Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna
Austria
The Birthplace of Wolfgang A. Mozart, Johann Strauss, Sigmund Freud, Adolf Hitler …, ruled for almost 650 years by the Habsburg dynasty from before Charles V to soon after empress Sissi… Austria was once a major political power. Vienna and Salzburg are internationally renowned centres of culture, featuring for example the world famous New Year’s concert and the “Festspielwochen”. And there is plenty more: extensive ski resorts, lush wine gardens and romantic restaurants, … Austria is certainly worth a visit!
St. Peter’s Church, Vienna
Spirituality in Austria
Today most people are deeply influenced by secularism and materialism, like most Europeans. Traditional churches have been losing large portions of their membership during the last 4 decades. Roughly 60% of the population are still registered Roman Catholics, but regular church attendance dropped below 10%. Islam is the second largest religion soon reaching 10% of the total population.
But looking back into history you can find many traces of the impact believers made by preaching the Gospel of Christ. During the protestant reformation up to 90 per cent of the people changed their confession. There is a rich history of Christian groups like the Waldensians, Baptists, Mennonites, etc.
Despite being of the wealthiest countries in the world, Austria has one of the highest suicide rates amongst young people. There is a great spiritual need for the message of true hope and new life in Christ.
OAC in Austria
Weekly open air outreaches started in Vienna in 1997. Even before that OAC evangelists have been partnering with local churches for training and open air evangelism. Today the focus is on the regular outreaches in Linz, Vienna and Wels as well as partnering with local churches to equip and mobilize their believers for effective evangelism.
There are vast opportunities to reach out to people who would probably never enter a Bible believing church. Whether on the pedestrian areas, at play grounds, at festivals, in schools, evangelistic church meetings,… we are sharing the Gospel with those who need to know.
4 days of “Reach The City” in Vienna
The week-long training program “Reach The City” was a highlight of the ministry for over 10 years. Hundreds of participants got trained in personal and proclamation evangelism. After a break of several years we did a shorter version in July, 2017. There were only a hand-full at the training sessions, but all the outreaches were well supported by local believers. Please pray that we could encourage some to get more involved and equipped to share the Gospel clearly and creatively.
The open air outreaches on Friday and Saturday afternoon took place in a part of town known as “Little Istanbul” with one of the highest percentages of immigrants. Stefan expected it to be more difficult because some Muslims might not react well to us preaching Jesus Christ. But in fact, we had very responsive crowds and people stayed long to listen to us, with lots of conversations after the presentations. A small group from the near-by evangelical church wants to continue outreaches every month. Our team we will keep in touch and continue to support them.
For further information in how you could get involved please contact
Or check out the Austrian web site (in German)
