Franklin Graham, the President and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and Samaritan’s Purse, is set to arrive next week in Berlin, Germany, for a historic event focused on increasing the outreach of the Gospel in Europe.
The European Congress on Evangelism, hosted by BGEA, will take place between May 27th and 30th, bringing together over 1,000 Christian leaders, pastors, and evangelists from 55 nations.
Discussing this important event with Erick Stakelbeck on Stakelbeck Tonight, Graham emphasized the need to stoke a passion for evangelism in Europe, warning that the Church in the continent is dangerously “on the ropes.”
“It’s been almost 25 years since there’s been any focus on evangelism in Europe,” Graham stressed.
“Every generation has to be evangelized. Something has to be done every year if we’re going to sustain the Church and keep the Church growing and expanding,” he underscored, adding that in Europe the Church is “dying for the most part, and it’s sad.”
“Europe has not done anything to reach the lost in years, and so we want to put a focus on it,” Graham noted. “We want to try to get people and the churches excited about evangelism.”
Graham highlighted that numerous European churches are shutting down, explaining that only God can turn this discouraging trend around. According to a recent investigation by Süddeutsche Zeitung, in Germany alone, 10,000 churches are expected to permanently close their doors over the next decade. While Graham highlighted that these numbers do not largely refer to “evangelical Bible-believing churches,” the findings of the investigation are nevertheless troubling, representing the increasing prominence of secularism.
“As secularism has grown and deepened its hold in so many European countries—just as it has throughout the rest of the world—there is an urgent need for the Church to stand firm on the Word of God and be unashamed of the Gospel of Christ,” he urged on social media. “Our prayer at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is that all who attend will be encouraged, challenged, and emboldened to share the hope and life-changing truth of the Gospel.”
Billy Graham spoke at the first European Congress on Evangelism in 1966, which also took place in Berlin, where he implored delegates to recognize the urgency of sharing the Gospel and highlighted what was at stake for the future of nations. Thirty-four years later, BGEA organized the next European Congress on Evangelism, preparing thousands of ministry leaders to follow the exmple laid out by Paul in Acts 20:24: “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”
The theme for the 2025 European Congress on Evangelism reflects the culture war taking place in Europe and across the globe, emphasizing Paul’s call for believers not to shy away from sharing of Biblical truth: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth…” (Romans 1:16).
Some of the speakers at the Congress will also include: Cissie Graham Lynch, a senior advisor and ministry spokesperson for BGEA and host of the Fearless podcast, Will Graham, the Vice President of BGEA, Skip Heitzig, the senior pastor of Calvary Church New Mexico, Greg Laurie, the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, and Albert Mohler, the President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Another notable presenter will be Päivi Räsänen, a former Finnish Parliamentarian who became embroiled in an intense six-year-long legal battle for religious Liberty after tweeting a picture of a passage from the first chapter in the Book of Romans.
Räsänen’s story has shone a global spotlight on the hostilities toward God’s Word in Europe, which have sadly caused many in the Church to shrink into silence to avoid persecution.
“This is our heritage,” Franklin Graham told Erick Stakelbeck. “This is where most of our [Christian] ancestors come from. It’s sad, especially when you see some of the great missionary movements that came out of Europe in the last several hundred years.”
It is Graham’s hope that the upcoming evangelism event will “ignite a fire in the hearts of the Evangelicals to take Europe back.”
