Sinaxis: a new church for Athens
Timothy Coomar is studying for a MTh with Union in our Athens Learning Community. He and Alexandros Pipilios are leading the core planting team for Sinaxis Church, a new evangelical church for Athens.
In the past few years Athens has seen a great increase in population, with almost a third of Greeks living in the city. Greece is also becoming increasingly secular, with the evangelical church standing at about 0.3% of the population. There is a great need for new churches to be planted to reach people in these new urban centres. Alexandros Pipilios and Tim Coomar are working hard to establish Sinaxis Church, a new evangelical church in central Athens.
Our vision is to reach the secular (mainly youth) heart of downtown Athens by establishing a new congregation which understands the objections and questions of secular Athens, and sees these concerns precisely as the ideal opportunity for gospel proclamation
Sinaxis church will aim to reach the heart of Athens - the Downtown, Academy, and Syntagma areas - which currently has no evangelical church presence. Tim and Alexandros will focus their energy on the university population of Athens, as students often have questions and are open to discussing religion, Christianity and the gospel. Tim and Alexandros will run a lot of outreach events for university students and young urban professionals from the area. Alexandros and Tim have a lot of experience in student ministry, having previously worked with Exarchia, a church plant in another part of the city, where they pioneered an effective student ministry, reached out to college students, and discipled new believers. During their time at Exarchia they learned more of the great ministry need in central Athens, and are now very excited to be planting a church there too.
This new church plant is well supported locally, with several local churches sending people to be a part of the core planting team. It is really encouraging that local churches recognize the need for gospel work in central Athens, and a great start for a new church to be established within a supportive network.
Tim, Alexandros, and the rest of the core team are eager to engage with the unreached community in central Athens, and to take the gospel of Jesus Christ forward in the city. Please pray for their plans and endeavours.
Timothy Coomar is studying for a MTh with Union in our Athens Learning Community. Learn more about the Community here.