EUROPE, in the not too distant future, may easily become the world's neediest mission field. If that suggestion appears to be too somber, then take a peep into the almost deserted churches or take note of the hundreds of churches that are being sold and converted to furniture warehouses. Only two blocks from my temporary apartment in Rotterdam is a huge edifice, quite new and in good repair and close to the city center. Once it was a Catholic church—today it is a vegetable market. Consider the fact that in England for the past six years Methodist member ship has declined by 10,000 each year. But above all, take note of the changed out look and attitudes of the people as a fatalism and neopaganism spread like some hydra-headed monster into all walks of life. The words of the hymn take on a real meaning: "If you cannot cross the ocean And the heathen lands explore, You can find the heathen nearer,- you can help them at your door."
The Task We Face
Somehow we must lift up Christ, sound a warning message, and call out a remnant in this great Northern European Division. From West Africa and Ethiopia to Iceland and across to Poland; in historic Britain, beautiful Scandinavia, and that most densely populated land on earth—little Holland, we need to work with the belief that this is the last hour.
Our work faces newly emerged national ism, repressive state-church systems, and perhaps what is more difficult, the sense of freedom that has come to lands that have thrown off the yoke of the state church and now want to revert to paganism as quickly as possible. Our territory embraces the whole spectrum of political thought, which doesn't concern us duly, but what has brought problems has been the rising tide of affluence—prosperous lands and people whose social-security systems boast complete care from "womb to tomb" or "from the cradle to the grave." Emancipation from poverty and back-breaking drudgery seems to be equated by so many with "freedom from God," and with this freedom from moral restraints has come a laissezfaire attitude. In some of our countries the word drugs is already front-page concern, and TV and magazines have fallen to new depths of filth.
The Condition of the Church—Its Growth and Strategy
Generally speaking, one would have to say that the church has not kept pace with the tempo of events; prewar evangelistic methods, a scarcity of decent church buildings, and a lack of church schools have contributed to the difficulties. These matters are all being rectified, and already we rejoice over the attendant blessings. In far too many places we have churches that are nonevident, hidden behind an ordinary house-front. This is said to be for financial reasons, but one suspects that in many cases it is a legacy from the past—a fear of stirring up strong state-church opposition. In some places, for the same reason, we have abdicated the use of the word church and call ourselves a "gathering."
We are blessed with a very faithful membership and in Sweden, Britain, Norway, and perhaps other places our people are in the top world figures for Ingathering, either for per capita collecting or college collecting. Despite this, a strange reserve (I speak of Northern Europe, not Africa) prevents our laymen from spreading the truth among their neighbors to the degree that it is done in say, Australia or America. A layman going around the homes with a small projector is something of a rarity.
Our future emphasis must be in direct evangelism. PR methods and "softening up" methods have been used for years; now we must do some reaping. By the introduction of new evangelistic techniques we have been able to stanch the loss of membership that we have suffered in some countries, and already we see an upturn.
Current Evangelistic Activity
Quite a number of campaigns are in progress, and with a changed pattern of evangelism new success is coming our way. Large crowds are attending the meetings. On one day recently in just five of our northern cities 16,000 attended the meetings. Bible seminars are being conducted with and without public efforts. A whole new church was recently raised up in Poland by means of the seminar, without any public campaign. We have no TV and just a little radio work that comes into the Netherlands from Luxembourg. Bible schools appear to be flourishing, and in addition our people have shown quite an interest in the Gift Bible Plan. Our energetic lay activities leader is trying to make this still more fruitful by means of reaping efforts. Telephones are being used in some places to bring selected aspects of the message to the people. In Holland a Bible van is used to tour the country districts.
The pastor in Rotterdam told me that despite several successful Five-Day Plans and good aftercare, when he mailed two hundred invitations to these people for the evangelistic series only one person responded. This seems to illustrate that in our area, at any rate, we have to recognize that PR is PR and evangelism is evangelism, and while we need all the good PR we can get, we must not depend on this to gather in souls. After all, how can we expect the same person who wants to quit smoking to necessarily want to hear a Bible lecture? In one or two of our countries this has not been clearly thought through, and for several years almost all public work has focused on the Five-Day Plan.
Our young people in many places are unselfishly assisting the evangelistic pro gram and showing a genuine willingness to become involved. This is certainly a promising sign for the future.
Greatest Evangelistic Need and Opportunities
Our greatest need is to develop strong city evangelists whose influence will be felt throughout the local conference and whose example will inspire many other men in smaller places to plan for a life of evangelism.
We need more young men for the work —a greater selection of graduates. One of our countries has not had a young man enter the work for nine years. Fortunately, this is not the usual situation. Our greatest asset is in our young men who are beginning to taste success, and we believe that a bright future awaits them.
Because of small union conferences, determined by national boundaries rather than membership, we face spiraling college costs; and because of the smallness of the countries, we also face publishing problems in trying to bring out enough books in the local language. We suffer from a shortage of Spirit of Prophecy books and Adventist-background books.
We need to attract more of the young and reverse the old European pattern of churches filled with elderly saints. We do have a fine group of Adventist youth, and with these surely we can win more youth. In Britain they have weekend discussion groups to which non-Adventist young people are invited. In a recent campaign that I conducted in Finland we were able to number among the baptisms 55 young people under the age of 26. Here in Rotter dam at the moment we seem to have quite a large youth following at the campaign and now attending church. We hope to do more of this.
Chief Obstacles
There are obstacles to our work, but none that cannot be overcome. Because of years of Sabbath problems, fewer men have been gathered in than women, and this presents financial problems, as in the case of church building, for instance. Europe is very conservative, with strong family ties, except in the case of the teenagers; and in their case the term generation gap really has meaning, because it seems as though they have largely abandoned all that is dear to their elders. The conservatism extends to our church, and I know one country where they don't baptize their young until they are 17 or 18.
The church in Europe must not identify itself too closely with America. It must develop European roots and a European raison d'etre. In presenting the 1844 Movement I like to dwell on the European aspects and worldwide nature of it, and not solely on William Miller. Too close a dependence on American printing, et cetera, can alienate us from the people, for America, in some eyes, is no longer the fairy godmother she once was. A too great dependence on General Conference financial handouts can also be self-defeating.
A fairly general system of Saturday schooling causes problems for those about to accept the message, and some distress to the children.
Perhaps we share one obstacle with many other places—the general feeling that by just being busy and running in circles we are doing our appointed task; a feeling, too, that boards and committees and institutions will "finish the work." The danger is that they just might—but in the wrong sense.
One of our great obstacles is an absence of evangelistic background in many of our lands. In England and America we owe a lot of religious attitudes to the Puritan movement. Northern Europe largely lacks this, and it produces a noticeable gap in the religious mentality of the people.
The oppressiveness of a state-church system can be readily felt. In some of our fields people are entered in the civil register as belonging to the state-church, and they have to pay a tax to support the church. When a person takes his stand we have to actually get him de-registered.
We deceive ourselves if we say there are no difficulties, but the important thing is that the work is God's and He will bring it to fruition in His own good time if we but faithfully do our part. Pentecost solved insurmountable problems in the days of the apostles, and the Pentecostal outpouring will wonderfully change the most hopeless situation today. We hammer our baby fists against granite walls of heathen ism, but when the fullness of the Gift comes we will give the trumpet a "certain sound" and thousands will come flocking to the truth.
