... from Kevin Jamison

This past February I had the opportunity to join Ed and a dozen other pastors on a trip to Barcelona, Spain. The purpose of the trip was to raise an awareness of the spiritual climate in modern-day Europe. Like many Americans, my view of foreign missions was primarily confined to the continents of Africa, Asia and South America. I had never considered Europe a priority for missions. The evening after my arrival, I sat in on a meeting with group of missionaries from across Europe. One of them told me, "I have been a missionary in Taiwan, Korea, Africa and now Europe. Europe is by far the hardest place I've ever been. Europe is a graveyard for missionaries." Those words rocked me.

Europe is defined by many as a post-Christian context and I began to understand why as the week progressed. In an unfortunate incident involving a thief and my possessions, I lost almost everything I brought with me, including my Bible. I went to a couple of bookstores to buy a new Bible and I could not find one: They did not sell Bibles. Additionally, I could not find a congregation to join for worship as there are few active churches. I did visit a couple of cathedrals, but they are now little more than tourist attractions. Caleb, one of the missionaries in Barcelona, described them as big beautiful monuments to what many people in Europe view as a dead religion.

While the spiritual depravity of the city was overwhelming, the need for gospel ministry was also enlivening. I pastor a church in the Midwestern United States where a majority of people identify themselves as Christians. To encounter a self-described non-Christian requires a decent amount of work. In Europe, roughly 2% of the population identifies themselves as evangelical Christians. This means that your waiter, your cab driver, your barista, and your neighbor are most likely non-Christians. Even more, many of these people have little to no understanding of the gospel. Christianity to them is a ritual or an unfortunate part of their history, not an encounter with a crucified and resurrected God. This presents the Church with an enormous opportunity for missions and church-planting! The problem is the majority of pastors and Christians in the U.S. often overlook Europe when considering foreign missions. This must change.

My good friend Larry McCrary has founded a new missional network called The Upstream Collective. Upstream's vision is to be a catalyst for developing, training, and sending a new type of missionary to Europe. Upstream is hosting three vision trips in the near future to give pastors from the U.S. an opportunity to experience the spiritual climate of Europe. If you are a pastor and you have the chance to join Ed and Larry on one these trips, get on board. Your eyes will be opened. You will benefit, your church will benefit, and hopefully the people of Europe will benefit as well as more Christians are exposed to the great, but neglected, mission-field of Europe.