From the January-April 2011 Issue
Acknowledging our great God
Jorg and Heike Muller
It was twenty years ago this summer that I travelled all over Germany, from Hamburg in the north to Munich in the south, Saarbrücken in the West and Leipzig and Berlin in the East. I can’t remember how many miles I travelled and how many pastors and Christians I met during those weeks. This tour served but one purpose: discovering the will of God. Where would God want us to plant a church in Germany? In the end, Heike and I ended up focusing all our attention on Warburg, a predominantly Roman Catholic town with no evangelical witness. Early October 1990 saw the “conception” of the church in Warburg, when about thirty Christians met together for the first time worshipping the Lord. If that service was the conception of the church, February 1991 may well be called the birth of the new church, when we officially constituted ourselves and went public in Warburg.
I am reminded of Proverbs: “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” (3:6). Looking back over twenty years, we have to acknowledge him! He has been faithful! He has promised to be with us and for us. He has made our paths straight! There have been difficult and hard times. However, we can acknowledge our God. He has looked after us. He has looked after his church, even through the most severe trials.
Building the church
We want to acknowledge our God who has made our paths “straight”. We want to acknowledge our Lord who has kept us faithful to his Word and Truth, who has added to the church one after another. Today, the church lists 40 members with three elders and three deacons. Three years ago, we were able to purchase our own building, after having been greatly blessed with our former rented facilities in one of the town market squares. In all this, we want to acknowledge our God who has made our paths “straight”.
Nurturing
I look back over twenty years and want to acknowledge my God who inspired and helped in starting a book work that is still going on and has put into German some most valuable Reformed literature, so greatly needed. I look back over twenty years and want to acknowledge my God who has raised other men to treasure and preach the great Reformation truths of the Gospel. I also think of the conferences organized and the other initiatives taken to nurture the church of God with his truth. To me this is sometimes more than amazing and I want to acknowledge our God for all that he has done and is doing in Germany at a time when our country is loosing its Christian moorings even more. The great need of Germany still is for Gospel-centred churches; churches which delight in the preaching of the Gospel and are excited about telling the truth to others.
Denominations in decline
Over the past twenty years millions have turned their backs on the two leading denominations in Germany. In 2008, the statistics showed 24 million Protestants (minus 3.7 million since 1990) and 25 million Catholics (minus 2.5 million since 1990). In addition, even evangelical, non-conformist churches are losing members. This means that probably 32 million Germans have no affiliation to a Christian church. Moreover, because of the newly erupted Catholic Church’s child abuse scandal, the prominent bishop of Augsburg has had to resign from office. Recently the very popular Chairperson of the Council of the Protestant Church of Germany, the first woman to head the Church, was convicted of drunk driving and had to resign from office. Such scandals tend to affect the credibility of the Christian faith in general and make the spread of the Gospel much more difficult.
Whatever the future holds (the next twenty years!) – we want to continue acknowledging God and his goodness as we seek him and wait for him to make our paths “straight” in serving him. As a church, we wait for him to make our paths straight for erecting our new meeting hall. We expectantly wait for him to convert those with whom we have been in contact for a long or a short time. We trust him that he will continue to make our paths straight. What the past twenty years have taught me is: God is not in a hurry. He can wait, as he has his own place and time to act. We often cannot wait and start doubting his goodness. At that point we need to remind ourselves of our duty: Doing the will of our God, serving him faithfully and joyfully, acknowledging him in “all” our ways.