Europe today is often spoken of as “the Secular Continent”. Mission mobilisation to Europe is predicated on the tiny percentage of Evangelical Christians. And conferences often include the unchallenged affirmation that Europe is post-Christian and in need of re-evangelisation.
But have we ever stopped to consider if these presuppositions are actually true?
Rather than holding to our eschatological hope demonstrated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when it comes to Europe, we have internalised an eschatology of despair. Yet, out of the spotlight, an extraordinary re-evangelisation of Europe is underway. I think we can identify three primary dimensions of that re-evangelisation and you can read much more about this in my Europe 2021 report (www.ecmbritain.org/resources).
1. Church planting movements
In almost every European country, there isan acceleration in the number of new churches being planted. Whether that is the result of denominational initiatives, through mission agencies like ECM, individuals, national church planting platforms, or ministries that are facilitating church planting processes, new Christian communities are sprouting up almost everywhere you look.
Just one example: the vision of the CNEF (National Council of French Evangelicals) “1 pour 10,000”, meaning one evangelical church for every 10,000 people, has spurred on church planting in France and has seen, on average, one church planted every seven days or so over the last ten years.
2. Diaspora churches
We are living in the age of World Christianity. The centre of gravity of the world church has shifted from Europe to the Majority World. Yet over the last fifty years, millions of Majority World Christians have come to Europe and this has changed the face of European Christianity.
Latin American migrants have planted thousands of churches in Spain, Portugal and beyond. African-initiated Pentecostal churches number in the thousands in Britain alone. And Asian Christians have been no less industrious. There are more Chinese Evangelical Churches in Italy (31) than the total number of Evangelical Churches in the neighbouring country of Slovenia.
3. Next Generation
Amazing things are happening amongst Europe’s youth and again I point you to the Europe 2021 report to read more about that. Here I would like to talk more broadly about Europe’s future.
What will Europe look like in 2050, when those who are born today are in their early adulthood? Well the demographics of Europe’s tomorrow are already pretty certain, because birthrates across Europe over the last twenty five years have collapsed. Some Mediterranean countries now have rates that are among the lowest in the world. Low birthrates are combined with a second demographic reality: a substantially larger older generation. Europe’s Old Age Dependency Ratio, the number of people aged 65+ per 100 people of working age, is expected to rise from around 30 in 2015 to between 50 and 60, and in the case of Italy and Spain, to between 70 and 80, by 2050 (Source Eurostat 2022). In other words, for every five working people in Spain in 2050 there will be four pensioners.
Last week, I sat down in church next to an elderly man I hadn’t seen before. Tony is a widower. His wife died just 18 months ago. He told his children he didn’t want to be a burden and he was very happy to go to an old people’s home. Tony used to be a Baptist minister, and now in the old people’s home, he has a queue of people waiting to visit him. The door to his room is always open and spiritually needy old people are seeking him out. “I have never had such a fruitful time in my ministry as I do now”, he said. Tony is 85 years old.
In tomorrow’s Europe there will be more needy old people than in all its history. Lonely people, people who have lost hope, people living with fear, people who need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. What an opportunity God has set before us.
God has not given up on Europe. It may be out of the spotlight but church planting is accelerating, diaspora churches are everywhere, and in the next generation, young and old will have unprecedented gospel opportunity. And we know how the story ends: with every nation represented before the throne (Revelation 7:9).
Why Europe? Because God is working in Europe. So let’s change the story we are telling about mission in Europe. Let’s stop talking about Europe being post-Christian. Europe is not post-Christian. It is pre-revival.
Wednesday 16 October 2024 12:14