Like many countries, Greece’s population distribution is rather lopsided. Athens is tucked away in the far south-east of the country, and the wider urban area of the capital is home to roughly half of the entire population of Greece. This imbalance is reflected in the student world as well, with about 250,000 of Greece’s 400,000 students based in Athens.
It’s no surprise, therefore, to find the majority of gospel ministries based in Athens as well, and this has been true of IFES student outreach in recent years. We have been here for the past ten years, trying to help establish effective student ministry in this large, busy and ‘strategic’ city. And we’ve seen small signs of progress.
However, ‘strategic’ is an easy word to throw around! For one thing, the Lord doesn’t oversee the progress of the gospel like a CEO, so we should perhaps be cautious in saying what we think is right or will work.
There’s another factor to take into account: in most large cities, and especially, perhaps, in continental Europe, most young people who head off to university and college continuing to live with their parents rather than moving into student accommodation, and so continue into tertiary education without any real change of pace or environment from their high school years.
The impact of this on student ministry is significant. Young believers are less inclined, and also less equipped, to build meaningful relationships with unbelieving peers. In fact, in Greece (as also perhaps in other southern European countries?) some parents and pastors actively encourage students not to engage in the wider university world, for fear that the world will entice them away from the church. In a context where trust and patience in relationships is crucial to finding and taking opportunities to talk about Christ with sceptical students, this is crippling!
We’ve been aware of this for some time, but we see the value of continuing the slow work of student movement-building in Athens. However, we’ve got our eye on the map of Greece, and have been looking out for opportunities in other cities. Over the past two to three years we’ve been trying to be more deliberate about building relationships with Christian students who move away from Athens to other towns for their 4-5 years of study, or who are already from other towns and usually, therefore, from much smaller, isolated church contexts. It’s our hope as an IFES Greece team that we can encourage and train specific individuals, and small groups, in places such as Corfu, Patras and Ioannina, and pray for an increase in the staff team so we can better support those groups.
It was a great encouragement to be joined by fellow UFMers Tim and Nicky Sandell, who are just starting their third year in Volos, central Greece, where they’re doing a good work with a small group in that city, and have contact with students in nearby Larissa. Our summer team in July included a student from Patras, so we can continue in partnership with him, God-willing, and any other Christians whom we can make contact with there.
A student from Corfu, studying in Ioannina, has been hugely enthusiastic about the support and resources that the team in Athens can provide through regular Skype and occasional visits, such as a 24-hour trip two of us took there in May. A male student from Athens has been in Corfu the past three years and has regular Skype contact with a staff worker in Athens. This past summer, staff members have been able to meet the latest crop of high school leavers and encourage them to make a stand for the gospel by being part of the student movement, learning and being on mission together on each of their campuses.
…some parents and pastors actively encourage students not to engage in the wider university world, for fear that the world will entice them away from the church.
But we’re talking about ones and twos in most places and, for the majority of these 18-year-olds, making a public stand for Christ, even in the context of personal friendships, represents a big step up in maturity, courage and risk. In Athens (and perhaps also Thessaloniki) the majority of students in evangelical churches don’t want to take this step and sadly are not encouraged by their churches to do so.
We need to continue to find ways of encouraging such young people to see that to live is Christ, to die is gain, although (not many of them will literally die for the gospel in today’s Greece! At the same time, we need to find ways of using our limited resources to reach, encourage and equip the scattered few in other cities, where their willingness is often greater, and where opportunities for growth and witness are, seemingly, easier to find.
– Jonathan Clark