The Shocking Truth About Modern Mission Agencies in Europe

The understanding and application of the work of missions, the fulfilling of the Great Commission, is continually evolving and being refined biblically today. Just look at the massive, beautiful cathedrals in places like Venice. These giant domes and structures took decades, sometimes over a century, to build. At one point in history, constructing these grand church buildings was considered a form of evangelism. The bells would ring (in Italy they still do every hour), reminding people of God, and it was seen as a powerful way to proclaim the gospel, or at least remind people of the Lord of all creation.

But little by little, as we know, the true gospel was lost. The church became what we now know as Roman Catholicism, deceiving people with man-made laws, rules, and regulations while withholding the real good news of Jesus Christ and how one is truly saved. What was once cutting-edge missions eventually drifted far from biblical truth.

Then came the Reformation which struck a massive blow to the papacy and its dominance over the people. Suddenly, with the help of translators and the printing press, the Word of God became accessible to the everyday person in common language. One could read the Bible and understand more than many of the popes themselves, who often taught heresy while wielding enormous power.

If God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than thou doest." -William Tyndale

The Protestant movement took root, and over the centuries, missions work faithful to the true gospel spread across the world. Biblical churches were planted, the Bible was taught, disciples were made, families and communities were transformed. God continues this work in many ways today.

Yet not all modern “missions” is biblical. Much of what passes for missions today misses the mark entirely.

The Claim That Shocked Italian Pastors

A friend of mine shared something alarming with a group of Italian pastors: modern missionary agencies (even here in Europe) are claiming they can plant churches in just five years that are large enough to be fully self-supporting, autonomous, and able to financially support their pastors in all ministerial activities.

The response? Shock. A profound lack of realism. Those who have actually worked in places like Italy pointed out that, in the best cases, it realistically takes 40 to 60 years for a church to reach that level of maturity and financial independence.

This isn’t just bad methodology or even bad theology (though both are often involved). As I see it, there’s another overlooked factor making these bold claims so detached from reality.

The Mission Agency Dilemma: Pragmatism and Shortcuts

Many pragmatic mission agencies and missionaries prioritize big, quick results above all else. They push their workers hard because impressive numbers and stories help raise support and prove “God is moving.” But to achieve those results fast, they often take costly shortcuts rooted in bad theology—and bad theology always leads to bad consequences.

Typically, this manufacturing of results involves preaching a false or truncated gospel: easy-believism, prosperity promises (“Come to Jesus and your life will get better—health, happiness, wealth”), or a watered-down message that avoids hard truths^[1]. The result? False converts who follow a Jesus of their own imagination rather than the biblical Christ. Unbiblical churches spring up. They have gatherings that may have nice music and use Bible verses (often out of context), but they lack qualified pastoral oversight and a true understanding of the gospel.

These groups often have a low view of God’s sovereignty in salvation. They act as if human skill, persuasion, and techniques can manufacture conversions, rather than trusting that only the Holy Spirit causes new birth, opens blind eyes, convicts of sin, and causes people to treasure Christ above all.

Many are also driven by faulty eschatology. Since they usually believe Jesus will return tomorrow they don't worry about the details, sound theology, doctrinal precision and long-term health. Rather than lay solid foundations, they rush things. Many even are convinced that Christ cannot return until His name is simply preached in every part. Quality discipleship doesn't take priority.

Movements like DMM (Disciple Making Movements) and CPM (Church Planting Movements) often fall into this category. They dumb down the process, deny the biblical role of qualified teachers/pastors, hand Bibles to unbelievers and let them “discover” truth on their own, and celebrate rapid “multiplication.” The result looks impressive on paper (to the untrained eye) but often produces shallow, unsustainable groups rather than healthy biblical churches. (For a thorough critique, check out THIS resource from Radius International.)

Can a Biblical Church Really Be Planted in Five Years in Europe?

Yes—and no.

A biblical church can be planted in five years (or even less). I’ve seen it happen. I've labored in the trenches with a band of missionaries and we saw the Lord save a number of people in a relatively short amount of time. Some of these were within the process of being trained in the work of pastoral ministry as well. God is sovereign; when He moves powerfully, and when previous sowing has prepared the ground, a sound church with qualified elders can take root relatively quickly. This is often hard to fathom for those of us involved in larger long-existing churches, but think of the churches in Acts starting from nothing. They were young, fresh, simple, without every program or bell and whistle that we typically associate with a solid church today, but they were built on a solid foundation of the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer.

