MURCIA – Fernando Lopez, the president Murcia a region in Spain, was a key spokesperson at the opening ceremony of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance’s annual General Assembly, Idea2019.
Citing the phenomenal growth of evangelical churches during the second decade of this century, he said,
“You fight to make this region better . . . We realize that if there were many evangelicals, this region would be better. I thank you for who you are.”
He added,
“There are many of us who believe in the importance of religion in personal life and also in social life. Events like this are good news for the human being because we are people who make Christian commitment a pillar of our life.”
His comments are especially refreshing when so much of the news around the globe reports obstacles to Christians and evangelism.
The influence of the evangelical church alliance has been well-received in Murcia where the government agreed in 2017 to permit “evangelical religion” classes in public schools.
Lopez promised that officials would soon sign another agreement allowing evangelicals to provide “religious assistance” in hospitals. He also stressed the importance of values and personal faith and demonstrating them in public and personal relationships.
There were just under 3,000 evangelical churches in Spain in 2011. Six years later, that number had grown to 4,045, including 87 new congregations formed within the last six months of 2017 alone.
The growth of evangelical churches has continued throughout 2018, with another 197 new congregations added during the year. At year’s end that were 4,238 evangelical places of worship in Spain. That is more than a 40% growth in the seven years since 2011.
The largest evangelical denominations in Spain are Assemblies of God, Baptist, Brethren, and independent churches.
We have an opportunity to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ as they begin a campaign by Bible believers to “push back against the tyranny of gender ideology, which lacks true foundation but aims to impose itself globally as the only accepted worldview.”
The campaign, which launches with a day of prayer on February 28th, seeks to present and defend “the right and responsibility of parents over and above the state in instilling values in their children.” A spokesperson said that the program “does not present anything new, we are just [presenting] the same and only truth that has always been there. We are calling the church to join the truth, which is in Christ.”
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Sources:
- Evangelical Focus, We care too much about the majority, but respecting minorities is more important
- The Christian Post, Spain’s evangelicals back campaign that wants to confront the ‘tyranny of gender ideology’
- Evangelical Focus, Spanish evangelicals opened 16 new worship places every month in 2018
- Christian Today, Spanish evangelicals report unprecedented growth, now more than 4,000 churches
