Oneness In The Lord Above Nationality

By Francis A. Schaeffer

From The Sunday School Times, May 01, 1965, pp. 315-316

Recently the China Inland Mission, now the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, announced a new policy of carrying on its work with no distinction between missionaries and nationals. Perhaps it would be helpful to tell of the experiences under the hand of the Lord that L'Abri Fellowship has had in this direction in the past ten years.

L'Abri Fellowship was founded in July, 1955, with headquarters in Huemoz sur Ollon, Switzerland. As it began, it was exceedingly small and still is in comparison to such missions as the OMF, yet the experiences of L'Abri Fellowship might be encouraging to many of the Lord's people.

From the beginning L'Abri was made up of people of various nationalities, with no distinction being made between them. At the beginning we wrote in this statement about the basis on which we would work together:

To understand how central these things were to us one must be acquainted with the fact that as L'Abri began ten years ago we felt led by the Lord not to have a board in any "home" country. Rather, the board is made up of those who are active in the work itself. Thus those who are from the various nationalities in the work are actually together in control of the work. In order to be chosen as a member of L'Abri Fellowship (which is our terminology instead of the word board) one has to be a worker in L'Abri Fellowship for at least three years.

L'Abri began with four members (Swiss and American) and two workers. Now there are seventeen members of four nationalities: English, American, Dutch, and South African. There are also now ten workers from four nationalities: English, American, Dutch, and Italian. Over the past ten years we have had nine nationalities represented among the workers at L'Abri, including some from both Jewish and Gentile backgrounds. Workers have come from Switzerland, the United States the Netherlands, South Africa, Great Britain, Germany, Basutoland, El Salvador, and Italy.

We have among both members and workers those who receive their livelihood through L'Abri and those who do not. As in regard to nationality, no distinction is made theoretically or practically in this regard. Some have gone from receiving their livelihood through L'Abri to not receiving it, and vice-versa, as we in L'Abri have felt led together by the Lord about our effectiveness in the total work. At the present time nineteen members and workers (plus ten children) receive their livelihood through L'Abri Fellowship, seven do not, and one member receives a small retirement allowance.

It would be false to say that there have been no problems, but in spite of the problems the gain and freedom with both of the above factors have been clear and definite. Chiefly the gain in having different nationalities work together with no distinction has perhaps been that Christians and non-Christians who come to L'Abri usually find someone who has basic contact with their own culture as well as language. But another gain has been the richness the Lord has given us together, and solidness of a future continuity of human leadership, with different viewpoints under the final leadership of the Holy Spirit. We have found that this richness is not only in the work as such, but in the human relationships and friendships that have developed.

L'Abri has grown in the ten years since its beginning so that the work here in Huemoz not only uses several chalets instead of the original one, but a community has grown up about us of those who wish to share in the spiritual life, without organizational ties with the work. There is a home for children with spastic paralysis, for example. We have a Christian writer here, a Christian musician, and so on.

The internationalness of the members and workers has certainly also been helpful in caring for the needs of the Farel House students, who for the last four and a half years have been coming to study here. These also come from many countries, many different backgrounds and professions. But with the different nationalities of the workers here, there is almost always someone with the same linguistic background as well as the same general cultural thought-forms, so that the student does not find himself in a situation provincial to any one country or background. This is especially helpful as many of the Farel House students come to consider what historic Christianity means in relation to their professions (art, music, medicine, and the like, as well as theology) in the light of the twentieth-century intellectual and cultural problems.

A church has been formed that is called the International Church (Presbyterian-Reforme). It is international in that it is made up of people from many nationalities, and also in that we work in different countries across national frontiers. The L'Abri work in Milan, Italy, grew to a place where there has been a couple there for a number of years, and a congregation of the International Church was formed there as a result. Thus we now have a synod, with the Italian-speaking congregation in Milan and the congregation in Huemoz, where the preaching is in English but with translation into both German and French. The elders of the International Church are Swiss, English, South African, and American. The official language of both L'Abri and the International Church is simply the one that is best for communication at any particular time, place, and occasion.

The work of L'Abri has also grown along international lines in other countries. We have just purchased a house for a couple working in London. There is also a work in Holland under the direction of a Dutch professor and his wife.

As has been said above, there has not been total freedom from problems, but the remarkable thing is the unity we have found, based upon a clear stand for the historic Reformation position, including the full inspiration of the Scripture, and an active and conscious waiting for each other, in prayer, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

The problem of true oneness is increased, of course, as the variety in the group increases, and thus every attempt must be made for the Holy Spirit to choose the members of the group, rather than using human measuring sticks. And also from the beginning a true waiting on each other must be developed as that which is expected, rather than seeking a 51 percent vote.

The L'Abri basis of working together states:

Waiting for each other leads at times to temporary inefficiency, but in L'Abri we have found that thus working in love, as we try to wait for each other in the rough and tumble of the daily things of the work, has led to an efficiency over a period of years that is exciting in the best sense, and a cause for praise.

It would seem to me that a reality of waiting for each other in order to work together as truly one is increasingly imperative, practically, as the diversity within the church or group increases–whether the diversity is across classes and races in a single locality, or across national differences in a geographically wider work. And if it is important to so wait for each other as the work becomes increasingly diverse, it is even more important to wait on the Lord together–to count on the reality of His existence in our generation and on His acting into history in our generation–or the diversity can hardly help but lead not to richness and demonstration, but rather to tension and division.

A few years ago a Japanese was visiting us here and knowing my feelings that in practice as well as in theory "all are one in Christ Jesus," he asked me if I did not agree that the missionaries in Japan should step aside and let the Japanese take over the leadership. I asked him to let me think it over until the morning, and in the morning I told him that I thought his suggestion did not go far enough: we should ask the Holy Spirit to make it possible for us to work together above nationality–only taking nationality into account for strategic considerations–and that this leadership in any locality and work should be determined by the Holy Spirit in that individual situation without nationality entering in.

In the last few years there has been much emphasis among evangelicals on the indigenous church. May I suggest that, as it is so often, we are fifty years behind the times. If fifty years ago the evangelicals had been strongly talking and working in the direction of an indigenous church, we would have been ahead of time, but talking about the indigenous church now at least only puts us even with the time, of not behind.

If by the grace of God we can rise above nationality, race, and national frontiers in our missionary work and contacts, would this not be a demonstration to the men of our generation that their weapon of governmental coercion is puny indeed in comparison to the oneness brought by the shed blood of the Lamb of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? ·