Church planting in Europe a priority for federation of free evangelical churches

Over 100 leaders coming from 22 countries gathered in Ciudad Real (Spain) to discuss the challenges and opportunities of mission in Europe.

The “Joining Hands for mission in Europe” was organised by the International Federation of Free Evangelical Churches (IFFEC), which has 31 national member federations (19 in Europe) representing around 700,000 evangelical Christians worldwide.

“The state and the future of congregational mission in Europe” (Matthias Ehmann) and “Church planting in Europe from a diaspora church perspective” (Elorm Nick Ahialey-Mawusi) and “A beautiful Gospel and an attractive church” (Martin Jakobsen) were some of the plenary talks heard during the gathering, between 18 and 21 September.

“The goal was to bring church planters from all over Europe, exchange experiences, learning together, prayer and look for future opportunities to network”, said Pedro Arbalat, coordinator of the Missions Department of Fieide, the Spanish federation of free evangelical churches.

He told Evangelical Focus that one of the clear outcomes of the conferences was that “we all agree that we need to work together and to increase contacts amongst one another”.

The conference included small discussion groups, worship, and breaks to foster conversations between participants from different countries. “As a brother from Lebanon said, they realized that amongst all the secularism that we have in Europe there are many opportunities and projects for church planting and preaching the gospel”, added Arbalat.

The International Federation has organised such conferences to better support churches in “greater need of church planting” every four years since 2007.

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