Berlin

Dan Trepod

Few students in Berlin have ever met somebody who loves and follows Jesus. Even fewer have friends who are believers. As a result, the 13 STINTers in Berlin this year seek to do bold, but relational, evangelism over lunch in the student cafeterias.

“We try to share the gospel in that first conversation,” says Dan Trepod, student ministry director in Berlin. “At the end, if it went well, we say, “This was a great conversation! Would you like to meet again? And we keep meeting as long as they are willing.”

As time goes on, some grow more interested, and eventually give their lives to Christ. Others grow less interested, and quit meeting. Currently team members are meeting regularly with more than 100 people, most of whom are not believers. Two Bible studies also meet, one at the Free University of Berlin and one at Humboldt University – where Einstein once worked and Marx and Engels studied.

“Last year two students received Christ with us,” says Dan. “This year we hope to see more students become Christians. Our goal is to finish the year with a group committed to Campus für Christus, not just to friendship with us.”

Kevin Wood

“We moved to Berlin to be in the heart of the action!” says New Zealander Kevin Wood, who works with professional athletes in Berlin. “Berlin has 81 first-division teams, and 80 second division teams. Every sport you can think of is here, so if you want to work with professional athletes, Berlin is the place to be.”

Kevin and his wife, Lisa, moved to Berlin in March 07. They spent the first year getting to know people and trying to meet Christian athletes. It turned out there was little sports-related outreach, despite the influential nature of athletes.

Eventually Kevin and Lisa met several Christian athletes who had a small Bible study. They invited him to attend, and he is gradually beginning to minister to them. “It’s all relationship oriented,” says Kevin. “You build relationships, and then one guy tells another, ‘You can trust Kevin.’ That builds a solid foundation.”

AIA Berlin has several components. Not only does Kevin reach out to professional athletes, but he is also trying to meet people around the city who are interested in sports and give them a vision for reaching athletes. He trains churches how to do sports evangelism, and how to make the most of athletes in the church.

Kevin also organises evangelistic events, such as summer camps and overseas tours. This summer a group of football players – some Christian, some not – will go to Armenia and play local teams, as well as distribute food and clothing to the poor.

This year also three interns have joined the AIA team. They play on basketball clubs, where they shine the light of Jesus toward their team-mates. Last autumn they had a special outreach centred on the American Thanksgiving, and 19 people from one club attended. Half a dozen are interested in talking further about the Lord.

Barbara Rohnert-Noll and Antje Schliebitz

Associate staff member Antje Schliebitz has long carried out a ministry to diplomats in her spare time, called the International Forum. Now she has been joined by Barbara Rohnert-Noll, who most recently worked in training with Campus für Christus Germany. Most recently the two held a cross-cultural seminar in the home of the Jamaican ambassador to Germany.

Antje and Barbara seek to build relationships with diplomats. “My focus is to meet people over lunch,” says Barbara. “Many of these people are here only two years, and are very lonely. They need somebody to share with, and prayer is important to them.

“People always want something from them,” adds Antje. “So when we come and don’t want something, that is refreshing. They can relax.”

The International Forum also sponsors special outreach dinners. Recently they began to partner with Gesprachs Forum, a German Christian businessmen’s group, in order to have a wider outreach, logistical support and more manpower to put on events. At a recent joint event, International Forum arranged for an ambassador to give a talk, which was covered by a local radio station.

How exactly does one go about reaching a city of more than 4 million people? Especially one as spiritually apathetic as Berlin. No one group can do it alone; the only hope is through believers working together.

An organisation called “Together for Berlin” is calling Christians to make a difference in Berlin. Consisting of a partnership between free churches, state churches and parachurch organizations, it is creating a greater unity between followers of Jesus in different traditions.

At the same time, God seems be moving in Berlin. “The overall openness to the gospel has improved,” says Rev. Axel Nehlsen, a Lutheran pastor who leads Together for Berlin. He points out that in Prenzlauerberg, the area of East Berlin near his office, the churches are full. It is a trendy area for young families, who seek out spiritual foundations for their children. Other parts of Berlin are not so open, but all the same it represents a change from the former trend in East Germany — away from God.

Axel Nehlsen

Another change in the spiritual climate,” says Pastor Nehlsen, “is that politicians and people in the marketplace are willing to talk about their faith in public. The Christian president started this by saying “God bless Germany” after one of his speeches.”

Together for Berlin had its roots in the late 1990s, when Duane Conrad, then director of Campus für Christus Germany, visited Berlin pastors to learn about the needs of the city. “How can we help you?” he asked. “What are your needs?” Pastors said they felt lonely, isolated and discouraged at the low level of spiritual interest in the city.

