Church planting in East Germany

The best place for church planting
(North) East Germany, in the former GDR, is one of the least religious areas in the world. In the past I used to think that every human being has some religious awareness, but in our state, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, I started to doubt that: everything that has to do with faith and God, seems to be totally irrelevant and far removed from daily life. Sometimes I feel like I'm talking about aliens...

Besides that, there is a huge gap between the rich and poor, which arose after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. There are rich and poor neighborhoods: people with a higher income live in the redeveloped city center and newly built neighborhoods, the others live close by in huge 'Plattenbau' areas (big concrete housing) with many social challenges.

Precisely in the Plattenbau, where most people only see trouble and where the Christian faith is far, far away, we recognize the best place for God's church. We live and work in this East German area: it is our calling and our passion. Nothing is higher than starting with Jesus at the bottom!

About us
Since 2009, we live in 'Mueßer Holz', part of the largest Plattenbau area of Schwerin. We work in partnership with the 'Freie evangelische Gemeinde' and European Christian Mission. Together with people from our neighborhood, we have turned an empty hall into a community center, the Patchwork Center. The center has a cafe, a workshop and a textile 'market'. In addition, we organize regular family and street events. We love our intensive, dynamic and colorful community, where everyone gets the chance to discover Jesus, at his or her own pace.

We are looking for you, if you are prepared to:
…leave your comfort zone;
…actively learn about a new context (German, post-communist, troubled neighborhood);
…not only work, but also build relationships;
…try new things, and make mistakes.

We offer:
…active cooperation in a multicultural team;
…enthusiastic coaching by one of our fulltime team members/church planters;
…an intensive 'dive' in our context;
…a dynamic community to join and live in.

We also offer a chance to:
…discover our method (missional-incarnational) through daily life and daily contact with people from our community;
…use your gifts in this context (or discover them);
…search new ways and forms to make the Gospel accessible;
…get to know other church planting projects in our state.

Are you interested?
Find more information on our Facebook page, call or app us (see below the details) or visit us to get a first impression.

Contact
Christiaan Kooiman
christiaan.kooiman@ecmi.org
Tel. +49(0)170-7442421