Several non-denominational African churches have discovered an interesting means to fund church planting. They send a pastor here and have him claim refugee status.

Futbol is not only spelled differently on this island, it’s played differently as well…they actually use their feet.

We Americans mistakenly call it soccer, which is incorrect. Along with that we don’t take it as seriously. Sadly, “sports hooliganism” is a newly arisen problem on Cyprus; and it has cost the government, as well as the teams, a significant amount of money to combat the violence and the vandalism that characterize it. There is little public support for that type of activity and there are on-going legislative measures designed to counter it.

Speaking of futbol, the Omonia Club won the Cyprus Champions Cup for the first time in seven years, and their fans have been celebrating for two weeks. The night they won, the horns and celebrations lasted until 4:30 in the morning; and the loud conversations slightly longer as people returned to their cars. It was repeated Sunday evening when the Omonia Club was officially presented with the cup. Needless to say there were fewer cars on the road Monday morning. My bet is absenteeism on Monday was pretty common among Omonia fans.

Had a meeting with the broader Evangelical Alliance of Cyprus today. The meeting was held at the Nicosia Mercy Centre…it’s an outreach supported by seven, very small, churches in Nicosia. The centre focuses on helping the indigent directly, especially refugees in the inner city/old city.

They are open 3-evenings per week and see an average of 12-13 people each evening. Needy visitors are able to get a meal, a bag of food, some clothing, and toiletries if needed. They actually replaced a homeless man’s sleeping bag last week.

The director is still attempting to work through the bureaucracy to become a fully recognized charity. Their goal is to be open 7-days a week but that is still a way off given the supporting churches’ ability to fund and support the centre with volunteers.

Also ran across an interesting ministry that just doesn’t “sit well” with me personally. I learned that several non-denominational African churches have discovered an interesting means to fund church planting. They send a pastor here and have him claim refugee status.

That enables him to stay on the island for up to two years while Cyprus/EU investigate his claim. While the claim is being investigated the government provides housing and a stipend. In some cases guilt concerning the ethics of the methodology often shames them into quietly returning to their homeland. While others seem less troubled by the conflict, and at times even replacing a pastor sent home with another “refugee.”

A host of theological issues often accompany the appearance of these churches. Most of which revolve around the preaching and practice of the “prosperity gospel.” This often splits fully functional, and more traditional, African ministries. And it only serves to multiply the problems when the next “apostle” or “pastor” with “a message” arrives in country. Needless to say, this is not healthy for the image of the broader church, and it routinely causes conflicts within the African Christian community.

At NCC we’ve just finished outlining our vision and plan for the future, and hope to start implementing it over the summer. We should be able to more fully implement it when the congregation returns from its traditional summer hiatus. (More on this below)

The vision and ministry plan include some major changes in terms of making near and intermediate goals more realistic. As part of this we want to continue to the transition away from pastor driven initiatives and toward lay leader driven, and maintained, initiatives…eliminating ministries that no longer match the church’s goals.

As for the summer hiatus: each summer there is a significant amount of transition within the congregation. Americans and Europeans return home to visit families, NGO and diplomatic staffs change over, and Cypriots leave the island to avoid the heat (it’s already in the low 90s each day, by August it’ll be well over 100 each day). As a result our congregation can be very small. Please pray that for creative ways to meet this challenge

Terry Burns is a PCA minister and member of the Presbytery of the Blue Ridge. He is ministering WAY out-of-bounds as the Pastor of the independent Nicosia Community Church in Cyprus. He writes an occasional dispatch for the folks back home. Email him at [email protected]