Evangelism in Northern Europe

>By Li Jie-ren

Editor: From April 4 to April 6 of this year, Overseas Campus hosted the first European Chinese Scholars Ministry Conference near Paris. Forty co-workers from America, Taiwan and seven European countries shared their experiences of evangelism among Chinese scholars in European countries. They also discussed future plans and partnership possibilities. This article is one of the reports from the Conference.

Historical background

The five countries of Northern Europe - Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland - are situated 'off the beaten track' and evangelism of Chinese only started to emerge about twenty years ago. Activities targeting students and scholars from China began about ten years ago.

To our knowledge, evangelistic activities targeting scholars from China exist only in Sweden, Norway and Finland.

In Finland, the earliest evangelistic outreaches to Chinese scholars were initiated by local Finnish missionaries, supported by short-term Chinese missionaries from America. A Chinese church in California started to send short-term missionaries to Finland as early as 1992.

Christian fellowships for Chinese scholars started to emerge in several Finnish college towns. The development of these fellowships, however, proved very challenging because there were so few Chinese students in Finland. The overall Chinese population was small and there were inadequate resources.

In Sweden and Norway, campus ministries for Chinese scholars were mainly carried out by three Chinese churches in Northern Europe.

In Norway, a Chinese scholar couple initiated the work through Oslo Gospel Church. They started a Chinese fellowship, and through this almost a hundred students accepted the Lord, over fifty of whom were baptized.

Their main targets were the students in Oslo University. Due to rigid immigration policies, many of the students who accepted the Lord have left Norway to work in North America or China.

In addition to Oslo, the capital city, this work also spread to another college town, where there was a Chinese student fellowship with about ten Christians. Local Norway churches also provided a lot of support for Chinese students. This fellowship saw healthy growth, but it was hard for them to establish a Chinese church because many students would head off to North America on graduation. The Oslo Chinese church dispatched short-term missionaries to help them once every three months.

In Sweden, we found relatively successful ministries for scholars in Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden. There are two world-class universities in the city, the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers Institute of Technology, from which hundreds of Chinese students and scholars have graduated. In the local Chinese church, there was a couple with Mainland background who ministered to Chinese scholars for over ten years. Under their loving care, dozens of Chinese students and scholars accepted the Lord.

Local churches were also heavily involved in evangelistic ministries. From time to time they invited pastors and co-workers concerned for Chinese scholars as guest speakers for evangelistic rallies or summer retreats. Invitees include Elder Li Jian, Professor Lin Zhi-ping, Rev. Su, Rev. Rao and so on. Local churches also offered a range of services preparing the hearts of Chinese students for the Gospel.

In Stockholm, local churches were less involved. This seemed to be for historic reasons. In fact, there are more Chinese students there than anywhere else and this city certainly has the greatest potential. In the University of Lund there was a small Bible study group of about ten people for Chinese scholars. Over the past seven or eight years this group has had difficulty growing due to lack of spiritual leadership.

What is happening today

In Oslo, evangelism among Chinese scholars is flourishing. At least 50% of the participants in the local Chinese church are of scholar background. They have the potential to begin their own Sunday worship services. Due to lack of Chinese-speaking speakers, however, they still do not have their own Sunday services. They do have a bi-weekly fellowship gathering, though, with 20 to 30 regular participants.

In Gothenburg, the pastor himself is of scholar background. He answered the Lord's call as a student and for this reason he has a strong burden for evangelistic outreach to Chinese scholars. In the past three and a half years as a pastor, he has witnessed steady progress in this ministry. There are 5 to 10 students accepting the Lord each year and the same number of students being baptized. The turnover rate, however, is high and many scholars stay at church for at most 3 to 4 years before moving on. The main reasons for their departure are job hunting and immigration issues.

Very little activity can be seen in Stockholm and Lund. Nor do we expect to see much difference in the near future.

Four major characteristics

First of all, the most common characteristic is the lack of stability of the scholars. For a long time, therefore, the ministry focus for Northern European Chinese churches has been evangelism as opposed to discipleship training or spirituality. There is no time for any significant follow-up.

Secondly, the scholar population in Northern Europe is relatively low in Northern Europe and it is therefore hard to organize large-scale evangelistic meetings. On the contrary, one-on-one evangelism or small-scale family visits have proved effective. The problem is that one-on-one ministry is hard to do and it is hard to see any impact in a short time.

Thirdly, Northern Europe is remotely situated and there are insufficient Gospel materials available. Three local churches play important roles in evangelical ministry. However, their work is still difficult, lacking the support of other organisations like Overseas Campus or events like the Training Camp for Chinese Scholars.

Fourthly, there is a serious shortage of local co-workers active in student ministries. Cantonese is still the main language of the three local churches and most of the co-workers are not from the same background as the scholars. For these reasons, some co-workers either do not participate in student ministries or they do not know how to.

Our hope

We hope that co-workers from North America may provide regular help in discipleship training. If possible, we hope to see a centralized base specially for campus ministries established in Europe. This base can then provide training, workers and resources for campus ministries throughout Europe.

The author is the pastor of Chinese Christian Church in Gothenburg.