Here is an article I thought you would like to read. It was written by a friend of ours that is ministering in the Netherlands. They are a great blessing!
Missions in Post-Christian Europe
Isn’t Europe a Christian continent? The answer to this question is a resounding, “NO!” Europe is now a post-Christian continent where for many, the presence of the Christian church has more to do with history books than with the present or the future. That Christianity at one time was pervasive in Europe is very clear. In the Netherlands for example, church holidays such as Pentecost, Ascension Day, Easter, and Christmas are all national holidays celebrated with not one, but two days each. Nearly all stores are closed on Sundays, and many massive cathedrals and churches can be seen which at one time were attended by thousands of weekly worshippers. Now many of them are businesses, restaurants, night clubs, mosques, or just historical monuments.
The decline of the Christian church in Europe is alarming. In the United Kingdom for example, five major denominations (the Church of Wales, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church, the Salvation Army, and the United Reformed Church) have publicly stated that if things continue to decline at the present rate, they will be non-existent sometime during the 2030s. This is significant in that many of our American churches, including Pentecostal churches, have their roots in these movements.
A team of 35 Americans from Great Commission Missions came to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to scout it out as a potential site for a church plant. During that trip, this team spoke to random people throughout the city about their opinions regarding church and God. They were shocked when they found out that not one random person whom they spoke to during that entire trip had ever set foot in a church.
This sad spiritual state is further seen in the lack of Christian education available for the children. One 13-year-old boy who heard the Christmas story for the first time thanked his teacher for telling it to him. However, he wanted to know why in the world anyone would name the child using a curse word. Another young girl upon hearing that Jesus died when he was 33-years-old responded by saying, “Oh, yeah? What did he die of?”
As a mission field, Western Europe is financially prosperous but spiritually destitute. The church in Africa is growing 50 times faster than the church in Europe. The church in Asia is growing 43 times faster. As a whole, the church in the United Kingdom has not experienced growth since the 1950s. Many European nations have less than 1% of an evangelical Christian presence. Thousands of cities and villages do not have even one evangelical Christian church. What should our response be as the body of Christ to this situation?
Two shoe salesmen were once sent to a distant island where, upon arrival, they discovered that the people did not wear shoes. The first salesman returned home discouraged believing that he could never sell a single shoe in that land since no one there wore shoes. The second salesman however called back to the shoe factory excitedly, asking them to send a large shipment of shoes to the island. He exclaimed, “No one here wears shoes yet. This is the chance of a lifetime that we can not pass by!”
Two hunters went searching for wolves in order to get 500 dollars for each pelt. After a week of hunting and finding nothing, one of them woke up in the middle of the night to find a pack of wolves closing in on them. He woke up the other hunter and said, “Wake up. We are going to be rich!”
Church history is full of men and women who had this kind of faith to see nations changed by God. The Scottish Reformer John Knox is known for having once said, “God, give me Scotland, or give me death.” This man’s passion and faith was influential in changing Scotland from being the most “sinful, wicked and superstitious nations of all Europe” to becoming one “noted for its honesty, piety and morality centuries after his death.”
Dutch religious and political leader Abraham Kuyper, at the founding of his Free University in Amsterdam, proclaimed,
“...there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”
Kuyper’s faith in Christ led him not only to start new churches, but also newspapers, political parties and educational institutions. Laws which he brought into existence still influence legislation in the Netherlands today. John Wesley, British founder of the Methodist church, once proclaimed: "Give me one hundred men who love only God with all their heart and hate only sin with all their heart and we will shake the gates of hell and bring in the kingdom of God in one generation."
Wesley’s “Methodist” or “Holiness” movement changed not only England, but the United States as well. His movement was a forerunner of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church of today. Yet, the Europe of these men is long gone. A student of Kuyper’s Free University here in Amsterdam informed me that, “God [and his church] is dead in Europe.”
This diagnosis may seem like reality to her, but it is wrong. God is developing a new generation of spiritual leaders whose faith, like that of Kuyper, Knox, and Wesley, can change cities and nations. We must believe God for the emergence of new leaders and new churches that can be a part of spreading God’s kingdom afresh throughout Europe.
The call to reach Europe is one that demands a firm commitment to prayer, to give, to go and to stay. Persevering prayer is a must for our families and ministries here on the front lines of this spiritual warfare. We often hear people passing through our cities describing a dark spiritual atmosphere hanging over this continent. This will only change as we pray.
We also need prayer for fruitfulness, growth and multiplication in our churches. Western Europe is described by many as hard spiritual ground. What may take a short amount of time to start a ministry in other parts of the world may take years or even decades here. Yet as we ask the Lord of the Harvest for the workers and resources needed, we can believe God for a miraculous speeding up of this process.
As missionaries in the Netherlands, we are focusing our ministry on reaching a new generation for Christ. Weekly kid’s clubs where children, many of whom are Muslims, can hear Bible stories and learn about the love of Jesus is one strategy. Also, making disciples by building relationships grounded in prayer, Bible study, and accountability is another. We pray that from these relationships, new leaders will develp and have the impact Wesley, Kuyper, and Knox had on their nations. Fruitful ministry in these areas can have influence for generations to come and will play a pivotal role in changing the spiritual landscape of this continent.
Europe is not Christian any longer, yet let us dare to believe that God will use our lives and prayers to change the destiny of these nations.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Luke 10:2)”
Will you join us in asking God for workers for the harvest field of Europe? Will you join us in reaching our World for Christ?
