Translated, this means “Work and Will Form The World.” This is a lie of course and it is a prime example of a strong German cultural attitude of self-reliance. I found this World War 2 era propaganda on a local building not too far from where we live. It reflects an attitude that says, if I work hard and keep my nose to the proverbial “grind stone”, then the world will be a better place because of “my” efforts. It says, hey folks… it’s up to you! YOU are in control here and nothing good happens unless you make it happen. My question… Where is God in this worldview? Apparently absent.
As I’ve said before, German culture considers issues of faith a very private matter… at least this is true of the older generations. Young people are pretty open to discussions about faith, life’s challenges, questions about purpose and meaning; the stuff even die-hard atheists think about from time to time. So part of our job here is to really get into the culture and discover why it is that German people generally don’t talk about religion, faith and worldviews. Now, we work with a team who has a lot of experience in these areas (including German Nationals) but we wanted to dig deeply on this issue for ourselves. It is in the discovery of this information that holds the keys to how most effectively reach German peoples.
I recently had a conversation with a friend here, Maria Walker, who has been a huge blessing to our family in so many ways. She is a native German and has a ton of perspective on these matters. After asking her why Germans were generally closed to discussing issues of faith, she said one big reason was fallout from The 30 Years War way back in the early 1600′s. Huh? What was the Thirty Years war you ask?
The short version is this… This was a conflict that occurred mostly in what is now Germany between Catholics and Protestants in the Roman Empire. The war gradually turned from a struggle for religious freedoms, into a political battle between most of the European powers of the day. This war was hugely destructive due to the fact that most armies of the day were expected to be self funded. This means that they had the free rein to pillage and loot wherever they were in order to continue to operate.
When the war ended in 1648, there were rulers that were given large and small areas of modern-day Germany to rule. These local rulers had the freedom to choose what religious worldview they wanted to adopt. If the local ruler said his territory was going to be Catholic for example, then you were Catholic as well. Here’s the thing… if you opened your mouth and objected to this imposed religious worldview, you were run out-of-town, or worse. So if you wanted to keep your house and keep your farm, then you kept your mouth shut and played nicely with the other kids. So as a result, people learned to keep issues of faith very private, especially if you didn’t believe as the local authority said you were to believe.
My friend Maria says that this cultural tendency has been passed down from generation to generation and is a significant reason why German people are still so private about their faith. Unfortunately even Evangelicals here buy into this ideal, and this in part why most churches don’t get out of their pews, into the world and spread the Gospel in their local communities. This is why we are here… to help them find creative ways to engage a private, self-reliant (Work and Will Form The World) and secular cultural environment. And of course music and the arts are a great, unique and very effective way to engage people, giving the local church opportunities to build bridges with people and “make disciples”.
Lastly, Germans even today put Christian missionaries or active churches who GO and engage people, in the same boat as Al Qaida. We disciples who have been given our marching orders by our Lord Jesus Christ, are in their view, trouble makers. We stir things up… we challenge people to think about what they believe and hold to be true… The prevailing attitude is “let a sleeping dog lie.” Stay to our selves, mind our own business, circle the wagons, take care of our own, and everything will work out fine. This is not how Jesus led His life. Going into the “harvest field” means you have to turn soil, plant seed, nurture your crop and reap the harvest for God’s glory! You have to “stir the pot” so to speak. This is often messy, challenging and definitely disturbs the status quo. This is what we intend to do.
Thank you for your prayers, love, encouragement and support!
Much love in Christ!
Steve, Dawn, Bianca and Sofia
Thanks so much for your prayers for our event 2-weeks ago in Freiburg. The pastor was very excited, many people came and we will be continuing to work with them in the coming months to help them with outreach and training to reach their community.
Steve & Dawn, you are in a place much like those early Christians who were considered trouble-makers and rebel-rousers. Our prayers continue for you and your family.