Progress Of A Modern PilgrimSample

As I have had the privilege of visiting churches on almost every continent, of every size from the largest in the world to, probably the smallest I find that the size of a church is not it’s major problem. It’s the people. That sounds obvious but, in talking with Pastors, most believe that they are limited because of their size and/or their budget constraints!

God placed within my heart a vision to help to bring together churches from throughout Athens, Greece. Overcoming parochialism and disunity had seldom been done before so it was a massive mountain that needed to be cast into the sea. I knew that it would take time, finances and a great deal of prayer.

I decided to give the training events to various locations to show the agape love of God. We also committed to at least two to three years so that it was not a flash in the pan but a long-term commitment to that city and nation. We started in Athens, Greece.

Greek church-ianity is very unusual. There is the thought that ‘Christianity started here so we have the corner on the market’. It took me many, many trips to Athens just to get the trust of the church and ministry leaders there. We had sown a seed so deep there in those years that about ten years ago, our first 'Agape Athens' event had about fifty leaders attending and about thirty to fifty who accepted the Lord in the Saturday evening evangelistic meeting. The next year it grew, and we were able to see some of the converts from the first year grow in the Lord. Then the third year we could see that the building would no longer hold us or the growing church. A great evangelistic concert brought in hundreds and was translated into dozens of languages. What a joy to see the nations coming to Christ.