Then in May 1998, Campus Crusade invited Christian leaders from several European cities to meet in London and share ideas. “None of us knows how to do city ministry well,” Duane said to the Berliners. “Let’s meet and talk about what we can do.”

Four men joined Duane in London, where they concluded the greatest need was for pastors to meet each other and to realise they were not alone. Back in Berlin, they invited dozens of pastors and their wives to a prayer breakfast.

This breakfast grew into Together for Berlin, a network of pastors and Christian leaders seeking to influence all areas of the city with the gospel. As Christian leaders meet each other through the prayer breakfasts and other forums, they discover ways to improve their partnership. Together for Berlin developed nine different tracks, each focused on reaching a different sector of the city.

“Campus für Christus was the catalyst pulling us together,” says Axel. “Since they are not a local denomination, they were not a threat.” CfC also had a strong reservoir of credibility, due to successful ministry among the 130,000 university students back in the 1970s. Today, the various CfC ministries in Berlin work closely with Together for Berlin in its many outreaches.

Partnerships influence the spiritual climate in many ways. On May Day, for example, radicals often unleash violent demonstrations. Several years ago Together for Berlin sent youth on prayer walks to places where the violence had taken place, and that May saw one of the most peaceful demonstrations in years. This past year, an intercultural worship band played in the open air on May Day. Afterward, Together for Berlin presented two initiatives where people could get involved in serving the community – one Christian, one not Christian.

This is a good way to cooperate in a post-modern world,” says Axel. “People like networking. We cooperate with secular authorities, but we bring in what we can do – prayer, humanitarian aid, saying that Jesus is Lord. And it is accepted.”

“We need direct ministry,” says Duane, referring to the personal outreach of individual staff members, “but if that is all we do, we won’t reach the city. It’s too big. We need the partnership too.”

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.”

Uli talks to a Berlin student.

“If we are going to do something in Berlin,” says Uli Täuber of the German university ministry, “it must be good, and we must do it with lots of people.” Campus für Christus Germany has long been interested in Berlin, due to its influence and its status as capital city. In fact, when Campus Crusade for Christ first came to Europe, Berlin was one of the first places in which they set foot. But in recent years, the resources were not there to do more than maintain a small ministry presence.

Then God began bringing together the pieces to enable a more substantial outreach. First, the Agape Europe leadership designated Berlin as one of the international “mega-cities” that would become a ministry priority in the coming years. Berlin has always been influential, points out Clemens Schweiger, director of the German ministry. Now that the government of a unified Germany is based there once again, its strategic position is growing. It’s also a bridge between Eastern and Western Europe, due to its history.

As Berlin — a cosmopolitan, international city – once again takes its place on the world stage, it is becoming ever more strategic. “If you influence Berlin,” says Clement Schweigers, director of Campus für Christus Germany, “you influence the world.

Second, the American STINT program began looking for a new German city in which to partner. “We have had a good experience with the STINT team in Freiburg.” says Uli. ”In seven years they have gone from 0 students to about 70.” Now that the STINT work in Freiburg is finishing, the Americans are available to partner with Berlin.

This year 13 STINTers are in Berlin, working on three different universities. “We want to develop a German-American partnership in Berlin,” says Uli. “We don’t have the resources for a large team, but last year, we sent a German missionary project here in the spring, and it went well. For German students, it is exciting to come and do evangelism in Berlin. And next year we plan to send one or two campus staff members.”

Finally, God began drawing other staff members to the city. An organisation called “Together for Berlin” arose to build unity between the churches. People who had been involved as students years ago reconnected with the ministry.

“The Berlin ministry has never produced big numbers,” says Julie Erickson, who has served in Berlin for 35 years, “but those who did become Christians were leaders. And many are now working in government or industry.”

The Berlin team enjoys spending time with each other. At their monthly meeting, they often talk about how they can support each other’s ministries. Here Joe Hartung talks about a recent event he held for people in the business world.

We want to provide brief glimpses of some of the people God is calling to work with Campus für Christus in Berlin, and the outreaches they are developing. They are coming together as a city team, working closely to support each other’s ministries and laying a solid foundation for long-term impact.

“My prayer is to see a movement develop in Berlin,” says Clemens. “As a mechanical engineer, I know that “movement” means something is rolling and creating energy. The team in Berlin is starting to create energy, though it is still fragile. And for this I say, “Hallelujah!”