Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
Matthew 28:19-20
Who We Are
The European Missions Society was founded in 2005. As a directive organization, we form a partnership of cooperative churches in New England, the Midwest, Northern Virginia, Atlanta, and our sister churches in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe.
Our main objective is to focus on supporting God’s mission in Europe to build His church, make disciples of all nations, and train ministry workers. In pursuit of this, we facilitate funding, strategy, counseling, and training to increase the growth and faith of our heroic brothers and sisters in Europe. We promote unity, acting as a bridge across the Atlantic to encourage spiritual and relational partnership between the United States and European churches.
EMS is managed by a board of directors, comprised of representatives from our partner churches contributing funds with a desire to help the gospel reach more hearts in Europe.
Why Europe?
The Christian condition in Europe is in a critical state. While 60% of Europeans identify as “Christian”, 27% of adults consider themselves to be atheist or agnostic, and that number continues to grow. Disillusionment with organized religion and a rise in secular worldviews have led many to question God and His place in European life. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, the International Churches of Christ planted dozens of churches in Europe fueled by missionaries eager to win souls for Christ. In 2003, as the ICOC underwent a global crisis of leadership, many European churches lost financial support. Most missionaries returned to their home countries, leaving many small congregations in a holding pattern without direction or support. As a result, many of our European churches do not have full-time staff and few have over 50 members.
In countries of millions of people, these small groups are at great odds to have eternal impact. But we know God is bigger and we have not lost heart. In fact, our zeal is greater than ever as we aim to spread the teachings of Jesus to a continent that desperately needs them
Our Dream
We hope to one day see our family brothers and sisters in Christ expand exponentially, with hundreds of self-supporting churches across Europe. As members of one body, we share this hope with the leaders and congregations in our European churches. We aim to achieve this by leveraging the support of our donors to further build God’s church in Europe by strengthening existing churches, training new missionaries and home-grown leaders, planting new churches in strategic cities. We can only do this with God and through the power of His Spirit.
Join us as we follow God’s guidance and spread the gospel to the millions of needy souls in Europe.
Our Board of Directors
The EMS Board is comprised of a group of men and women representing the partnering churches in the US and Europe. Their mission is to lead by faith, follow the Spirit, and grow in unity and impact. The board meets 4 times per year, in person or virtually, to pray, plan, and strategize for how to fulfill God’s mission in Europe and support the local churches and their growth.
EMS is dedicated to supporting the European leadership in strengthening their churches through training, resources, guidance, and skilled ministry staff. The goal is to arrive at a place of vibrancy towards venture, the point at which a church becomes self-sufficient and able to plan future church plantings in and around their country.