Spain
Date Entered: 1968
Major Ministries: Church planting, MK education, and Sports Evangelism
Country Profile
Population: 45,853,000
Since Roman times, Spain has played a major role in the political, religious and cultural fortunes of Europe. Though this country has suffered severely from the conquests and counter-conquests of the Christian and Muslim worlds, the glories of its past are still visible and admired by the millions of tourists who visit this beautiful land every year.
Gradually recovering from post-Civil War economic woes, today’s Spain is no longer a poor country. Several developments have contributed to the recent prosperity: Expanding tourism, progressive small industries (shoes, steel, cars, trucks, and ships) and important foreign investments.
Meanwhile the Spanish nation has taken tremendous strides toward political maturity, emerging out of the totalitarian 40-year-long dictatorship of Francisco Franco to establish a parliamentary monarchy of democratic standards.
Spain’s political high point took place in 1978 when, by general referendum, a new democratic constitution became operative. The new constitution guaranteed religious freedom, marking a turning point in Spanish mission history. The Roman church made Spain a bulwark of Roman Catholicism since the great state-powered Inquisition of the fifteenth century. The new constitution officially broke a centuries-old pattern of Roman Catholic intolerance in Spain.
ABWE missionaries in Spain have experienced this happy transition into religious liberty since the first ABWE missionary family entered the country in 1968. From a legal perspective, the opportunities to evangelize are now practically limitless.
Nevertheless, the intense hold of Catholicism on all spheres of Spanish life is still a power with which to reckon. The Catholic Church still receives state subsidies and special recognition. A stiff loyalty to Rome endures alongside evolutionary thought and the other secular trends which have permeated Spanish society.
With roughly 150,000 people throughout the land who claim to be evangelicals, and of that number only 44,300 are actual church members, Spain is largely an unevangelized nation. A total of 7,618 cities and towns lie in darkness without a gospel witness.
In response to the desperate need, the present ABWE team centers its efforts in Madrid, Coslada (just outside of Madrid), and Toledo. In each location the Lord has gathered a small nucleus of believers in the process of becoming an independent local church. Plans call for expansion into outlying communities. In Madrid several ABWE missionaries minister at the academy for missionary children.
Innovative approaches, such as sports evangelism and weekday classes in crafts, English and music are being blessed of God to broaden the number of contacts for the gospel.
While missionaries are actively involved in some public ministries to reach the masses, the most effective approach seems to be “living room evangelism,” using loving, persistent, person-to-person confrontation with the Word of God.
The challenge demands a persevering spirit and continual trust in Almighty God who has opened the great and effectual door in the face of many adversaries.