Dear Friends,
We have had an unusually cold start to December - the perfect weather for visiting the amazing Christmas markets in Germany.
Here are some updates and prayer requests for you:
JAMBAG
It was an awesome evening with about 40
people attending this artistic event in Cologne, which we hope will expand our church plant's sphere of influence andwill help us build relationships with artists and art lovers in the city. It was a lot of fun to see how people participated in the improvisations - often outside the area of their normal artistic giftedness - and usually in unconventional ways! There was dance, song, drama, pantomime and all kinds of sounds from instruments and whatever else was lying around. It was fascinating and everyone had a good time. There were some spiritual discussions that took place and 15 new people signed up to get our church plant email updates. Pray that these new relationships will result in spiritual fruit. We are definitely planning on repeating JamBag sometime in the spring.
people attending this artistic event in Cologne, which we hope will expand our church plant's sphere of influence andwill help us build relationships with artists and art lovers in the city. It was a lot of fun to see how people participated in the improvisations - often outside the area of their normal artistic giftedness - and usually in unconventional ways! There was dance, song, drama, pantomime and all kinds of sounds from instruments and whatever else was lying around. It was fascinating and everyone had a good time. There were some spiritual discussions that took place and 15 new people signed up to get our church plant email updates. Pray that these new relationships will result in spiritual fruit. We are definitely planning on repeating JamBag sometime in the spring.CONSULTATION FOR CHURCH PLANTING
We had our biggest group yet at our latest meeting on Nov 22 in Frankfurt. Over 30 leaders of church planting ministries gathered to work toward seeing a movement of church planting started in Germany. We spent a good portion of our time planning a national conference to be held in June 2013. Our goal is to have church planting practitioners, denominational leaders and decision makers come together for 2 days of inspiration and networking - hopefully resulting in concrete action steps toward a church planting movement. Please pray that God will poor out his blessing. All of our efforts are worthless unless He is the one working through us.
ALLEGRO
Allegro is a hand bell quartet from Calvary Church in Longmont, where I was the minister of music while attending Denver Seminary. They were here from Nov 30 to Dec 9 playing in the (freezing!) streets of Cologne, in the hospital, at a Christmas market, etc. It was an awesome and exhausting week. Most Germans have never heard hand bells before and were immediately attracted to the beautiful sound. We were able to hand out over 160 invitations to our church and chat with quite a few people. We are thankful for this committed team and their partnership with us to reach out to people here through beautiful music. Please pray that God will move through all of the contacts we made while they were here.CHRISTMAS - TO SHARE OR NOT TO SHARE
Iris, a university student in Cologne, came up to talk to me while Kristi and I were doing our Contact Person outreach. She noticed my American accent right away and wanted to talk in English.
Iris: What are you standing for? (I think she meant - why are you standing here?)
Kristi: Yea, Jason, tell her what you stand for!
Jason: I stand for peace, love and justice, to name just a few.
I then began to tell her that I was a pastor and that Kristi and I were out trying to meet new people and tell them about our new church...
Iris: Well, I'm an atheist.
Jason: Really! Why?
Iris: Well my mom is protestant and my dad is catholic and so we never went to church anywhere and they gave me complete freedom to believe whatever I wanted to. So I came to the conclusion that I don't believe in anything like God or any other higher power.
Jason: Aha. So what do you believe?
Iris: Well, I believe in some of the same things you do; world peace, justice, love.
Jason: That's good. We have something in common then, don't we?
Iris: Yes. And even though I don't believe in God, I really like Christmas.
Jason: Well, I'm sorry, but you can't have it. We are not going to share it with you.
Iris: (disappointed) Oh, no. Well can I at least have the presents?
Jason: I'll have to think about that.
I then explained to her the meaning of Christmas and how it leads to Easter, the most important celebration for believers. She listened respectfully.
Jason: You know what, I have reconsidered. We will be happy to share Christmas with you. (Handing her an invitation) We would love to have you come to one of our church gatherings.
Iris: No promises, but I will consider it - and look at your website.
As she went to leave, I wished her a nice day and God's blessing.
One of my favorite verses is John 3:17, "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." As we share the light of Christmas with those still in darkness, we cling to and celebrate the best news ever proclaimed to mankind.
We wish you a merry and blessed Christmas,
Jason and Sue
