On March 29, 2025 Transform Europe Network (TEN) will celebrate its diamond anniversary (60 years) of serving God on the continent at a “The Story Continues…” event held at St. Michael’s Centre, Stoke Gifford in Stoke Gifford, Bristol, England. In the lead up to the event, Christian Daily International exclusively interviewed James Vaughton, Chief Executive Officer of TEN, based in the U.K, about the legacy of the “relational” missionary organization and the challenges therein, as the gospel-focused organization looks to the next 60 years.
“We feel quite strongly that God’s called us to focus on Eastern Europe and the Balkans.”
James Vaughton looks thoughtful as he recalls how TEN began in 1965, engaging with a part of Europe hidden somewhat behind the Soviet Iron Curtain in those days. It was a part of the world where believers endured persecution for many years: “Christians were suffering in some way for their faith,” he says.
In the 1960s, TEN supported large evangelistic initiatives in the region such as Billy Graham crusades, in Moscow for example, and the organization's work developed over the years. It now supports 60 evangelical partners in 10 nations. That includes Moldova, also used as a pivot for supporting nearby Ukraine, as well as Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bulgaria.
An issue, however, is whether large campaigns in the region can translate into long term disciples of Jesus. Vaughton recalls evangelist Nick Vujicic, a renowned Australian Serb with no legs or arms because of Tetra-Amelia Syndrome, visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 2019. The country has Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox Christians – but few evangelicals. “There may be 400,” Vaughton suggests.
The visit by Vujicic was well received and he appeared on national television. “They thought it was amazing.”
Afterwards, Vaughton asked a mission partner to give his feedback about those coming to faith after the evangelistic effort. But despite the excitement, and Vaughton does not blame Vujicic for this, he reported there seemed to be no upsurge in people becoming long term Christians.
“It was good for the profile, but in terms of people coming to faith, I think the fruit is very small,” Vaughton says. “I don’t think I’ve heard of one story ultimately of people coming and staying in the church.”
Vaughton is careful not to dismiss the idea of “crusades” but “the ground in it spiritually is very tough” for Eastern Europe, in his opinion, and especially so in the former Yugoslavian nations. However, the churches do see “fruit” through friendship evangelism.
“They do see people coming to faith through building relationships, through showing Christ's love, through compassion ministries, and then being intentional as well about evangelism. But I think for any sort of big meeting, it has to work alongside that stuff.”
As a mission organization, TEN is very “partner led” Vaughton explains, working alongside local leaders in fostering discipleship.
“We only work with local leaders, and that means relationships are far more possible because they speak the language, know the culture, and all that stuff. And yes, good discipleship is critical.”
He gives an example of a drug rehabilitation center in the city of Novi Sad, Serbia, where TEN works with partners helping addicts to become free from substance misuse and addiction, but also in encountering Jesus. Discipleship is a key aspect of this work.
Cultural challenges remain in these countries; for example Serbia, where people adhere nominally to a religious framework such as Orthodox Christianity. This gives them an idea of being connected to a church culturally, Vaughton elaborates, but makes the idea of a relationship with Jesus “a bit of an anathema.”
“It's a bit of a mystery to people, because they just see themselves as culturally connected with the Orthodox church. So that makes discipleship absolutely critical because it's about helping people understand it's about a relationship. You don't have to have that relationship through the priest or giving your offering to the church or whatever it is. You can have this relationship with Jesus.”
Vaughton says that partners find evangelistic tools such as Alpha or Christianity Explored “super useful” in guiding people into understanding the centrality of relationship in the evangelical Christian faith. He expands further in saying that such modes of gospel witness are ideal in countries where religions intertwined with the state dominate, giving examples of Catholicism in Ireland or Orthodoxy in Putin’s Russia.
This presents challenges though since the evangelical church in countries such as Kosovo are marginalized. Kosovo is 96 percent Muslim, Vaughton says, and the Orthodox church there can also see evangelicals as a form of threat to the religious hierarchy.
He points out, however, that it is a mixed picture. He knows of a priest who made a local community afraid of venturing near an evangelical church “and thankfully those things get resolved.” He is also aware of good relationships with local priests, even at an institutional level.
“I don’t want to demonize in any way another denomination,” adds Vaughton, “but where it is tied up with politics, as a cultural agent, it’s difficult. I was on a call with some guys from Montenegro yesterday and they were saying the Orthodox church doesn’t even see them as a threat because they’re a small group in that context.”
Advice on how to overcome these challenges comes from the partners on the ground, Vaughton asserts, “they’re the experts, not me.” He sees TEN’s role as being more of a resource and relationship facilitator, which is key to building trust.
Even when evangelical churches demonstrate open love and care to local communities in Eastern Europe, such as a food bank or cafe or a youth club, there can be a reaction of mistrust if it’s not involving the Orthodox church.
As the evangelical church is a small entity, it can be seen by these communities akin to a cult, Vaughton adds, such as with Jehovah Witnesses or Mormons. This creates confusion and requires time to build trust with locals so they understand the truth represented by the evangelical churches.
“So I think the only way is a commitment to building relationships,” says Vaughton, conceding there are exceptions such as Bulgaria and Romania, showing more openness to the gospel. The latter in particular, post-Ceaușescu, has enjoyed “little revivals; post communism, parts of Western Romania and Northern Romania particularly, where there was a legacy of the Austria Hungarian Empire and where there was some kind of Protestant Christian presence.”
