“In the camp I started a prayer meeting, and preached the gospel – a kind of refugee church with a lot of young people began.” Vimal Vimalasekaran now serves among asylum seekers in Germany.
“This is the closest language to mean ‘genocide’ without using that terminology”, says EEA representative in Brussels Christel Lamère Ngnambi.
"We don't find ourselves seeking to pursue our own individual dreams, but thrgough relationships and community", says Martin Robertson, church planter.
“The question of our reading of the Scriptures and the authority that we grant them is at stake”, says Pastor Caroline Bretones, one of the 250 members of the new movement. In May, the historic Protestant Church EPUdF voted to bless same-sex marriages.
“The churches in Syria, as they are in Iraq, are facing four main challenges amid the current regional crisis.” An article by a Syrian pastor.
Christians share Jesus with others in the Mongolian community which is about 600 people in the capital city of the Czech Republic.
The Czech Evangelical Alliance prepared a guide focused on the “The return of the lost sons.” Hundreds of churches will gather in daily meetings across the world for this initiative started in 1847.
Hundreds will spend Christmas in churches, the social welfare organisation of the official Protestant church explained.
Many leaders hide their vulnerability behind a mask of confidence and what can appear to be spiritual superiority, not necessarily knowingly but subconsciously as part of what they feel it means to be a leader.
Dutch theologian Stefan Paas on learning from the “exile” and “diaspora” mindsets. “In the process of secularization everything else falls away: cultural pride, power of numbers, even money, position, status. The only thing you’re left with is Scripture and God.”
Hundreds of churches and Christian organisations across Europe work to help marginalised people in their cities. Juan Simarro (Madrid) and Sarah Bennetch (Rome) speak from their experience.
Condolences and support from the Netherlands, Spain and Austria. The World Evangelical Alliance encourages churches worldwide to pray for “healing and wisdom.”
“A jeep pulled up and 30 guys with assault rifles showed up”, a Pentecostal pastor explains in a video report produced by Vice News. Rebel soldiers occupy Protestant churches in Donetsk and impose Orthodox religion.
Church hopes that “every word preached from this new pulpit may be God-inspired, Biblical, adequate, understandable.” Head of state Plevneliev underlined the work of evangelical Christians.
Representatives meeting in Germany exhorted churches in all European countries to “not confuse our own cultural identity with theological essentials.”
Ninety European evangelical leaders from 16 different countries joined in Madrid to share and explore better ways to develop church planting in Europe.
Augland is a church planter in Norway and trains others through the M4 network. “Calling needs to be confirmed from both inside and outside.”
This strategy does not seek out either receptive target groups, or the reproduction of a given church model or denomination; it does not try to impose a common methodology on the churches who adopt it.
About 10,000 believers seek to serve a society that looks to Europe for answers to the financial crisis. An interview with Samuil Petrovski.
More than 30 evangelical organisations and “countless churches” engaged in welcoming “forced migrants in need of refuge”. European Evangelical Alliance calls believers to “follow in Jesus’ way of sacrificial charity”.
Evangelical groups fear “legitimisation of persecution”. 3,000 Baptist churches write to Putin: “If the country’s laws are in conflict with the Bible… Christians will always take the biblical position”.
How to respond to the moral fall of some Christian leaders? “A clear conscience of sin and confession are indispensable to start restoration”, says psychiatrist Pablo Martinez.
“Regardless of the option chosen by the citizens, a reconciliation process will be needed, and evangelicals are called to be there”, says Jaume Llenas. A Christian radio host, a College professor and a politician, agree: a respectful dialogue is needed.
Church planters must resist the temptation of assuming that growing churches provide generalizable models for growth elsewhere, and that the absence of apparent success in the present is a sign that God is not working.
Only one minister in the government supports the European refugee quota. 71% of citizens are reluctant, but evangelicals call to take action following Jesus’ teachings.
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