantic presbytery - Richmond, VA
• May 12-17 Visiting friends and long-time partners - Reading, PA
• May 28 - June 4 Triennial conference for all member of Serge - Seville, Spain (my chance to start getting to know people and exploring how I can serve Serge's various fields in terms of theological education)
• June 21-25 EPC General Assembly, Livonia, MI (World Outreach commissioning, Thursday, June 23)
• June 30 - July 31 Teaching hermeneutics at South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS) - Bangalore, India 

(Reading, PA, friends, I'm looking forward to seeing you! Email me back so that we can make a plan to get together, OK?)

Thank you so much! I’m putting one foot in front of the other in trust that this is God’s call on my life at this point, and waiting – more or less patiently on any given day – to see how he’s going to make it happen. So grateful for your encouragement along the way.