One question runs through this week's news from more than a dozen countries: who sends, and who is formed to be sent? It is asked in different keys — a Congolese church writing abuse out of its exorcism practice, a Czech denomination opening a debate on women's ordination, Finnish congregations releasing their young people and even their pastor for mission, and European mission leaders reckoning with a colonial past. The coverage runs from Estonia to Honduras, and from Sweden to the Republic of the Congo.
Republic of the Congo — pastors adopt binding rules against abusive exorcism
A church conference in the Republic of the Congo has given its pastors binding rules on exorcism, after leaders were shown film of a session involving an eleven-year-old girl that the missionaries who saw it called a violation of the child. Around 350 pastors and evangelists gave five hours to the subject in September; the rules they adopted ban sexual acts and nudity from the ministry, forbid violence outright, bar pastors from charging for it and set medical knowledge alongside pastoral support. Breaches carry zero tolerance — dismissal and referral to the justice system — and a visiting psychiatrist has been invited to help train serving and future pastors. The account was published by Equmeniakyrkan, the Swedish free church whose workers serve in partnership with the Congolese church, and its missionaries wrote of cautious optimism: they called the meeting a turning point, while saying their own church should speak clearly against harmful practices and stay humble about the Congolese church's right to decide for itself.
Czech Republic — Church of the Brethren opens a church-wide debate on ordaining women
The Council of the Church of the Brethren (Církev bratrská), one of Central Europe's oldest free church bodies, has opened a church-wide conversation on the ordination of women after meeting three pastors who had promoted the question. The Council said it did not want to rush a proposal and that the issue needed room for a discussion across the whole church, which it would itself lead and to which women would be invited to bring their life experience. In a country often called one of Europe's most secular, the debate carries weight beyond the denomination's own congregations — and the same meeting heard that its seminary has 31 students registered for 2026/27 but a persistent difficulty in getting congregations to send them.
Europe — mission leaders rethink partnership in the shadow of colonialism
Mission leaders from seven European national churches met in Liestal and Basel for the annual gathering of ECOM, the European Methodist mission commission, to reconsider how mission partnerships work in a world still shaped by colonial history. Two walks through the two cities were meant to open participants' eyes to how mission and colonialism have been bound together, and the conversations turned on how money, decisions and voices are shared with partner churches elsewhere. Among the proposals were joint consultations that bring several sister churches together at once, creating conditions for other people's voices to be heard rather than speaking on their behalf, and letting partners define for themselves what European financial support should be used for. The gathering was reported by Equmeniakyrkan, which noted it fell within a fortnight of three international meetings — including the quadrennial global gathering of the International Federation of Free Evangelical Churches (IFFEC) in Nairobi, Kenya.
Finland — 77 young volunteers sent to ten mission teams in seven countries
Seventy-seven young people from Finland's Free Church congregations gave up their summer holidays to join short-term mission teams organised by The Legacy Project, the youth mission initiative of Suomen Vapaakirkko. Working in ten teams, they travelled to Japan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Greece, Thailand and Iceland, as well as to immigrant communities within Finland; the average age was around 21, and the youngest participant was 13. Some teams lived alongside local people in their own villages, others met long-term mission in the middle of large cities, and several spoke in schools, villages and prisons. For a national church of this size, Suomen Vapaakirkko reports, the short-term route is the main way its missionary engagement is renewed.
Sweden — after 32 years, a missionary's daughter returns to Congo with her father's book
Kristina Lindström was ten when her family left Sweden in 1979 for what was then Zaire, where her father served as a doctor at a mission hospital near Kimpese. This autumn she travels to the Democratic Republic of the Congo again, carrying as many copies as her luggage will hold of her father's book about Mukimbungu, newly translated into French. She belongs to the third generation of a family that Congo and Swedish free church mission have shaped — her grandparents went out in 1928 — and she describes that heritage as carrying both pride and questions that have grown sharper with the years. Sändaren reports that she spent two years in therapy after her first return trip, and now speaks of her "adult Congo": a country she chose for herself, rather than one she was simply taken to.
Britain — mass baptisms return to the country's beaches and lakes
A growing number of British churches are taking baptism out of the building and into open water. Around a thousand people from five churches gathered on Bournemouth beach in the summer of 2025 to witness 92 baptisms; 20 churches united for a mass baptism at Manvers Lake near Rotherham; and 170 people were baptised at Bigbury-on-Sea in Devon after a Christian content creator put the word out with the words "No tickets. No charge. No booking. Just come." Writing in Premier Christianity, editor Sam Hailes — himself baptised in the North Sea the day before his eleventh birthday — argues the story is less a "quiet revival" than one of Christian unity, and suggests almost any town could hold its own mass baptism if its church leaders united to make it happen.
