What are the most secular countries in Europe?

Where does the UK fall in a list of Europe's most secular nations?

The Nova Research Centre, a Christian research organisation focusing on mission in Europe, has released an "Index of European Secularity". Printed in their quarterly newsletter Vista, this list  is based on the answers to five questions in the European Values Study (which describes itself as "the most comprehensive research project on human values in Europe") comparing attitudes in 20 major European countries:

1. Do you believe in God?

2. How important is religion in your life?

3. Independently of whether you go to church or not, would you say you are religious, not religious or a convinced atheist?

4. Apart from weddings, funerals and christenings, how often do you attend religious services?

5. How much confidence do you have in the church?

Well I have kept you waiting long enough for the answer. The UK comes fourth, after the Czech Republic, Germany and France.

Here is their full list is with the most secular countries at the top:

1 Czech R.

2 Germany

3 France

4 UK

5 Belgium

6 Finland

7 Spain

8 Hungary

9 Netherlands

10 Denmark

11 Bulgaria

12 Albania

13 Russian Fed.

14 Croatia

15 Ireland

16 Italy

17 Portugal

18 Greece

19 Poland

20 Romania

The full Vista article can be read at http://gallery.mailchimp.com/35de49596475de2c29d5d0ac0/files/Vista_2010_09_Issue_03_final.pdf

Koreans call for ethnic leaders to come together in London

I just received an invitation to the 7th London mission conference organised by Koreans living in the UK. In fact there are lots of Koreans in the UK -- enough to make up some 100 Korean churches.

More than 40 Korean churches and 20 Korean and international missions like WEC, OM, Wycliffe  and YWAM have agreed to cooperate on this conference.

If you find yourself at it, don't worry -- they are going to arrange a simultaneous interpretation into English for as many people as need it. Here is the website, with an English translation too: www.lmc.name

After the two main plenary sessions are addressed by Dr. George Verwer something exciting will happen (not implying that the time with George won't be -- it always is!). There will be a meeting about the next mission conference -- but instead of it staying just Korean the organisers plan to welcome all ethnic church leaderships and mission partners to be part of discussions for the formation of the next mission conference in London.

I find it wonderfully encouraging that Koreans living halfway around the world from their homeland are calling those from other lands to join them in a conference focusing on taking Jesus to those who still don't know him. Is there anything better to draw us together?

UK church no longer declining?

Usually it's bad form to just rip another blog post. But this one has exciting enough info that it is worth reading the slightly edited version below. Thanks europeanmission and Christian Research! Christian Research reverses predictions of numerical decline for UK churches europeanmission http://europeanmission.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/christian-research-reverses-predictions-of-numerical-decline-for-uk-churches/

New data released by Christian Research today suggests that the decline in churchgoing has stabilised and that attendance figures have actually been more or less static for the last five years. This reverses a series of predictions made during the 1990s and into the early 2000s by the former Director of Christian Research, Dr. Peter Brierley. The current Director, Benita Hewitt, points to data from the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Baptist Union of Great Britain which shows a broad stabilisation of church attendance. 

The charts show that monthly attendance within the Anglican church has remained steady at around 1.7 million since 2001, whilst weekly attendance has declined in the same period from 1.2 million to a little over 1.16 million, a loss of 40,000 although since 2002 the figure has dipped and peaked around the 1.17 million mark.
Hewitt confidently predicts the end of the decline and hopes that it 'may even motivate Christians and churches to think that there is a chance of growth, if only they believed in it.' Whilst Christian Research has yet to release the trends for the Baptist Union, Hewitt insists that there is no evidence of decline from their statistics. In response to a question posed, She argues that 'it’s a trend we’re seeing generally from a number of different sources.'
Writing as Christian Research's Director, Hewitt states definitively that despite what earlier editions of Religious Trends had predicted, 'Christian Research's current view is that it does NOT forecast decline for the future.'

If you love flowers and love God you are going to love this!

