EuDMS #1: Jim Memory - What on earth is God doing in Europe? Today's Context for Church and Mission in Europe

00:00:00: Well, good morning, good evening, whatever time in the world it is for you.

00:00:05: It's a pleasure to be with you.

00:00:06: Yes, my name is Jim Memory.

00:00:07: I'm British by birth, but I've spent most of my life as a missionary in Spain with ECM, European Christian Mission.

00:00:16: Today, I have the privilege of co-leading the Lausanne movement in Europe.

00:00:23: If I put my sunglasses on, everything gets dark.

00:00:29: And frankly, that's how most people see Europe as spiritually dark, godless, secular, post-Christian.

00:00:39: And it's not even not just politicians or journalists or academics.

00:00:45: over and over again, even in Christian conferences like the one that you'll be showing your screen in a second, say that Europe is post-Christian.

00:00:58: And when we repeat something, we start believing that it's true even when it's a lie.

00:01:06: Sadly, I think most European Christians, many if not most European Christian leaders, and maybe even some of you on this call, have internalized the myth of the inevitable decline of European Christianity.

00:01:24: Rather than holding on to the hope of the Lord's return demonstrated in the resurrection, we've internalized an eschatology of despair.

00:01:36: So brothers and sisters, this morning I want to encourage you to take off your sunglasses, because as I've been saying for the last five years, Europe is not post-Christian, it is pre-revival.

00:01:50: And out of the spotlight, an extraordinary re-evangelization of Europe.

00:01:56: is taking place.

00:01:58: The first area in which we see that is what's happening with church planting movements.

00:02:06: In short, almost every European country today, there is an acceleration in the number of new churches that are being planted, whether that's through denominational initiatives, mission agencies like Alliance Mission or ECM or many others, individuals, platforms or ministries that are facilitating church planting, new models of church in traditional form and some in more radical form, new Christian communities are sprouting up almost everywhere we look.

00:02:41: Perhaps the most exciting thing of all has been to see the proliferation of national church planting movements, national networks of planters from across the denominations that are connecting and collaborating in reaching their countries.

00:02:58: Now as I said at the beginning, I spent fifteen years as a church planter in Spain.

00:03:04: Church planters tend to be entrepreneurial mavericks, they're focused more on their own church and their own locality.

00:03:10: So collaboration between church planters is a new thing and I think it's a sign of revival happening in Europe.

00:03:19: Secondly, what we see with diaspora churches, God is using people on the move to sow the seed of the gospel across the continent of Europe.

00:03:30: Some of these diaspora churches are European.

00:03:33: The photo in the bottom right of your screen is Betania Church in Dublin.

00:03:39: It's the largest church in Ireland and it is a Romanian diaspora church.

00:03:45: Over the last thirty years, Latin American migrants have planted hundreds, thousands of churches in Spain, Portugal and beyond.

00:03:54: It's difficult to find a major European city that does not have a large Spanish-speaking or Brazilian church.

00:04:02: African-initiated Pentecostal churches number in the thousands in Europe, tens of thousands probably.

00:04:11: Just one of those, the redeemed Christian Church of God, has planted nearly a thousand congregations in the UK over the last twenty-five years.

00:04:22: If you live in a European city, If it has a significant African population there will almost certainly be an African diaspora church even if you are not aware of it.

00:04:34: An Asian Christians have also planted churches wherever they've migrated to.

00:04:39: There are twice as many Chinese evangelical churches in Italy as the total of all of the evangelical churches of any kind in the neighboring country of Slovenia.

00:04:53: This new reality is a huge opportunity for the Gospel, but it's also a huge challenge because the presence of thousands of Diaspora churches isn't having anything like the impact it should because so many of the church leaders are not able or willing to adapt their churches to the culture and to the context.

00:05:14: I spoke to a Chinese church leader recently, he said this, the Chinese Diaspora churches are like beautiful flowers that have been planted in European soil but they've forgotten to remove the pot.

00:05:30: We need to encourage diaspora and native church leaders to work together and maybe digital media can be one of the ways to break those flower pots to see these churches reach this next generation of Europeans.

00:05:47: Thirdly, what's happening with the next generation?

00:05:50: Amazing things are happening amongst Europe's youth.

00:05:54: We regularly hear about new revival movements in different countries of Europe.

00:05:59: This one really caught my eyes.

00:06:01: Skrokretfest in Croatia, a Christian festival for young people from across the Balkans.

00:06:09: It was the first event of this scale that's brought together a young generation from across the whole region since the war that there was in that part of Europe a generation ago.

00:06:22: But I also want to highlight another sociological reality in Europe.

00:06:27: Europe's birth rates over the last twenty five years have collapsed.

00:06:32: Some Mediterranean countries now have rates that are amongst the lowest in the world.

00:06:38: This chart shows Europe's old age dependency ratio.

00:06:42: The number of people aged sixty five plus per one hundred people at working age is expected to rise from around thirty in twenty fifteen to between fifty and sixty and in some cases in the case of Italy and Spain to between seventy and eighty by twenty twenty five.

00:07:02: In other words for every five people of working age there will be four pensioners.

00:07:07: All these older people also use digital media.

00:07:13: So as you innovate I would plead with you to think about people like me as well.

00:07:17: Those who are entering into this older generation because they are also using those tools and we need to think about them.

00:07:25: There's going to be so many more older people in Europe in the years to come.

00:07:31: God has not given up on Europe.

00:07:35: It may be out of the spotlight, but whether that's through church planting, which is accelerating, whether it's through diaspora churches, which are multiplying everywhere, or whether that's through revival amongst the next generation, God is at work.

00:07:50: in Europe.

00:07:51: I would love to say when I do this presentation again that there's a fourth thing happening in Europe what is happening in the digital space.

00:08:01: So I'm here today as much to speak as to learn from you and so I would as I say I would love to have a fourth thing that I always say when I travel around what God is doing.

00:08:11: so I'm really excited about that.

00:08:15: Europe is not post-Christian it's pre-revival.

00:08:18: and I say that not only because of what I see, but also because of what I believe.

00:08:24: Europe is not post-Christian because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

00:08:30: The resurrection of Jesus has transformed the vision of the disciples and it should do the same for us.

00:08:37: How can Europe be post-Christian if Jesus is still alive?

00:08:43: Secondly, Europe is not post-Christian because the church is still here.

00:08:48: The church is here, the spirit of God is here, and through history, whether through persecution or corruption, there have been many times when it seemed like the church was destined to disappear.

00:08:59: And yet here we are.

00:09:00: How can Europe be post-Christian if the church is still here?

00:09:05: And thirdly, Europe is not post-Christian because we know how the story ends.

00:09:12: And it ends like this, with people from every tribe and tongue and nation.

00:09:17: standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

00:09:21: Every nation of Europe will be represented there too.

00:09:26: So I want to encourage you to look at Europe in a new way, not through dark glasses.

00:09:33: Let's change the story about what we're saying about Europe.

00:09:37: Let's stop talking about Europe as post-Christian.

00:09:41: Let's start to believe that it is pre-revival because that is what God is doing right now, everywhere we look.

00:09:50: So again, I want to challenge you this morning and this evening, wherever you are, to look at Europe through new eyes, to pray for Europe, but also to consider how digital media might be impacting in each of those three areas and how it could impact into the future.

00:10:10: I'm thankful for this gathering, thankful for this time together.

00:10:14: And as I said already, I'm here to learn.

00:10:17: So thanks so much for the opportunity to speak into you this morning and pray a blessing on this day for you.

00:10:24: God bless you.