THE GROWING IMPACT ON EUROPE'S NEXT GEN

One Year On … 

As we reach the end of this year, it’s hard to believe it has been one full year since the Next Gen Europe Review launched. 

In 2024, we took some time to listen to God, the challenges, and the opportunities to see God’s Kingdom advance further in the younger generations. But we also realised that to truly understand any context or state of affairs, we must listen well. We must first decide where we will listen and what the focus is. We are passionate about seeing Christianity accelerated in the next generation in Europe, so we were always going to listen to the younger generations, the now and the future of the Church in Europe!

The listening process involved over 100 key leaders across Europe and their teams. We wanted to see through their eyes, understand the contexts, and get a real sense of what God is up to in the next generation, and some of the barriers. The leaders went through a process of listening, reviewing, reflecting, and responding.

They landed with 10 key actions to serve, reach, disciple, and empower the younger generations for Jesus.

There are so many insights into what God is doing. The fruit being seen, challenges being recognised, and sensing together what is birthing in the next generation in Europe. The key themes identified were fascinating:

• Foster unity and collaboration amongst churches 
• Revitalise prayer, discipleship, and radical faith
• Develop a holistic approach to wellbeing
• Innovate engagement and communication
• Invest in relevant and sustainable resources 

The encouraging headline of this review is that leaders were sensing similar things, and there is a real unity of thought and heartbeat.

Over the past year, we have witnessed: New relationships being formed. Organisations coming together to work through the challenges and see how together we can better reach the next generation for Jesus. Younger leaders are stepping into spaces previously closed to them. Prayer is becoming the fuel, not the afterthought, of strategy, and many grassroots stories of boldness and authentic discipleship

We’re seeing that Generation Z and Generation Alpha in Europe are not a post-Christian generation; they are a pre-Christian generation, spiritually open, hungry for authenticity, and ready to encounter the real Jesus. Although these generations may have a few misconceptions about the Church, they are generally open and seeking authenticity. This openness necessitates a shift in evangelistic approaches, allowing us to introduce and invite people to meet the real, radical, life-changing Jesus.

Joining this grace revolution is an incredible opportunity, as integrating the pre-Christian context with diaspora churches is profoundly impactful. This resonates with Europe's current state, where there is so much potential for growth and unity in creating spaces for the next generation. The need is big in the next generation growing up in an own-truth or post-truth world, lost in a sea of chaos and feeling hopeless when looking at the future.

But God is beginning to birth something new in our continent: lives surrendered to Jesus, boldness in the few, authentic discipleship, and new ways of living missionally. We are so thankful to every leader and team that took part in the report. Our heart in this journey of doing this review/research was to listen, sense, and dream together with key grassroots leaders and their teams across the continent. We believe we are entering an exciting but challenging new paradigm of Next Gen ministry and mission. To be relevant and fruitful, we're going to need to be prayerful and faith-filled. That’s why we felt that for this coming season, we needed to start by listening collaboratively to sense where God is leading together. And where has listening led to? It has led to clarity, which has led to unity, which has then led to collaborative action.

We now see the beginnings of a prophetic platform, not in the sense of prediction, but in the sense of alignment with God’s purposes for Europe. Prayer has intertwined our hearts, listening has shaped our plans, and collaboration is now directing our steps.

And the big question we all now hold is this:

How do we turn continental unity into grassroots impact?

That is the work ahead.

We believe we are entering a new paradigm of Next Gen ministry, one that will require courage, prayer, creativity, unity, and deep dependence on God.

But we also believe this:

God is birthing something new in Europe.

And this year, we have only seen the beginning.