“So these countries are perhaps a little bit easier,” summarizes Vaughton, “but with the former Yugoslavian nations, it is particularly tough. I think relationships, one-to-one, or small groups, they’re slow and it’s tough work.”
Vaughton recalls a partner in Croatia lamenting the fact that the country was one of the few areas in Christendom, which had not really seen revival in its history. “Many places can speak of some sort of revival during history,” Vaughton adds, “but these places can’t.”
“I think it's quite hard for Western Christians to get their head around the complexity and the challenge of it,” Vaughton says, recalling how the U.K. has hundreds of years of Christianity but in Eastern Europe, the historic narrative has not been so clear.
Albania is a bit of an “anomaly” with missional investment by churches in the west and there are now about 200 churches in the country. TEN works with a Bible school resourcing this evangelistic output.
God is also at work in the Roma gypsy community, which is culturally very different not only to the West, Vaughton explains, but also to the typical white Eastern European communities.
Despite these cultural challenges, Vaughton can recall seeing a number of baptisms by the Roma and, “I think it’s one of the areas where there is real church growth among Roma gypsy communities, which is super encouraging, but also comes with fragilities because wherever there's growth, one of the big challenges is how do you build mature Christians, and at the same time people to lead and disciple and support them.”
TEN’s work among the Roma gypsy communities, as an example, includes supporting the extension of church fellowship in Southern Serbia to a local Roma community, via ministry and outreach but also education projects.
“They're realizing that it's all well and good doing evangelism but a lot of these people are desperately poor, and education is a major issue among the Roma gypsy communities. So what does it look like for the church to be good news in that context? And they're trying to answer that question. And they're doing some great great stuff. So we're trying to support that where we can.”
So how does TEN gauge its success as a missional organization over the past 60 years?
Vaughton calls it a “good question” but also “tricky” because how does one know what success looks like in the kingdom of God? He recalls initiatives TEN is involved in, such as the Bible school in Albania but there remains tough challenges in countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Perhaps you might argue at a human level, that we haven't seen a lot of success. What we've seen is and what we've tried to be, is faithful. We think it's faithfulness that if you talk to any of our partners, like the guys in Kosovo, one of the things they’ve appreciated about TEN is that we've stood with them for a long time through thick and thin.”
Vaughton refers to a conference for partners in Sofia, Bulgaria, this year where public appreciation was given to TEN for its long standing work for evangelicals in the country.
“What can happen is, agencies from the West can come in with lots of big ideas and money. They invest for a period of time, and then they realize just how hard it is, and they back out. And that causes more pain and more difficulty, and I've heard, sadly, lots of stories of that. What they haven't done is stuck with these people through thick and thin.”
This sticking “through thick and thin” has seen TEN help upscale five registered churches in Montenegro to seven fellowships: “You might argue percentage wise, that’s quite significant, even though the numbers are small.” Or in Sofia, TEN helped to build a new conference center, used as a resource not only for believers but for the city itself. “That is a great witness, and they're now training up the next generation of leaders. So again, for us, that's an indicator of success.”
A new challenge is that TEN has been working with first generation, post communism Christian leaders, who are now looking to hand leadership to the next generation. This is happening in countries such as Macedonia, Albania and Serbia. For example, TEN has helped a couple in Northern Serbia who planted churches during the war and now they are stepping back, having trained many leaders and seen “a good number of churches planted” alongside two drugs rehab centers.
With the Bible school in Albania, TEN funded a projector and laptop to help with teaching. There are now 90 students at any given time and “multiple churches have been planted off the back of that.”
At the same time, TEN is helping partners to be less reliant on western money and become more independent.
“Sometimes they dance to whoever plays the pipe, they dance to the person who is playing the music, who is paying for the outreach. And we’re keen to say, how can you build local financially sustainable models? So we're doing some small things to help them develop some businesses or using slightly different funding models to match funding, for example, and coaching them to develop their ministries. That's still in its early stages, but we've seen some fruit and encouragement in that area as well as ministry successes.”
Looking ahead to the next 60 years, Vaughton hopes that TEN will see younger leaders being established and a “marked shift in the number of people coming to faith.”
Referring to his recent conversation with partner friends in Montenegro, Vaughton opines that the younger generation, less tied to nominal cultural religiosity, and “more globalized” will lead the missional charge to save others for Jesus.
“There'll be other challenges that come with that, of course, but we long to see a younger generation coming to faith and taking on the leadership of what God is doing in this part of the world. But also hopefully we'll see that ongoing commitment of faithfulness, whether it's from TEN or U.K. churches that are connected with churches out there.”
Vaughton asked for prayers for younger leaders in these countries, drawn to the financial attractions of moving to the West, to stay in their countries and serve the local churches.
“Pray for new, younger leaders – that God would call them to be raised up and to stick around, and for the practical financial support for them.
“This part of the world [Eastern Europe] tends to be forgotten or the news about it in the general media tends to be negative. Whereas, actually, God is at work and there's good things going on, so pray in an informed way for these nations. Connect with TEN or other organizations doing similar stuff.”
“Europe is a mission field and sometimes that's forgotten because there is religion and faith, and there are organized churches and so on. But actually remember that it's a mission field.”
