Europe has a strong legacy of missionary work and despite its many failures, God has used the European church to take the gospel to the furthest corners of the earth, translate scripture in many languages and build strong churches that endure to this day. The church of China is an example. In Back to Jerusalem books, podcasts and videos we have talked a lot about how missionaries like Karl Gutzlaff, Hudson Taylor and Robert Morisson have made a huge impact on the development of the indigenous Chinese church we see today.
But as secularization hit, the European church was weakened and the missionary drive slowed. Yes, Europe is still sending missionaries, but the numbers are dwarfed by new missionary sending countries, like South Korea, China and Brazil.
As well as smaller churches and less interest in mission, there was a narrative so pervasive that it made many Christians lose confidence. This narrative is that sharing your faith abroad in countries with different religions is a form of colonialization. Other nations have their religions which are part of their cultures, as we have ours. Trying to change that is to disrespect other people and to rob them of their cultural identity. It is even destroying their culture. In other words, we have no right to interfere with other nation’s beliefs and doing so is arrogant and harmful. If we do anything at all, we should just show love in practical ways, through education, medical care and disaster aid.
This narrative has so many underlying assumptions which are incorrect that I could never address them in a short article like this. But the result has been that people who do engage in missionary work are often on the defensive, even in their own churches. They have to explain that they are not bribing or forcing people to believe, and that they also care about people’s physical needs, not only their spiritual needs.
The downward trend in church attendance was so pervasive in most of Western Europe, that at least two generations grew up with constant predictions of more church closures and the eventual end of European Christianity. Many Christians not only feared this was true, but also expected Islam to expand through immigration to the point that they would turn Europe in an Islamic continent. But it seems that God is not done with Europe yet.
The first thing that buckled the trend a bit was the arrival of Christian immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia. They brought with them a vibrant faith and filling up church buildings that had sat nearly empty in European cities. Along with this came an undercurrent of Muslim immigrants meeting Jesus in Europe and starting small Arabic and Persian fellowships. But now we are seeing something few had expected. Native Europeans, especially young people, are turning back to God. Not just in a vaguely spiritual way. They are buying Bibles, attending Alpha courses, getting baptised and joining churches – all kinds of churches, including highly liturgical ones. Often without any Christian friend witnessing to them or taking them to church, they just come.
It is early days, but there is an undeniable difference with only two or three years ago. What will this mean for the future of mission in Europe? The role of the European church in mission has become very small. Many realise that the best they can do as European churches is supporting indigenous movements and churches and focussing on training or financial support. The European churches just don’t have the numbers to significantly contribute to reaching the vast areas that are still mostly unreached. And interest in long-term pioneering work in hard places is very low.
But maybe God still has a role for the European church that is yet hidden. Seminaries are seeing an uptick in interest. Will the same happen for missionary colleges? Will God call some of these young people that are now discovering the church, further into unreached places, and will they obey as their forefathers and mothers did?
