A 1500-Year-Old Mission Strategy

How many of us have some Irish blood? What about Scottish, or Welsh? In 1995 a book was published called How The Irish Saved Civilisation: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role From The Fall Of Rome To The Rise Of Medieval Europe. Basically, this is how the story goes.

In the fifth century, “barbarian” tribes – the Goths, Visigoths, Huns etc. - infiltrated Europe and weakened the Roman Empire. In 476 AD, the last emperor was deposed and Rome’s influence ceased. Christianity had been the religion of the empire and had spread with the empire, so Christianity collapsed as well, giving way to paganism. Europe entered what we call the Dark Ages. Libraries were ransacked. Much of the cultural achievements of Greece and Roman were lost. Faith was largely lost.

Except that, just beyond the boundary of the Roman Empire, Christianity and culture and scholarship were flourishing – surprisingly enough, in Ireland. It was the monks and scholars of Ireland who preserved Europe’s cultural heritage and who re-evangelised Europe. It was the Irish who re-introduced Christianity to Europe. Saint Patrick started a remarkable Celtic missional movement that spread the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout Britain and Europe and lasted for 500 years. “Celtic” meaning, essentially, the people of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, even Cornwell and Brittany in France.

Patrick was not Irish. He was from Roman Britain but he was captured and taken as a 16-yar-old slave to Ireland where he spent longer periods out in the field tending sheep and cattle. There, on his own, God spoke to him and he was converted. Years after escaping, he returned to Ireland to take the gospel to the Irish people whom he had come to love as his own people. He travelled extensively and established over 300 churches and Christian communities. Those communities are called monasteries but do not get the wrong impression; they were not places where monks retreated from the world. On the contrary, they were communities made up of Christian men, women and children who sought to live out the teaching of Jesus together. They practiced the “one another” commands: love one another, forgive one another, carry one another’s burdens and so on. They nurtured each other in their growth as Christians; they worshipped and celebrated together. It was strong community but it was not simply inward-looking. They were highly missional. They served the local communities. They provided education and health care. They trained missionaries and sent out teams to take the gospel to other places where they would set up another community; and they offered hospitality. Non-Christians were welcomed and honoured in the community. But, while they were there, they saw Christianity in action and they heard about Jesus. The quality of the community gave Christianity credibility. The community itself was a great witness.

Patrick was often in danger. It was a hostile pagan environment but Ireland was largely converted and Christian communities continued to spread. Our environment is becoming more pagan and more hostile.

About 130 years later, Columba, went, with a team, from Ireland to convert the Picts of Scotland. He established a monastery on the island of Iona. It was of a similar style – a Christian community where Christians encouraged and taught one another, cared for one another, served the community, trained missionaries to go and preach the gospel and establish further communities, and welcome guests who could see Christianity modelled in real life. Columba and those he trained, largely converted Scotland.

About the same time, another Irish missionary, Columbanus, took the gospel to Europe. He established 50 monasteries across France, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. Again, he did not do this alone. The pattern was that teams of about 12 were sent out and worked together. Columbanus was an adviser to kings and rulers and promoted a vision for a united Europe. He taught about a loving God, willing to forgive all those who repent. This was the beginnings of the re-conversion of Europe.

One of those trained at Iona was Aidan. He was invited to bring the gospel to northern England. Aidan established a monastery at Lindisfarne and sent out mission teams that evangelised northern England and, to some extent, further down into England, again establishing a network of these Christian communities.

You might have heard of the Lindisfarne Gospels. They still exist. The monks copied manuscripts thus preserving the knowledge and culture that had been lost on the continent.

It is a remarkable story. God preserved the gospel and culture in a backwater named Ireland and from that outpost, beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, the gospel was brought back to Europe. Ireland, which had been known as a land of wild, uncivilised people, became known as the land of saints and scholars.

The Celtic missionary movement was not affiliated with Rome. It was an indigenous church with some beliefs and practices that differed from those of the Roman Church. It lost some momentum when Roman practices were imposed. It was decimated later, in the nineth and tenth centuries, when the Vikings raided many of the monasteries plundering their treasures and manuscripts. Nevertheless, Celtic Christianity continued down through the centuries and there has been a resurgence of interest in recent years.

We have to be careful. Some of the current interest in Celtic spirituality focuses on the pagan spirituality prior to their conversion. Even some of the focus on Celtic Christianity focuses on an inward-looking, bless me faith rather than the passionate missional spirituality of Patrick, Columba, Aidan etc. But, having said that, are there lessons we can learn? There are movements and churches today that are reclaiming many of the principles and methods of this ancient Celtic Christianity.

