Europe needs an "army" of "unafraid" and "unashamed" evangelists to reach it with the Gospel, Christian leaders heard this week.
That was the message from American evangelist Franklin Graham to a gathering in Berlin of over 1,000 Christian leaders from across Europe.
The meeting was convened by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), of which Graham is the president, with the purpose of seeing Christians from the region re-commit themselves to the goal of re-evangelising Europe.
In his closing address, Graham echoed the words of his late father, Rev Billy Graham, when he told them to "preach the Gospel" whatever the cost.
“Do the work of an evangelist — preach the Gospel. Don’t be ashamed," Graham told delegates.
“Don’t compromise. Be strong. Fulfil your ministry. We know there is going to be suffering. We know there are going to be challenges. We know there are going to be some fights. Let’s be strong and preach our Saviour who we know is coming back.”
The congress came to a close on Friday with a commitment from Graham to return to Europe in the future.
“I’m not going to say goodbye, but I’ll say, ‘See you again,'" he said.
Earlier in the congress, he had rallied Christians to go out and boldly proclaim the Gospel in the face of rampant secularism across Europe.
He added, “If we’re going to reach Europe, we’re going to need an army, an army of evangelists — unafraid, unashamed, unapologetic, uncompromising — standing on the Word of God.”
While in Berlin, Graham also had the chance to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and share a time of prayer for peace.
"I prayed for President Putin, I prayed for him [Zelensky], and I prayed for President Trump—that God would give them wisdom and that God would give them a path forward for peace.
"The complications in Ukraine and Russia, these are very difficult, and I believe only God can solve this," Graham said, adding that it had been a "privilege" to meet Zelensky.
Other speakers at the congress included German evangelical leader Rev Ulrich Parzany who urged Europe's church leaders to remain faithful to the authority of Scripture in the face of pressures from the surrounding culture to compromise and dilute the Gospel.
“The Bible must be the foundation of our preaching, not the decoration,” Rev Parzany said.
“The precondition of evangelism must always be the commitment to the authority and the reliability of the Bible.”
He continued, “The content of the Gospel is Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ whom the Bible testifies to — there is no other Jesus Christ.”
British theologian Dr Amy Orr-Ewing spoke of the spiritual hunger in young people and urged the Church to be the answer.
“I’ve been in ministry for over 25 years and I haven’t known a moment like the moment we are in, in terms of the hunger that we see among Gen Z for truth,” she said, adding, “We need to meet that hunger with the Gospel.”
