Logsdon students examine changes in Christianity
___ABILENE--A journey back in time shaped how seven Texas Baptist university students view the Christian church today and project their ministries into the future.
___Hardin-Simmons University's Logsdon School of Theology sponsored a month-long
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PAOLO RICCA, a professor at Waldensian Theological Seminary in Rome, shows one of three remaining copies of the first Bible printed in Italian to Diana Barr, Emily Row and Debra King.
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trip to the heart of Christian development. Four graduate students and three university seniors visited seven western European countries to study changes in the church and challenges Christians there face today.
___Their immersion in church history and contemporary European culture provided them with insights into Christianity today and inspiration for how they will minister tomorrow, they said upon their return.
___Janie and Rob Sellers, former international missionaries for a quarter-century, organized the trip. He is the Connally professor of missions at the Logsdon School, and she is a Christian educator and youth discipleship leader.
___The trip was designed to provide students with "a firsthand glimpse of various expressions of Christianity" and an introduction to "the history, cultural setting and contemporary challenges of the ancient--but not current--center of the church," Rob Sellers explained.
___They flew to Rome and then logged more than 3,000 miles by van, bus, cruise ship, ferry, canal boat, train, subway, horse carriage and foot.
___Along the w
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JULIA PALMER and Marnie Sellers (bottom photo) pose at the Coliseum in Rome.
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ay, they talked to ministers, missionaries, professors, denominational workers and agency heads.
___These leaders discussed "issues critical to the contemporary life of the church in Europe," such as interdenominational cooperation, women in ministry, the challenges of secularism and other world religions, and the responsibility to confront social problems like global violence, poverty, displaced people and religious conflict, Sellers noted.
___The students worshipped in an array of settings. They participated in a German-language lay-led baptismal service in Hamburg's largest Baptist church, an Anglican "sung mass" at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, an informal English-language international worship service in Zurich, and a Catholic praise and testimony service in a Franciscan cathedral in Salzburg.
___But the students were moved particularly by non-traditional worship, Sellers said.
___These included "standing in the cell in Rome ... where (the Apostle) Paul spent his last months, seeing the small compartment in Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther translated the New Testament, photographing the fountain where Anabaptists were drowned for their convictions, crouching down to look into the tiny closet where the Ten Boom family hid Jews during World War II and sitting in a bunkhouse at Dachau where so many (Jews) suffered atrocities."
___The students received course credit for taking the trip, reading books, keeping journals and writing papers. But they benefited the most from the experience itself and the applications they made to their own lives and God's call to them, they said.
___"This trip provided me with an opportunity to experience firsthand the Body of Christ in Europe," reported Emily Row, a Logsdon graduate student and the new youth coordinator for Texas Woman's Missionary Union.
___"This has brought me to a greater understanding of their culture, their struggles and the work they are doing," Row said. "Being in this environment has allowed me to hear about particularly pressing issues from a new perspective. I have a lot to think about as I return."
___Marnie Sellers, a student at Baylor University who joined the Hardin-Simmons group, noted the experience opened her eyes to the decline of Christianity in Europe and the need for Christian missions on the continent.
___"Most people ... consider Europe to be a predominantly Christian continent, and yet the percentage of actual churchgoers is drastically low," she explained. "When people think about mission work, they picture a hut somewhere in Africa or South America, but we discovered how desperately Europe needs the good news of Christ. Europe is a prime mission field."
___The mission field called out to Jeff Hobbs, Diana Barr and Debra King, and it may be calling to Julia Palmer.
___Hobbs, a graduate student, wants to study in England after completing his master's degree at Logsdon. Barr, an HSU senior, plans to minister with university students in Germany. King, a graduate student, feels led to minister to women and children from countries with no access to the gospel who now live in places where the gospel is available.
___Palmer, an HSU senior who grew up as a child of missionaries in the Middle East, acknowledged the trip had a dramatic impact.
___"I decided to go just because I thought it would be a fun trip," she said. "Little did I know what amazing changes in my life would occur. This trip has pretty much changed the direction my life is going.
___"I feel God is calling me to be overseas. Whether it's as a career missionary or something else, I don't know, (but) now I'm leaving my abilities with God."
___Despite overwhelming secularization, Michael Koehn, a graduate student, found hope in Europe, particularly during a praise and prayer service at the Franciscan cathedral in Salzburg.
___"To see so many young people worshipping God together, welcoming Christians of other faiths openly, and serving God freely and selflessly gave me hope that the church in Europe can indeed be restored."
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