The Missionary Situation in Europe

Is Europe a mission field? A number of evangelical Christians firmly believe that it is. They point out that the continent which launched the great world missionary movement of the nineteenth century now needs to hear the gospel message from missionaries from other lands. This conviction, though not shared by all, is strong and growing. Consequently a spirit of missionary activity has come to Europe since the Second World War.

Many discerning evangelicals in Europe welcome this new emphasis. Dr. René Pache of Switzerland, a leading Bible expositor and educator in French-speaking Europe, says “Europe needs missionaries and we Europeans will do what we can to help them. I cannot list all the American missions and groups that are successfully working in Europe, but we appreciate them. Missionaries should know the Word of God thoroughly, be able to teach it, and be willing to lose sight of the fact that they are from North America. European Christians will generally accept foreign missionaries on this basis.”

Another European leader who sees his continent in missionary terms is Bishop Hans Lilje of the Evangelical Church of Germany, a former president of the World Lutheran Federation. “The era when Europe was a Christian continent lies behind us,” Lilje says. “Europe cannot remain what it was if the drift away from Christianity continues.” Lilje prophesies that in the future “church membership will become more a matter of personal choice than social custom. It is no longer a question of which church one wishes to belong to, but whether he wants church at all.”

These are strong words coming from a church leader in the land of Luther and of the Bible. He knows that today less than five per cent of the Protestants of Germany attend services regularly, and that in the larger cities average attendance falls as low as two per cent. Further, almost half the people of the Federal Republic now profess to be Catholic. Is there a trend here? Though many would dispute his opinion, Pastor Martin Niemöller candidly prophesies the victory of Rome in free Germany. Already the Catholics are politically dominant, with a much larger youth movement and a high morale.

Robert P. Evans is founder and European Director of the Greater Europe Mission, the largest foreign mission on the Continent. He received a B.A. at Wheaton College and a B.D. at Eastern Baptist Seminary, and was a Navy chaplain in Europe during World War II. Mr. Evans founded the European Bible Institute and has lived in Paris for 14 years.

Conditions such as these convince men like Kenneth Scott Latourette of Yale that the last 50 years have changed the spiritual picture in Europe, where, he says, “The trend is toward the de-Christianization of a predominantly nominal Christian population.”

The return of Roman Catholicism to power and influence in formerly Protestant strongholds is especially significant. Almost half of Holland’s population is now claimed by Rome, which has a political edge here as in Germany. In Switzerland today 41 per cent of the people profess to be Catholic. Taken as a whole, less than a quarter of the inhabitants of free, western Europe now remain actively Protestant.

An Unevangelized Nation

French Protestants, who number hardly two per cent of the population, worry about the shortage of pastors to supply parishes in the 2,000 towns where they are at work. Protestants in France have about the same slim ratio to the population as the Quakers do in America. But what about the 36,000 towns and cities in France which have no Protestant church at all? Second to India, France probably has more unevangelized towns than any single country in the free world.

The challenge of Europe’s unevangelized towns has sobered mission leaders in America and impelled much of the new interest in this continent. Spain’s tiny minority of about 16,000 Protestants makes little impression upon a nation of 30 million. More than 20,000 Spanish towns (5, 000 with no roads leading to them) are still untouched by the Gospel. Italy counts 29,000 such towns, and less than half of one per cent of its people are Protestant. When we add the 10,000 unreached towns in Portugal and Austria and those of Greece, Belgium, Ireland and Protestant Europe we reach an astounding total. The number of churchless towns in free Europe, based on a recent study of Protestant church directories, is now estimated at 250,000.

How has this challenge been met by missionaries during the last 50 years? Of course, some from outside Europe served there with distinction during the nineteenth century, but no real movement in this direction gained momentum. The Edinburgh missionary convention of 1910 did not even refer to Europe as part of the missionary world. Before 1912 some work had been started in Latin Europe, but on a very small basis.

During the interval between the two world wars, which did so much harm to church life, American Christians became more concerned. But in response the churches of North America sent only about 50 missionaries to Europe before World War II.

After the armistice of 1945 the success of grim new enemies of the Gospel led some across the Atlantic to rethink missionary strategy for this continent. Larger denominations decided to supplement their massive post-war programs with some missionary manpower. The Presbyterians called theirs in Portugal “fraternal workers,” tactfully stating that they were there to serve under the national church which had invited them. The Southern Baptists, long at work in Italy and Spain, now opened seminaries in Switzerland and Italy and increased the number of their minority groups in the Latin countries.

The new nondenominational missions, lacking a constituency on the continent, were primarily interested in the masses which had no contact with Protestantism. In early post-war years the emphasis of these societies was on direct evangelism in which the missionary himself played the key role. But many workers came increasingly to realize the importance of trained nationals and spent more time readying potential church members in the Bible classes or launching Bible-teaching institutions.

Since 1945 more than 400 missionaries have gone to Europe—an increase of about 450 per cent since 1939. At least a score of missionary societies and special agencies have been created especially for service in Europe. The achievements of their workers, who constitute less than two per cent of the North American missionary body, have been little recognized.

Some Pioneer Efforts

For one thing they have pioneered gospel broadcasting in Europe. Dr. Miner B. Stearns of Brussels has aired programs regularly since 1946 in French and Spanish on Radio Luxemburg and other stations. The European Evangelistic Crusade and the Greater Europe Mission have had sustaining programs on these large commercial stations in several languages. Such efforts have stirred Swiss and German evangelicals to enter the commercial broadcast field for themselves. Then Trans World Radio transferred its short-wave broadcasting from Tangier to Monaco in 1961, leasing a large transmitter and several antennae owned by Radio Monte Carlo. The main efforts of this organization were directed toward captive eastern Europe. Meanwhile the World Radio Missionary Fellowship continues efforts to establish a medium and long wave station for reaching the masses in free Europe.

In the wake of the many successful Billy Graham crusades in Europe came a new interest in mass evangelism. The American, Eugene Boyer, in France, and the Canadian, Leo Janz, in German-speaking Europe, have consistently outdrawn even national evangelists in their large preaching missions. Through their efforts a multitude have turned to the Saviour. Europeans who have observed the long-term results of all these crusades report much lasting fruit despite the few evangelical churches in which to place converts.

In the training realm much help has come from abroad. Six Bible institutes and two theological seminaries have been founded by missionaries in free Europe since the Second World War. Twelve other such schools, some directed by Europeans, get either permanent or periodic missionary teaching help from foreigners and much financial aid from North America. The Greater Europe Mission has opened three schools. In the first, the European Bible Institute near Paris, students from 21 nations have been trained in two language sections. This mission maintains also the German Bible Institute in Seeheim and the Italian Bible Institute in Rome. In Brussels the Belgian Bible Institute has taught many of the pastors of Belgium. Its sponsor, the Belgian Gospel Mission, is the largest evangelical body in the country. In Portugal the Conservative Baptist Seminary of Leiria is the advanced Protestant training school in the land.

Europe still has fewer foreign missionaries than the city of Hong Kong or the island of Haiti. There is every evidence, though, of quickening concern about this strategic area called the “overlooked continent” by missions at work there.

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