OUR STORY

City to City Balkans is an initiative that was born within the context of City to City Europe & Redeemer City to City.

It started from the First Greek Evangelical Church of Athens. This church is the oldest evangelical church in Greece since it was founded in 1858 A.D. For many years the church, although in the center of the city, was characterized by introversion and what we call fortress mentality. Through a series of events but also by God’s providential contacts, a vision for church planting was born. This of course was accompanied by many questions and concerns. Take into consideration that no one in our church had seen a new church being born out of a vision for reaching out to an area for decades.

Is church planting something that only concerns the West or the USA?

How is it possible for a minority of 0.3 %, like the Evangelical community in Greece, to expect to have an impact for the gospel in the city? Is it better to ‘‘hide’’ in the safety of the things that are known and familiar?

In December 2018, the city of Athens was in turmoil. After the assassination of a teenager in the area of Exarcheia the city was flooded by thousands of people, mostly young people who strongly protested. This time the protesters got close to our church building.

There were clashes between the police and a group of anarchists right in front of our building. The result was that the windows overlooking the side of the street were broken and the church inside was full of scrap, rocks, and tear gas. For us, this image was a final and unquestionable challenge. There is no safe place. The church building is not a fortress to hide from the world. In fact, the idea that people from Exarcheia came to our ‘front yard’ was more than a challenge. Instead of us going to them, they came to us! It is time we stepped outside!

The First Church planting endeavor was in the area of Glyfada, a fairly wealthy suburb of Athens. That year we accepted 30 new members into our church. On the day they joined the church we asked 30 other members to voluntarily leave our church to start a new church in that area. After Glyfada, came the suburb of Exarcheia, then the suburb of Kypseli. Then the Iranian church was founded.

Several other congregations were established as the churches that were planted began to plant new churches. So the Exarcheia church started the Urban Chapel and is working on establishing an intercultural church. The Glyfada church is also working on establishing a church in the Pagrati area. The First church started a new parish in the area of Neos Kosmos and is also working on establishing a church for the homeless and the marginalized in the center of the city.

We soon realized that other Balkan countries have a similar context to ours and face similar challenges. Thus was born the vision for City to City Balkans. Over the years, City to City has been a source of inspiration and encouragement and a great context for the development of our vision. Now, in cooperation with City to City Europe, we want to do the same for other cities in our geographical region with the prayer to see a gospel movement emerging in the cities of the Southern Balkans and beyond.

Our Goals

1. Cultivate a culture of excitement for Church Planting in Athens, Greece and the Balkans.

2. Equip the churches and church leaders with contextual tools and material for the development and training a future church planters. At the same time, grow a leadership pipeline for lay leaders involved in the areas of Marketplace, Cultural Engagement and Justice and Mercy Initiatives.

3. Facilitate the planting of at least 5 new churches in Greece and 5 new churches in cities of Balkans in the next 5 years. At the same time, provide resources and support for church revitalisation.

4. Foster a spirit of collaboration among existing churches that will create Gospel movements in Athens, Greece, and key cities of the Balkans.