Young Christians Encouraged for Missionary Work at European Mission-Net Congress

By Elton Jones, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, January 05, 2012

The second ever European Mission-Net Congress event encouraged its participants to perform more missionary work.

The Mission-Net Congress conference took place in Erfurt, Germany this week. A total of 2,500 participants from 40 nations partook in the event. This biannual conference is the only pan-European mission conference for young people.

Operation Mobilization, a global Evangelistic group, participated in the gathering. This group seeks to spread the word of God throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

The organization that hosted the event was the European Evangelical Alliance. The event's main goal is to encourage 16 to 30-year-old Europeans to live a more "missional lifestyle." European Christians got the opportunity to interact with other Christians in Europe.

The 110 global and European missionary organizations organized presentations for the participants in the Global Market. The Global Market remained open throughout the conference while participants browsed and met with organization representatives.

Mission-Net Director Evi Rodemann gave a statement to everyone present at the event: "Mission-Net gives you the opportunity not only to meet people from all over Europe, but also receive some great teaching, take part in dynamic worship, and research many different career opportunities around the world with our mission agency partners and training organizations."

Rodemann also stated she hoped participants would leave the conference with a clearer sense of God's purpose for their lives.

Various speakers, including Operation Mobilization Founder George Verwer, attended the morning and evening sessions. General Director of the Bible Society of Egypt, Ramez Atallah, and his wife, Rebecca, taught from the Book of Daniel during the conference’s morning sessions.

Now that the Mission-Net Congress has come to an end, hopes are high that European Christians will commit to more missionary work. According to the Joshua Project, there are still 376 unreached people groups in Europe.

Even though this event garnered a substantial number of Christians from Europe, Christianity is reportedly declining in the region. Last December, a U.S.-based Pew Forum reported that in the past, 66 percent of the world’s Christians were Europeans. Now that number has dropped to 26 percent.

Missionary groups and events such as this one are attempts at bringing that number back up. The attendees of the Mission-Net Congress may be the ones to convert those 376 unreached groups.