A tiny acorn, a retreat weekend in Norway, the papal visit to France and a dialogue in the European Parliament in Brussels wove for me this week a deep lesson on the renewal of Europe.

Last weekend I found myself among more lawyers, judges and magistrates than ever before in my life. I had been invited by a former YWAMer (Martin Franke above) to address an international Christian lawyers’ conference in Austria.

My topic was ‘the Gospel and the making of Europe – past, present and future’. 

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On the conference’s opening evening, Martin introduced the theme of Oaks of Righteousness by giving every participant a little acorn. Everything necessary for an oak to grow was already contained within the acorn, he explained.

Yet while the tiny acorn itself looked nothing like the oak it could become, it was highly potent for something enormous, strong, spreading and majestic.

We then read from Isaiah 61, the passage Jesus had read out loud in the synagogue, in which released captives would become oaks of righteousness to display God’s glory. ‘They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.’

My thoughts had immediately gone to the prior weekend in Norway when my wife and I had joined others from our annual Caleb Forum of former YWAM leaders.

We had agreed to share and record stories of the beginnings of YWAM in Europe. Loren Cunningham had recruited most of us  – yes, like tiny acorns, I began to muse – from two small circles. 

For the record, I’ll name names. The first group, from an American pentecostal bible school, included Al Akimoff, Joe Portale, Linda McGowan-Panci, (as well those not present with us in Norway like Dave Boyd and Don Stephens who in turn brought along his brother Gary, his wife Deyon, brother-in-law Lynn Green and Lynn’s future wife Marti). 

Among the second,  a group of New Zealanders involved in the nascent charismatic movement, were Reona Peterson-Joly, Keith and Marion Warrington,  myself (and others not present like Barry Austin, Bruce and Barbara Thompson, Ross Tooley, Jim and Joy Dawson and later their son John).

New Zealand was the first place outside of the US where YWAM took root. New Zealanders later introduced my wife Romkje to the innovative youth missions movement in England. 

Other early recruits joining us in person or via zoom in Norway included Al’s future wife Carolyn (who had woken up one morning with the name ‘Al Akimoff’ streaming across her consciousness, never having met nor heard of him), Bruce Clewett and John Hess.

Story after story

Each of these names represented story after amazing story of what we could have called tiny acorns becoming ‘oaks of righteousness’.  God had always worked with ‘faithful minorities’, humble beginnings, mustard seeds, I reminded myself.

He had no other plan. We heard how transformation had come to nation after nation in renewal across Europe, the Slavic world and the French-speaking world where the songbooks compiled by Linda have become the standard worship resources.

Austria, formerly declared the graveyard of evangelical missions, was now a nation of broad ecumenical cooperation and renewal from where the ‘Follow Me’ discipleship course has spread across the Catholic world, modelled on YWAM discipleship training, the development of which Bruce has played a key role.

Now with the lawyers, I shared how the seeds of the gospel had been planted across Europe like acorns by Paul, Patrick, Willibrord and Boniface, Cyril and Methodius, among countless others. 

The Eurasian peninsula of pagans peoples we now call Europe had been transformed into a cultural continent, held together (continere) by a common story, a common worldview, the common symbol of the cross and a common mission to share this story with neighbouring peoples. This gospel had shaped every sphere of our civilisation and culture, I argued.

Saints in suits

Despite widespread rejection of formal Christianity, the gospel had continued to influence the European integration project, the fall of communism and Ukraine’s current struggle for freedom against tyranny.

Robert Schuman, a Christian lawyer himself, had seriously considered becoming a monk but a friend urged him to become a ‘saint in a suit’ – serving God as a lawyer.

In that role, and then later as a politician, he brought deep Christian convictions about human dignity, justice, peace and the common good to shape Europe’s future. I encouraged the lawyers in their tasks to be faithful ‘saints in suits’, ‘oaks’ in the making. 

A few days later I began receiving emails from some participants drawing my attention to the message of Pope Leo in France this week, where some 800,000 (!) people lined the Champs-Elysées in Paris.

In Metz, the home district of Robert Schuman, he highlighted Schuman’s famous (but oft-ignored) declaration of 9 May 1950, in his talk ‘At the Roots of Europe for Peace and Unity’. 

Leo reminded the French about Europe’s Christian roots: in education, hospitals, care for the poor, law, science, architecture and the organisation of communities.

‘We cannot speak of Europe,’ he urged, ‘without mentioning Christianity.’ Schuman’s Christian formation, he said, taught him the equality and dignity of human beings, the dignity of work and the importance of fraternity. Not rivalry and revenge but reconciliation and cooperation was the way forward for Europe.

That cooperation was evident at an Article 17 dialogue meeting I attended on Wednesday evening in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Article 17 of the Lisbon Treaty requires ‘open, transparent and regular dialogue’ between the EU institutions and churches, religious communities and philosophical and non-confessional organisations.

Together with EU officials, here were Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants and Evangelicals, addressing the challenge of the restoration of the soul of Europe.

Christians from traditions that have too often stood apart from one another were beginning to address together the spiritual questions facing our continent, to ‘rebuild the ancient ruins’, ‘restore the places long devastated’, and ‘renew cities that have been desolate’.

Never underestimate the power of an acorn – small beginnings.

Jeff Fountain, Director of the Schuman Centre for European Studies. This article was first published on the author's blog, Weekly Word.

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