Last week an evangelistic event was held in the city of Barcelona with the support of evangelical churches in Catalonia and national and international evangelism and mission ministries.

This initiative ended on Saturday with a meeting of celebration, testimonies, worship as well as vindication, through the reading of a manifesto.

Around 5,000 people, according to the organisers, gathered on Saturday afternoon at the Olympic Port, after an intense day for both organisers and participants.

“It has been a huge struggle, but also a great victory”, said Miguel Leal, one of the pastors of the organising team.

Space granting difficulties

The announcement of the Spanish national elections disrupted some of the plans that had initially been made for the evangelistic campaign, as public spaces are more restricted and political parties have priority to use them.

This made it difficult to grant permits. The organisers of the evangelistic effort were informed late and had to adapt and announce the final location of the closing events at short notice.

Leal acknowledges that those changes led to a difficult situation. “We went to all the political contacts we had and they started to move”, so that they were finally able to hold the meeting in the Olympic Port.

Although the location was not ideal, due to the difficulties in getting there because of a building work on the metro, hundreds of people arrived progressively, as different artists, people telling their testimonies and others participating with an evangelistic message took part.

The pastor tells Spanish news website, Protestante Digital that some politicians also attended this final event.

The organisers read a manifesto expressing some of the needs that the evangelicals have been demanding from the city authorities.

“Until now we have been an invisible church in the city, but we have taken the decision to make it visible”, they said. The pastor explained in a previous interview that permits for activities or places of worship in recent years have been limited in Catalonia.

The goal was to celebrate, and in that spirit the event ended “praying for the city and for the authorities”. The good atmosphere was evident even after the official end of the activity, with a large group of people who continued to sing and worship God late into the night.

Training and motivation

While Saturday's meeting was the final event, Thursday and Friday's activities were very positively evaluated by the organisers.

On both days, training in evangelism was offered and exceeded attendance expectations, with over 500 people attending.

In the evenings, small groups went out to share the gospel on the streets of the city.

“It was an impact on the city to see so many young people, because most of them were, going out to preach the Gospel of Christ, to give testimony”, explains Leal.

The events also showed the motivation of the churches to go out publicly to bear witness to their faith.