Recently the Lord has been teaching me about encouragement. Last week my new team spent three days in Thessaloniki, Greece, and together we studied 1 Thessalonians right there on site. Lemme tell ya, the Word had never felt so alive and relevant to me. We began in Acts 17 which tells of Paul’s three week stay in Thessalonica, boldly proclaiming the news of the resurrected Messiah to the Jews and Gentiles. While in Thessalonica, Paul is quickly met with extreme opposition for proclaiming there is a king besides Caesar, and he is so heavily persecuted that he‘s forced to flee the city for his safety. Three weeks is enough time, however, for him to raise up new believers to lead the new Thessalonian church.
Fast forward a year or so, and Paul hasn’t been back to check on the new church in Thessalonica for reasons of safety and Satan’s hindrances (2:18) and also (I‘m guessing) his preoccupation with other important things like planting dozens of other churches and writing a huge portion of the New Testament. Busy man that Paul. Still, the Thessalonians remain heavy on his heart and in his prayers. He regularly sends messengers like Timothy back to encourage the new church and bring him updates about how they’re doing, knowing firsthand of the persecution they would be facing there.
Timothy brings back the news that, yes, the Thessalonian Church is facing immense persecution, but much to Paul’s delight, they are persevering, growing, and remaining steadfast in their faith in Jesus Christ. They’re truly thriving.
Chapter 3 of 1 Thessalonians is all about how the very news of the success of the Thessalonians’ progress as a church is enough to keep Paul and his ministry going. Simply knowing that, despite extreme oppression, Paul’s Thessalonian brothers are thriving is enough encouragement for Paul and his community to press on and continue fighting the good fight. Likewise, his letter back to them is encouragement for them to continue persevering.
This made me realize what an opportunity we have to minister to other believers throughout the world through simple encouragement and, at the very least, acknowledgement. Over the past six months, I’ve visited over a dozen different churches on three continents, and one of the things they all had in common was how excited they were to have guests from the States show up at their church. Of course, we felt like we were the lucky ones, observing and engaging in worship as they do each week, but many times we felt like guests of honor, seated in the front, introduced to prominent church leaders, and oftentimes fed a nice meal after the service. On Easter Sunday the church we attended in Indonesia even gave Lindsay a blender as a door prize. Nothing says “He is risen” like a brand new “smoothie machine” as Kate calls it. But that’s a story for a different day.
Many of the members of these various churches would come up to us after the service, marvel that we were from the States, and ask what could have possibly led us to walk into their seemingly insignificant church. Amazed at the nature of our Unscripted journey, many would share detailed stories of their hurts and struggles as a community and ask us to pray with them. Simply meeting believers from another country and joining together in godly unity was a huge encouragement for them and reminded them that they are not alone or forgotten about. Not only does God see and adore these churches, He sends believers all across the globe as reminders that we are all standing together as one body of Christ. I never understood why these churches would treat us so benevolently, especially in the services we weren’t particularly “serving” in. Now I realize that merely showing up was serving them.
After Greece, my team spent three days in Skopje, Macedonia, and we attended a worship/intercession service at the International House of Prayer. We spent two hours worshiping and praying with strangers for God to protect Macedonia from becoming a predominantly Muslim nation (like its neighboring country Albania) by raising up Christian leaders in government. Afterwards, over a slice of cake, we introduced ourselves and listened to a few locals share about the history of Macedonia and Albania. They expressed their gratitude for our standing with them in their prayers and before we left, they prayed a blessing over us as we move on to our next countries.
Ordinarily I may have walked away from that service feeling less than purposeful knowing I hadn’t left them with any eloquently proclaimed words of encouragement or a profound blessing from God. But this time, I was reminded that unity in the body of Christ is itself authentic encouragement. In my experience, any time Christians from multiple nations join together to worship and pray, all the groups involved find courage and motivation to continue pursuing the call of God for their lives.
Simply reminding people who are struggling that they are seen and supported is more impactful than we often realize. I’ve been learning this in the corporate church setting, but the same is true for individual relationships. God created us for community, so whenever we are reminded that we are not alone in our struggles, that itself is encouragement to persevere.
Togetherness is a beautiful thing, my friends! I’m praying this for the American church – to stand in unity with each other and with our brothers and sisters across the globe. Christians are the ones who show up. And showing up is easy!
Thank you all for standing with me and my team as we travel throughout Europe! I’ve been so encouraged by you!
