Spain

Answer to Prayer

Evangelical growth has followed this freedom, largely because of immigration. Most evangelicals in Spain are immigrants. Latin American, Romanian and African believers flood into Spain, bringing their dynamic faith in Jesus with them. Their arrival swelled the number of evangelicals from under 40,000 (0.1%) in 1960 to over 450,000 (1%), meeting in nearly 3,000 churches in 2010. Praise God for a truly diverse and multicultural expression of Christianity that offers Spaniards some new options for belief in Jesus.

Challenge for Prayer

The Catholic Church is troubled, finding itself in crisis. From being regarded as one of the most Catholic of countries, Spain is fast becoming one of the most irreligious. The challenges include:

a) The legacy of a tarnished past. The Inquisition casts a dark shadow across history. In the 16th Century, thousands of suspected apostates were tortured or killed and hundreds of thousands of Jews, Muslims and Protestants forced to convert or flee the country. This weapon of repression was then used throughout the Americas against the indigenous population. The Church was also tainted by association with the Franco dictatorship. Pray that this stain on the Spanish nation may be fully repented of and renounced, and that the shame on Christianity would be diminished.

b) The loss of authority in the present day. There is widespread mistrust of the institution of the Church, which often finds itself pitted against the current liberal government on issues of morality, sexuality and the sanctity of life. Most Spaniards feel caught in the middle. Less than 17% regularly attend mass. For most younger people, the rituals and feasts of Catholicism hold little to no religious or spiritual meaning. Pray for a renewal in Catholicism that breathes new life and relevance into the Church.

c) The bleak future. Only 14% of young people describe themselves as religious, and less than half identify themselves as Catholic at all. The numbers enrolling in the priesthood or in training are drying up. Within one generation, Spain may no longer be a majority-Catholic country. Pray that the pendulum, swinging as it is toward rampant secularism, may be reversed and the Spanish nation drawn back to God.

     For an additional 11 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.