Sausage biscuits and talk of travel

I met a Norwegian teenage girl today. I was having breakfast with one of my student and he picked her up on the way. She is studying abroad here and has been here for seven months. She goes back June 1st. I've always been interested in travel and other cultures so of course I began right away asking questions about the differences she has noticed between our two cultures. The first and most obvious one was the food we were eating. She held a deep fried puck shaped potato in her hand. "Everything is either deep fried or barbecued here." She explained how all their food there was more home cooked and that there was more variety of style. I quickly asked about the difference in religious atmosphere. "Everyone here goes to church every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. It's not like that there. Nobody goes to church unless someone is getting married or there's a funeral." This struck me. I asked what the church makeup was like, if there were many evangelical churches there. She did not quite understand but said that it was mostly protestant she thought. I was surprised to find out that there weren't a lot of Catholic churches there. It really made me wonder what the mission field there is like. I wonder what kind of picture of the gospel has been painted there. What ideas about Christ and the cross are most prevalent. It must be so different in a place that has been saturated with religion for hundreds of years as opposed to America that is less than 300 years old. I cannot help but think that churches here become polarized when it comes to missions and spreading the gospel. They either have no part in it and are apathetic towards the cause of Christ or they become so "radical" for this cause that they spend all their time, money, and resources taking the gospel to places like Africa, places with unreached people groups. While I think Christ calls us to be radical for his cause I wonder if we lose sight of a full picture of missions. Yes, absolutely we should run with the gospel to all corners of the world and to unreached people groups but we should also run with it to places like Norway, where it may have become like an uninteresting relic to some, or to Birmingham, Alabama where we are inundated with "pop Christianity" everywhere we look and there are churches on every corner. Let us run with a clear picture of the gospel too all the world, our back yard and the other side of the globe.