Why the Czech Republic?
The Czech Republic (Czechia) is an Eastern European country in Europe, with about 30,452 square miles. It can fit inside of Oklahoma. It is the Western most country of Eastern Europe, and it would be appropriate to consider it Central Europe. The culture of the Czech Republic is very western as opposed to the rest of its eastern counterparts. Czechia was once part of the Soviet Union during the Cold War era, and the effects of the Soviets can be clearly seen. They are quiet and reserved people, likely due to that regime. They are one of the most irreligious people on the planet, and were the 3rd most atheist, only falling behind China and Japan.
10.7 Million
Souls in Czechia (2020)
8.35 Million
without religious belief (78%)
< 5
churches of Christ*
There is much discussions as to why the Czechs became so irreligious when other surrounding former Soviet states rebounded in religion. One explanation is that the Czechs have a long ingrained collective memory of abuses and corruption of the Catholic church. The Czech Republic was home to the lesser known first reformer, Jan Hus, who was burned alive at the stake. The followers of Jan Hus, the Hussites, became a large enough influence that the majority of the Czech population no longer considered themselves Catholic. This was greatly reversed when the Austro-Hungarian empire fiercely opposed the Hussites. It is thought that sentiment from this time still reverberates today. When the Soviets took control, it further pushed the Czechs into greater dissatisfaction with religion.
*A few families congregate in Prague, but to our knowledge, apart from Prague, very little to no established congregations consisting of mostly Czech people exists
Potential in the Czech Republic
Though the Czech Republic has seemingly been resistant to the Gospel, there is still great potential there. Brother Stas Kuropyatnikov of the church plant in Lviv, Ukraine mentioned that missions in Europe are not necessarily difficult, but different. This brother and his team are doing great work in the most western influenced city of Ukraine, and they are staying true to the Word of God.
The potential of the Czech Republic is 3-fold:
Blank slates
People have no religious bias to unlearn
We will use sound doctrine and quality apologetics in our studies with Czechs
Quality teaching
The Czech Republic makes a great location to start a preaching school
Preaching School
Stas mentioned that the lack of previous religious bias from denominations has helped him evangelize those in Lviv. The Czechs are mostly free from denominational bias which has become a challenge in other mission fields. The mission then involves getting people to believe in a God and then showing them that this God is the God of the Bible.
The few converts from previous missions were often plagued with ecumenicism and a lack of Bible focus and authority. Many of the Czech people who did decide to study often limited their theological studies over books about the Bible, but never digging into the Bible itself. They had a belief that they could pick the theologian whom they liked the most and leave it there. Many others would limit their trust or closeness to missionaries and campaigners due to an expectation that they would leave. The Czech people are very analytical, therefore, if they see faulty theologies, they become skeptical and choose not to pursue Christianity. On top of the lack of solid Biblical foundation, various groups from the 90s went to eastern Europe to baptize, but not make disciples. The trips were too quick, and a solid faith was not nurtured in the converts. The Czech converts were not brought up to maturity and to becoming self-sustaining. Our belief is that there is an untapped population that can be fed sound doctrine from His Word and come to believe, especially given our plan to not leave this mission field. We invite you to ask us more about this.
The long-term plan is to one day open a school of preaching in the Czech Republic. It is located centrally in Europe, the cost of living is relatively low, and English is spoken frequently there, therefore, we think an English-speaking school of preaching would help evangelize not just the Czech Republic, but also Europe. The Bear Valley school in Ukraine has been a large impact in evangelizing Ukraine, therefore we too believe that a school of preaching will help serve Czechia and Europe well into many generations.