Westmont Magazine Planting Churches in Europe

As Southern Europe Regional Director for Christian Associates International, Marty Uhler ’81 makes frequent trips to the English-speaking churches planted by CAI in major cities throughout Europe. He acts as a resource person, encourages five such churches, and researches other cities for future church plants.

Marty and his wife, Carey Fanoe ’85 Uhler, began working with CAI in 1988 by joining the church planting team in Amsterdam. He helped develop the worship and music ministry while pursuing his master’s degree in world evangelism at Tyndale Theological Seminary, and Carey developed the Sunday School ministry.

In 1992, the Uhlers moved on to Spain, where Marty led the team in charge of planting the International Church of Barcelona. He reports that both churches are healthy and growing, and the Evangelical Alliance of the Netherlands recently recognized the Crossroads International Church of Amsterdam as the “most structurally sound and healthy” of all churches in that country.

Marty and Carey have recently moved to Lisbon, Portugal, where they are planting another church. Marty writes, “Europe is the only continent on earth where Christianity is not growing, and most Europeans lack any understanding of what it means to have a personal relationship with God through Christ. They have completely lost faith in the church.” By training European nationals to take over the leadership of these churches, Marty and the CAI team seek to “reintroduce people to Christ and to a spiritually dynamic, culturally relevant, cell-structured church” throughout Southern Europe.