Christian Daily International was on ground in Berlin from May 27th to 30th, 2025. There, over 1,000 evangelical pastors and ministries leaders from 56 countries gathered at JW Marriott for the European Conference, hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelicalistic Association. With a theme rooted in Romans 1:16 – “Because I am not ashamed of the Gospel…” – The invite-only event featured 20 speakers from 13 countries and became Europe’s most diverse evangelical gathering since Amsterdam in 2000.
The Christian Daily International/Christian Post has published articles during Congress, continuing to highlight detailed reports, key sessions, interviews with Christian leaders, and insights shaping mission strategies across the continent.
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Rev. Michael Reeves, director of the European Theology Network, is the president and professor of theology at the Union School of Theology in Bridgend, Wales, specializing in systematic and historical theology, sermons and spiritual formation. At the Berlin Conference, he held a main session entitled “The Scope of the Evangelistic Declaration.” Prior to the event, in an exclusive interview with the Christian Daily International/Christian Post, Reeves discussed the “scope,” the centrality of the Bible as an authority on evangelistic preaching, and the need for a powerful outreach of the Holy Spirit to those in the margins of church life.
Reeves defines the “scope” of the evangelistic declaration as a source of joy rather than burden, as Jesus is not only the Lord of Creation, but also the Lord of the Great Commission. He explains that the responsibility for the mission rests on Christ himself. While some evangelicals may feel urgent concern about measurable outcomes, the original intention was not to live under constant anxiety about outcomes.
“I think most Christians today feel that the great committee is like an intimidating burden on them. “But they don’t understand the context of it: Christ becomes his head on all things, and everything is placed under his feet.
“Therefore, as Jesus says in Mark 16:15, the scope of the evangelistic declaration is to enter all worlds and proclaim the gospel, for he is all things under his feet.
The theological assurance underlying this declaration comes from what Jesus clearly said. Reeves identifies Mark 7 and Matthew 15 as helping to strengthen reasons for such confidence. When Jesus argued with the Pharisees, he revealed whose authority was truly counted.
“And Jesus said you would invalidate the Word of God for the sake of man’s tradition,” Reeves continues. “What he showed us was that God’s Word should always have authority over man’s words, traditions and ideas.
“So the authority of our thinking, the way we know that we are right in our thinking is not just following what a particular scholar or theologian said, but to be faithful to the Bible.”
Still, Reeves acknowledges that scholars and theologians are nevertheless “a useful gift to the church,” and he says, “they should be respected and listened under the authority of the Bible. And we are grateful to them as long as we listen and remain faithful to what the Bible says.”
According to Reeves, scholars and theologians are responsible for God and the wider Christian community as well as the wider Christian community.
“So, if you get theology wrong, understand who God is, understand what the gospel is, it’s not necessarily going to have an idyllic effect on everyday Christians,” adds Reeves.
“If, for example, God suggests that you are a kind of God that demands you get His favor, it will affect your joyless obligation, which does not know that you can give Christians joy to the Lord, but they are always trying to buy God.”
That particular scenario of legal belief does not reflect a sincere love for God, Reeves states that “they live from safety before him and worship the worship of good men.”
This governance of accountability for theology in evangelistic declarations is to understand that “theologians are called church plumbers and sewer engineers,” citing the late Anglican theologian and writer Jim Packer.
“In other words, they’re supposed to poison the water source and remove bad waste that allows people to drink pure fresh water,” explains Reeves. “That is the job of church teachers and theologians.
“God often teaches his people with a bent stick, in other words, he actually uses false understandings to clarify the ideas of his people.
“When the church is wrong in something and they start seeing the outcome, God will find it and develop teachers who can declare the truth with greater clarity than what they saw before.”
Reeves shows an example of the medieval churches losing clarity about the fact that God is a god who declares sinners to be righteous in faith alone.
“The truth had been lost, so Christians lived with doubt, anxiety and fear of what might happen after death.”
Reeves responds to this confusion, and continues, “I will declare the gospel with clarity that has not been heard for a long time.”
But how does Reeves suggest preaching the gospel to evangelicals? Non-Christians who are outside the scope of typical evangelistic efforts. Can’t you hear the sermon from the pulpit of a church building, whether it’s a church building or an individual with a particular mental health condition?
Reeves considers this to be a “giant question” because it involves different people from different people living within different scenarios. He reminds us that church evangelism should not be presented primarily through “pulpit preachers.”
“The pulpit preachers feed those who already know the Lord, and direct everyone there towards Jesus Christ,” he elaborates.
“They may put their faith in him, but they are sent to ensure that all Christians are witnessed by those around them.
“More than the men in the pulpit, ordinary Christian evangelism looks like a follower talking to a friend or a Christian mother talking to her daughter,” Reeves said.
In this environment, the relational trust creates what he calls “a great opportunity” to talk about Jesus. He explains this in a scenario in which the daughter opens up about her personal struggle and gently invites her to explore it further. “Huckle, the defense isn’t getting better,” Reeves pointed out. Because her daughter feels safe in the relationship. “It’s a normal evangelism for most people,” he added.
“It shares Jesus within the context of relationships,” he says. “That’s why Christian lifestyles are important too. Now they have to actually tell people about Jesus, but they have the right to talk about him, and they adorn the beauty of Jesus by how they live a life like Christ.”
Returning to the example of people who have particularly difficulties listening to the gospel is called “hard cases” of home-use elderly people and mental health conditions that affect their ability to listen.
“It’s in the gospel,” he says. “That is God’s power for salvation, says Paul of 1 Romans 1:16. Therefore, it means that I can present Jesus, and I can present him in different ways depending on my context.
“So, if I’m talking to very young children, I present a simple gospel. If I’m talking to a scholarly theologian, it’s the same gospel, but on a different level.”
Reeves argues that only God’s power will bring salvation. This is enough power to reach both the kind heart of a child and the discerning heart of a scholarly theologian. He says that this transformation only occurs when an individual is moved by the spirit to open his heart and responds to the gospel of love and trust in Jesus.
“And that’s a mental ability, a power that functions through mental ability,” says Reeves. “The Gospel is powerful in all circumstances, because the work of the Gospel is not to allow us to change a little: it is to give new life to those who have died spiritually.
“Where is it,” says Reeves, to empower the congregation with the “man in the pulpit,” and to venture and share Jesus, and to build a relationship with “it’s ‘it’.”
Reeves also acknowledges the benefits of uninducible evangelicals, such as those who invite friends to church meetings if they struggle with the confidence to speak directly about Jesus. “Well, I’m not very good at explaining all of this myself,” he imagines such a Christian intimate dialogue with someone he knows. “Come with me and meet someone who can.”
This is actually an example written in the Gospels itself. “We see it in the Gospels, and for those who cannot be brought to the church, like the old lady stuck in her house, we must consider it in a different way from the relationship that has emerged, but then at some point we declare the words,” says Reebes.
Technology is a well-known driver that allows some seniors and other people who struggle to leave their homes to access not only “good Christian education” but also “a certain amount of Christian fellowship.” Reeves says, “We are in a very exciting time today,” because of the opportunity that exists to declare the gospel.
“And I know the importance of being able to reach people who are going home and sleeping. But today we have the ability to do it in ways that we couldn’t do it with our technology,” says Reeves.
“And the same technology that can reach bedbound people is the same technology that can enter closed countries. It can reach areas that are hard to reach, and that’s what my ministry (theology of Union School, Bridend, Wales) wants to do.
“We are trying to make good global resources available so that people can access pure gospel teaching wherever they are.”
