Well...I know I said I would write about Budapest, but that will be coming soon. I just wanted to share something that I am excited about and challenged by....

Saturday night we were invited over to a friend's "open house" (as they call gatherings to hang out here). It was so great because we had the opportunity to meet quite a few new people. It was also a mini-concert because several of the people had written songs and wanted to share them- and they were really good and inspiring. What talent and giftedness! Most of the people there were Christians, but as I began talking with some of them I realized again how even as Christians we can become so very lost and unsure about God.

The Norwegian culture is not always the most..."open", shall I say? So I felt so privledged when people open up and to be able to listen to them really share their hearts with me about the church and where they are at with God. It seems in many instances God has just given us favor with people and allowed them to feel comfortable being open and honest with us...even when they hardly know us! Hearing the phrase, "wow, I'm telling you a lot and I don't even know why!" has become quite common.

As we were talking, I heard a cry from both conversations of wanting so badly to be able to better hear God's voice, to be able to see and know what He is doing. Wanting this so that we can be walking in His will and that more people would really come to know Him through our lives. How discouraging it can be to try to be a Christian in an environment where it is often nearly impossible to know who has relationship with God and who doesn't. Where the silence seems to be so loud. To know where the is line between openly sharing, and letting your life speak. Tough questions. To want so badly to trust the church, yet being hurt by it and seeing so much disunity. Being tired of the church because it is beginning to look just like the worldy culture that they are trying to get away from. Wanting to be known, but feeling only known by what they can "offer". Leaving the church because it seems to be satisfied with self-maintenance and inward ways of thinking and seems to forget the call to go out and be the hands and feet of Jesus, to teach how all of the spiritual looks in the practical...these thoughts and much more they shared with me.

When I say "the church", these are different places that these individuals had personal experiences with that have caused them to feel this way, but they still feel unable to find a community that looks like what they believe a church should look like: real and Biblical. And there are many Christian students that rarely attend a church, even though they believe it to be important and that we were many for community. And many of them would say that what they miss is that community.

It is hard to hear these things, but I have struggled with many of them myself. Of course, it is easy to become so cynical or skeptical sometimes that we are unable to see the blessing that so many churches are, but they are valid concerns nevertheless. And I would venture to say that these Christians are not alone in desiring more from God, from the church.

What does this mean for the future of ministry to students? If more feel this way, then there is something missing and we are being called to be something more as the church. Something truly real and founded on Christ and Truth. Don't get me wrong, there are many wonderful churches out there doing just that, but I do believe God is calling many to something greater. Calling us as Christians to be who God calls us to be in His word: set apart...humble, broken, raw, real, prayerful, annointed, united, prophetic; both inward (personal growth), and outward... a community that the rest of the world would desire to be a part of.

I walked away from these conversation with a burden to see the church rise up and with a great hope that if more people are this thoughtful and longing for God, then this place can truly be ripe for rival. Join us in praying that God would not appear hidden to these people and that He would show Himself in all His glory. And if maybe you are feeling these things as well, unsure of what He is speaking and what it all means for your life, critcal of the church, or just tired of more of the same... ask Him to reveal Himself to you in new ways; spend time in His prescence so that you become more familiar with His voice; ask for grace for the church and for others (for none of us are perfect); ask that the church be awakened to what God wants to see happen with His community of children, and that those who don't know Him would be drawn into something that is greater than anything they have ever experienced before.

The church needs your prayers. This generation needs your prayers.

I know I want to see more, experience more, and be walking in God's will because it is the absolute best place to be. Pray for Norway, for Eruope. I believe God can use this generation to change this city, this country, the world... let's cry out to God and watch it happen. He is listening...