This past weekend I drove way out into the country (far enough that my phone's sat nav gave out for lack of coverage) to the Gorsley Festival. This event's claim to fame is its flowers.

Okay, yes, I admit it. I went to a flower festival.

But here is the amazing bit. So did LOTS of others. There were literally coach-loads of people being dropped off to visit the flower displays. The wait just to get in was so long that I waited and visited at the end of the day just before it closed.


The flowers were displayed in the main sanctuary of Gorsley Chapel, and here is where it gets really clever. All the flower arrangements were inspired by aspects of scripture, with the verses or associated thoughts on signs beside each display. And once an hour someone would get up and share a brief thought and prayer.

Think about it! Coach loads of people were CHOOSING to come to see a flower show, in a church, with verses to think about, and spiritual thoughts shared as well. What a wonderful way to combine something people wanted to come to and witness.


Then everyone had a lovely cream tea, a nice look at the beauty around them outside, and went home. Hopefully something of the message went with them.

I didn't know there were that many with that few!

Over coffee this morning I was looking at the number of evangelical Christians in Europe according to Operation World.

I was a bit shocked to discover that there are 24 countries in Europe whose populations are less than 1% evangelical! Some of those on the list are Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Poland and Spain. So we aren't talking just tiny countries you couldn't find on a map.

Of those 24 nations, 11 are less than 0.2% evangelical!!

When I compared the total evangelical population of Europe to other continents I discovered that it has the lowest evangelical % of population of ANY continent (except Antarctica for which Operation World doesn't provide data). Africa, for example, has an evangelical % of population that is six times that of Europe.

No wonder one of the ECM missionaries preparing to work here in the UK is from Nigeria and Brazilian missionaries are coming to work in Spain.

One last figure to share, not from Operation World. We need to remember that God loves 100% of the people in Europe. We just still need to help most of them meet him.

Bad news for the church on BBC radio 4 is good news for you

The "church" is in the news again.


As I drove home yesterday the main item on BBC radio 4 was the report from the NI Police Ombudsman probe into 9 deaths in bombings in Claudy, County Londonderry on 31 July 1972 that indicates:

"The police, the Catholic Church and the state conspired to cover up a priest's suspected role in one of the worst atrocities of the Northern Ireland Troubles..."

I know that this is about the Catholic Church and as such doesn't represent evangelical Christianity. And I know that this happened almost 40 years ago and as such doesn't represent even the modern Catholic Church. And I know that the report hinges on one individual priest, and there will always be people who don't live the good life their faith calls them to.

Most normal people listening to Radio 4, or watching the news, or reading about this in the papers (and I tremble to think what is the the tabloids about this today) will only hear that once again the "church" is involved in something bad. The "church" tried to cover up for their own, just like they did with the priests involved in child abuse. Once again the message is "you cannot trust the church". 

But in this there is also an opportunity. At least the church is in the news. At least people are thinking about it. 

So grasp the opportunity this provides and go talk to someone about it. Tell them that the church you go to isn't like this and that Jesus is still alive today providing a choice that doesn't result in revenge and death.

Don't let Satan win this one. 

Big faith in France

An ECM missionary in France recently posted this on her blog. It is well worth a listen!

Raf, a missionary and evangelist has moved from the church in Tours to plant a church an hour away in Loches.  He has just done a very interesting interview (in english) on the state of church planting in France.  If you want to listen, here’s the link: http://www.ccfof.org/podcasts/index.html

Photo used courtesy of Tom Curtis:  http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=178

Who NEVER goes to church?

We know that most people don't go to church regularly, but it is easy to think that most  have gone a few times and are vaguely familiar with it.

But results from the latest European Social Survey indicate that 60% of people in the Czech Republic NEVER attend religious services (except for "special occasions" like marriages and christenings). More than 50% of people in France, the United Kingdom and Belgium gave a similar response.


