Missionary: Western Europe's Darkness Foreshadows America's Spiritual Decline
by Chad Groening
May 31, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Southern Baptist missionary stationed in Madrid, Spain, contends that Western Europe is currently the hardest mission field on Earth. Chad, a 32-year-old Christian worker abroad, says the hostility to Christianity has become so severe in Europe that he does not want his last name published.Chad is responsible for ministering to missionary children throughout Western Europe and for taking part in evangelistic efforts. He says it is a tough place to share the gospel and when he approaches people, a typical response is, "Oh, we already know about all that. We don't need it."
The region is marked by "a spiritual deadness that you can't believe," Chad notes. "To me it's the hardest mission field on the planet right now. I think about Ephesians 6, where Paul talks about [how] we're fighting a spiritual battle. And the battle lines are drawn in Western Europe, especially with all the immigrants there."
The American missionary believes Europe can be viewed as a sort of bellwether for the future cultural and spiritual scene in the U.S. "Living in Europe," he says, "I see Europe as probably 50 years ahead of where the U.S. is going spiritually. In Madrid, the Spanish equivalent of the House of Representatives just legalized same-sex marriages."
What has descended on Western Europe, Chad asserts, is "just a spiritual darkness." He says most people see churches or cathedrals as just "the buildings and nothing else. They are empty on Sunday morning. There's no spiritual sensitivity whatsoever."
Nevertheless, Chad remains prayerful and determined, ever grateful for his opportunity to learn and serve in what feels to him like "the hardest mission field in the world."
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
