The Impact of Migration on Evangelism in Europe

The extensive secularization that eroded Christian belief and practice and that caused a drastic decline in church membership and the presence of an increasing number of non‐Christian migrants in Europe today is not only endangering the future of Christian faith, but reminding us that there are millions of people in Europe who need to hear the gospel. But generally, there is a continuing decline of interest in evangelism among the local churches and theological training in Europe, with the exception of free churches and some mission organizations. Theological training in Europe, at least in its present shape, has not been successful in shaping, leading and equipping the church for the task of evangelism as discipleship: a life‐transforming encounter. Therefore, we need a renewed vision of evangelism to develop contextual evangelistic approaches that takes paradigm shifts of our time into account. Migrant Christians bring a remarkable new dimension to the understanding and practice of evangelism in Europe. They come from a context where evangelism is intrinsically interrelated to discipleship making and is seen as the central identity of a church and a primary goal of theological training. This can inspire, encourage and compel European Christians to rediscover a courageous missional identity and develop effective cross‐cultural evangelism. Meanwhile, migrant Christians need the guidance of European Christians in order to use a proper and contextualized approach to win the trust of Europeans and succeed in evangelizing them. Humility is the key element that is commonly needed in this win‐win situation. Positive theological and multicultural networks along with interdependence and mutual learning–oriented relationships between migrant and local Christians can help to develop ecumenical missiologies that are relevant to diverse contexts of Europe today. The issue of the International Review of Mission focuses on the theme of Evangelism as Discipleship. This theme is held by most migrant Christians and congregations as the main interrelated aspect of evangelism. I will start by giving a brief background on the status of migration and evangelism in Europe. The main focus will be the impact of and contribution of migration on evangelism and some major aspects in which migrants may influence the search for new ways of evangelism and the development of ecumenical missiologies in Europe.