Wednesday, October 17, 2012


“It’s A Church!”
After months of anticipation and prayerful preparation, we are thrilled to announce that on Sunday, October 7, the miracle of birth took place in Darmstadt – and, “It’s a church!”  The birth of Converge International Fellowship was celebrated at a special “Birthday Service” by family and friends from churches in Ramstein, Frankfurt and Oberursel, along with members of our extended family worldwide who prayed and rejoiced with the CIF congregation.
The week leading up to the birth was filled with exciting developments. Three weeks prior to the service, we began placing flyers, signs and posters around the city, particularly in strategic areas with large international populations – the Universities, the European Space Agency, EUMETSAT, (European Meteorological Satelite Operations Center), DAGGER (the final US Military outpost in our area), and of course Burger King!
At the final “Preview Service” on 30 September, nine new friends attended the service, having seen one of those signs ads.  One of those wrote during the week, “We feel this is the church we have been searching for for years.”  A newly-arrived couple in Germany contacted us by email on Tuesday to enquire about the church, and was excited to come on Sunday.  On Thursday, a graduate student at the Technische Universitat came to our door.  He had arrived in Darmstadt just two days earlier and had seen one of our flyers in the Student Services Center.  He found a small map of the city, and walked around until he found our apartment.  Those new friends represented the United States, Malaysia, Germany and India – just a glimpse of how exciting and amazing International Church planting and ministry is!
Members of the CIF congregation met on Saturday night for a “Pre-Launch” evening of prayer – surrendering ourselves, our efforts, and the results to the Lord.  It was a great time of fellowship and intercession.  Just before that meeting ended, one of the women of the group said, “Let’s understand that something unexpected will happen – and be prepared to adapt and work it out.”  We all nodded, agreed that our God is bigger than any hurdle.
Sunday the 7th happened to be Thanksgiving Day in Germany (kind of appropriate, isn’t it?!).  The German congregation had the worship center beautifully decorated with a wonderful display of fall color, displays of bountiful harvest and God’s blessings.  It was great…but then we realized that the black backdrop and the display were going to prevent us from using the projection system that we have used at each Preview Service, and that is an important part of our service!  It was time to “adapt and work it out”!
After experimenting with a small screen and projector, it was decided that a couple of white table cloths, draped in front of the Harvest Display, would allow us to use the normal projection system.  Our Tech Crew leader made the hasty necessary adjustments, and we were able to continue as planned. 
In the meantime, people were busy preparing the foyer for the celebration of new birth.  Balloons and banners decorated the hall, while birthday cakes, cookies and authentic Lebanese foods were displayed for the festivities (another great blessing of International church ministry!).
Friends began to arrive – everyone excited about the miracle of birth that we were privileged to witness.  Soon the hall was filled with the sound of music, as the Praise Team led us in songs of worship and testimony of God’s faithfulness.  Dr. Jimmy Martin, General Secretary of the International Baptist Convention, offered a prayer of dedication and commissioning.  At his side was Mrs. Siggy Levey, who, along with her late husband Martin, have been praying and trusting God for a new International church in Darmstadt for many years.
Another highlight of the service was the dedication of 8-day-old Eleonora, the newest “member” of the Converge Darmstadt congregation.  She was presented to the Lord along with her 2-year-old “big brother” Luca by their parents Jasper and Becca.  We were privileged to have Becca’s mother with us as well, visiting from Canada!
The message focused on God’s pattern of choosing the least likely, the most improbable, the undeserving and the unexpected for His grace and His work.  John chapter 4 tells us that Jesus “needed” to go to the Samaritan village of Sychar - it is obvious God had a divine appointment awaiting Him in that city.  He chose a broken, sinful, racially oppressed woman for His unique focus, and used her to reach her community.    
In the same way, God has compelled His people, through unworthy and unlikely servants, to reach out to the city of Darmstadt.  The love of God reaches across racial boundaries and sees beyond moral failure.  His grace brings new life to those who feel they will never be worthy of His love.
The celebration of a new little girl born into our community, and the celebration of a new church born in the city were eclipsed by the celebration of nearly a dozen people who expressed a desire to be born into the family of God that night!  We praise God for His incredible faithfulness and amazing grace! 
Pray for us as we follow up with these new believers, helping them to grow and mature in their new life in Christ.  Pray for unity and love in our church family which is made up of people from 17 nations (and counting!) around the globe.  Pray as we continue to reach out to the Darmstadt region – the international students, businesspeople, scientific community and the local German population, too!  Thank you for your prayerful support of our mission in Darmstadt.  May the Lord bless you “from His glorious riches and strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being.” (Eph. 3:16) 
~ Bob & Carol

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Hi everyone,

On this Launch Day of our church, I want to share with you today's devotional reading from one of my regular sources - It was something I needed to read today, and I hope it will speak to your hearts as well...

Striving For Numbers

"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest . . . think on these things." 
Philippians 4:8
In Christian circles today, the church that can show an impressive quantitative growth is frankly envied and imitated by other ambitious churches.

Numbers, size and amounts seem to be very nearly all that matters—with a corresponding lack of emphasis on quality!

