Think Tank

For a church planting movement in the Balkans

What is this program
all about?

Create a meeting place to exchange ideas between theologians, social scientists, and ministry practitioners in order to analyse and understand the context we are living in and ministering to, but also to generate new ideas regarding how the gospel addresses the specific questions of our time.

What’s the format?

There are three main components of this program:

Research / Library

A first goal is to create an updated library focusing on the Balkans and the study of the historical, social and religious data that characterizes them. This will be available for study and research.

Think Tank Meetings

There will be several meetings organized especially in Athens on various topics. Depending on the topics we will invite the suitable people from different countries of the Balkans. At these meetings different papers will be presented and there will be discussions and exchange of views.

Curriculum Development

The final outcome of this work will be to distill all the discussions and all the study that will take place into some basic ideas and principles. These then will be imprinted in the way and in the content of the training we are offering.

What are the questions:

Some of the questions that think tank will be asked to answer are:

What form does the phenomenon of secularization take in the Southern Balkans?
What are the special features of the Southern Balkans?
What is common and what is unique?
How does the presence of the “Eastern Orthodox” context relate to the construction of identity in the Balkan societies?
How do you understand the practice of witnessing as a minority and often as a misunderstood minority?
What does the phenomenon of “nominal” faith mean?
How does the presence of “state religion” affect the planting of new churches?
How is the connection between “national identity” and “religious faith” expressed?