Athens Church Planting Hub
For a church planting movement in the Balkans
THE CHALLENGE
Most narratives about church planting come from the West! Often, instead of inspiring and encouraging, they have the exact opposite result. Success stories with big numbers and fast growth earn our admiration but do not move us, as we think that “these things are not for us”. We believe that the Balkan Region has its own peculiarities and therefore it is problematic to assume that ideas, analyses, approaches and models of church planting are directly applicable to our context.
Athens Hub wants to provide:
Inspiration
In 2008 the First Evangelical Church of Athens began pursuing a vision of planting churches, which has given rise to an ecosystem of new church plants. We feel that this experience, rooted in the context, conditions, and a measure of the sense of our area, could inspire and encourage the practice of church planting in the Balkans.
Research
We believe that there is a need to conduct in-depth analyses of the particular religious, cultural, and social context of the Balkans. Our goal through this study is to create an approach that is relevant, contextual and authentically disruptive for our area.
Training
The key to a ministry that has relevance and resilience is proper training. This must be done in the context where the trainee will be taught but also see in practice the basic principles for establishing churches.
Coaching
One of the biggest challenges for a church planter is accountability and encouragement. Our goal is to develop a program that will offer ongoing support to the church planters during their training but also afterwards in their church planting ministry.
Movement
Our final goal is to cultivate a movementof gospel transformation across the cities of Balkans countries based on cooperation, mutual interaction, and interdependence.
Athens Hub’s main
initiatives:
Incubator
This programme is the heart of our initiative. Our goal is to train 5 – 7 new church planters every year.
Think Tank
Create a meeting place to exchange ideas between theologians, social scientists, and ministry practitioners.
Conference
Every two years there will be a conference with the goal first of all to gather all those who have taken part in our training.
“Many centuries ago the cities of Greece and the Balkans were inspiring examples for the gospel with healthy sending churches that impacted all Europe. And today Athens is again a great example of a city with innovative church plants that apply the good old gospel to a new generation and new challenges. With great joy I see what God is doing through gifted leaders that got a vision for their city and whole region.“
Stephan Pues, Director of City To City Europe
Athens Hub
For Church Planting in the Southern Balkans
Athens Hub © 2020.
at a glance:
Initiatives:
