the second part of a transcript of Gavin Calver’s introductory keynote at the EEA General Assembly 2021. Read part one here. 

I really think this is a moment for us to step up. As we seek to build the kingdom of God in Europe, as we face the challenges in front of us, it is a chance and an opportunity for us to step up. I also think it is important as we look at this, […] that we extend our prophetic imaginations for what is possible. But [if we hold to the following] three things I genuinely [believe] we can see anything happen in Europe. […]

1. All Powerful

The first thing [is] from [Acts 5:12-16]. Our God is all-powerful. There is literally nothing God cannot do. I am a keen runner. When I go running, I wear adidas running shoes, and their slogan is ‘Impossible is nothing’. Now every time you put this body in those shoes, that proves to be false marketing. There is so much that is impossible for me as a runner, but with God literally nothing is impossible. Sometimes as leaders, we have tamed God. We have made Jesus too small, so that we’re comfortable; so it does not upset the status quo. But we need to reconnect. Yes, the secular tsunami is powerful, but it has got nothing on Jesus.

In the passage, it is the fact that God is doing things that gets the apostles in trouble. The church activities were increasing to such an extent that the authorities needed to take action. They could not see anything to be done other than to try and stop this. And I just love the fact that it’s the ‘How powerful God is’ that gets them into trouble. Us Evangelicals are going to get into more and more trouble throughout Europe in the years ahead. But I hope it is always because God is doing something amazing, not because we were irresponsible. God could do anything. Just imagine for a moment […] how bleak or how wonderful it might look, if the God of all power would do something amazing in your [nation]. The same God of the Book of Acts is the God we follow and live for, and we need to grow our imaginations for what he could do in this day.

What I love as well is, even when we do things badly, he can use us. He is so powerful, he can use our small. I have been preaching all over the UK for over 20 years, but my worst ever sermon was ten years ago. I was working for Youth for Christ, and I drove to North Wales, which is about six hours from where I live. I did it on a Friday, which is the worst day to travel in the UK. It was a terrible journey. I drove to this youth event. I had been told there would be hundreds of young people at this youth event. I have got more fingers than there were young people; there were nine. The churches that had put the event on had clubbed together to hire a ten-foot-high stage. Because they had paid for it, they insisted that I preached from it. I am already 6,3 feet, so I was 16,3 feet in the air, towering over a bunch of young people smaller in number than the disciples. I have been bought there to preach the gospel, so I did it. But I did it in a bad mood. I did it and wanting to go home, and I did not enjoy it. At the end of the night, they used to do the ‘ministry of envelopes’, I would call it. They would give you a gift towards your work with a check in an envelope in the days before bank transfers. My rule was always “Don’t open the envelope till you get home! On the way home decide with Jesus, how it has gone, not by the size of the check.’ So, I drove all the way home, now the six-hour journey, got home in the middle of the night, opened the envelope. Out fell the gift. It was a five-pound book token. Now, you cannot put that in a petrol tank. So, I paid for the privilege of preaching my words.

A little over a year ago, I was preaching in the north of England. A guy came up to me afterwards; he was about 25. He said, “Do you remember the youth event in North Wales with a huge stage, no young people?” I was thinking, “I remember it, mate. Do you want some?” He said, “I gave my life to Jesus that night.” I said, “How?” And then he went on to tell me [that] he is […] a youth worker [now], reaching out to young people, winning many of them for Jesus. You know, you only have to get one Samaritan woman to get [her] village. Even when we do things badly, even when it feels like the worst night of our ministry, this all-powerful God can still use us. And I think we need to get on our knees more and cry out to this all-powerful God. Because Europe needs hope, and hope has a name: His name is Jesus.

2. Can’t be swept away

The second thing I think we can learn here, that is really important for our context at the moment, [can be found in Acts 5:17-21]. Christianity cannot be swept away. The fastest growing church in the world right now is Iran. It is amazing, isn’t it? A nation where you can lose your life for having a Bible has the fastest growing church in the world. In fact, the churches where things are exploding are often in places where it is so difficult. Sometimes I wonder whether we want Iranian or Chinese results without the price tag.

