For the past 100 years, church attendance in Europe has been declining, and the continent has largely seen the church lose its roots in the local community. Church-attendance rates in many European countries are among the world’s lowest. At the same time, God is bringing His people from all over the world to Europe and using them to reawaken the European church.

The Free Methodist Church (FMC) in Sweden is led mainly by African migrants who resettled in a country they believed was Christian. When they arrived, they realized there were only a few Christ-centered churches in Sweden and decided to start the FMC in Sweden to bring the gospel back to the communities where they now live.

The FMC in Europe recently partnered with the Church Development Network (CDN) to inspire a movement to mobilize leaders to plant nontraditional churches across Europe. Our focus is to raise a generation of young leaders who can bring the gospel to a culture that is post-secular, areligious, and in desperate need of the hope and love of Jesus.

Last August, we brought young leaders from 10 European countries to Madrid in partnership with CDN to cast a vision for mobilizing leaders with a call from God to start a church. At this Encounter event, we sought God to affirm His calling on our lives and clarify our next steps. One leader from Sweden, Francois Jerome, was selected to go.

Francis had a call to start a church where young people can invite their friends who are generally not open to traditional church settings. After spending time in the presence of God, along with other young leaders sorting out their calling at Encounter, Francis began to see beyond the roadblocks in his way. Upon returning to Sweden, he initiated the first gathering of a new church and a meeting of several leaders to establish a youth movement, now underway in Sweden.

Francis attended a second Encounter in Brussels, where he was one of the presenters, and is now one of the key leaders who will help us fuel the multiplication of the church. Please pray for him and the many other leaders who will follow his example as we follow God’s leading to reignite the European church.