An American Finds Spiritual Renewal in Unexpected European Venues
"It's far less intimidating for newcomers to visit a public space with a dozen or so other people than a normal 'church' with pews and a steeple and a hundred strange faces."
(Brussels)—Reporter Kyle Wingfield has written a wonderful op/ed for The Wall Street Journal in which he gives some positive and encouraging news about the state of the Church in Europe.
Noting that many skeptics assume that Christianity is dead in Europe, Wingfield asks, "How is it...that a guy like me, Bible Belt-born and bred, a lifetime churchgoer, has found spiritual renewal in this pit of secularism? And am I the only one?"
He goes on to quote recent statistics that are intended to prove that Christianity is on the decline in the Old World, and then says, "But the light is not yet out. Those remaining Believers, and the faith communities they form...shine brighter."
"It seems to me," adds Winfield, "that such intense bodies—when composed of people who believe passionately in a cause—are more likely to expand than to contract."
The church Winfield attends in Belgium is called The Well. Even though they meet in cafes and restaurants because they can't afford a building, he says the congregation has grown to 120 and "the message is getting out," fueled, in part, by the labors of African and American missionaries.
Winfield admits that having to make the switch to a less traditional format of "church" while in Europe has forced him to focus on what his motivation for attending "church" really is. "There is an added sense of urgency when you undergo such self-examination in a land where being religious is not exactly de rigueur," he says. "The data don't yet reveal a similar awakening in the Europeans around me. But I have faith."
