Dimensions of Evangelism In European Missions

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Dimensions of Evangelism In European Missions

• Yann Opsitch
• World Missions Workshop 2008

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When people lose their belief in God, it is not
true that they believe in nothing, but rather
that they believe in anything.

• - G.K. Chesterton

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EuropeWestern, Central, Eastern 721 million
people
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Europe, a secular stronghold

• The battle over the European Constitution to
  suppress any reference to Europes Christian
  roots

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Europe, a secular stronghold

• Drawing inspiration from the cultural, religious
  and humanist inheritance of Europe, which,
  nourished by the civilizations of Greece and
  Rome, characterized by spiritual impulse always
  present in its heritage and later by the
  philosophical currents of the Enlightenment, has
  embedded within the life of society its
  perception of the central role of the human
  person and his inviolable and inalienable rights,
  and of respect for the law.

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Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate
foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights
and democracy, the benchmarks of Western
civilization. To this day we have no other
options to Christianity. We continue to
nourish ourselves from this source. Everything
else is postmodern chatter.

• - Jurgen Habermas
• (a venerated leftist philosopher!)

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This constitution indicates a self-inflicted
amnesia provoked by Christophobia among Europes
elite, for whom Christianity is at best
irrelevant, at worst an obstacle to social
progress and the expansion of human rights.

• - George Weigel,
• Quoted by Jenkins, p. 39

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Four major trends in Europe since 1963
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First Major Trend (1963-2007)Militant, Powerful
Secular and Anti-Christian Trend!

• A militant and powerful secular and
  anti-Christian trend!
• United Kingdom Equality Act of 2006, Sexual
  Orientation Regulations (S.O.R)
• Reviewed by the British Parliaments House of
  Commons, published in February of 2007

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Militant, Powerful Secular and Anti-Christian
Trend!

• In the U.K.
• Homosexuals may not be refused a job within
  Churches and affiliated ministries with the
  narrow exception of clergy defined as a small
  handful of people who work in doctrinal work like
  vicars and preachers

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Militant, Powerful Secular and Anti-Christian
Trend!

• The Gay and Lesbian activism in Europe is
  stretching the secular agenda to extremes
• Are the European populations in their majority
  ready to accept homosexual marriages and the
  adoption of children by homosexual couples?

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The position of Europeans on this question is
not as unanimous as the decisions of politicians
might suggest

• - Jenkins, Gods Continent

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Decisions of European politicians often make
bold assumptions about the nature of the social
consensus

• - Jenkins, p. 274

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Militant, Powerful Secular and Anti-Christian
Trend!

• George Weigel writes about the new
  totalitarianism of secular members of the
  European Parliament against those who hold strong
  moral convictions concerning homosexual acts and
  the nature of marriage.

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Militant, Powerful Secular and Anti-Christian
Trend!

• Thus, Professor Rocco Buttiglione of Italy was
  disqualified to hold office in the European
  Parliament because his moral convictions were
  deemed in direct contradiction to European law
  (George Weigel, The Cube and the Cathedral, pp
  160-61)

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Militant, Powerful Secular and Anti-Christian
Trend!

• We will see inevitable conflicts between
  Christian values and those of the secular
  European state (p. 272).

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Militant, Powerful Secular and Anti-Christian
Trend!

• This is so even though leaders of the European
  union seem to favor gay-lesbian lobbies. In July
  2007, and led by the European Union, the U.N.
  allowed two gay-rights activist groups lobbying
  access to its headquarters and agencies around
  the world (the CGLQ of Quebec and the RFSL of
  Sweden). World Mag. Aug.11,2007

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Militant, Powerful Secular and Anti-Christian
Trend!

• Extreme and militant secularism is contributing
  to the return of the Christian faith!
• The extreme secular agenda of the secular elite
  is pushing large numbers of Europeans to rethink
  the questions of marriage, the family and
  ultimately their Christian roots.

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Cultural Christianity is a much stronger force
probably than it has been for 50 years in Europe

• - P. Jenkins

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Second Major Trend (1980-2007) The Christian
South Moving Towards the North

• THE SOUTH IS COMING TO EUROPE
• Church attendance growth
• Independent African Churches in Europe
• Example Church of Christ from GHANA in Amsterdam

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The Christian South Moving Towards the North

• Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS)
• In the past decade Muslim immigration has been
  overtaken by a larger stream of immigrants,
  namely Christians from Africa, Asia, the Americas
  and Europe (eastern) - the number of Christian
  immigrants in Holland is now around 700,000 and
  rising fast.

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The Christian South Moving Towards the North

• FOR EVERY NEW MUSLIM MOVING TO HOLLAND, THERE
  ARE AT LEAST TWO CHRISTIAN IMMIGRANTS
• De Toekomst van God (The Future of God) Adjiedj
  Bakas and Minnie Buwalda

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Given its history of empire and mission, France
has an immigrant Christian presenceGreater
Paris has 250 ethnic Protestant churches, chiefly
black African.

