Church planting in Europe—a society largely viewed as “post-Christian”—is taking a leap forward, participants in the recent “Euro-Seeds 2” church planting conference said.

The September 10 to 14 event drew more than 200 people from Seventh-day Adventist Church regions in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and other European countries. They participated in the second European meeting focused on church planting, or establishing a new congregation. The conference, which is a follow-up to an initial session in 2001, was designed to help both beginners and church planting veterans.

“The energy level, optimism and commitment for the gospel commission is unparalleled,” said Ron Gladden, director of church planting for the Northwest Pacific region of the church in the United States, and a guest speaker at the event. “These are people who grew up in a climate where evangelism is impossible, yet they’re saying ‘with God we’re going to do it.’”

The event featured workshops on topics including “The Adventist Church for the Post-modern Era” and “Evangelism in a Newly Established Church,” presented by Gladden and Peter Roennfeldt from England, as well as Dr. Edgar Machel, from the Friedensau Adventist University.

Special highlights were case studies of successful church planting projects: Café Seed in Helsinki; Cornelius in Oslo; and a project for non-attending children and their families in Yeovil, Great Britain. Reports of the newly arisen church planting movement in Hungary and the first Adventist Community Center in the Czech Republic have also been impressive.

In his lecture about establishing large Adventist churches, Ron Gladden challenged his hearers by asking, “Will the Adventist Church become a shaping and leading religious institution in the respective communities?”

Gladden said, “There’s a lot of church planting that’s beginning to happen” in the region, and reported that presidents of the two church areas in Germany, as well as local church district leaders, are committed to church planting in the coming year. Next February, a “church planter assessment” program will be held in Germany, where prospective leaders will be examined and encouraged to consider their role in launching new congregations. Such a screening process has been in place in Gladden’s home region since 1994, and of the 130 to 140 couples approved in the process, “there hasn’t been a single church planting failure,” he said.

One participant said the conference left them with a more personal commitment: “Actually, I came here to learn how I have to change my church and now I am leaving with the understanding that I have to let me change.”