However, in today’s post-Christian Europe, it is not common that solid churches are planted in short periods of time, like 5-10 years. Here in Europe, we’re working in a spiritual wasteland, a ruins. People here don’t start at zero (an unreached tribe that has never heard of Jesus). They start in the negative—burdened with centuries of misconceptions (at least in Italy) about Christianity, the gospel, the Bible, and the church. You must first debunk falsehoods, remove boulders of unbelief, then build from the ground up. That usually takes far longer than five years.

The Separate Issue: Financially Supported Pastors

Here’s where I believe we need to separate two distinct questions:

1. Can a biblical church be planted and become autonomous?

   → Yes, and relatively quickly when God blesses the work.

2. Can that church fully support its pastors financially?

→ That’s a much harder, separate gospel issue in much of Europe.

To have full-time, congregation-supported pastors requires a sizable membership of financially stable believers who can give generously. In socialist-democratic countries like Italy, heavy taxation (often 40%+ of income, plus taxes on everything imaginable) stifles economic fruitfulness. People struggle to be fruitful, multiply, take dominion, and have surplus to support ministry.

The result? Across Italy’s 60 million people, I don’t know a single full-time pastor fully supported by his own congregation. Many faithful men serve full-time, but only because of outside funding. Local churches can barely cover rent and basic needs, let alone free their shepherds for undistracted ministry. This being the case, the churches most certainly are not yet able to send out missionaries themselves to support the work of the Great Commission in other countries.

This creates a vicious cycle: few believers → limited giving → unsupported pastors → slower growth → even fewer resources for the Great Commission.

The New Papacy: The Modern State

As Chris Hume and Luke Saint argue in their book Redeemed by Justice:

“The greater threat to the kingdom of Christ is a new "papacy" - the modern state.”

Just as the old papacy propagated man-made laws and oppressed people spiritually, the secular state now steps into God’s place with tyrannical overreach, heavy taxation, and edicts that very often hinder human flourishing. Any law or regulation that interferes with man’s obedience to Christ’s commands (including the Dominion Mandate and Great Commission) is, in a very real sense, an assault on God’s order.

When the state, void of Christian influence, robs citizens through oppressive systems, believers cannot freely support their pastors, plant new churches, or send missionaries. Everything is connected—and it’s a gospel issue.

Lessons from the Apostle Paul

We can’t claim it’s unbiblical for churches to form quickly—look at the New Testament. Paul and his teams planted churches in months or a few years at most (sometimes weeks!). They boldly evangelized individuals, families, and whole regions; baptized new believers immediately; taught obedience to all Christ commanded; appointed elders; and moved on, trusting local leaders to build on the foundation they laid.

Why so fast? It was the unique apostolic era with miraculous signs confirming the message. The gospel was explosively new and fresh. The apostles and early Christians lived with urgent obedience, risking everything for the risen Christ.

We’re not apostles, obviously, but the New Testament pattern shows God can work quickly when He chooses. Our job is to trust, obey, go, make disciples, and teach new believers to observe all the Jesus commanded. We lay solid foundations, by His grace, and trust God with the timing.

Closing Thoughts and Takeaways

1. The work of planting churches (even in Europe) is ultimately God’s. He determines the pace. We do well to avoid manipulative shortcuts that compromise sound theology. We do well to also avoid limiting Him by assuming this work in Europe will “always take decades.”

2. Planting sound, biblical churches does not require paid pastors from day one. A plurality of bi-vocational elders can shepherd faithfully (and often must in hard contexts). Full support is the biblical goal, but it’s a separate hurdle tied to broader cultural and political realities.

3. Acknowledge the correlation between gospel advance, human flourishing, and freedom from tyrannical state overreach. Christ is Lord of all. The church and the state are to bow to His lordship.

4. Keep growing in your understanding of biblical missions. A reformation is happening in the missions world today. Unbiblical practices are being exposed, and that’s a good thing. Each of us has a part to play in understanding these concepts and supporting biblical missions. To support quality missions work, we need to understand what that looks like.

Let us love God, love His Word, love the church, and have compassion for the lost. May we, like Paul, finish our course testifying to the gospel of God’s grace and declaring the whole counsel of God^[2].

Europe is a unique mission field. Long-term vision is essential. Sound churches can be planted. But for them to thrive and multiply independently, we must address deeper issues—including the oppressive systems that hinder God’s people from bearing lasting fruit.

What part will you play in this ongoing reformation?

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Written by Jesse Schreck | founder, director, and missionary church planter in Italy with Practical Missions Cohort

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Footnotes

1. In this post, I unpack various false gospels and comprehensions of Jesus that have become common today: https://www.practicalmissions.org/single-post/discerning-truth-in-a-world-of-deception↩︎

2. Acts 20:24-27 - But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 25 And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. 26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.↩︎