Honduras — a church relief partner brings running water to the Lempira mountains
A first-ever "vision trip" organised by Covenant World Relief and Development, the relief arm of the Evangelical Covenant Church in the United States, took members to the mountains of Lempira, Honduras, to see the work of a long-standing local partner. The visit centred on COCEPRADIL, founded in 1989 as an association of village water committees, in a village where roughly 500 people now have running water in their homes — one man told the visitors he had lived 79 years without it. Its method, as the Covenant Church describes it, is to begin with what a community already has: families pay for their own meters and dig their own trenches, and the organisation holds the water rights but returns the fees to the communities.
Czech Republic — McGrath's Christian Theology to appear in Czech, with a forum on theological education
A Czech translation of Alister McGrath's standard introduction to Christian theology is on its way, and the book's appearance is the occasion for an Evangelical Forum built around a conversation with its author. The hybrid event will pair live contributions from Professor McGrath with discussions led by Czech speakers, taking up the sources and shape of systematic theology in Czech and asking where theological education in the country's churches stands and where it is going. The book is to be published by Návrat domů as Brána do teologie, "A Gate into Theology"; the invitation was published by the Church of the Brethren under the banner Evangelikální fórum 2027.
Germany — Ewersbach seminary opens its year with twenty new theology students
The Theological Seminary at Ewersbach, the training college of the Bund Freier evangelischer Gemeinden, opened its academic year on 4 October with a festive service under the motto "Lebe Theologie" — live theology. About twenty new students were presented and blessed, while graduates of the two bachelor's programmes received their certificates in the same celebration. The rector, Prof. Dr. Andreas Heiser, voiced particular gratitude for the strength of this year's intake, saying the college is growing and that it is glad to accompany so many different paths of calling. The year's opening is reported by Bund FeG.
Czech Republic — Open Doors launches a Czech-language service for persecuted Christians
Open Doors, the organisation that documents and supports Christians facing persecution, has launched a Czech-language service. The new site carries current news of believers under pressure, a fresh prayer prompt each day, and ways for visitors to send messages of encouragement, join an online prayer meeting or request a presentation for their congregation. The organisation traces its beginnings to 1955, when a Dutchman known as Brother Andrew began carrying Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, Czechoslovakia among the countries he reached — and the Church of the Brethren, which carried news of the launch, notes that those smuggled Bibles reached congregations of precisely its kind.
Switzerland — free churches give two Sundays to persecuted Christians, with Syria in sharp focus
Congregations across Switzerland's free churches are being asked to give one of two Sundays in November to the reality of persecuted Christians, in an annual initiative that this year turns particular attention to Nigeria, Syria and Central Asia. The material prepared for the occasion places Syria at the centre: in the 2026 World Watch List the country climbed from eighteenth place to sixth, at least 27 Christians were killed for their faith over the past year, and a community estimated at 1.2 million before the war now numbers roughly three hundred thousand. Yet some choose to stay — a Franciscan in Aleppo tells LaFree that although Christians are few, "they are more united than ever", and describes a project in Lattakia that combines football and basketball with faith and personal development.
Finland — Tampere pastor steps aside to visit his congregation's missionaries
A Free Church congregation in Tampere has done something unusual with its lead pastor: for the rest of the year it has taken him off normal duties and made him its project missionary, so that he can travel among the workers the congregation supports — giving his time, rather than only the congregation's money, to the people it has sent out. Antti Hietamäki began on 1 August and continues to the end of 2026; he stays on the congregation's payroll and small grants from other congregations cover his travel, so the arrangement costs mission funds nothing. The idea goes back to a visiting speaker who had grown up in Africa and described how the pastor of his family's sending church had never once visited them. Suomen Vapaakirkko reports that the congregation plans to restore its normal arrangement at the turn of the year.
Finland — a congregation's own 'Grandma's House' cares for its elderly
The Free Church congregation in Kitee, in eastern Finland, has a feature few congregations can claim: its own "mummola", the Finnish word for a grandmother's home. It is a family home for older people, run full time by a nurse who works there as a commissioned family carer; four residents live there at present, sharing the ordinary rhythms of a household rather than the routine of an institution. The home grew out of the congregation's concern for its older members, many of whom had carried responsibility for decades and had no family able to care for them as their health declined. Suomen Vapaakirkko reports that it opened in January 2024, after the congregation's elders overcame their initial scepticism.
