What is this Berlin Business-as-Mission thing?

“The cross must be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church.” - George McLeod

One of the most exciting things for the ReachGlobal-Berlin team is a partnership with National Community Church in Washington, D.C., to create a new platform for ministry.  This is an incredible story of convergences, i.e. God-stories, which are bringing together a like-minded team to experiment with another way to impact post-Christian Europe.

We each bring a unique story to how this began.  My starting point for this was my graduate studies in urban theology.  The idea of God “bringing peace on our cities” (Jer 29:7) through the gospel working in His people, opened my eyes to explore ministry more holistically.  I have a keen-and-true church planting passion and commitment, yet widening the front-door toward this has been a good journey for me.

Dan Kimball (They Like Jesus But Not the Church) explains that post-Christianity has widen the gap between the church and culture to the point that misperceptions and distrust have created a great chasm. This chasm can be crossed through authentic relationships usually outside the setting of the church. The church tradition often positions the church for people to come-to-us to engage in relationships. The challenge (in post-Christian Europe) is to go-to-them, or to create safe environments outside the suspicion of the church to engage in community together.

So as I converge with this like-minded business-as-mission team, my hopes are to create a safe place, often called a ‘third place’ for the church to cross paths with unchurched people.  The business part is important so that we can create the environment and model life in the marketplace.  Part of the hope is for business to give back profits directly to help the local neighborhood (e.g. service to the needy).  It is also an active place of community and dialog about conversations that matter.

The other team members bring more creative ideas into a melting pot of innovation.  The journey is organic and filled with a strong sense is that God is taking us somewhere in our dialog.  We are aggressive moving ahead, yet have a spirit of waiting on the Lord to synergize our discernment and creativity with the specific opportunities in Berlin.  There are exciting days ahead as we discover this together.

Note: John Hasler will be leading this effort for the Berlin team.  This is a direct mission effort of National Community Church.  John is moving to Berlin in late-2010 and will remain part of the NCC movement while serving on the ReachGlobal team.