University Evangelists

2012 European University Evangelists Network

In the New Testament, the gospel was communicated primarily through personal friendships, small groups/house meetings, and by means of public proclamation. God has seen fit to use these three means to reach university students, especially in the last 60 years around the world. However, gifted university evangelists are in short supply in the university context in Europe. There are few notable public university evangelists in Europe today. We therefore believe it is critical that we try to unearth and equip young university evangelists in every country in Europe.

The Vision of this Network is to identify, train, and place at least 50 university evangelists from every European country. First, the Network aims to identify and gather current and potential university evangelists from across Europe. The focus shall be on developing persuasive speaking gifts for use in university missions. Training shall be given by leaders and speakers from this Network and others. The training will include the Christian Persuaders apologetics lunch bar material. This is currently being used in the UK, but needs to be more widely offered across Europe. The university evangelists will observe (in a mentoring context) best practice university missions, and be expected to organise and speak at university missions in their own countries. This Network is invitation-only and is open to those who are involved in university evangelism.

Network Leaders

Lindsay Brown currently serves as the International Director of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation. Together with Richard Cunningham and Martin Haizmann, he directs the recently formed FEUER (Fellowship of Evangelists in the Universities of EuRope)which seeks to stimulate the public communication of the Gospel in universities all across Europe. In 1991, he was asked to become the General Secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) after leading its work. He was engaged in student ministry prior to coming on staff at IFES. He studied history at Oxford University, where he was elected President of the Christian Union.

Richard Cunningham is the co-leader of the European University Evangelists Network and a member of the European Leadership Forum Steering Committee. He has been Director of UCCF: the Christian Unions since 2004. He has also worked in pastoral ministry at churches in London and Oxford. A graduate of London University and trained for ordained ministry in Oxford, he has been the primary speaker at over 40 University Missions. He founded ‘Christian Persuaders,’ a training programme that aims to identify, train, and place a new generation of apologetic evangelists in British universities. He is also a member of the College of Evangelists, an outreach arm of the Anglican church.

Martin Haizmann serves as the European Regional Secretary for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). He coordinates the regional staff team, supporting the work of 38 national student movements across Europe in reaching out to university students with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Before joining IFES, Martin served with the German IFES movement (SMD) for 20 years. Martin is married to Rose with 6 children. He lives in Marburg, Germany.

Network Speakers

Raphael Anzenberger is an evangelist, apologist, missiologist, church planter, author, and speaker with a passion to raise a new generation of missional leaders across the Francophone world. Married with 4 children, Raphael lives in Tours, France. He earned his MS in Economics from the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, his MDiv in Evangelism from Columbia International University, Columbia, SC, USA and is currently working on his DMin in Missions at this same institution on the subject of mentored education. He served in Africa as a hospital administrator (Chad, CH Bebalem), in North America as an IT engineer (US, Michelin Corp.), and is now back in Europe serving as General Secretary of France Evangelisation, and President of the Forum des Evangelistes, an international gathering of French speaking evangelists. He is the author of Moi aussi je voudrais croire, mais... (BLF Europe, 2008) and co-author of Questions autour de Dieu (Farel, 2009).

Alexander Fink studied physics at the universities of Bayreuth (GER) and St. Andrews (UK). He received his PhD in biophysics from the University of Regensburg (GER). He was active in university student ministry, and served as staff worker of SMD (German IFES). After three years as product manager for sensors in industry, he is now the Director of the SMD Graduates' Ministry. He helped found the Kepler Forum, which organises symposia for the discussion of worldview issues in science and society. He is on the Steering Committee of the European Leadership Forum. He is married to Bettina and has two children.

Stefan Gustavsson is co-leader of the European Apologetics Network and a member of the European Leadership Forum Steering Committee. He is director of Credo Academy, a Christian study centre in Stockholm, which focuses on cultural analysis, worldview studies, apologetics and evangelism. He is the author of a book on Christian apologetics, and writes regularly for different Swedish magazines. Stefan also serves as General Secretary of the Swedish Evangelical Alliance.

John Lennox is Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University and a Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College, Oxford. He is also an Honorary Fellow of Wycliffe Hall, an Adjunct Professor of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and he teaches for the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme at the Executive Education Centre, Said Business School, Oxford. He is particularly interested in the interface of science, philosophy and theology and his most recent books include Seven Days that Divide the World (on Genesis 1), Gunning for God (on the new atheism) and Stephen Hawking and God (a response to The Grand Design). In the past five years, Professor Lennox has debated a number of the world’s leading atheists including Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Peter Singer. His website is www.johnlennox.org.

Ellis Potter, a native Californian, is a former Buddhist monk who became a Christian under the influence and ministry of the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer.  He worked for many years with Schaeffer at L’Abri Fellowship, Switzerland, and was the pastor of the Basel Christian Fellowship for ten years.  Potter’s unique background includes music and the arts, theology and philosophy, which qualifies him to lecture on a variety of subjects including the relevancy of Christianity to the arts and modern philosophical and social movements. He often lectures on a comparison of biblical and other worldviews, seeking to establish the clear truth of God’s Word. He now works as an independent missionary, based in Basel, Switzerland, and directs most of his attention and energies eastward to the developing nations of Central and Eastern Europe. With his wife, Mary, he founded Eastern European Renewal (EER).

Charlie Butler works for UCCF, the IFES movement in the UK, sharing the gospel with non-Christian students at Cambridge University and encouraging Christian students to do the same through the university Christian Union. He's also part of UCCF's Christian Persuaders initiative, seeking to identify, train and deploy new apologetic evangelists in universities across the UK. He and his wife Jenny attend St Andrew the Great Church and live in central Cambridge.

Matthias Clausen is currently research assistant at the Research Institute for Evangelism and Church Development (IEEG) at the University of Greifswald, Germany. He earned his doctorate in Practical Theology in 2009, having written his dissertation on evangelism and epistemology. He studies Protestant theology in Wuppertal, Heidelberg, and London, and regularly speaks at evangelistic events and university missions all across Germany. In March 2011 he was a speaker at the central European youth evangelism event, "JesusHouse", in Stuttgart. From 2000-2004 he served as the travelling secretary with SMD (IFES Germany), and in 2007 he was ordained as pastor.

Network Programme

In addition to meeting in the mornings of Sunday, 20th May through Wednesay, 23rd May, there will be a briefing on Saturday, 19th May at 16.00. There will also be two late night informal sessions from 21.30 - 22.30 on Sunday and Tuesday. Participants will also be able to book up sessions for review and mentoring with the Network leaders.