Europe’s history is a tragedy.
A continent that was once full of promise is now in great need of the Gospel again.
It’s not that Europe is unspiritual. Catholic and Orthodox Christianity is still present, though barely. People also engage Islam, Eastern religions like Hinduism, historic folk religions and the occult.
The reality is that vital, life-giving expressions of Christianity are glaringly absent. Missions experts deem most nations on the continent to be unreached by the Gospel. That means a nation’s total Christian population is less than 5%, or the Evangelical population is less than 2% of the total population. Italy, for example, has fewer than 700,000 Christ followers in a country of 60-plus million people.
Europe has simply forgotten the Good News and God’s goodness that comes with it. The Gospel is not a part of mass day to day life - it is not recounted, talked about, or proclaimed. Nations are living in a self-imposed vacuum and if the vacuum persists, they will ultimately lose their life.
Indigenous leaders need to be raised up from within the existing small populations of developing d Christians. New life-giving communities of faith need to be established - churches, social enterprises, kingdom businesses and more. Home-grown renewal movements are needed to foster a growing, sustainable Church. Europe needs to remember the goodness of God. It needs the Gospel again.
The story of Italy is both intriguing and sad.
A land that has been so prominent in the New Testament, it is now in great need of the Gospel again.
A people that has led the way in world exploration, technology, fashion and the arts, it is now a nation in the midst of a severe economic crisis that challenges its credibility on the world scene.
Italy is Europe’s 3rd largest economy and still has opportunity as an innovator in science and technology. However, corruption, government debt and reduced social service have left the Italian population insecure and desperate. National unity is threatened by the economic disparity between the south of Italy and the more prosperous north.
There remains a tremendous opportunity to impact the destiny of Italy by seeing vibrant transformational communities of faith planted in many cities; churches that will bring the hope, life and light in dark places. The federal government’s social net has huge holes in it that open the door for the Church to engage in care and social service to the community via food banks, immigration services, refuge aid and family care.
Italy is a country of 60 million people of which 50 million are Christian but less than 700,000 are Evangelical. It is estimated that there are over 8200 cities and towns in the nation without any evangelical church. Nationally there is a latent hunger for a spiritual reality that has power to change circumstances, personally, socially and economically.
Our Story
Eastern Europe
is still in recovery mode.
After decades of the Cold War nuclear tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western Alliance, the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 was a monumental event in world history. Since then, God’s Kingdom has advanced in these former ‘east-bloc nations.’ Now, over 30 years later, there is still a great need to raise up dynamic new churches where Christians were once persecuted and oppressed.
Eleviva (formerly NLI Canada) has been advancing God’s Kingdom in those former communist nations of Eastern Europe for 30 years. We’ve pursued our mission by training thousands of young leaders and helping to establish many new indigenous churches.
Our primary goal has been to facilitate and support church-planting movements.
Nowhere has this had greater impact than in the nation of Poland, where 93% of the people claim to be Catholic, but only 0.5% Protestant. One of the church-planters that Eleviva trained and supported there has established a church-planting movement in Poland with the mission to plant churches in 700 towns and cities where there are no evangelical churches.
In Ukraine and Russia, Eleviva supports church-planters that were often former drug-addicts, alcoholics or criminals involved in organized crime. It’s beyond inspiring to see the transformative work of God in their lives and to see their passion to reach their communities with the gospel of Christ.
Our Partners
In 2012, Eleviva (formerly NLI Canada) began intentionally collaborating and investing with a small network of Evangelical churches based in the Puglia region of Italy. We helped to facilitate the planting of four churches and graduated 60 leaders from our Advanced Leadership Training Conferences. In a short time, our network included churches from Puglia, Calabria, Sicily and the greater Naples region, covering most of southern Italy. Since 2020, our reach in Italy has extended far into the North with partners in Bologna and Milan. This dynamic network of churches is visionary and expectant for a new movement of church planting that will transform their nation. The first church in that new movement was planted in 2021.
More recently, NLI UK’s longstanding work in Eastern Europe has been grafted into our Eleviva portfolio of projects. NLI has supported church planting initiatives in Ukraine and Russia for 15 years, but the tragic war in Ukraine has now restricted our ability to work in these nations. We have therefore pivoted our ministry focus to assist with the refugee crisis in Poland, leading to the establishment of LIFE Centres – refugee centres where Ukrainian refugees receive practical help (eg. food, clothing, language instruction, friendship, prayer, etc.) in a warm and inviting atmosphere. Experience Warsaw’s LIFE Centre in the video below.
Eleviva is forging new alliances with visionary apostolic churches in Poland and Ukraine to see churches planted in Europe to serve the Ukrainian diaspora there. A key part of the strategy will be the creation of many LIFE Centres.
Our Approach
Eleviva’s vision is for young Europeans to find true life in Jesus in life-giving communities of faith. We see “A new church for a new generation for a new nation.” Our objective is to assist local assemblies and the networks to which they belong identify, equip and release the next generation of church planters to create new congregations and communities of faith that will reach their communities with Good News, ultimately transforming their city, region and nation.
Leadership Development
The training and development of a new generation of leaders is key to change in Europe. We are committed to helping identify and train future leaders while strengthening the existing leaders and their teams. This is crucial to the establishment of new communities of faith. Eleviva is committed to financially subsidizing 50% of the overall cost of each training conference. We are advocating to potential partners for investment in these new leaders and their young congregations.
Church Planting
Our model is to empower and resource national leaders in their passion to reach their city through the planting of new churches and faith communities. We are advocating for potential partners to offer help to this church planting initiative in the form of financial support, training and the sending of short-term mission teams to work along-side the national church planter in front-line evangelism and community-impact programs.
Our Team
Thomas Spiridigliozzi
Executive Director
Thomas has worked internationally for over 12 years. Previously, he has served 15 years in senior leadership roles within the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAOC) and has been a guest speaker both nationally and internationally with a desire to help serve the vision for Europe. Thomas is married, has two sons, and lives in British Columbia, Canada.
George Werner
Director, Strategic Initiatives
George has over 33 years of ministry experience, as a pastor, a national leader in Canada, and as an international mission worker in Europe. He is an ordained minister of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC). George and Eileen live in Ontario, Canada. They have four married children, whose families live across Canada.
Liliana Spiridigliozzi
Office Administrator
Liliana has been involved in the charity sector for 10+ years in Canada. She is known for her big heart of generosity and compassion for others and for special impactful cause globally. she lives in Vancouver, BC with her husband and two children.
Greg Swinamer Director, Eastern Europe
Greg Swinamer has served In Europe for over 20 years working on projects to plant new churches throughout several nations of Eastern and Central Europe. Since 2008, his focus has been church-planting in Ukraine, Crimea and Russia, equipping national leaders to fulfill their calling to mission.
Greg and Lynne have 3 married children living in Canada and the UK.
Board of Directors
Eleviva’s Board of Directors provides the governance structure for our work in Europe to thrive. Each member has a strong ministry history in Canada and internationally, so they have the insight, experience and passion to lead well. This is a visionary team with a vision for increased Kingdom impact. Each person gives their time and energies voluntarily to Eleviva.
Jessica Disabatino
Chair
Danny Stebeck
Secretary Treasurer
Peter Paluch, Nancy Gibson, Sam Minniti
Members