Klauslis in Korntal

Liebenzell Missions Festival

Last Sunday (11 May) our family took a trip to Bad Liebenzell to visit the missions conference that takes place there every year. If the name of the town sounds familiar, it's probably because it is the inspiration behind the name of our mission agency (Liebenzell USA) that is affiliated with the Liebenzell Mission that was founded here. Although the Liebenzell Mission is one of the largest in Germany, it is at the same time a church denomination and a Bible College and Seminary (Similar models in the US of denominations that also have their own mission sending agencies would be Christian and Missionary Alliance or the Southern Baptists).

The missions festival takes place every year on Pentecost weekend (since Pentecost Monday is always a holiday) and gives an opportunity for the mission wing of the Liebenzell work to give a report introduce new missionaries, allow returning missionaries to report on their work, and to inform about the current state of the mission. The meeting takes place in a very large tent on the campus and is attended by between four and five thousand people.

The morning meeting consisted of a church service followed by mission reports. In the afternoon there were further meetings that ran until 4:30. During the lunch break (about 2 hours) there was plenty of time to visit the various booths and learn more about the countries where the various Liebenzell missionaries are working.

For an overview of what we experienced, see the photo gallery to the left.

Getting to know the DMG

In a recent blog I mentioned my attendance at a mission conference put on by the Deutsche Missionsgemeinschaft or German Missionary Fellowship at their headquarters at Buchenauerhof near Sinsheim Germany (see picture). The DMG is unique among missionary sending agencies, not because of its focus on a particular field, but because of a lack of one. The DMG, with over 300 missionaries has no mission field of its own. Instead, it serves as matchmaker, linking up its missionaries with mission agencies around the world. For example, if a particular missionary feels called to work in church planting in Japan, the DMG will link them up with an agency that is doing that kind of church planting.

But why go with the DMG instead of just going with the agency itself? The reason is that some mission agencies have not German sending arm. By seconding missionaries to other agencies, the DMG thus enables German missionaries to serve in a wide variety of mission fields while maintaining a sending and support base in Germany.

If you would like to read more about this mission and their work (yes, they have an English translation!) see their website and look particularly under the link: DMG . . . a model.

Suffering: An Effective Motivator for Missions?

This last Sunday I had the opportunity to represent the AWM at a missions conference sponsored by the DMG or Deutsche Mission Gesellschaft (German Mission Society) at their headquarters about an hour north of Korntal. What intrigued me most about this conference (among other things) was its theme. Most missions conferences that I have attended have chosen themes that attempt to put the task of world missions in a "positive" or optimistic light: like, for example, "Reaching the Unreached" etc. The theme for the DMG conference was somewhat more sober. For this year they chose: "Suffering for the sake of Christ."

This theme was illustrated during the plenary sessions. In the morning meeting, missionaries from various fields were introduced, and where appropriate, were asked to share incidents where suffering and persecution have accompanied mission work and the life of the church in that country. The range was from dealing with social pressure to violent opposition and even martyrdom. The sermon developed the theme theologically.

Are we sometimes not realistic enough about missions and about what it is to be a Christian. Is not suffering a key concern in the New Testament as seen in one of Jesus' most famous sayings ("If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me"--Mark 8:34) as well as in lesser known sayings like this one of Paul recorded in Acts 14:22: "it is necessary for us to enter into the kingdom of God through many tribulations."

Is the DMG on to something in its theme? Have we glamorized missions too much? Is there also a danger of sensationalizing Christian suffering? What are your thoughts?