Mission in Europe
As with the full International Conference of Reformed Churches (ICRC), the European regional conference (EuCRC) has taken a keen interest in mission since its inception in 2007. The leading concern is to promote effective mission to Europe. Also, having a strong conviction that God’s purpose among men is to build his church, the task of church planting (and renewal) is primary. Churches being planted (alongside those established over the longer term) are the clearest indicators of the progress of our mission task.
In March 2008 the EuCRC initiated an exercise to gather information on the church planting projects being undertaken by the member churches. This has continued since, and should be expected to be a continuous scheme, as long as the work of church expansion is sustained by the church federations and denominations represented in the conference.
First information (presented at the 2010 conference in Edinburgh) was gathered from six of the then seven member churches. This showed a concentration of efforts in The Netherlands – which can be attributed to the two largest member churches being Dutch. There was also a scattered presence in the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland, England & Wales, Scotland), and the Republic of Ireland. It was known that work is also going on in places such as Spain, but specific information was not then available. In the following two years few additions were made, but did include such groups as those working in Austria and Switzerland.
This collection of information is intended to more accurately determine those parts of Europe where there is currently no Reformed, gospel work. In 2008, there was a suggestion the churches should aim to plant 100 new churches in key locations across the continent, in co-operative projects. However, at that point, no one was able to say definitively which of those places are without Reformed churches. Thus it will be necessary to compile data on all existing, developing, or prospective Reformed church presence. This still needs refinement for member churches, and a broader scope to include affiliated work.
Out of the Ukraine 2012 conference came an agreement that member churches should take the draft survey document to: (1) review their own entries; & (2) act as conduits for similar information from those other bodies. These bodies will include other European churches whom they are willing to endorse (‘affiliates’, perhaps) as reliably ‘Reformed’ groups; and some awareness of such work as that done by ‘Redeemer Network’ or ‘Acts 29’ will also be valuable.
In due course, suitable summary information (with links) will be made available on this website. There is an interactive map showing the location of mission churches.
Interested (preferably, appointed) persons from the member church are encouraged to contact Rev David D Miller (davidmiller2@ntlworld.com) who has oversight of this data project. Other bodies – churches or individuals not from the formal full membership of the conference – should first deal with their contact church (or person) who are members of the ICRC (see list here). Only when such a member church endorses this connection can their information be included in this survey, and must be transmitted through the member church.