Out of the 28 nations polled people in Cyprus and Greece attend the most religious services (only 2.4% don't ever go to church in Cyprus and 4.9% in Greece). 


So not only do a lot of people not know Jesus. A lot of people don't know much about the church except what they see in the media. And I am not sure that does a lot to make it look attractive...

Is this what church should look like?

I was in Northern Ireland this past week meeting with the man heading up European Christian Mission's work there. He used to do church planting in Peru, so we had some fascinating discussions about what church should look like.

After I returned home my wife showed me this 3 minute video called "Sunday's Coming Movie Trailer". Watch it and see if you recognise any of your church in it. Watch out for the tatoo!


http://vimeo.com/11501569

Church on tap

Okay, so this isn't really from Europe. But Canada is a bit like Europe, right?

Someone forwarded this to me. It follows on well from the church in the pub of my last blog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1meHxCN3-U&feature=youtu.be

Church. In a rugby club!

Today I drove to the services near Junction 13 of the M4. It was crowded and loud, but a convenient place to meet up with the head of Church Planting Initiatives and his wife. 

Over coffee (I had a latte if you must know -- is there a personality test you can run based on what someone drinks?) he mentioned a church plant being run in a rugby club. This church plant meets at a  time when people are in there drinking at the bar. They room is divided in two, with the bar on one side and the church on the other. But to get to the toilets you have to walk through the back of the church area!

What creative thinking! Can't wait to hear how it goes...

Image used courtesy of Tina Phillips: 

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=503

Big numbers, little numbers

The current population of the UK is nearly 62 million.That's a big number.

I recently ran across some research (I believe by Peter Brierley) that says if you add up all the evangelicals in the UK you only get 1,266,400 people. That is, by comparison to the population of the UK, a little number.

Is that really bad news? That got me thinking. 

Some networking "experts" say that the average person has about 200 relationships. If you are an optimistic person you can think about it as the number of people who would want to show up at your wedding. If you are more pessimistic, think of it as those who would want to attend your funeral.

If there is one evangelical for every 50 people in the UK (that is 62 million divided by 1.27 million), then a lot of people in the UK actually know more than one Christian! 

If those of us who know Jesus are just willing to be salt and light to those who know us, a lot of the country would be lighter and saltier by the end of the week.

Go for it! There ARE enough of us to make a difference. Little numbers can reach the big numbers.

Not a lot of evangelicals around Tours

I was just on the phone with a woman involved in evangelism in Tours, France. She said that although Tours has 200,000 people it has only 4 small (less than 100 people in each) evangelical churches.

That means that if you went to Tours and started meeting people, you would on average have to meet 500 people before you'd meet a single evangelical.

Then again, she said one of her three favourite things is evangelism. She sure has a lot of people in Tours to introduce to Jesus!

Only hundreds of evangelical Christians in Bosnia. Really?

In a week's time I will be meeting with a couple who have been doing church planting for decades in the Balkans. In anticipation of that I was looking at some statistics for that region and ran across this about Bosnia in OperationWorld <http://www.operationworld.org/country/bosn/owtext.html>

"The miniscule evangelical witness has grown since 1991. Then there were only 2 to 3 congregations, but this had grown to 29 in 2000 with 700 people attending services."

Wow! That's not many. Still, that is a ten fold multiplication in number of churches in under a decade.

Anyone have more recent stats? 

Photo used courtesy of graur razvan ionut: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=987

Are European Muslims "good" Muslims?

Given the increasing number and profile of Muslims in Europe (I am no longer surprised to see women in burkhas when I am out shopping) the Nova Research Centre's (www.novaresearch.eu) surprised me.  Its most recent newsletter presented the results of a number of surveys about attitudes of Muslims living in Europe.

And there are a lot of European Muslims, more than 38 million if you include those in Russia. So are they all "good Muslims". Do they pray, give, fast, deal with money, and live the rest of their lives as the Koran and Islamic tradition commands?

