It went really well. Some great people doing great things for God in Germany. A bunch of us met at a Thai restaurant. I started by sharing some thoughts from a German book called "The Emergent Church: The Future of Christianity in a Postbourgeois World" (1981, English version). In his book, German Catholic Johann Baptist Metz predicts a new kind of church arising from the margins of society and a new reformation of the SENSES for Protestants and of GRACE for Roman Catholics. How prophetic.
Heres a few photos and thoughts from the event.
Kerstin Hack (left) showed us some excellent publications and her new book on Anabaptists by Peter Hoover. Only available in German language but if you looked around on Kerstin's site, you might find a English version PDF that you can download for free. And since we were just talking about Anabaptists and the emerging church . . .Ahhhh . .. its all in German . . .let me do it . . .. here you go "The Secret of the Strength [PDF]" The German version is probably better and Kerstin and her team spent 400 hours in libraries checking on the original German sources for this book. Labour of Love!!
Those cards on the Proverbs are for distributing in coffee shops and some are free. As well as running Down To Earth Publishing, Kerstin is involved in the Berlin emerging church scene and Together for Berlin. She doesnt look anything at all like Pee-Wee Herman. Just need to clarify that from the beginning. Hi Kerstin!!!!
Some guys from California came over to see what God was doing in Germany among the emerging culture - which was a good excuse to meet and swap stories. This is Marcus Laegel (left), who is also part of 24-7 Prayer, explaining how God called them out of the "cool" club scene in Dresden to start a monastic style church base in a small town. They approached all the pastors and Christian leaders with their intentions, as well as the Mayor. They said they had no money but wanted to impact the town for God. The Mayor gave them an old schoolhouse for 50 Euros a month and now about 20 of them live there and use the schoolhouse as a base for ministry. One bathroom and no ovens until recently but they are loving it. Marcus made it clear that coolness was never the goal and there was nothing rebellious at all about their ministry. I think he felt it necessary to explain that to the Americans because the emerging church criticism from USA seems to poison the rest of the world and makes it hard for them.
Florian (left) shared about his ministry called Dream House and Mirko (right) talked about Jesus Freaks and how they started out as punk rock teenagers who had started a hundred communities in a very short period of time and with no resources. I think all of the Germans in the room have been impacted by the ministry of Jesus Freaks and Freakstock Festival.
Technorati Tags: emergent, emerging church, mission
Everyone shared over the meal but we continued the conversation outside. Johannes Kleske and Mark Reichmann (are from Kubik - where i preached 2 years ago. Johannes is the geek behind some of the web projects I am involved in.
Is that my thumb???? Hajo and Rachel just got back from a year in Asia, including time at Sewa Ashram in India. The global scene is very similar, they said.
Hey - thanks everyone for traveling to Frankfurt and being a part of this. Fantastic to be with you all and to be challenged by the German scene.
And thanks to the Americans (who will remain nameless lest we taint their reputation) because they cared enough about what God is doing in Germany to come all this way to meet the people and hear the stories firsthand. Those who seek will find. Thanks for your listening and also for sharing from your perspective. You guys rocked. Every blessing on your efforts in California and beyond.
