Before Europe’s Iron Curtain fell and Albania’s brutal communist regime collapsed in the early 1990s, Albania was the North Korea of Europe. It showed all the devastating effects of a wicked dictator’s reign. Among other things, the church had been forced underground in those years, and most clergy were imprisoned, exiled, or killed.
When Albania opened up, some of the first people to enter were Jesus-loving missionaries who moved into this dark and troubled land with a sense of gospel urgency. What followed was a wave of evangelistic activities, conversions, and rapid church planting.
However, like so much in Albania today, the church is a disappointing reflection of unmet expectations. Why are there still so few healthy churches in Albania? Why is it so hard to find faithful gospel-preaching Albanian pastors? How is it that after millions of dollars and scores of missionaries Albania remains a spiritually dark place with very few thriving, gospel-centered churches?
One of the reasons why there are so few healthy churches in Albania today is because those early rapid evangelistic and church planting activities were not effectively underpinned by theological precision and a biblical understanding of conversion and the church. The zeal for rapid multiplication
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