Germany - Grace Baptist Partnership Month of Prayer and Giving 2021

Every day for the next month, I am going to be posting profiles I have written about local churches for the Grace Baptist Partnership Month of Prayer and Giving. Please read, pray, and give as able for this important ministry. Day 28: Germany. 

Through your prayers and giving, you are our partners in proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray that we would continue to do so with all boldness and without hindrance!

10 years ago, the pastor of a local church in Wetzlar, Germany requested help to train two men for church planting ministry. Nathanael Armisen and Peter Schild - who were nearing the end of their theological studies - were prepared to move to Wetzlar to live near and serve at the church, and financial support looked to be in place, but they needed to be more practically equipped.

Barry King, leading the recently formed Grace Baptist Partnership, was willing to provide the training, and John McDonald, then mission coordinator of Grace Baptist Mission believed GBM could fund it. The decade that has followed continues to demonstrate the fruit of that cooperative effort.

Nathanael would become pastor of the church in Wetzlar, which has grown and purchased a building in which to meet. Peter was sent out to plant a church in the city of Frankfurt. This began as a simple Bible study in Peter and his wife Priscilla’s living room and has known much growth, becoming an independently constituted church with its own membership and leadership. Peter feared slow progress, but as he says in HeartCry Films’ documentary, After Darkness, Light:

“The Lord did more than we expected. We experienced that people came to faith - non Christian background, Catholic background and so on, and the church grew. We have very simple church services. We just sing Psalms and Hymns, we just read the word of God and I preach for mostly around an hour or something like that - expository preaching from a Bible passage - and that’s it...the word of God is powerful enough to convert people.”

Of course, God’s word has to be proclaimed if it is to convert people. By God’s grace, through the equipping work of the church elders, there is a culture of public and personal evangelism. Members of the church try to distribute literature on the streets and engage passers-by in conversation every week and church members are happy to engage their work-colleagues and other people around them with the message of Jesus.

The great need across Germany is healthy churches filled with people who know God, know their Bibles, and are willing to sacrifice their lives for the advance of the gospel in their country. Existing churches need to be revitalised. New churches need to be planted. Biblical preaching must once again encourage people to exalt Christ and equip them for ministry and service.

Praise God for cooperation in gospel ministry, like that of Grace Baptist Partnership and Grace Baptist Mission ten years ago, and pray that such cooperation will continue with similar encouragements.

Pray that God would strengthen and sustain the churches in Wetzlar and Frankfurt in their challenging ministries, through difficult times, with a commitment to biblical faithfulness and gospel proclamation, and a loving spirit of humility and unity.

Pray for these churches to lead the way in training and sending out people to plant Christ-exalting churches across Germany. 

You can make a gift to Grace Baptist Partnership and the ongoing work of leadership training, church planting and revitalisation, using this link: Donate | Grace Baptist Partnership.