By Marv Knox

A 2017 meeting in a Spanish city hall typifies Michelle and Matt Norman’s ministry in northeastern Spain.

By that time, they had been Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel in the semi-autonomous region of Catalonia about four years. Their progressing proficiency in both the Catalan and Spanish languages had enabled them to develop deepening relationships, especially with local churches.

While visiting with Pastor Nelson Araujo and his congregation in Vilanova, just down the Mediterranean coast from their home in Barcelona, they brainstormed “a bunch of ideas” for meeting needs of at-risk and under-served people.

“We said: ‘We think these are good ideas, but we’re not experts. Let’s set up a meeting with someone from city hall.’ Nelson said that was a good idea,” Matt recalled, adding they weren’t sure they would get a hearing. But they did.

“We told the city leaders who we were and that we wanted to help the community. We shared our ideas, and they listened patiently. They said: ‘Wow, please don’t do any of these ideas. They will create a mess.’ So, we said, ‘We want to do what you want us to do.’”

Then city officials and Christian ministers together sketched out a hunger-relief program—the city would pay for the food and provide the space, and the church would provide the volunteers.

Out of that collaboration, Espai Sopem—Catalan for “dinner space,” or “the place where we eat”—was born.

“They developed a system that provides really nutritious meals from the local schools,” Michelle reported. “We trained volunteers on food safety and nutrition, as well as social services in the town. And then people would come, and volunteers would sit down and eat with them. Espai Sopem helps people avoid homelessness and also find social services. They often don’t trust the government, but they trust relationships.”

The ministry thrived, then survived the enforced isolation of Covid. And along the way, it became part of the culture of the community, with hope for the future.

“When city people realized this was being offered by a church, they were surprised that a church was actually living its faith,” Matt said. “But they wanted to help, and now more volunteers come from the city than from the church, which is super small. But that supports relationship-building, and the ministry runs on two tracks—to volunteers and to recipients.”

A thriving ministry came to be because the Normans started by acknowledging they didn’t come with answers to community needs. They developed relationships with local Christians and expanded that circle to include non-Christians as well. They listened to others and put their energies into making others’ dreams come true. They expressed compassion. And they persisted. Now, hungry people are fed. Hurting people receive aid. Secular people see Jesus in a brighter light.

The Normans celebrated their 20th anniversary with CBF this summer. The Fellowship commissioned them as Global Service Corps personnel in 2003, and they spent two years working with international students alongside Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec. Then they moved to Atlanta, where Matt served with CBF Global Missions, processing and training prospective field personnel, and Michelle did contract work with CBF and also ministered to refugees as a volunteer with World Relief.

After a few years, they sensed God calling them to missions overseas. Visa problems prevented them from landing in another European country, but after a season “in limbo,” an appointment in Spain opened up.

“We loved the opportunity to engage Barcelona long-term,” Michelle said. “If one area of ministry wrapped up, we could move to another ministry but not relocate. We wanted to participate in a long-term process in one place.”

That place is one of the most secular regions anywhere.

“The Catalan people fought against (Francisco) Franco in the Spanish Civil War. They were fighting for democracy to rule in Spain,” Michelle explained. “Because of the Catholic Church’s support of Franco, the Catalan people rejected Christianity. They saw the very worst of what happens when religion aligns with destructive power.”

“Three generations of people basically have said, ‘We don’t want to have anything to do with the Catholic Church, with Christianity,’” Matt added. “Spain is extremely agnostic, with a majority of people not having any thought whatsoever about church or God in their everyday lives.”

Despite what outsiders might expect, Catalonians’ secular mindset does not translate to isolation or indifference to others.

“It’s a very city-based society,” Michelle said. “People are very concentrated, and they move on public transit. And they walk through the city—to the grocery store, to the doctor’s office, to their kids’ school. So, they interact with people a lot.

“They know their neighbors, and there’s a very strong sense of community among the people of Catalonia. And with that comes a strong sense of solidarity. People connect and feel a sense of fighting for one another, joining one another in their struggles.”

In that context, “the most important work we’re doing here is bearing witness to Jesus Christ,” Matt said.

Sometimes, that means talking to Catalonians about their perception of God and Christianity.

“I’ve had conversations with people where they’re like: ‘Oh, you’re a Christian. Well, I don’t believe in God because of these reasons,’” he noted. “And I look at them and say, ‘I don’t believe in that God, either, because the God you’re describing is not the God I know.’ So, bearing witness to Jesus is helping people understand who this Jesus is in ways they’ve never been able to have conversations about before.”

Other times, bearing witness means helping people “see glimpses of the Spirit of Christ in the community,” he added. “We see people who are not religious engage with refugees and open their homes, (and) they’re not doing it because of any faith, but just because they see people as humans.