[…] My wife does some Bible teaching with church leaders, and she does that with a lot of Iranian leaders in Africa and Turkey, because it is not safe in Iran. What they do at the same time is [hiring] a local hotel swimming pool. During the day, they would do free swimming lessons for local kids, so no one catches on. Then every night they baptize 350 Iranians. Friends, the Iranian church is exploding!

There was a couple in Iran who were being really persecuted for their faith; they have been in and out of prison loads. And they were granted asylum in the USA. So, these two church leaders went from Iran to the USA. When they went to the USA, they could not deal with the church they encountered. Their words were that ‘a satanic lullaby had put the western church asleep’. The Church was asleep or not aware of what God was doing or wanting to do. So, this couple gave up their asylum in the USA to go back to Iran, because they were not prepared to fall asleep in their faith, even though it gave them greater comfort in their life. I think that is a huge challenge to us! I think we want to be comfortable; we want to be popular; we want to be loved, when actually we are going to be increasingly marginalized. But we need to be confident that Christianity will not be swept away. In the passage it is not only Peter and John who are arrested, but all apostles are thrown into jail. I feel sorry for us, not the apostles, nor the guards in the jail, because these apostles would not stop preaching. These guards are a captive audience for the apostles to preach to. And when they are in prison, they have a different perspective to us. Perspective changes a lot of things. When David fights Goliath, he can either say, “He’s so big, he’s going to kill me!”, or he can say, “He’s so big; there’s no way I’m going to miss”. We need to fight for the more positive perspective.

When I worked with young people, we always talked about what the Bible looked like, not just what it said, because the Bible is the most visual book possible. Anyone who says, “The Bible is boring!”, has not read it. You can say [many things of the Bible,] but it’s not boring. […] When Moses sees the sea split, I have got two questions: “How soggy is the ground?” or “What if there’s a big fish? Does that split?” When Lazarus is raised to life, Jesus has to say, “Lazarus come out!”, because it is a communal tomb. There would have been 15 dead people in the tomb. If Jesus had just said, “Come out!”, they all would have done it at once. It is amazing that Lazarus was not a common name, because if it had been, can you imagine, if there were three Lazaruses, and Jesus had to send two back to sleep […]? Or when Jesus resurrected from the dead in the Book of John, the first thing he does is folding up dirty washing. Mary and Joseph clearly raised him well. He has resurrected from the dead, and there’s two sheets he was covered in, and he folds one up. But then Jesus does not fold the second one., because at some point, he thinks, “Hang on! I am the Savior of the world. I’ve got other things to be getting on with.” So, one remains unfolded. The Bible so visual.

Coming back to this passage, the apostles are preaching. They are arrested and put in prison. Then during the night, an angel of the Lord comes along, goes down to the prison cell, opens the door, lets them out, locks the door again, then says to them, “By the way, fellows, bad news! You better go and do some more preaching!” Well, a moment, the world thought it could get rid of the Christians by locking them up. But the angel comes down and unlocks them. Throughout history Christians have been wiped out, but Christianity remains; from the early Christians dipped in pitch and used as human candles in Nero’s garden to the so-called Islamic state of today. Christians have been wiped out occasionally, but Christianity cannot be. You cannot get rid of Christianity. If anything, the more you put it under pressure, the more it grows.

If we are looking for positives in the European landscape: The fact that the Church is marginalized gives it a greater circumstance within which to grow. All we then need are the three hallmarks of revival: prayer, like we have never prayed before; holiness, like we have never fully taken on; and small acts of obedience.

We know the end of the story, friends! So, we need to live differently now in the middle of it. However many bad things happen between now and the end of time, however many wars and rumors of wars, however many pandemics, however much persecution, however many incurable diseases, however many good things happen, however many revivals and renewals of the Church, however many European championships England wins, the end of the story remains the same. Whether the good or the bad, the end of the story is: Jesus wins! So, we need to start living with a greater confidence in our day that Christianity will not be swept away, and Jesus wins. This all-powerful God and faith will not be swept away. We need to live with a greater confidence in our day, in our moment, as we seek to make Jesus known.

Gavin Calver, CEO of the Evangelical Alliance United Kingdom (EAUK).

Part 3 of this article will be published next week.

This article was first published by the European Evangelical Alliance and re-published with permision.