An indigenous church planting movement among the Baptists of Europe

Multiply! Reproduce! Mobilise! Saturate! Each of these, in turn, offered a rallying call for European church-planting enthusiasts during the twenty-first century’s opening decade. At a Berlin church-planting conference in 2007 I heard the conference chair summarise various presentations, “You were presented with a choice between either ‘strategic’ or ‘authentic’ church-planting today.” It was clear from his summing-up that he felt that the emphasis lay too firmly on the former.

As European Baptists entered the twenty first century there was an opportunity to look back over ten years of rapid transition in former East and Central Europe. During the last decade of the twenty-first century, numerous mission and church planting agencies had arrived on the continent to set out a stall for their latest church-planting programmes. I attended a local training day for Hungarian Baptists in 2004 and saw a highly persuasive pitch for an imported programme, presented by two or three foreign missionaries. Within three years the programme had ceased operation, with all its mission personnel de-funded by its foreign backers.

Europeans noticed this and other similar instances of unrealistic promises and, in some cases, unproven models. In 2002, the European Baptist Federation announced an ‘Indigenous Missionary Partnership’ based on the simple observation that indigenous missionaries had an advantage linguistically, were trusted locally, were culturally more relevant, required no time to orient to their context, and were significantly cheaper to deploy. Four Moldovan church-planters were commissioned in 2002 with indigenous church-planters appointed in a further four countries in 2003.

It was decided at the outset that the national Baptist Unions would select indigenous church planters and would identify the location for the plant. The newly appointed Mission co-ordinator, Polish pastor Daniel Trusiewicz, suggested in 2005 that ‘It’s easier for native Christians to win their fellow countrymen for the Gospel of Jesus Christ than for foreign missionaries’. On the same occasion he prayed that 200 church planters would take up the challenge.

Trusiewicz had in mind young, pioneering, single-focused planters with skills in personal evangelism. The Partnership envisaged a range of appropriate ways to plant and grow the new congregations: use of the Jesus film was recommended as were musical and language schools, distribution of Scripture, humanitarian projects, and evangelistic camps. Training of the church planters focussed on the acquisition of team skills, imparting the desire for growth, the importance of vision-setting, and the necessary commitment to being mentored. Primary qualities sought, however, remained focused on personal evangelism and the ability to communicate free of church jargon.

By 2004, the average cost per church-planter was budgeted at $4,200. In 2007, depending on the country of location, annual costs were estimated at €3-7,000 with a total budget of €250,000. Standing behind this fund-raising endeavour was a combination of US and European Baptist Unions and Conventions. In 2014 there were seventeen of these with approximately 60% of the total being donated by US State Conventions.

“It’s easier for native Christians to win their fellow countrymen for the Gospel of Jesus Christ than for foreign missionaries”

Finances were arranged from the outset so that any individual project would receive full funding for a total of 21/2 years with funding reducing by 25% every six months. No more than five years’ external funding would be provided. In 2007, five years after the programme began, twenty congregations moved off their reliance on external funding. The desire to move congregations towards being self-supporting was clear from the outset of the program, but in 2010, Trusiewicz conceded that economic self-sufficiency eluded most new congregations, with some church planters working part-time to support their ministry.

Despite the financial principles, it was reported in October 2010 that an estimated 4-5,000 believers had come to faith as a result of the IMP project, with 110 new congregations planted during the eight year period, 2002-2010. National Unions like Romania had moved from being a receiving to a supporting Union. Unions like those in Armenia had grown from four congregations in 1991 with 350 members to 100 churches and church plants in 2013 with 6,500 members. The Armenian Union is now focussing efforts among Kurds living in Avsha, with an indigenous church planter working to grow the small group of believing Kurds that meets in his home.

In 1991 there were 11,000 Baptists in 130 churches across Moldova. By 2006 that number had increased to 22,000 in 512 churches and church plants. By 2008, Moldovan Baptists were sending Russian-speaking church planters to parts of Russia.

Typical of more recent projects is the work of Mongol church planters in Hungary working among fellow Mongols in Hungary. Tzevel arrived in Budapest in 1998 but didn’t come to faith until 2005 on a return visit to Mongolia. He returned to start a home group in Hungary and then a Mongol church in Hungary in 2006.

In Riga, Latvia, Kaspars is working with two missional communities that try to work relationally, with activities focused around the use of their homes. A similar emphasis has been adopted by Krisjanis and Tomas (above)  who emphasise being ‘salt and light’ in their neighbourhood. Their free BBQs attract people from the local community. Moldovan church-planters reported in 2012 that ‘the most effective method is to invite people to a private home, drink tea or coffee with them and share the Gospel message in a very informal way’.

Church planters in Kiev are trying to develop cell-church principles whilst at least one planting project in Kiev, Ukraine, offers support to those suffering from drug addiction and offers preventative seminars in local schools.

These innovations suggest that the church-planters involved in the Indigenous Missionary Partnership had certainly benefitted from the early training offered by the program, including the church growth theory of Donald McGavran and others, insights from Rick Warren, and the NCD work of Christian Schwarz. Prayer was stressed and became a regular feature of the IMP newsletter.

The original vision statement of the partnership was ‘To help growing churches become strong!’ By 2014 this had become:

     To help planting reproducing churches!

     To help growing healthy churches!

     For the glory of God!

The shift from ‘strength’ to ‘health’ is significant and reflects the realities of an indigenous church planting movement that has been particularly successful at deploying over 150 church planters in 27 European countries, has developed a sustainable model that is now in its twelfth year, has seen 5 to 6,000 new believers come to faith, grown a partnership of seventeen national and state Baptist Unions, and which continues to innovate its church planting practice. That this has been achieved with the support of one full-time salaried co-ordinator is more than ample testimony to the faithfulness of a God who has not yet given up on Europe.

Darrell Jackson