From  France, 2008:
- only 10% of Muslims consider religion very important in their lives
- 60% say they never pray

From Belgium, 2005:
-  only 10% of the Muslim population were 'practicing Muslims'

From a study of Islamic Imams in Sweden, 2004:
- as few as 15% of second-generation Muslims in Sweden could be considered 'religiously active'

From Russia:
- out of 20 million officially self-identified Muslims only 35-45% practice regularly

From the UK, 2007:
- 21% of Muslims had consumed alcohol, 65% were paying interest on a normal mortgage, 19% had gambled, whilst 9% admitted to having taken drugs

What can we conclude from this? At the very least that living a life based on one's cultural religious background is just as hard for "Muslims" as it is for "Christians". Maybe that gives us something in common!

Photo used by kind permission of Graeme Weatherston: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=330

What do Ecuador, Israel and Germany have in common?

Yesterday I attended a Baptist church for the commissioning service of a couple preparing for church planting in Germany. During the service the pastor also prayed for a man going to Israel for the summer and pointed out a woman who was flying out to Ecuador that evening.

That would seem impressive enough, but when I was at the front praying for the couple going to Germany I noticed something else. The church was full of people of all ages (not that surprising) but also people who appeared to be from India, Africa, East Asia and beyond.

So here was a church that both welcomed people from anywhere who'd come to the UK, but was also concerned about those who didn't come and was supporting people going out to them. Not a bad example to follow!

Hear about God moving in Italy!

Yesterday I was meeting with Martin Robinson of Together in Mission (togetherinmission.co.uk) and he told me about a church plant in Milan that has grown to 650 people and planted 7 new churches in the last year! Click on the link to hear its pastor talk about how she changed from being a Roman Catholic to now leading one of Italy's most influential churches. It involved fasting for a year, so I don't necessarily recommend trying this at home!


Untitled from Mary Publicover on Vimeo.

Is there an "ethnic" section in your church?

I was in Tescos yesterday shopping for rather mundane things like bread and orange juice. But as I went along the aisles I encountered the "ethnic food" section, which was stuffed full of all kinds of exciting sounding items, some of whose names I couldn't even read. In fact as I went around the store I also noticed a lot of shoppers speaking in languages I didn't understand.

That got me thinking. If our stores are full of people from places like Poland and Pakistan, how come our churches aren't? The stores bring them in by providing the things they need to live -- basmati rice, palm oil, polish sausage, malta drinks... How many of our churches are offering people something that they look at "on the shelf" and will say "Yes, I will have some of that!"?

If you want to do this for Poles, I've recently run across a good resource. It's called Pole to Pole and you can read  about it at http://www.globalconnections.co.uk/missionintheuk/poletopole
I'm sure I will have more to do with it later. So I'll add more then.

Oh and on ethnic food, last weekend I met a woman who'd been working in China where she ate fried scorpions WITH their stingers still on! Mmmmm...

Who is reaching who?

A couple of nights ago I was at a goodbye party for the man finishing up as British Director of European Christian Mission (if Jenny reads this, the food was great!). While I talked my way around the nearly 30 people attending I realised it was quite an international bunch.

There was one couple where the husband is British and the wife is German who are preparing to go help with a church plant in Germany. There was a Lithuanian woman who is planning to work in England reaching out to other Eastern Europeans. There was a Nigerian man married to an English woman who plan to work with an English church plant. There was an English man working here in the UK doing European research but who pops across to Spain to offer consulting on Spanish church planting...

It was a good reminder that today is a unique time in the history of God's expanding kingdom. Increasingly He is using people from everywhere to go everywhere to reach everyone.

I can't wait to see the fruit of all this new activity. Go God!

How do you run a church where almost no one works?

Funding a church will be a struggle in any situation. But what do you do when almost no one in the church has a job?

I was meeting yesterday with a couple name Terry and Christine who are church planting in a rural part of Spain. Average unemployment in Spain is around 20% (about twice the average in the euro zone). But in their area it is even worse. There are only one or two people in their entire church of 30 or more people who even have full-time employment!

