Church planting in Spain is a necessary task, but it is also a distinctive one. Like every nation, Spain has its own cultural character. Those who arrive with missionary experience, even from Spanish-speaking Latin America, soon discover that it is not enough simply to transfer ministry models from one country to another. The Great Commission remains the same, but embodying that message requires understanding certain aspects of the culture we seek to reach with the gospel. In contrast to other Spanish-speaking countries, Spain presents several unique challenges for evangelism and church planting.
1. A Philosophical Challenge: A Culture That Questions Authority
The first challenge has to do with the way many Spaniards understand truth and authority. The individualism and relativism that characterize Europe have greatly weakened the acceptance of any kind of authority. Distrust toward institutions of all kinds is widespread, and the only trustworthy voice often seems to be the inner voice within each person. The issue goes beyond a rejection of Christianity, but this challenge directly affects evangelism. In many cases, people reject from the outset the possibility that someone could tell them what the truth is or how they ought to live. At most, the gospel may be accepted as something useful and true for the believer, while the claim that it can be presented as objective truth is questioned. “That’s your truth” is often the phrase used to bring a spiritual conversation to an end.
Church planting requires great patience.
For this reason, church planting requires great patience. We cannot assume that our conversation partner shares our theological categories or considers the Bible a legitimate authority. We will need to demonstrate that Christianity is more than a private tradition and that its claims are absolute. Evangelism must be deeply biblical, but also intellectually aware. Like Paul in Athens, we need to understand the questions our culture is asking so that we can connect with it by presenting the true God whom people do not know (Acts 17:16–34).
2. A Social Challenge: An Increasingly Diverse Spain
The second challenge is social. Spain has undergone profound demographic transformation over the past several decades. Especially in the major cities, society has become increasingly cosmopolitan, and we encounter people of many nationalities in everyday life. They all live in the same city, but they do not necessarily share the same convictions or the same understanding of life.
This makes it difficult to think about church planting simply from a national perspective. A local church planted in Spain will not necessarily be “Spanish.” Rather, it will eventually reflect the diversity of the society around it. There is a temptation to avoid this complexity by forming ethnic churches. At times, language or certain cultural expressions may justify such an emphasis, but a major problem arises when culture or skin color becomes the primary source of unity. Wherever a group of people gathers around the same cultural, musical, or culinary preferences, there is a risk of creating a very exclusive social club. But a church is something far greater.
The situation may be even more complex for evangelicalism. In some contexts, an evangelical church may be perceived as something foreign, particularly when its cultural expression appears to have been imported from Latin America or the United States. The presence of many immigrants has contributed to the growth of evangelical churches, but it can also reinforce the perception among some Spaniards that our churches are something that have come “from outside.” For all these reasons, deep friendships and an incarnational expression of the gospel are especially important in showing that Christ does not belong to one nation or one culture. In Christ, the Church enjoys a supernatural unity that announces to the world that the Father has sent the Son (John 17:21–22).
Spain was still learning to navigate this challenge amid its own linguistic and cultural diversity when dozens of additional nationalities were added to the equation. Now, amid such enormous diversity, the church faces an even greater challenge: demonstrating that the gospel creates a unity that the world cannot achieve. A Castilian and a Catalan, a Colombian and a Chinese, a Romanian and a Nigerian can sit together at the Lord’s Table—not because they share cultural traits, but because they are brothers and sisters adopted into the family of God. The goal is not simply to try to learn how to coexist with people who are different from us, but to demonstrate that Christ has truly created one holy nation. This unity in diversity comes with its difficulties, but it is also a powerful testimony to the gospel.
This unity in diversity comes with its difficulties, but it is also a powerful testimony to the gospel.
For this reason, planting an international church is not merely a demographic strategy; it is a visible expression of the fact that Christ has broken down the barriers that separate people, creating “one new man” (Eph. 2). A church in which people from different nations live together and worship God with one voice is indeed a foretaste of heaven.
3. A Historical Challenge: The Weight of the Past
The third challenge is historical. Spain has a complex relationship with Christianity. For centuries, national identity was closely connected to Catholicism, and certain religious institutions exercised profound influence over society. More recently, during the Franco dictatorship, Catholicism enjoyed a privileged position and was closely associated with the regime.
The wounds of that period do not disappear easily, and they continue to influence the way some Spaniards perceive religion. For many, the cross does not primarily evoke God’s saving grace, but rather those religious institutions and conflicts whose wounds remain in the collective memory. This creates a unique difficulty for evangelism. The missionary may think he is presenting Jesus, while his conversation partner believes he is hearing an ideological defense or even the promotion of a particular political agenda.
4. A Religious Challenge: Ignorance of the Gospel
We can analyze Spanish culture, study its demographic changes, and understand its history, but no sociological analysis can fully explain unbelief and ignorance. The ultimate problem of humanity is not anthropological, but theological. The natural man resists God and needs a supernatural work of grace that opens his understanding.
Spain needs the gospel. At times, Spain is described as a Christian country; at other times, as a post-Christian country. Yet both expressions are insufficient. There is a profound Christian heritage within Spanish culture, but for millions of people that heritage has been reduced to traditions, images, and festivals. Christ is often part of the cultural landscape without occupying a real place in the heart.
Christ is often part of the cultural landscape without occupying a real place in the heart.
Unbelief goes hand in hand with ignorance, creating a paradox: Spain is a country familiar with Christian terminology, yet profoundly disconnected from the gospel. Many Spaniards have never opened a Bible. Many do not know what Christianity teaches. They may know the name of Jesus and yet have no understanding whatsoever of his saving work. In a context where only a small minority of the population identifies as evangelical, the need for church planting remains a great challenge, and preaching the gospel remains an urgent task.
A Different Mission, the Same Gospel
Church planting in Spain is challenging because this society is diverse, because history weighs heavily, because secularization has created a particular relationship with authority, and because postmodernism leads people to question any claim to objective truth. But the mission field does not limit the gospel. Our hope does not rest on the receptivity of the culture, but on the power of God. We continue to proclaim the same message of salvation, and we continue to trust that Christ sovereignly builds his Church.
The challenge for the church planter, then, is not to discover a “Spanish formula,” but to know the Word deeply enough to proclaim it with conviction and to know our surroundings well enough to communicate the gospel with sensitivity within our circumstances. We need workers who are willing to understand the factors that shape the society in which we live so that they can present the need for people to encounter Christ. We need biblical churches that can put down deep roots in Spanish soil. Spain needs pastors and church planters who love their cities, understand their neighbors, know the questions they are asking, and are convinced that the gospel is still the power of God for salvation today (Rom. 1:16).