Czech Republic — churches to explore faith and artificial intelligence
Czech churches will hold a free online webinar on 9 November asking how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way people look for God. Titled "Faith, Reason and AI", the session brings together a theologian from the Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University and the director of HledamBoha.cz, an online service that connects people searching for faith with real people. The first speaker asks why information about God is not the same thing as faith, and why intelligence is not the same thing as wisdom; the second asks what becomes of evangelism and congregations if seekers begin putting their questions to a machine instead of a church. Announced through the Ecumenical Council of Churches, the webinar is capped at 100 participants.
Sweden — Gothenburg church opens its doors to the Book Fair's biggest questions
For four days in late September, Betlehemskyrkan in Gothenburg turned its church hall into a venue alongside the city's annual Book Fair, gathering authors, researchers, musicians and members of the public for conversations the fair itself had no time to finish. The programme ran from morning until evening and covered the future of solidarity, the figure of Judas, the origins of evil and the opening of Genesis; organisers say the room was full, with latecomers asked to squeeze together so that more could be seated. Sändaren reports that the church belongs to Equmeniakyrkan, and that hosting a parallel programme reflects a wider pattern among Sweden's free churches of opening their buildings to public debate.
Britain — how seven Caribbean Christians reshaped the British church
Before worship could begin, the room had to be scrubbed. On 20 September 1953, seven Caribbean Christians gathered at a YMCA in Wolverhampton for the first public service of the body that became the New Testament Church of God in Britain — in a room normally used for smoking at social functions, which had to be cleaned and disinfected first. The historian Lee Brickley, writing in Premier Christianity, is careful about the order of things: this was not welfare work with religion added afterwards, but Christian fellowship turning practical, as spiritual, social and economic needs were met within one network of care. Today the denomination reports 110 churches and more than 30,000 adherents across England and Wales.
Global — who sends a church planter? Acts points to the local church
Where does a church plant actually come from? An essay at The Gospel Coalition works through Paul's first missionary journey in Acts 13–14 for nine principles gathered under three headings — we send, we plant, we partner — and draws out a claim that free churches would recognise as their own. Paul and Barnabas were not self-sent, and not sent by a seminary or a denomination: they were sent through the church at Antioch, in the context of ordinary, healthy church life. Churches are welcome to use sending organisations and associations, the essay argues, but sending remains the job of the local church — and each plant, with its own membership and leadership, meant Antioch multiplied rather than grew. Read it at The Gospel Coalition.
Estonia — free churches mark creation care month
Estonia's free evangelical churches gave September to a Creation Care Month, and the reflection they published argues that care for the natural world and care for one's neighbour belong together. Environmental damage, it claims, falls hardest on those least able to cope with the consequences — which makes stewardship of creation a form of responsibility towards one's neighbour as well. The article names a concrete outlet in the Sõbralt Sõbrale charity shop network, where a decent donated item finds a new user and the income helps fund counselling, crisis assistance and congregational work. Free Evangelical Estonia closes by inviting readers to choose one habit from the month to carry on afterwards.
Switzerland — free church theologians ask what spirituality looks like after 65
About fifty people gave three days in September to a question churches rarely address head-on: what does spiritual life look like when you are old? They met at the Evangelical Church of the Amandiers in Lavigny, in the Swiss canton of Vaud, and the course was led by two theologians who began by naming the losses most people are left to negotiate without a vocabulary — denial of ageing, anger at inexorable decline, fear of a precarious existence and of death, and depression. LaFree, the French-speaking free evangelical churches of Switzerland, reports that participants were encouraged to grieve well: to name their losses, entrust them to the Lord, and watch for new shoots.
United States — a Toledo church marks fifteen years in the city's oldest neighbourhood
That Neighborhood Church in North Toledo, Ohio, marks fifteen years this month, having launched formally on 2 October 2010. The congregation serves Vistula, the oldest neighbourhood in the city, where the median household income is around 16,600 dollars a year and nearly 70 percent of households are led by single mothers. Over fifteen years it has built a free medical clinic, outreach to women working in the adult industry, empowerment housing, employment and life-skills programmes, and youth leadership work — clearest in an after-school centre that welcomes children from kindergarten through fifth grade with homework help, tutoring, a Bible lesson and a warm meal three days a week. The Christian and Missionary Alliance tells the story through individual children, among them an eleven-year-old who has already moved between homes and schools at least eight times, and who once asked whether he could call the church his own.