I don't have an answer to this one. Do you?

Amazing drug rehabilitation success involving olive oil?

The success rate at El Buen Samaritano Christian drug rehabilitation centre near Pozoblanco, Spain, is twice the national average.

Their combination of prayer, therapy and olive oil (more on that in a moment) means that 24% of those who pass through its doors will never even smoke a cigarette again, while more than 7 in 10 will never revert to drug taking!

Luciano Cabrera, mayor of the nearby city of Alcaracejos, admits that "Spain has got a geographical position that lends itself to the trafficking of drugs and people." The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction lists Spain as the key country in the trafficking of both cannabis and cocaine.

El Buen Samaritano owns a 150-year-old olive grove which stretches over 12 hectares of steep hillsides. The harvesting is done by those involved in the rehabilitation program using the same techniques used by farmers for hundreds of years. And the oil produced here has been rated as some of the best in the country.

The key to success, according to psychotherapist and centre director Raul Garcia, is to give the men a sense of purpose. "They need to learn to love a job. They know that bringing the harvest in will buy food for them and for other people... I have seen lives changed."

European Christian Mission helps to sponsor this project through a unique adopt-a-tree scheme. One thousand of the trees are up for adoption for £40 each, and the sponsor will receive a 3-litre container of extra virgin olive oil direct to their door. Find out more at www.buensam.org.uk

(adapted from an article by Hazel Southam published in Idea Magazine)

11 churches catering for ethnic minorities in Wolverhampton alone!

From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/30/church-of-england-ethnic-minorities

...Last weekend a conference dedicated to issues facing south Asian Christians in the UK challenged mainstream churches to "recognise south Asian followers as a significant community and to respond appropriately".

...There are 11 small churches catering for ethnic minorities in Wolverhampton alone, including one where the service is in Punjabi and traditional Indian instruments, such as the dhol, accompany prayers.

...A spokesman for the Church of England said it was doing more to engage with ethnic minority worshippers, citing as an example a vicar in Walthamstow, east London, who was trying to integrate his Urdu-speaking congregation into the everyday life of the larger flock....

...The Rev Clive Gregory, bishop of Wolverhampton, said: "A large part of the role is to encourage the next generation of ethnic minority priests. We've discovered there is a lot of self-confidence which is lacking, particularly amongst minority ethnic Christians, in terms of really believing that God is calling them to be a vicar in the Church."

Where are UK men singing, if not in church?

If you are a man, and looking for a way to excuse not wanting to sing in church, here you go!

Research among UK males done on behalf of the magazine Sorted indicates that...
- only 52% of men say they are comfortable singing in church

For comparison:
- 40% say they are at ease singing in a pub
- 48% are confortable singing at a party


But the big winners are:
- 83% are at ease singing in the shower
- 86% are comfortable singing alone in a car

Thank you Sorted. We are all better for knowing this!

Pagans on the morning news. Again!

A few days ago the morning news featured Pagan English police being given the right to take time off for religious holidays. This morning there were scenes from Stonehenge and the celebration of the Summer Solstice.

But according to the BBC, "The Pagan Federation of Great Britain have no precise figures but estimate that the number of Pagans in the British Isles is between 50,000 and 200,000".

Even going off the larger figure, that means there are more people attending "New Churches" in the UK than are Pagan. When was the last time you saw someone from Newfrontiers or Pioneer on the morning news?

Why remove Bibles, but not porn, from hotels?

This story is a few years old but I just heard it yesterday.

