A while back one of my posts commented on a report on the decline of Christianity in Europe (you can read the whole thing here). In a nutshell, the report detailed declining church attendance across the Continent and predicted the end of Christianity in Europe within the next 100 years. It was an extreme claim to say the least, but it did contain some alarming statistics showing a serious drop in church attendance.
In that first post I commented that in order to remain true to the Great Commission, we should divert at least some of our missions resources to Europe. In the past week, however, I have come across some new statistics about the state of Christianity in Europe that are much more alarming. Christianity is indeed in decline across Europe, but when comparing the percentage of Evangelical Christians to the percentage of Muslims in the four largest European countries, the results are staggering (numbers come from Operation World and The Joshua Project, 2010 edition):
Spain 1.0% Evangelical Christian, 2.4% Muslim
France 1.0% Evangelical Christian, 10.5% Muslim
Italy 1.1% Evangelical Christian, 2.6% Muslim
Germany 2.1% Evangelical Christian, 4.4% Muslim
When you compare these percentages to a few countries we typically view as traditional “mission fields,” the numbers are even more striking:
Peru 11.6% Evangelical Christian, 0% Muslim
Rwanda 26.9% Evangelical Christian, 5.2% Muslim
Romania 5.4% Evangelical Christian, 0.6% Muslim
Vatican City 2.5% Evangelical Christian, 0% Muslim (That’s right…there is a higher percentage of Evangelical Christians in the capital of the Catholic church than in France, Spain, Italy, or Germany).
I use the comparison to Islam in part because Christianity and Islam are the two religions with the greatest missionary focus. It is clear from these numbers that, in Europe at least, the Muslims have much better focus than we do. How is it that we are less committed to spreading the Truth than they are to spreading a lie?
There are no doubt some readers who will take exception to the fact that I have only included Evangelical Christians, though if you’ve read any of my other posts it really should not be a surprise. But by way of explanation for my Catholic readers, please see my post on “Evangelicals and Catholics” here.
The bottom line is simple. Two thousand years ago the Apostle Paul expressed his desire to take the Gospel to Spain (Romans 15:23-28), and it is apparent that the task remains unfinished. We must, as local congregations, as Southern Baptists, and as Evangelical Christians put Europe back into our missionary focus. It is a hard field, to be sure. Islam is only one of many obstacles that also include a general disdain toward religion in general and a rise in New Age and Occult practices. But we are commanded to go, not to worry about whether the seed we scatter will bear fruit. That is up to the Lord, not us.
And besides the need to evangelize the continent, we must (as I stated in the first post on Europe) show the believers that are there that we have not forgotten them. That one percent of France, Spain, and Italy that are remaining faithful to the Gospel must see that we stand with them. We must “strengthen what remains and is about to die (Rev. 3:2).” There is no time to waste.