Finland — free church leader says antisemitism is 'racism and sin'
The leader of the Finnish Free Church, Tommi Koivunen, has written in the church's newspaper that antisemitism is racism of a flagrant kind and is "sin and wrong". In a leading article in Suomen Viikkolehti he affirms that the Free Church stands for freedom of religion and for the indivisible dignity of every human being, and alongside Jewish people against discrimination, prejudice, hostility and violence directed at them. He grounds the statement in a recent experience: attending the 120th anniversary of the Helsinki Synagogue in August, an event that required an invitation, registration and proof of identity at the gate, which he contrasts with the free entry to churches. He concludes, Suomen Vapaakirkko reports, that Finland must not become inured to rising hostility, nor watch antisemitism rise in silence.
Germany — mission agency opens 'Go!' seminar for would-be missionaries and theology students
Allianz-Mission, the mission agency of Germany's Bund Freier evangelischer Gemeinden, has opened registration for a two-day "Geh!" — "Go!" — seminar on 23–24 October at its base in Ewersbach. Aimed at people weighing up short-term or long-term missionary service, or a degree in theology, it turns on working through questions of vocation and placement rather than simply listening to presentations, and several of the agency's own missionaries will be present. Participants choose among tracks including long-term mission, a year abroad, a volunteer year, digital mission, and study at the Free Church seminary. Allianz-Mission notes that in Ewersbach the seminary and the mission agency share a campus — a pairing that says something about a movement which has long trained its pastors and sent its missionaries out from one place.
Finland — women's mission movement commissions a new worker after years of pause
Tienaukaisijat, the women's mission association within the Finnish Free Church, had gone several years without a worker of its own; its members decided to support one again. The new missionary, who will serve in Israel, was introduced to the wider movement at Naistenpäivät, the annual women's days that draw women from congregations across the country for teaching, worship and fellowship, and those present joined in blessing her for the work ahead. The programme also looked back over the movement's own history, with an overview of the pioneering women of the Finnish free church revival that organisers said was entirely new to many present. Suomen Vapaakirkko carried the conference report.
Global — YWAM roundup highlights clean water in Vanuatu, prison ministry in Samoa and work among women in Malawi
Youth With A Mission has published the latest edition of its monthly news programme, a round-up of work from across the mission's international network. The episode draws together stories from the Pacific, Africa, the Caribbean, the United States and Europe — among them the delivery of clean water to a school and its surrounding neighbourhood in Vanuatu, prison outreach in Samoa, a preschool opening at the mission's centre in Burundi, and a ministry in Zomba, Malawi, that guides women out of prostitution. YWAM also covers Bible smuggling into Romania during the Cold War and a seminar on engaging with Islam run by YWAM Boston.
Sweden — five congregations form a joint Equmeniakyrkan association in Örebro
Five Equmeniakyrkan congregations in the Swedish city of Örebro have voted to bind themselves into a single association. Around a hundred people gathered at Betelkyrkan as delegates approved the new body, Equmeniakyrkan Örebro, celebrated with cake, and returned the next day for a shared church Sunday. The five remain five independent congregations; the association instead gives their cooperation a formal shape — joint events, administration, finance and agreements. Sändaren reports that its newly elected chair acknowledged plainly that the five are congregations with ageing communities, and that reaching people where they are will take their combined strength.
Bulgaria — children's centre closes its project week with creativity and an open day
A children's centre in Bulgaria run by the German mission society Allianz-Mission has finished its 2026 project week — a programme of art, sport and music that ended, as in previous years, with an open day for the surrounding community. The centre is called Zeichen der Liebe, "Sign of Love", and the week ran on small groups: children circulated between activities rather than following one programme. New this year was work with kinetic sand, alongside sport and music, painting and folk dancing. Visitors to the open day included representatives of the Gotse Delchev municipality as well as parents and relatives; Allianz-Mission says the aim is to give children room to try things out and take visible pride in what they have made.
This week's news keeps returning to the same hinge: churches that send people also have to form them. The Czech seminary reporting that congregations are not sending students, Ewersbach opening its year with twenty new ones, and a Congolese church asking a psychiatrist to help train its pastors all describe one need — leaders grounded theologically before the pressure arrives. Worldwide Evangelical Seminary exists to meet it, forming free church leaders through distance theological education and working alongside initiatives such as AFECF to equip leaders where they already serve.
The Connexion is provided by Worldwide Evangelical Seminary — forming free church leaders for faithful ministry worldwide.
