Cross Cultural Reports: Nathan Lyons

Each year in the summer between their second and third year our students go on a cross cultural placement to enable them to see and experience ministry in another context. This week we hear from Nathan Lyons:

My name is Nathan Lyons, and this summer I travelled to Frankfurt for a cultural placement with River of Life Church. River of Life is a multicultural, English-speaking church plant in the heart of Frankfurt. They meet every Sunday in a rented school building to worship God together.

Throughout my time, I met with church people from many different nationalities. During the week nights, I attended various River Groups at which I had the opportunity to lead a Bible study. It was helpful to be given the opportunity to preach in both River of Life and Converge International Churches. I learnt a lot from these opportunities, especially how to minister to people from a variety of cultural backgrounds.

Throughout the week the River of Life staff team also invested time to teach me what international ministry looks like. This included a seminar from Sam, the Lead Pastor at the time, who gave the background of what church planting looks like in an international context. He particularly emphasised the need to understand biblically what a church looks like before planting. He helpfully noted, “You can’t build on common culture and common thinking, but you can build upon the simplicity of the gospel”.

During the week I spent extended periods with Alex Stephenson, who is now the lead pastor of River of Life, learning from his pastoral experience. It was useful to talk about other ministry-related topics such as preaching and how to organise your time well. This was also accompanied by attending the weekly staff meeting to understand and observe the behind-the-scenes mechanics of an international church.

I learned so much during my time, such as the challenges and encouragements of planting a church in an international context. However, I also learned a lot practically such as:

(1) The importance of being intentional in discipleship in such a transient congregation. This was a helpful consideration, in the context of church ministry, and how to disciple people well so that they mature in their faith.

(2) I need to be simple in my explanation of a biblical passage. Whatever setting I preach God’s word in it is helpful to consider that there may be people there who have English as their second language. Therefore, it is a good reminder to think about the language and the words I use.

(3) There are unreached people groups right on our doorstep. In the last number of years, we have seen the nations coming to us in the UK and Ireland. It is a good reminder that wherever I am called to minister, I must be conscious of caring for and reaching those who come from other cultures.

There is much more I could say but overall, my experience in River of Life was extremely formational and it stimulated much thinking, particularly regarding future ministry. I would highly recommend experiencing a church in a different context to your own. It not only gives you ideas for ministry but gives you a bigger view of God’s global church that he is building. As the apostle, John said when he had that glorious vision in Revelation,

⁹ After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10)