The AEE presented a renewed image and its projects in the areas of youth, solidarity, media and creation care, among others.
Some images of the annual assembly of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance, held on Saturday 1 March online. / Photos: [link]AEE[/link].
On Saturday 1 March, the annual assembly of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance (AEE) took place online.
In the gathering, members of the Alliance reported about the activities throughout the year 2024. Psychiatrist and author Pablo Martínez gave a talk on the challenges of secularism and laicism in today's society.
The Spanish Evangelical Alliance is approaching its 150th Anniversary (which will be in 2027) and showed what steps they are taking for that commemoration, such as the preparation of a video documentary that will review the history of the oldest evangelical body in Spain.
Furthermore, a renewed image of the logo was presented, which shows an evolution emphasising its values and boosting its presence on internet platforms and social media.
[photo_footer] The old and the renewed logo. / AEE [/photo_footer]
The working groups, organised under the headings of ‘Church and mission’ and ‘Church and society’, presented the different projects carried out in areas such as church leadership, gospel-centered finances, youth leadership, childhood care, family, missions, theology, history, suicide and mourning, prayer, and bioethics.
It also showed the work of Alianza Solidaria, the social branch of the AEE, and Areópago Protestante, which brings together the communication projects (Protestante Digital, Evangelical Focus and Evangélico Digital), as well as the Unamuno, Friend of Protestants Prize.
The meeting also presented the results of the telematic votes of the Assembly, which approved the budgets and ratified for two years Pedro Tarquis as president of Areópago Protestante, and Francisca Capa as president of Alianza Solidaria.
After the welcome by Marcos Zapata, president of the AEE and pastor Good News Church in Lugo, Esteban Muñoz de Morales, an Assemblies of God pastor in Córdoba who also serves as president of the Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities of Spain (FEREDE), shared a Bible reflection.
Muñoz stressed the importance of evangelicals being able to understand the times in which we live and the specific needs of Spain. He spoke of the need of focusing on the gospel and not letting the vision diminish by putting the eyes on other goals, which may lead to disasters both in the personal and ministerial spheres.
Muñoz's devotional connected perfectly with the presentation that closed the assembly, given by Pablo Martínez, who began his talk by highlighting the spiritual richness that lies behind the work of the Evangelical Alliance.
Martínez recalled that secularism has been predominant in the 20th century, characterised by a “materialistic vision of the human being” that seeks to relegate religion to the private sphere.
He explained that the church, on many occasions, “has been transformed by the world instead of being an agent of transformation”.
As a result, Christianity has diluted and the church has lost its essence. “Secularism absorbs, it is contagious, it influences, it is a stream that drags us along”, he said.
Secularism has been joined by laicism, which has become a new challenge. In contrast to laicity, which guarantees the neutrality of the state in religious matters, “laicism is an ideology opposed to the presence of religion in public life”.
“It tries to corner faith at home, it leaves no place for religion in the public sphere”, explained Martínez.
Such ideologies impose and represses, turning into a “dictatorship of ideas” that aims to eradicate all vestiges of Christian culture.
“Secularism was the great seducer, laicism is the great repressor”, added Martínez.
The crisis insociety has much to do with abandoning the essence of truth. The rise of subjectivism, in which each person establishes his own truth, and Baumann's liquid thought, have led to a context in which “truth has lost its absolute value”.
Woke ideology has emerged in the last decade, a “the grandchild of cultural Marxism” and from which gender ideology and other philosophies that continue to take hold in intellectual circles in the West also emerge.
“Commentators talk about a culture war, but that's not what it is. Ultimately it is a moral conflict”, pointed out Martinez. The consequences of the triumph of these ideologies is a society without an anchor.
“Suicide is the leading cause of natural death in Spain. There is a plague of suicides among adolescents, and it is the leading cause of unnatural death after the age of 65. The rise of subjectivism, the bankruptcy of truth, is the clearest feature of 21st century society from an ethical point of view”, doctor Martínez added.
Given this scenario, the speaker proposed three pillars for the church's action.
First, “an attractive holiness”, where the church stands out “by a different and distinctive way of life. Holiness is the best strategy to confront secularism. We are not called to be normal, but holy”, he underlined.
Secondly, he talked about the need to develop “a balanced spirituality, with our eyes on heaven and our feet on the ground”, based on an integral relationship with God and our neighbour, avoiding extremes such as hollow mysticism or secularised humanism. In short, “the spirituality that Jesus embodied”.
Finally, the priority of “taking root in the Word”, the Bible, given that the erosion of the authority of the Bible implies a loss of relevance in contemporary society. In the church, the Bible cannot cease to be authoritative and become merely orientative, Martínez warned.
Pablo Martínez ended the conference by recalling that the best way to respond to these challenges is with an attitude of meekness, “without falling into moral superiority or aggressive confrontation”.
He called on the church to “maintain its courage and not be ashamed of the gospel”, equipping itself with the armour of God for the spiritual battle.
In the following discussion, Xesús Manuel Suárez, secretary general of the AEE, stressed that the challenge continues to be the defence of freedom and truth, but that the church must update its response to the present times.
The Assembly concluded with a call to prayer for God to guide the AEE in its mission to proclaim the truth in the midst of today's challenges.
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