Our Vision and Roles in Austria
Our Vision
Austrians and our immigrant population following Jesus, being formed, educated, equipped, and sent out for missional living in community, locally and globally.
Achieving the Vision:
Our Roles among our People Groups
Both of us are active in relational discipleship. Gregory serves as lecturer in New Testament at an accredited institution in Vienna and is a doctoral student in the theology department at the University of Vienna. Kim serves in music ministry at our local Austrian church and volunteers at a nearby-by refugee ministry center. As a couple, we hold space for God to show us movement in church planting among our focus immigrant population.
Biblical and Theological Studies
Gregory serves as lecturer in New Testament at an accredited institution offering a certificate in biblical and theological studies. In partnership with GEM, this institution educates and equips church leadership and lay church leaders for Christian life and ministry and is a unique Evangelical academic institution in Austria, bringing the resources necessary to train Austrian Evangelicals for fruitful and relevant Christian life on location. Gregory’s vision for serving as an educator with AKG is to be used of God to impact both the local and global missional vision of the Austrian Evangelical churches, training leaders to correctly handle the Christian scriptures, and thus well lead their communities in making more and better disciples in Europe and beyond!
About our People Groups and Their Unique Challenges
1. The Perceived Irrelevance of the Gospel:
Many indigenous Austrians have not heard the Gospel, nor seen it lived out in an Evangelical community. According to the Joshua Project, 90% of Austrians consider themselves Christians. Yet less than 1% (0.5%) are considered Evangelical Christians, professing Jesus Christ as Lord. (1 ) Every year, many Austrians part with traditional forms of Christianity in country, and seek alternative forms of post-modern spirituality apart from Jesus.
2. An Under-Resourced Community:
A minority community of around 40,000 followers of Jesus, the Austrian Evangelical churches lack access to resources such as personnel, curriculum, and funding to form, educate, and equip their people for Christian life and ministry.
3. Our Immigrant Population and its Relations with Austrians:
Our focus immigrant population forms the estimated single largest ethnic minority in Austria. Conservative estimates suggest 75- 100K immigrants from our Central-Asian unreached people group live in Austria, but there may be as many as 300K. Moderate estimates place them at around 163,000, many of whom are concentrated in Vienna. (2) According to the Joshua Project, evangelical Christianity is barely represented (0.06%) among this Central Asian people group (4), making them one of the larger unreached people groups in the world. Their home land is a restricted access country, whereas Austria, offers an open environment for church planting initiatives.
Immigration in Austria during the last few decades has increased the overall percentage of Muslims to 4.2%, making Islam Austria's second-largest religious group, outnumbering the traditional second Christian denomination of Protestantism. (3) This demographical shift has led to some significant changes in the sociological fabric of both communities, and consequently, Austrians and our immigrant population have had and continue to have a turbulent relationship at times. This immigrant population thus remains unreached and unengaged in Austria, requiring direct church planting among them, as well as the mobilization and equipping of Austrian Evangelicals for the task!
​
(1) http://www.joshuaproject.net/countries.php?rog3=AU&sf=population&so=asc
(2) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/au.html
(3) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/au.html
(4) http://www.joshuaproject.net/people-profile.php?peo3=18274&rog3=AU
