Below is a report about a mission to Ibiza in the summer of 2000.

This year some guys from Expression, St Tom’s and Fullwood Christchurch are planning a similar mission.

If you’d like to know how to support them or even get invovled then contact Expression the usual way…

Jesus in Ibiza, 2000

Breaking hard ground with the Gospel in the Ibiza Club culture

On 2nd–16th September 2000 Barry Woodward’s Proclaim Trust led a team of ten people on an mission to clubbers who flock to the night-clubs on the island of Ibiza. The mission was hosted by the English-speaking Anglican Church, associated with the Intercontinental Church Society, which has wanted to reach the club scene with the Gospel for some time.

The vision for this mission goes right back to 1998, when Barry was studying at Cliff Bible College. ‘God spoke to me very clearly over the period of a month’, says Barry. ‘He said he was sending me back to Egypt . . . And my Egypt was the drugs and dance-music culture I lived in before I became a Christian. But where could I be most effective? The place where the highest concentration of people could be reached in a short space of time was Ibiza. But how you do go about reaching the club culture?’

The mission used dance music, break-dancers, singers, dancers and personal witness to build a bridge between the club culture and the church. Early each evening, Barry did a live DJ set on the streets of West End San Antonio. The clubbers’ attention was drawn by Hard House and Trance music and spectacular break-dancing. A singer sang live worship over the dance music and listeners were told who the mission team were and Who they were there to represent. While all this was going on, the team members were giving out specially designed Gospel flyers and sharing the message of the Gospel. Huge crowds were attracted.

On the first night, a promoter from the pre-club bar Savannah’s situated on the famous Sunset Strip heard the music being played. He asked Barry to play in Savannah’s on Friday night. The opportunity was grasped with both hands, and while Barry played the music the team were able to share their Christian faith with the clubbers.

Barry was also invited to play a live set in Sargent Pepper’s, San Antonio Bay. Again, this was a great opportunity for the team to witness. Some good conversations about Jesus Christ were had with the manager, the doorman, and the resident DJ, and with the young people in the bar, some of whom had sex and drug problems.

Other evenings were spent in the Mirage bar. The DJ and dancers with live vocals made a great focal point for the team to start conversations about Christianity. There were many divine appointments during the time spent in the Mirage bar.

On the second Sunday the team used the same methods to hold a beach service. Again, this aroused a lot of interest and the Gospel was preached over the top of live dance music.

Late on Monday evening the team went to witness outside Manumission at Privilege, the biggest night-club in the world, and the most immoral on the island. They use live sex shows with animals to draw custom. Some of the team spent time outside blending in with the crowd and sharing the Gospel message in a non-directive way. Two of the team members had a long and meaningful conversation with a Manumission doorman and left him a John’s Gospel to read. Others were able to talk with a worker from Extravaganza record, while the rest went out putting Gospel flyers under the windscreen wipers of every car in the massive car park.

Tuesday nights in Ibiza was at God’s Kitchen at Amnesia, another totally immoral club. This year the team heard that they were even using a crucifix in their act! Again the team worked till late, sharing the Gospel with the clubbers outside.

Early one evening, a team member brought back a young woman who had been beaten up by her boyfriend. She was very drunk and on drugs, and very vulnerable. Her boyfriend had been arrested; she didn’t have a key to her hotel and she couldn’t remember where she was staying. Some of the girls on the team stayed with her and took her for a walk, eventually finding her hotel and putting her safely to bed. After she sobered up they were able to share testimonies and the Gospel with her.

The response to the team was overwhelming. By the end of the mission, wherever they went, people knew that there were Christians about. One young man outside Manumission came up to them and said: ‘Are you them Christians with a DJ?’ While the girls were leading the young lady safely to her bed, a big Scottish guy asked if they were with ‘that group of Christians’. The name ‘Christian’ was everywhere.

During one of the outreaches in the West End, a young man staying in the apartments above heard the music and came running down. The team members started to share with him what it was all about, and had the fantastic response, ‘Tell me where I can find a church like that and I’ll join it’! In fact, we heard this more than once.

Barry Johnson, the break-dancer of the team, was able to build up a relationship with Terry from Hull, another ‘breaker’ who later made a commitment to Jesus.

The team felt that they had achieved their aim: they did reach the clubbers of the island with the Gospel. Because most people go to Ibiza for a week, the team was able to reach two lots of holiday-makers during their two-week mission, as well as the people working on the island. Some of the team members came away with an enhanced vision for the need to reach the club culture. The mission gave vision to the Spanish-speaking church in Ibiza, which has been looking for a way to reach out to clubbers. And this is just the beginning: the English-speaking Anglican Church in Ibiza has invited the Proclaim Trust to do two more missions in July and September next year. And, God willing, this will develop and continue into the distant future.

So the mission was a success. But it also raised many questions about the church in the 21st century. How do we build a church that caters for this type of people group? How do we change the out-dated preconceived ideas many of them have of the church? Are we willing to change the way we “do church” to make it more acceptable to the youth of today?

(This article was written by: Barry Woodward, Proclaim Trust, Champness Hall, Drake Street, Rochdale: 01706 638803 or 07867 533247)