Europe calling.

For the second week in a row I was part of a team at a trivia night to raise money for overseas mission. This week was much more successful in terms of being able to answer questions, we won corporate seats to see the Waratahs at ANZ Stadium (who the Waratahs are and what sport they play was lost on me but no matter).

This year Moore College is sending a mission team to Germany, and the couple I supported last night, Jason and Cindy, are going a little earlier to do a 'vision' tour with an organisation called European Christian Mission or ECM. We were given a quick overview of the state of Christianity in Germany and Europe in general and although I already had a fair idea that Europe was extremely secular the statistics really opened my eyes. In Germany, less than 5 per cent are evangelical Christians who regularly attend church. That's actually the good news. Only 2 per cent of the whole of Europe is Christian. I wonder if I heard that wrong, honestly, but I'm very keen to learn more about this mission field.

If we ever consider overseas mission, our first thoughts are the African/Asian hotspots. Well, admittedly, mine are. But perhaps I never should have dropped French. There are more Christians in Africa than in Europe! Somewhere over the last few hundred years Christianity seems to have become completely irrelevant. Perhaps two world wars have something to do with it? Yet Africa, ravaged by war, disease, famine and corruption constantly, has still managed to turn out Christians.

I wonder how Europe became this way.