Not Ashamed of the Gospel of Christ 

For more than 1,000 evangelists, church planters, pastors and Christian leaders from more than 55 European countries and territories and some 10 other nations who gathered in Berlin the last week in May, the call could not have been clearer: The Gospel of Jesus Christ is Europe’s—and the world’s—only hope for this life and the life to come. Go boldly, and unashamedly proclaim it, for “it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”

For decades, the church in Europe has been in a decline—one that goes well beyond church attendance figures. Many churches embrace a liberal theology that discounts the authority of God’s Word and ignores the preaching of the cross and the saving Gospel of Christ. Meanwhile, the wider culture pays little heed to God or His ways.

Oystein Gjerme, a pastor and Christian leader in Norway, has seen the damage an atheistic, post-Christian worldview can do to a culture. 

“Secularization has really taken its toll on generations,” Gjerme told Decision. “I’m turning 50 this year, and it’s been the story of my life.” 

Stories like that are exactly why Franklin Graham called together more than 1,000 church leaders to Berlin, Germany, in order to ignite a fire for evangelism across Europe. 

“If we are going to reach Europe,” Franklin told those gathered for the opening session of the European Congress on Evangelism, “we are going to need an army, an army of evangelists—unafraid, unashamed, unapologetic, uncompromising—standing on the Word of God. All of us here—we are under orders from the King of kings and Lord of lords. We are not to surrender. We are not to give up.”

That message resonated with Gjerme. The current cultural moment, he said,  has provided an opportunity for the small but faithful evangelical church in his country. Secularism has left many people empty, and there is a renewed interest in spiritual things.

“We have talked so much about planting churches and what models we should choose,” Gjerme said. “We don’t really need new models. What we need is confidence in the Gospel. And I think this Congress has really given leadership in Europe a recalibration of where we stand in regard to the Gospel and the authority of Scripture and the power of God through the Gospel. And it has been a very timely message to the church in Europe.”

That kind of bold, doctrinally sound approach to taking the Gospel to a lost continent was at the heart of the Congress. BGEA leaders chose Berlin because in 1966, it was the host city for the first World Congress on Evangelism, convened by Billy Graham. And this year’s meeting was the first such gathering convened by BGEA since Mr. Graham initiated Amsterdam 2000, a similar meeting a quarter century ago. 

The church leaders, pastors and evangelists came from Eastern European countries that were once under the iron rule of Soviet communism and from liberalized Western European nations that were once bastions of Christianity but are no longer. Regardless of region, the spiritual challenges are similar—materialism, religious pluralism, the sexual revolution, drug abuse and false spiritual beliefs all compete to fill the void in the soul that only Jesus Christ can fill.

Christian Strobel, a former drug addict-turned-evangelist who works with addicts on the streets of Berlin, said the challenges to the Gospel in Germany include a busyness that drowns out thoughts of God, a liberalized approach to drugs with recent marijuana legalization, and a political and social structure that values “tolerance” above all. 

The Gospel starts with the problem of human sin, which isn’t a popular subject in Germany, he noted. But like the Apostle Paul wrote in the theme verse for the meeting, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes …” (Romans 1:16, NKJV).

“I have sat this week with so much joy inside me to hear these preachers, and to have chats with so many people in between sessions who have encouraged me,” Strobel said. “We must take this living hope out of this Congress and bring what we hear to the streets. And I hope it changes Europe.”

The main sessions over four days included sermons and testimonies from pastors and leaders from across Europe and the United States, as well as several political leaders from Europe and Africa.

One of the most poignant moments came during a testimony from David Karcha, pastor of Lviv Central Baptist Church in Ukraine, who spoke about God’s faithfulness to Ukrainian Christians amid the ongoing war with Russia. 

“In a time of peace,” said Karcha, “the Gospel is powerful, but in a time of war it is unstoppable.

“In 2023 alone, in Baptist churches across Ukraine, thousands of people publicly professed their faith through baptism,” he said. “Numbers we haven’t seen in more than 15 years in our country. … Even in the darkest hours, Christ is still alive and His church still has love, still has passion, and is still on His mission.”

During the evening session on May 28, Franklin told the Congress he had met with and prayed for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier that day in Berlin. “The complications in Ukraine and Russia, these are very difficult, and I believe only God can solve this,” Franklin said. “And I believe the most important thing we can do for the next few minutes is to pray.”

And with that, the 1,000-plus people in attendance collectively prayed for several minutes, aloud in their own tongue, for God to bring peace to the two countries and for His work to prevail there.

Ulrich Parzany, a leading German evangelical who was a friend of Billy Graham and spoke at Amsterdam 2000, exhorted Christian leaders to remain committed to God’s Word.

“The precondition of evangelism must always be the authority and the reliability of the Bible. … The content of the Gospel is Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ whom the Bible testifies to. There’s no other Jesus Christ.”

Attendees were encouraged to affirm the Berlin Commitment, modeled after a similar doctrinal statement developed at the Amsterdam 2000 gathering, which established, among other things, belief in Scripture as “the infallible Word of God” and “the basis of our life and message”; the Gospel as “the only provision for our rescue from eternal punishment for sin in hell (see Acts 4:12); and commitments to humility, integrity and discipleship through the local church body.  

Will Graham, BGEA’s executive vice president, reminded the crowd to never preach the Gospel without inviting a personal response from the hearers.

“You never know what God is doing in someone’s life; that’s why you give an invitation,” Will emphasized. “Time and time again, Jesus beckoned people ‘Come to Me.’ That’s the simple invitation. ‘Come to Jesus.’” 

Amy Orr-Ewing, a U.K.-based Christian apologist and university lecturer, said during a question-and-answer session led by Cissie Graham Lynch that Christians must have the courage to testify to truth in an age when anger and identity politics dominate.

“Grievance, rage, victim culture and identity politics are not the answer to your rage. Jesus is,” she said.

American pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie reminded listeners: “The same principles that transformed the first century can transform the 21st century. … Preach more on the cross and the blood of Christ because that’s where the power is,” he said, alluding to the advice Billy Graham once received.

Veaceslav Sanduta, evangelism and missions pastor with Bethel Pentecostal Church in central Moldova, said he was encouraged by the “high-level teaching” at the Congress. “We must not compromise and we must work in unity to share the Gospel,” he said.

From among the more than 20 speakers, attendees were reminded of the primacy of prayer, holy living, the cross and the blood of Christ, and Holy Spirit empowerment in the task of evangelism.  

Angel Andonovski, a pastor from North Macedonia, said the gathering has inspired him to take up a new practice in his preaching.

“I will draw a cross—a red cross—on the top of every paper that I will write a sermon on to remind me that I must share the Gospel, whatever the topic is, because the Gospel is the power for salvation.” ©2025 BGEA