Stavanger, The Mission Capital of Norway
By Allan Butterworth, Missionary, Apple of His Eye, St. Louis
On August 14-16, a group of Lutherans in Jewish Missions met in Stavanger, Norway. To me, it was the 2nd International Lutheran Conference on Jewish Evangelism. The first meeting was in Jerusalem in 2001. While this group is not directly connected to LCJE, it was formed at the suggestion of participants at the International LCJE meeting at Hofstra in NYC in 1999. Some of us spent some time together at the LCJE meeting in Helsinki in 2003.
We met in a beautiful retreat center on a beach in Western Norway. The weather was unusually pleasant as we were truly refreshed and encouraged. Perhaps it helped that I could not get Internet access! We spent some time sightseeing and enjoying the beach. All of us put on a few pounds as the food was wonderful! The retreat center is owned by the Norwegian Mission Society (NMS).
Stavanger is known as the mission capital of Norway because so many missionaries come from this area. In fact, several of the participants were not at all far from home. I found it fascinating that our hosts, the Norwegian Church Ministry to Israel, or NCMI, did not send out their first missionary until almost 50 years after it was formed! NMS and NCMI each recently celebrated their 150th anniversary.
While we missed several participants who were not able to attend, everyone was grateful for several aspects of this conference. We were able to share some highlights of our ministries and strategize about our common Jewish mission work, and we were able to get to know one another and our ministries in a much more personal way. As a result, some very important partnerships are being developed that we hope will be mutually beneficial.
The theological issues we discussed (especially the discussion of Romans 11 led by Prof. Andrew Bartelt) challenged each of us and helped us grow closer to one another. We spent time in prayer, and we listened to personal testimonies and stories of Jewish people who have received the Gospel as a result of our work.
We visited the School for Missions and the Headquarters of the NMS, each of which was close. They send missionaries and train church leaders to do mission work around the world. The School offers programs at the undergraduate, masters and PHD level. We heard a fascinating presentation by one of the faculty. They have discovered an unusual interest throughout Africa in the Hebrew Scriptures, and are beginning to study the implications of this for Jewish missions.
As a group, we met with two key leaders of NMS to challenge them to invite partner churches around the world to get involved in Jewish Missions. It appeared that some real progress was made during this meeting for some increased cooperation.
If you have been around LCJE for a while, you would have recognized several familiar faces. At times, seeing Kai Kjær-Hansen, Bodil Skjøtt, Steve Cohen, Torkild Masvie and Rolf Heitmann made me think I was at an LCJE meeting. But it was also very refreshing to hear from so many new people, and to talk freely about ‘Lutheran’ issues that we are so used to keeping to ourselves. It was good to spend time not being in the minority, or being ashamed of who we are.
Perhaps the most stimulating question came from Bodil. What are the theological and practical implications of Jewish people losing their Jewish identity? This happens without mission work, as more and more Jewish people are becoming more secular. But it also happens as some Jewish people join churches. Should we, as missionaries, do something to encourage Jewish people to maintain their identity? How? What is Jewish identity? This opened more questions than answers, but for me, this is an area with implications in every area of our ministry.
We spent some time talking about how we can get more Lutherans to attend the next Lutheran Conference on Jewish Evangelism, perhaps in Africa in 2009. We also talked about meeting at the LCJE in Budapest to encourage the local Lutheran Churches to get more involved in Jewish evangelism. Geza Endreffy has asked that each of us speak in a church when we come to Budapest.
So was it worthwhile? Yes!
Would I recommend others try this? Definitely!
Alan Butterworth
PhilemonV6@aol.com