Norman & Susan Patterson

Dentist Norm Patterson and his wife, Sue, took early retirement and moved to Berlin in 2001 to disciple leaders in the business world. Early in their marriage, they had served with Agape in Africa and had developed ministry skills. As they worked with businessmen in Berlin, they began to see a need to strengthen Christian marriages. So they held a FamilyLife conference in 2002 in order to minister to those with whom they worked. It went so well that people asked for another, so they could invite friends.

Eventually this developed into FamilyLife Germany. But Norm and Sue’s German is not good enough to give a message, so they had to speak through translators. Naturally, they prayed that God would raise up a German couple to lead FamilyLife.

One of the couples attending that first FamilyLife conference was Helge and Birgit Sych. Both had been involved in Campus für Christus years ago as students in Berlin. Now Helge works for IBM, while Birgit is a teacher, and God has given the couple seven children.

Helge and Birgit Sych

“For four years,” says Helge, “we had a weekend marriage. I was out all week working, often in other countries, and would come home on weekends. But we had a good marriage.” Then Helge quit travelling so much, but he began working as a church elder, while Birgit was involved with the Women’s Breakfast ministry. Although they had a deep marriage, they longed for more.

Then they attended Norm and Sue’s first marriage seminar. They liked the material, and found it helpful. Birgit translated the material into German, and the couple volunteered to be speakers at future conferences. This past year they took over as leaders of FamilyLife Germany, and devote 20 percent of their time to the ministry.

FamilyLife marriage weekends give couples a chance to talk deeply with each other about their marriage.

Helge and Birgit especially like the practical application part of the FamilyLife conference. “People usually don’t have deep discussions with their spouses,” says Helge. “But in our conferences you have to talk deeply with each other, about important things. People are so excited they want their friends and colleagues to experience this also.”

At every conference, two or three people invite the Sych’s to hold a conference in their cities also. So they made the requirement that a city must have 10 couples sign up before they will do a conference. “We only have so much time,” says Helge with a laugh. “We agreed with our children that we would only do four conferences a year, but now we are scheduling six to eight! We’re looking for more speakers.”

Speakers at Leadership Day give messages on topics relating to business and leadership, from a Christian perspective.

“My dream is to start movements in Berlin,” says Joe Hartung, who works with young professionals, “and if they work, then take them to other cities.” One such ministry, Leadership Day, has been building momentum over the last three years. The day-long event centres around professional seminars on business and leadership, includes lunch, and has a low-key evangelistic message woven in. More and more Christians see this as a valuable event, and are beginning to invite non-Christian colleagues. This past September about 25 percent of the attendees were non-believers.

The Leadership Day concept has spread to Leipzig, which was the most important centre of trade in the GDR days. Joe met Daniel Sommerfeld of Leipzig at a Christian businessman’s conference, and found Daniel shared a vision for reaching out to businessmen. Joe helped Daniel begin a smaller version of Leadership Day in Leipzig.

“The Leipzig Leadership Day is more outspoken about Christianity than the Berlin event,” says Joe. “Christians there need to see that we have something significant to contribute to the marketplace.”