B u d a p e s t – Baptists should use the open borders of Europe to befriend migrants and win them for faith in Jesus Christ. If foreigners already are believers, Baptists can often become acquainted with other interesting expressions of Christian life through them. The European Baptist Federation’s (EBF) General-Secretary, Dr. Tony Peck (Prague), appealed for this at EBF-Council sessions taking place in Budapest from 26 to 29 September. Roughly 500.000 Poles are living in Great Britain in order to work. One Baptist missionary is active among them. Thousands of Ukrainians have surfaced in Portugal in a search of employment. A number of Ukrainian Baptist congregations have been formed there. Great Britain’s largest Baptist congregation is a Ghanaian one in London. Peck noted: “God overcomes our borders, our languages and differing styles of worship,” This leads us to new options in missions. The book “Baptist World”, which appeared in the early 1990s, described the Tajik people as “unreached”. This has not been true for a long time, as many Baptist church-planting initiatives have cropped up among them. This has occurred despite the fact that most ethnic Germans have left the country. Peck recalled a statement by the founder of the Baptist movement on the European continent, Johann Gerhard Oncken (1800-1884): “Every Baptist is a missionary.” That attitude should also be evident among European Baptists today.

Gordon Showell-Rogers (London), General-Secretary of the European Evangelical Alliance (EEA), called on the 150 delegates to cooperate more closely. This is necessary because of society’s ever-growing secularisation. Church federations from differing denominations should network in order to make their Christian convictions and values audible to those representing the European Union: “We Christians have no fewer rights than other European groups which are loudly calling attention to themselves.” The usefulness of increased networking is frequently apparent. An initiative started by the British Evangelical Alliance to strengthen the family was taken on by the conservative evangelicals of the Czech Republic and has led to much positive media response. Irish Christians checked out politicians after elections to see if they had kept their campaign promises. This initiative also received very positive press coverage. Showell-Rogers suggested that similar campaigns be started in other countries.

The EEA represents roughly 10 million evangelicals in 35 member alliances. The EBF represents 800.000 Baptists in 50 European and Middle Eastern countries.