May Update 2015

Dear Friends,
On April 28-29 I met with James, Juergen, Erhard and Reinhold in Kassel. Together we are the leadership team of the Consultation for Church Planting in Germany. We spent 24 hours together sharing, praying, and planning. The consultation has now been in existence for 7 years. We were encouraged as we looked back at all God has done. He has used the consultation to move church planting from a side issue to a main theme on the evangelical landscape. More denominations are planting more churches. The City Mentoring Program is recruiting and training young church planters who then go out and plant churches with their denomination. We have created a national structure where church planting can be discussed across denominational lines. More and more multicultural churches are being planted. And now we are even seeing multi-denominational churches being started. We are grateful for what God has done and the role he has given us on a national level.

As we discussed our next steps and strategy for the future, the need to change the name became apparent. There is a new surge of 20 and 30 year-olds who are starting culturally relevant new churches but are reluctant to use the term “church planting.” For others, the term is either unfamiliar or negatively loaded and seen as a threat to existing churches (sheep-stealing). Our new name is “Consultation for New Churches in Germany”. We are hoping this will have a broader and younger appeal since we can’t really do much about our balding, grey heads.


The massive influx of refugees in Germany has shown itself in our neighborhood in Cologne. Two hotels, located close to our apartment and my atelier, are housing 145 and 35 refugees from Syria, Iraq, Africa and the Balkans. God has burdened me to reach out to these people - many are completely traumatized from their ordeal. Their futures are completely uncertain as they wait for their asylum applications to be processed. I have been slowly making friends with a gang of grade school boys from Bosnia/Serbia since they discovered my candy bowl. A few days ago I stopped and talked to a group of young men from the same area. Only one of them could speak limited German - but they were all very friendly. After explaining who I am, with the German-speaker translating, he asked if I could help them with asylum. I said probably not - but I would like to be their friend and they should stop by sometime for a cup of tea. I am trying to recruit people from our church to give German classes in the Atelier. In August I am planning an art outreach at the Atelier with Christian artists from Dallas. The goal is 12-15 participants: 1/3 from church, 1/3 refugees, and 1/3 Germans from the neighborhood.  Please pray for the planning, preparations and God's blessing.

Please continue to pray for our church plant. We are in our sixth year and still under twenty people. We enjoy our fellowship and are inspired in our worship services and are spiritually challenged to grow in our home groups. We long, however, to see numerical growth through people coming to faith or rediscovering their faith in God. Please pray for three faithful attenders to make first-time commitments/recommitments. Please pray for our leadership team pictured here. Ralf is a gifted German architect and Susanne is a retired teacher. We work well together and all share a longing for growth. Pray that God would continue to guide us and inspire us as we lead the church.

In Christ,
Jason and Sue