Urban Mission Exposure Report by Franz Helm

I was impressed by the so different approaches to urban mission we visited in Budapest: First care for homeless and addicted to alcohol, next the “City Mission” as a week of Christian faith gaining public sphere in the big city, an finally community- and church-building in a housing estate at the periphery. Two experiences of little communities, welcoming and family-like, and one of much planning, organizing and campaigning. In every place we visited we found people living Christian mission and testifying Jesus Christ. The life-stories of the previous homeless and addicted were very touching – indeed an impressing testimony how faith in Jesus Christ leads to redemption. The ones who organized City-Mission confessed that they have to learn and study more so that they can cope with the questions of the people. And the welcoming lively Christian community that was developing in the anonymous surroundings of the blocs in the outskirts testified that constructing church means first of all construction human relationships.
Nevertheless, the visits provoked questionings: Aren’t the small communities and congregations considering themselves little islands of “saved in Jesus Christ” amidst of a huge ocean of people who are “lost”? Isn’t God acting in this City by many means, and Christian mission should be first of all a discovering of this action of God and collaboration with it at many different levels? After conquering public space for Christian faith topics for one week – what is the follow up? How can those, who were somehow touched, find welcoming and company for their further religious searching?
I am very grateful for the experiences and the questions that arose in these encounters in Budapest.