What is holding them back?
When the Berlin Wall came crashing down in 1989 the world’s axis was altered. The chunks of concrete that the protesters chinked out with their hammers led to a breech in the wall that couldn’t be stopped. Torrents of people flooded through the ever-widening gaps – at first mostly from the east into the west. But almost immediately, the opposite occurred. Poised for years along this unnatural, manmade barrier were the western banks, investors and businessmen, just waiting for this day. With the fall of communism began an era of democracy and capitalism that could not be held back. Those with money saw massive new markets and dazzling opportunities. Nothing would hold them back.
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What is holding them back? Why isn’t the German church reaching it’s own culture? Is it fear? Is it their critical, analytical mentality or are they just complacent or indifferent to the lost people all around them? Could it be that they are just too maxed out with their own church activities to be able to even think about evangelism or starting a new church? Do they lack vision? Don’t they have enough faith or are they simply not willing to reach out? Please pray for us as we meet and consult with German church and denominational leaders to try to answer these important questions. Pray that God would lead us to even more motivated partners and give us wisdom to be able to significantly help them to start new churches and foster a church planting movement that would once and for all breech the wall that has been holding them back for so long.
Ministry Update
Since arriving back in Germany we have been able to reconnect with all our church plants. I also preached at “Mittendrin”, our second church plant and have presented SPARK at two churches. One of those churches was the Ev. Free Church in Wermelskirchen – about 20 miles northeast of Cologne. The pastor was sick at home that day, but after the service a couple of the elders approached me and said they would like to have me meet with them to investigate ways for them to grow and possibly plant a daughter church in the future. They are an older church and have been struggling for years. It seems to me that they are too small to be planting another church but I sense a real desire for renewal and agreed to come and see what God might want to do there. Please pray for the church in Wermelskirchen. I recently finished producing a short video commercial to promote SPARK and will be sending it out to various free churches in ever widening geographical circles. Although it is in German you might want to check it out on the SPARK blogsite at: http://spark-deutschland.blogspot.com
2 new church planting projects
Thank you for standing with us in prayer.
In HIS Service,
Jason (and Sue)