The International Human Rights Group (IHRG) is dedicated to doing everything in our power to bring spiritual change to Europe. Since our founding we have done what no other group has done – concentrated on religious freedom in Europe.  There are others who are working in this area, but none whose concentration is Europe.  I have explained in other places why Europe is important to America.

Religious freedom is the end of the spectrum as far as bringing spiritual change to an area. When we fight for religious freedom, we are arriving at the point where the problems have become so great that we find ourselves in the place of last resort, the courtrooms of a country.  Unfortunately, for a variety of normal Christian activities, we are at the place of last resort in Europe.

What do we do to get ahead of the ball in Europe?  It is already the Dark Continent.  In fact, one mission expert told me that Europe is where missionaries go to die.  It is so hard to bring a Christian presence to Europe that seasoned missionaries are giving up.

The IHRG has committed to continuing the fight for religious freedom in Europe. We will continue to represent Christians, missionaries, ministries, and churches who are facing discrimination and persecution in Europe.  When evangelists are arrested in Norway for sharing their faith in public places, we will continue to be there beside them, legally representing them and helping them through the process.

Also, by evangelical presence I am not talking about conservative republican political evangelical presence. I am talking about pure New Testament based evangelical churches whose presence reaches into the community through a variety of outreaches and influences.

There is currently a small evangelical presence that needs to be encouraged and strengthened where it is. The expansion of the presence must be from within. We do not need to export American evangelical Christianity with its political overtones to Europe. Instead, we need to support the European Church. That is one of the amazing things about God. He creates a church within a location that is relevant to that location.

We have to learn to empower others and trust them to do what is right. This is what real leadership is all about. It is about training a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. It is not about control and manipulation. True freedom involves trust and confidence.

At the same time, we have to expand the evangelical presence in Europe. There are three simultaneous events that will expand the evangelical presence in Europe. These are not mysterious events. They are not secret. In fact, many people and organizations do these things in a variety of countries.

The first event is to begin coming alongside the evangelicals, both churches and individuals, that are already working in Europe. This means we should financially support them, pray for them, and work alongside them physically. These actions increase the strength of the Christian presence that already exists in Europe.

In order to do this we will need to leave behind some of our own theories of what a real church looks like. This does not mean we must compromise the core tenants of our faith. These core tenants are not culturally transformative, they are eternal and transcend culture.

At the same time there are a variety of doctrines we think are eternal and they are not. Things we grew up with that do not matter. We have to evaluate these cross-cultural movements by sticking to the eternal questions, questions about salvation and the transformation of man rather than how our parents or grandparents did church.

The second event is to begin planting evangelical churches in Europe. Like coming alongside local European evangelical churches, we have to be careful about how we plant churches. We do not need to create a further outreach of American denominations in Europe.

We must create a European evangelical church that answers the moral questions of the day with answers from the true church that properly reflects the Gospel through the eyes of Europeans. It must be a culturally relevant, doctrinally-true church. These must be churches that reach out into their communities and minister to the poor, the drug addicts, the alcoholics, the homeless, and any other outcasts within this culture. They must be prepared to minister the Gospel to the growing Muslim community as well. Many in this community are sensitive to spiritual matters and therefore open to the truth of the Christian message.

The best way to do this is to work with teams of church planters whose goal is to plant a first church that will inevitably be American at its core. This church should immediately begin to take on a local flavor, including the language of the service. Then this church should then seek to plant a second church using leaders from the country where the church is being planted. Thus, the support for the church might well be American, but the core of the leadership and the membership of the church is European.

The evangelical imprint remains on the church. At the same time, the church is European and thus relevant to the local community without the ties back to the negative impressions many Europeans have regarding American Christianity.

The third event is to come alongside these evangelical outposts and protect their religious freedom. This is another place where the International Human Rights Group comes into play.  This is what we do.

This means that we must fight to protect the right to share the Gospel message in public places throughout Europe. We must fight to protect the right of parents to control the education of their children, either through a true voice in the public schools or through home schooling. We must fight for the right of churches to exist, even in a system that requires a discriminatory registration process like most of the former Soviet Block countries.

Whatever the religious freedom cause we have to be there supporting our brothers and sisters. We must encourage them. We must embolden them. We must trust them to remain true to the core of the Gospel and transform their own countries.  Together these three events will see a transformation and expansion of the European evangelical presence.

Joel Thornton, Esq. is a lawyer, author and President, CEO amd General Counsel of the International Human Rights Group. The International Human Rights Group protects religious liberties around the world concentrating on Europe. You can reach him at www.joelthornton.com or www.ihrg.org.