“We tell them: ‘You know, that’s the way Jesus actually teaches us to act. That’s what Jesus would do.’ And they look at us and ask, ‘How come no one’s ever told us that?’ We tell them: ‘I don’t know, but that’s Jesus calling you to do that. You’re doing the work of Jesus when you do that.’”

Those conversations dovetail nicely with the Normans’ priority on equipping or “walking alongside pastors and churches” in Catalonia. Structurally, that looks like conversations with pastors and other church leaders, as well as facilitating peer learning groups. Practically, it involves all of them—the Normans and their Christian friends—in figuring out how to make the Gospel accessible and compelling to people who otherwise don’t have a clue what Christianity is all about.

“The spiritual environment is tough and really difficult for anyone who’s a Christian—the church is small and different than the culture,” Michelle said. “But at the same time, it’s such a beautiful culture. I see solidarity and caring for one’s neighbor. I see God already at work in the world.”

Ministries offered by the Normans and their Christian friends come alongside and supplement God’s already-in-progress work in the region. In addition to Espai Sopem, the Normans support other ministries, including:

• Grupo 5/14, a nonprofit that encompasses all their social ministry in the area. Although started before the Normans arrived, Michelle is its executive director. “5/14” refers to Galatians 5:14, “The entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
• Mamáventura, a ministry to immigrant women and their children, based at First Baptist Church in Sabadell, just north of Barcelona, where Nelson Araujo now is pastor. This ministry serves many women who are victims of spouse abuse. “We’re walking alongside and pointing out the strength these women already have within them and encouraging them,” she said.
• Mosaic, a worship/outreach ministry of First Baptist Church in Sabadell, which the Normans worked with Araujo to develop. “Our goal is to break down the barriers of church for people who are interested in learning about Christian faith,” Michelle explained. “People can express doubt and questions. We ask what stands out to them in Scripture. We’re not telling people what to believe but letting the Holy Spirit work through Scripture.”
• A food bank in Cerdanyola, on the northern edge of Barcelona. Matt works there regularly, helping to ensure immigrants and Spanish people on the edge of survival have enough to eat.

“We try not to do anything that’s not locally initiated,” Matt said.  “So that means we are always listening, asking questions and coming alongside and making sure that people who grew up here, who know the culture, who speak both languages are the ones who are initiating the ministries and think the ministry we’re doing is a good idea.

“Partnership is extremely important for our work. Without partnerships, we really don’t do anything.”

Matt also spends untold hours in conversations with pastors—not only in Spain, but also across Europe through International Baptist Theological Seminary’s learning network—jointly seeking to untie the tangled knots of complications that prevent secular people from setting aside their skepticism and considering faith in Jesus.

Relationships that grow out of those long conversations, as well as meetings with lay leaders, are reciprocal, the Normans said.

“We’re not working with a perspective of coming in with ideas and saying what we’re going to do,” Matt explained. “We came here to learn the culture and to build relationships. We try to ask God and listen to people here to find what ministry we should do.”

“This is our work and our calling, but we’re not complete experts,” Michelle added. “We are encouragers and helpers. We want to help people here realize their dreams and hopes for the church. They have plenty to give.”

Their philosophy of ministry syncs with the theme for CBF’s 2023-24 Offering for Global Missions, “Equipping with Every Good Thing.”

“We see our ministry as one of equipping,” Michelle stressed. “It is noticing the sparks of God, the bits of God in each person—how God is working in different lives and calling that out and encouraging it.”

“Our hope is to walk alongside, to help equip them as they seek to reach their dreams, their visions for ministry, for the community, for their lives and to become who God created them to be,” Matt added.

“So, one of our great joys is seeing people get excited about engaging the world around them with their gifts,” Michelle said.

Such joy infuses the Normans with aspirations for long-term effectiveness in a place and among a people they have grown to love. That kind of effectiveness follows in the wake of long-term presence, which the Offering for Global Missions makes possible.

“Long-term commitment is extremely important,” Matt stressed. “We’ve been here 10 years now. It’s taken that many years to be able to speak the language in a way that we sound intelligent, and there’s so much more to learn. We’ve kind of scratched the surface of the importance of long-term relationships for building trust, being able to listen.

“And the longer you’re in a community, the more you start to understand the way that community sees the world. And you can start to understand that community more fully. Long-term presence allows your ministry to be more effective and actually start to bear fruit in ways you never could have imagined and take turns in ways you never could have expected.”

“My hope for the future here is that we encounter even more people who are wanting to engage this community, and we’re able to encourage them to do so,” Michelle said. “My hope is that whatever is built and done here engages the hopes and dreams of our friends here.

“That they can express the fullness of the gospel message in a way that walks alongside the vulnerable, that breaks down the barriers the church naturally puts up between it and the community. That they can develop a welcoming church for all people—that embraces the skepticism and doubt and says: ‘That’s OK. God is enough to handle it all.’”

This article appeared in the Fall 2023 Edition of fellowship! magazine. Read online at https://cbf.net/fellowship-magazine