• - P. Jenkins

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The Christian South Moving Towards the North

• By 2003, Europes largest Congolese churches
  included the Belgian based New Jerusalem, with
  1,300 members, and 900 attend Sunday morning
  worship at Pariss Assemblee des Fideles aux
  Prieres Chretiennes.

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Third Major Trend (1970-2007)Islam in Europe

• The increase of populations from Muslim
  backgrounds through immigration and high birth
  rates (especially as it parallels dropping birth
  rates all over Europe)

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Trend Islam in Europe

• Netherlands 6 of the population of 16
  million. The majority are Turks.

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Trend Islam in Europe

• Germany 4 million Muslims in Germany. Half of
  these are from Turkey.
• Seeking a greater involvement in political
  decisions in Germany and also in the European
  parliament.

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Trend Islam in Europe

• France Over 5.7 million Muslims (Arabs)
• Second largest religion in the country after
  Roman Catholicism.
• A majority of Muslim (Arab) youth are neither
  in the school system nor in the work force. They
  live in the suburbs of the most important cities
  such as Paris, Marseille, Toulouse.

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Trend Islam in Europe

• United Kingdom Oldest Muslim population in
  Western Europe. From South Asia. 849 mosques
  950 Muslim organizations.
• Switzerland 250,000 Muslims (over ten times the
  number estimated in 1970). From Turkey and North
  Africa.
• Sweden 400,000 Muslims

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Trend Islam in Europe

• Norway 1.5 of the 4.3 million population.
  Greatest number is in Oslo.
• Denmark 150,000 Muslims in the country (where
  the cartoon riots occurred in the early part of
  2006). The Quran is required reading in
  upper-secondary schools.

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Trend Islam in Europe

• Russia has the largest Muslim population
• From 15 to 20 million Muslims (out of national
  population of 143 million, thus between 10 and
  14 of the whole).

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Trend Islam in Europe

• 1980s new forms of youth culture among
  Europeans ethnic communities (Muslims, African
  and Asian).
• With some youth (not the majority) Islam became
  a symbol of protest.

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Im the Arab, stopping oppression is my
missionThe country of secularism doesnt
tolerate IslamUnemployment ravages, they talk
of immigrationAnd when the banlieue burns, they
talk of integration.

• - French singer, Yazid, 1996

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The key political struggles within Europes
contemporary Muslim communities concern intimate
issues of home and family

• - P. Jenkins

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Whatever the religious context, issues of gender
and family often prove divisive during eras of
mass migration

• - P. Jenkins

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When the new community accepts or expects a more
independent role for women, this arouses fears
about the destruction of family ties and honor

• - P. Jenkins

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Often , traditional families interpret greater
womens autonomy in terms of the betrayal of
sexual decency

• - P. Jenkins

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Most of the overseas migrants to contemporary
Europe came from societies with strictly
traditional values about family and gender

• - P. Jenkins

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Such communities strongly preserved the mores of
the village or small town, with a powerful
emphasis on concepts of family honor, as male
relatives defended at all cost the reputation of
women and girls

• - P. Jenkins

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On the other hand immigrant women (Muslim and
Christian) are trying to advance and succeed and
they are succeeding at a rate that deeply
discomforts their male relatives

• Jenkins, p. 191

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Trend Islam in Europe

• Necla Kele, The Foreign Bride (exposes arranged
  marriages and honor killings)
• Serap Cillel, Were Your Daughters, not Your
  Honor
• Seyran Ates, The Great Journey into the Fire
  (difficulties of living between the host European
  culture and the immigrant culture)

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Trend Islam in Europe

• Monica Ali, Brick Lane (the plight of immigrant
  women in arranged marriages)
• Faiza Guene, Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow (lives of
  Moroccan immigrants trapped in a French suburb,
  where women are expected to submit to the iron
  rules of fate, mektoub.)

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Trend Islam in Europe

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali, former member of Parliament in
  the Netherlands, now a resident of the U.S.A.
  Wrote the documentary Submission for filmmaker
  Theo Van Gogh (murdered in 2004). She has
  recently published Infidel (Free Press, 2007)
  where she expresses anti-Islamic and atheistic
  views.

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However counterintuitive this may seem, the
advent of Islam might also be good news for
European Christianity

• - P. Jenkins

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From a grassroots level too, the immense
attention paid to religious concerns and Europes
heritage in the past few years probably will
drive more Europeans to take a renewed interest
in their Christian roots, to rediscover what it
is that so many academic experts seem to be
consigning to oblivion.

• - P. Jenkins

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As mainstream Europeans rethink the religious
roots of their society, some at least will be led
to take that religious dimension more seriously.

