Europe Now is part of Open Air Campaigners International, an evangelistic body that traces its roots back over a hundred years.   You can find out more at the web site: http://www.oaci.org.

Europe Now trains OAC evangelists, sends them to Europe and supports them in their ministry.   The ministry undertaken by these people is quite distinctive as it involves taking the gospel message to where people are, rather than organising church services and evangelistic meetings and then inviting people to come along.

For a number of years, we have recognised the need to improve the training we give to new evangelists, and ‘Snowball’ is the result.   Why 'Snowball'?   Because that is what we believe it will do!   All the material is being prepared in a way that will enable the course to be translated and run in different countries.   We are planning to run it in France (as well as the UK) from September 2000, and are formulating plans for adding Austria in September 2001.

With Snowball, we are aiming to provide something that is different, and will appeal to people who do not want to go down the traditional Bible College or Discipleship Training routes.

Snowball is an intensive one year full time evangelism training programme, in which the students will engage in regular active evangelism from the start.   An 'on-the-job' training approach will integrate the different parts of the programme, so the classroom aspects are used in the evangelism, and the evangelism will illustrate and demonstrate the need for the classroom work.

The students will:

• do a good amount of effective evangelism
• develop useful techniques
• learn what they need to sustain a long term evangelistic ministry

The students will gain experience of:

• a wide variety of evangelistic methods in different situations
• working with local churches
• working in a team environment

The evangelism, whatever techniques are being applied, aims:

• to communicate the gospel message
• to be entertaining and attractive
• to give people a positive experience of Christians and Christianity
• to open the door for further contact

While it is not a Bible College course, we must ensure the participants have a solid grasp of scriptural truth and an understanding of how to use the Bible responsibly.

While it is not a Discipleship Training course, we are vitally interested in the character and spiritual life of the participants.

Snowball has grown out of the Bristol School of Evangelism (run for several years by Korky Davey), and has been in preparation for some time.   We are about to run the first 'pilot' year, starting in September 1999.   The people involved are experienced trainers, and much of the material has been used in previous programmes, but this is the first time it has been integrated in this way.

Further Information

For more information about Snowball or the work of Europe Now, please write to the Europe Now office at the address below or email Paul Hazelden.

Europe Now
PO Box 168
Bristol
BS9 2YE