This is the age of the Laodiceans. The great goddess, Numbers, is worshiped with fervent devotion, and all things religious are brought before her for examination. Her Old Testament is the financial report, and her New Testament is the membership roll. To these she appeals as the test of spiritual growth and the proof of success or failure in most Christian endeavors.

A little acquaintance with the Bible should show this up for the heresy it is. To judge anything spiritual by statistics is to judge by something other than scriptural judgment. Yet this is being done every day by ministers, church boards and denominational leaders. And hardly anyone seems to notice the deep and dangerous error!

"Lord, I pray this morning for the pastor and elders of my church, that their chief desire will be to invite the Holy Spirit of God into our church to do His refining work in the lives of our people."

Sent from the Mornings with Tozer, by A. W. Tozer. For devotionals like this one for your iPhone, visit us at43rdElement.com

Wednesday, October 3, 2012


We are very excited!  This Sunday is our Official Public Launch!

Will you join us in prayer this weekend for the birth of our new church?
  • Pray for the Genesis Team, our core group of leaders who are directing the church through the launch
  • Pray for the effectiveness of the signs, newspaper article, fliers, leaflets and personal invitations that have been distributed
  • Pray for the Harvest!  Our goal is to see transformed lives by the power of the Gospel!
  • Pray that the Lord will raise up committed, involved members from those new people attending our services.
  • Pray for protection of the unity and love of the church - Satan will do all he can to tear us apart.
  • Pray for the follow up to the launch.  Pray for continued interest and inroads into the international and local community of Darmstadt.  
The key to our effectiveness is not a system, a plan or marketing strategy - the essential ingredient is PRAYER!  Will you join us in praying for this weekend's service, and for the work of the church in the weeks and months to come?

Next week we will be sending along our newsletter with updates on how the Lord blessed!

Thanks!

Bob & Carol

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Another great article by Mel Lawrence - references a visit to Germany and the nature of post-Christian life here.  Also includes insights on effective leadership and gospel promotion in our age.


THEY    FORGOT  THAT  THEY  FORGOT

This post was written by Mel Lawrenz
I have just returned from Hamburg, Germany, having spoken at a conference sponsored by the Evangelical Free Church of Germany and doing two days of workshops. The interactions were lively and engaged as we looked at faith in a postmodern world.
Hamburg is a beautiful historic city in the north, the second largest port in all of Europe. It is prosperous, cosmopolitan, and influential. The Beatles became a real band in the clubs of Hamburg, setting them up to be discovered in England. Some of the 9/11 terrorists came from a cell based in Hamburg.
The city is 1,200 years old, but a large part of the city was destroyed in bombing in WWII. It is a place of many contrasts.
Here, as in much of Germany, the free churches seek to keep gospel work alive in a society that is post-Christian. As someone told me, for those people who have not had Christian belief for many generations, it is not that “they forgot” faith in Christ. It is that “they forgot that they forgot.”
We talked about the possibilities of vibrant spiritual influence in this kind of world. It seems as though with every group I am with there is one particular idea that gets batted around. This time it was the idea of “partial ideas finding partial ideas.”
In his book Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson challenges the stereotype of the lone genius in whose mind brilliant ideas arrive full-form. In his study of science, discovery, and innovation, Johnson shows that some of the greatest ideas are the result of mistakes and diversions. He also describes a process he calls the slow hunch in which a great idea, sometimes a revolutionary idea, only gradually emerges and is recognized as a great idea through social connections. Johnson also describes how different people will have partial ideas which, when connected, merge into fully formed concepts. The ongoing information and communication revolutions of the twenty-first century give an opportunity for partially great ideas to find other partial ideas and to coalesce into exciting innovation. The implication for leadership is that we need to keep all networks alive and active so that our partial ideas can combine with other ideas and emerge as truly influential forces. Our ideas are always looking to find mates.However, chaos can break out if we are not careful about the ideas we choose to assimilate and use to influence the lives of others. So we must begin with a core of ideals found in the Bible, which is the framework for rational faith. We must absorb the great narrative arc of Scripture, which goes from creation to fall to redemption to glory. We must champion the great ideals that are rooted in God’s own nature, like justice and love.
We live in a time of incredible flow of ideas—some terrible, and others life-giving. We can stand by passively and assimilate the ideas that flow our way. Or we can work at choosing what we read, what conversations we have, what conferences we attend, and what networks we tie into. Leaders often make the mistake of choosing the conduits of ideas that others impose. If others are “successful” because they read “those” particular authors and attend “that” conference and belong to “those” associations, then perhaps we ought to as well. But a more courageous approach is to make our own choices. Leaders who think outside the boxes other leaders live in will discover truly fresh ideas and introduce them into the flow. They will float the truly innovative concepts, the ones that sound crazy and unrealistic. They will influence because they believe there is gold to be mined, and they are not hesitant about swinging the pick.
If this is correct, that the very best ideas are always the combination of partial ideas by people who find each other, then the question of the day is whether we are fully utilizing our connections with each other, watching for that great new innovation just around the corner.

http://www.thebrooknetwork.org/2012/09/27/discussions-in-hamburg/?utm_source=September+27%2C+2012+Hamburg&utm_campaign=BrookLetter01.26.12&utm_medium=email