• - P. Jenkins
• Gods Continent, pp 287-88

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Fourth Major Trend A renewed interest in
religiousand spiritual questions, including
Christianity
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Trend Renewed Interest in Religious and
Spiritual Questions

• CHRISTIANITY IS GROWING IN EUROPE(especially
  among Charismatics and Evangelicals)
• BUT SO AREANIMISMBUDDHISMSCIENTOLOGYMORMONISM
  

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Trend Renewed Interest in Religious and
Spiritual Questions

• There are today 1,850 evangelical churches in
  France
• There were 760 in 1970(Christianity Today.
  Mars 2005)

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Trend Renewed Interest in Religious and
Spiritual Questions

• CHRISTIANITY IS GROWING IN EUROPE(especially
  among Charismatics and Evangelicals)
• BUT SO AREANIMISMBUDDHISMSCIENTOLOGYMORMONISM
  

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Some Religious Minorities in Europe (in millions)
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Trend Renewed Interest in Religious and
Spiritual Questions

• Religious teaching back in Europes secular
  schools!
• Christian background of Europe in history
  classes
• Teaching of moral values in public schools

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Trend Renewed Interest in Religious and
Spiritual Questions

• In France, recently elected President Nicolas
  Sarkozy backs religious studies in French schools.

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Throughout Western Europe, and also in Holland,
liberal Protestantism is in its death throes. It
will be replaced by a new orthodoxy.

• - Adjiedj Bakas and Minnie Buwalda
• De Toekomst van God (The Future of God)

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The fall of the Berlin wall and communism and
the evidence of the horrors going on in the
former Soviet Union have discredited the liberal
Protestant positions in favor of a Marxist
interpretation of the Christian faith

• - Adjiedj Bakas and Minnie Buwalda
• De Toekomst van God (The Future of God)

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Trend Renewed Interest in Religious and
Spiritual Questions

• Bakas and Buwalda write about a post-secular
  future for Holland.
• Jenkins is of the opinion that Europe will not
  necessarily become Eurasia with European
  countries under Sharia law.

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Trend Renewed Interest in Religious and
Spiritual Questions

• MORE EUROPEAN YOUNG PEOPLE ARE SEEKING MORALITY
  AND SPIRITUAL VALUES OFTEN AGAINST THE WISHES OF
  THEIR PARENTS
• SIGNIFICANT INDIVIDUALS HAVE BEEN INFLUENTIAL IN
  THIS PROCESS
• Roger Schultz (The Taize Commmunity)
• John Paul II
• Dr Francis Schaeffer (LAbri)

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Trend Renewed Interest in Religious and
Spiritual Questions

• MORE EUROPEAN YOUNG PEOPLE ARE SEEKING MORALITY
  AND SPIRITUAL VALUES OFTEN AGAINST THE WISHES OF
  THEIR PARENTS
• SIGNIFICANT INDIVIDUALS HAVE BEEN INFLUENTIAL IN
  THIS PROCESS
• Roger Schultz (The Taize Commmunity)
• John Paul II
• Dr Francis Schaeffer (LAbri)

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IVRY-SUR-SEINE, France -- Decked out in Sunday
finery, the chattering line stretches out the
door and up a gritty block of warehouses and
homes in this working-class Paris suburb ()
   It is hard to believe that this outburst of
religious joy is taking place in France, the most
staunchly secular nation of an increasingly
secular Europe.

• Washington Times
• November 18, 2006

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Yet even as Christians are fleeing mainstream
churches across the region, evangelical
Christianity is booming thanks most recently to
flourishing migrant churches like Impact
Christian.

• Washington Times
• November 18, 2008

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Trend Renewed Interest in Religious and
Spiritual Questions

• Membership of Evangelical Churches in France
  (Christianity Today, March 2005)1950 50,000 -
  2001 350,000

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A good slice of this growth should be credited
to American and European missionary help.

• - Andre Pownall
• Institut Biblique, Nogent, France

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Jenkins and many trend watchers in Europe predict

• A more aggressive secularization on the part of
  the political elite
• A growing decline of the institutional churches
  of Europe but a growth of new Christian movements
  and independent churches

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Jenkins and many trend watchers in Europe predict

• A growing threat to security due to poverty and
  non assimilation of young Arabs, Africans and
  Asians
• A tendency for Arabs, Africans, Asians who get
  education and a job to become just as secularized
  as Europeans.

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I would like to thank you for having lead me one
step after the other, from my interest to my
conversion and to going to church. Now I have
been to church as you suggested it to me, I was
surprised and marveled at the welcome I had when
I entered the church, I have attended the service
for the first time in my life and I enjoyed it.

• Email from Chabane (Algeria)

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Important areas of training for missionaries to
Europe

• Spiritual disciplines
• Biblical and theological
• World religions and philosophy
• Language skills
• Team dynamics
• On sight experience
• Efficient church planting strategies

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Dimensions of Evangelism In European Missions

• by Yann Opsitch
• To order this article, email opsitch_at_bible.acu.edu

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Yann Opsitch

• Mission Coordinator for Europe
• Halbert Institute for Missions
• Abilene Christian University
• opsitch_at_bible.acu.edu