1. They were a deeply spiritual people.

The Celtic Christians had prayers for every moment in life: getting up in the morning and going to bed, for when they were cooking and when they were milking the cow. It was not just empty ritual; it was their way of bringing God into every aspect of life and submitting every aspect of life to Him. Life was lived in the presence of God. They obeyed Pauls instruction to pray continually.

Their prayers were often very poetic and drew a lot from their deep love for nature and the environment.

Their prayers and their whole lives were very biblical. We see their love for scripture in their copying of manuscripts but they also memorised large parts of the Bible, they taught the scriptures and they sought to be faithful to scripture in their living and their understanding.

2. Their community life gave them credibility

As I have said, in their communities they endeavoured to live biblically including practicing all of the “one another commands”. People saw their love and unity, their forgiveness of one another, their sharing of possessions and the ways they supported one another. They glimpsed the Kingdom of God.

The community witness was especially powerful for those who were welcomed as guests and who were ministered to and who could see these relationships first-hand.

In our society, people are sceptical. Christians say certain things but they do not seem to live them. Our media shows Christians acting in ways that seem foolish or hypocritical. Could we rebuild credibility?

Acts 2:42-47

⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 4 adds that there were no needy people among them because they shared everything. The emphasis is in not on the words they preached (although they did). The emphasis in on their togetherness. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Biblical community is a powerful witness.

I think we see the same thing in 1 Thessalonians 1. The gospel had come to Thessalonica in power. People had been transformed and everyone throughout the two provinces of Macedonia and Achaia knew it. Paul said, “You have become imitators of us and the Lord”. They had committed to copying Christianity as they saw it in Paul. More than that, they had committed to copying Jesus. A few verses earlier, Paul had talked about their work produced by faith, their labour prompted by love and their endurance inspired by faith. As a result, they had become a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. Their faith in God had become known, and talked about, everywhere.

Part of their witness was their love for one another – their community. In chapter 4, Paul said…

1 Thess 4:9-12

⁹ Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. ¹⁰ And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more… ¹²so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders.

3. Their love extended to those outside the community

Patrick is an example. The Irish were his captors, but he loved them enough to go back to them and he talked as if he was one of them. They were his people. He would defend them. Many of these Celtic missionaries mixed with the poor and disreputable – like Jesus, “the friend of sinners”.

New monasteries were formed near existing towns. Christians shifted into new neighbourhoods so as to love and serve the people there. They adopted the language and the images of the people they were reaching out to. They made every effort to relate. They became all things to all people so as to win some.

4. The monasteries prioritised spiritual formation and mission.

The monasteries cared, served, worshipped etc. but a priority was that they were centres of training. Christians were trained in the scriptures, trained in Christian living and trained to be missionaries.

For example, each Christian had an anam cara, a soul friend, a peer with whom you would spend time and to whom you would be vulnerable and accountable – someone who would support and challenge you. They were serious about their responsibility to disciple one another.

And they specifically trained people for mission. They sent out teams where the gospel had not been heard. Those teams would establish another community, serve the people and talk about Jesus.

There is lots more to it. You might want to do more research because a movement that evangelised Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and large parts of pagan Europe and that spread for 500 years might have something to teach us. Think of this church. What might be the impact if we made commitments to:

1. Deep spirituality – people of the Word; people of prayer.

2. Biblical community (and inviting people into that community). Are people in Te Anau blown away by the depth of caring and sharing and ministry to one another that happens in this church?

3. Passionate love for those outside the church

4. Intentional training of Christian disciples (including prioritising mission into the world)?

One model that seems to have rediscovered many of the elements of the Celtic missionary movement is “missional communities”. You might be familiar with it or you might like to research it. Christians don’t necessarily live together but regularly come together to worship, minister to one another, care for one another, help each other grow in their faith – just like the gatherings of the New Testament church. There is a strong commitment to biblical community. But they also have a clearly defined mission as a group. It might be to a particular street or neighbourhood, or they might join the local drama club or environmental group. They constantly bring it before God. They mix with non-Christians and serve them. When there is opportunity, they talk about Jesus and they invite people to their community where those people see Christianity being lived out. It seems very similar to the Celtic model. In many places, God is using it, maybe because community and mission are deeply biblical and, hand-in-hand, they work.