“...a Swedish hotel guest named Stefan Jansson grew upset when he found a Bible in his room. He fired off an email to the hotel chain saying the presence of the Christian Scriptures was "boring and stupefying." This spring, the Scandic chain, Scandinavia's biggest, ordered the New Testaments removed. In a country where barely 3% of the population goes to church each week, the affair seemed just another step in Christian Europe's long march toward secularism. Then something odd happened: A national furor erupted. A conservative bishop announced a boycott. A leftist radical who became a devout Christian and talk-show host denounced the Biblical purge in newspaper columns and on television. A young evangelical Christian organized an electronic letter-writing campaign, asking Scandic: Why are you removing Bibles but not pay-porn on your TVs? Scandic, which had started keeping its Bibles behind the front desk, put the New Testament back in guest rooms. "Sweden is not as secular as we thought," says Christer Sturmark, head of Sweden's Humanist Association, a noisy assembly of nonbelievers to which the Bible-protesting hotel guest belongs.” (Andrew Higgins, 14 July, 2007)

Exciting church growth in...

...Africa

"Just after the First World War, an Anglican diocese was established in Lagos in Nigeria. Ninety-one years later, it has become the largest active Protestant church body in the world.

"Much of the growth of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, however, occurred during the last two decades.

"From 24 dioceses in 1988, the church has grown to 156 dioceses. Every Sunday, the Church of Nigeria gathers 20 million people in worship of Jesus Christ." (Christian Today, 15 June 2010)

...Asia

"Protestant churches in Hong Kong are blooming with an annual growth rate 6.2% over the last five years and the number of Protestants in the former British colony drawing close to 300,000." (Christian Today, 1 June 2010)

...Europe?

Wouldn't it be great to see this kind of explosive church growth in Europe? We serve the same God. Let's keep praying for it!

Sweet and sour experience for British missions

Yesterday I had a great sweet and sour chicken at the Chinese Church in London. I was there for "Passion for Mission", a conference run by Global Connections (a network of British mission organisations and mission-minded churches). The building used to be a synagogue but now houses a large and vibrant Chinese Christian community. I'll be back in October to speak at their annual mission conference.

Bible... from heaven?

Not long ago I heard a story set in Hungary during the Communist regime. A Christian had received a package of Bibles which had been smuggled into the country for him to distribute. With the Bibles in his car, and no chance to safely hide them, he was summoned to the local police station. He knew that if he was caught with the illegal Bibles he would face prison at least. So he prayed and then threw the Bibles one by one out the window of his car as he drove to the police. He was safe, but he felt awful about the Bibles being lost.

Years later he shared about this in a Hungarian church meeting. Afterwards an old man stood up and told how one day he had been travelling down the road in his horse and cart. Suddenly from nowhere a Bible fell onto the seat next to him. Intrigued he took it home and read it and eventually became a Christian.

This isn't just a brilliant story. It's a great reminder that prayer works even when we are scared and depserate!

Not every European church is European!

This afternoon was a good reminder that a lot of people living in Europe today are not European. I attended an event hosted by a Korean church from London. They served a brilliant Korean bbq spread complete with two kinds of kimchee (one just isn't enough). From time to time loud cheers erupted from the next room where Korea was beating Greece in an early game of the World Cup. But the true reminder that this wasn't a typical European event was the free accupuncture being offered! I decided to not accept their kind offer...

Church in Albania replaces bulbs in street lights

Yesterday I met a woman named Janet who was recently in Lushnje (no that is not misspelled) Albanial. Lushnje is a town with some real needs. Such as unemployment is a staggering 60%!

A church plant led by an Albanian man in Lushnje is trying to be "transformative". When I asked what this meant, she shared the example that they have started a school that is teaching English lessons, providing jobs for teachers and education for young people.

But what I thought was the best example was this. Someone had stolen all the bulbs from the local street lights, meaning it was quite dangerous for local girls to go out after dark. So the church replaced all the light bulbs!

We are told to be a light to our community. Now that is taking it literally!

Big Church Day Out: 10,000 people came together a week ago for a day of praise and worship near Loughborough in England. Great to see so many people worshipping Jesus at once. Of course in Nigeria you can go to Christian events where over a million people regularly attend. So while the Big Church Day Out was tiny by comparison. Still a fun day out though!