Introduction
The title of my presentation uses an African proverb: “Whoever can speak, will always find their way.” And, of course, whoever can speak uses their mouth.
My mouth! Yes, that is what I used when I was in Germany to:
• Announce the Gospel of peace and hope;
• Smile and laugh to express the joy of living;
• Sing to inspire life and freedom in worship;
• Learn to know people and to find a place in the church and in the German community;
• And to be a blessing for the people of God established here.
The literal translation of this African proverb would be: “Whoever has a mouth cannot get lost.” Here, I use the word “mouth” to mean the spoken word.
I will deal with four aspects of the spoken word and illustrate each of them with my personal experiences as a pastor in Germany.
In choosing this topic, I have two objectives:
a) To speak about my experience of 6 years and 6 months as a missionary in Germany.
b) To explain how the use of my mouth as a missionary tool for:
• Integration,
• Hope,
• Blessing.
To achieve these objectives, my paper will address the following 4 points:
a) The spoken word (language) as part of social integration.
b) The spoken word as a way to share about life, pain, faith, hope, and transformation.
c) The spoken word as a blessing.
d) The spoken word as prayer.
The spoken word (language) as part of social integration, respect and intercultural dialogue
The mastery of the German language was among my greatest challenges as a missionary. How could I do mission work in Germany without speaking and understanding this language very well? I also knew that through this language I
could understand Germans better and be understood by the people in this country.
The following fundamental questions were always in my mind: how to proclaim the Gospel to a people with a long Christian tradition? How could I as a young African pastor lead a young German to be a Christian? Do I have anything new to bring to these people who have a culture of criticism? What kind of examples would I use to reach the heart and soul of German people?
In addition to these questions, I had to face the whole question of the purpose of my mission in Germany, my approach and my ability to work as a missionary from a different culture in this new context.
My mouth was a key. In my mother tongue, Luba, the proverb I mentioned before is translated literally as, “Who has a mouth cannot get lost.” That means, with a mouth, it is possible to find the way, to discover a new environment, to communicate a message and to integrate into the host society.
When, in 1989, I decided to learn German, I could not imagine that I would ever work in Germany as a pastor. But I understood one thing: the German language was a bridge between the German people and me. This was then verified between 2002 and 2008, when I came to Germany as a missionary co-worker of the United Evangelical Mission (UEM). Knowing the language proved to be a bridge to the mission I was to do, and in addition it became a major factor in my cultural integration and my sense of belonging. Language skills helped to break down barriers between the German churches and me, to overcome fear between people, and to create a new respect for differences among people.
For example, when people learned that I spoke German, they did not hesitate to approach me. The enthusiasm with which I was invited and hosted by several parishes in Germany proved how important it had been for me to make the effort to learn the German language and culture, to communicate my experience in faith and to preach the good news of peace in the tongue of Goethe, Friedrich Schiller and others.
The German language is not easy. To speak it well I needed love for the German people, courage to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the help of the Holy Spirit. Despite my imperfect German, I was not ashamed to communicate this good news. As Paul said: “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,”
(Rom 1:16). My concern was to reach others by this word.
To meet others in the context of their lives – that was another missionary concern. I came as a simple man, without any pretension that I would persuade people with convincing arguments, but with the assurance that I had been sent from God to do his mission among his people living in Germany. I wanted to live and to work together with people in Germany as part of the body of Christ (2Cor. 12). That means I did not want to be considered a foreigner in Germany.
I wanted to be called as a pastor of the Church of Westphalia, because the church of Christ, to which I belong, is one. Despite the differences between our
cultures and race, we are members of the family of God. The words of Ruth to Naomi inspired me: “Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God”
(Ruth 1:16). This decision of Ruth was also mine. When, in April 2001, I was received as a pastor in the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, my first sermon was based on this text.
The experience we had on that day was that we were received as a family.
My wife and our children often went with me to do mission work. So we understood ourselves as a Family in Mission. According to the words of Ruth, we tried to live as a part of the church in Germany without losing our identity as Congolese, as Africans.
This was not always easy. My purpose for being in Germany was to do mission work, and I wanted to give all my time to that work. But I had to struggle between my UEM schedule and the agenda of parishes and groups who invited me. I will not forget how people often told me, “You know, Jean, you must learn to say NO sometimes.” But a big question still bothered me:
how does a servant of Christ say “no” to his master? It was hard to say “no”
when there was always work waiting for me and when I felt the master needed me to bring the good news to his people.
Learning about the situation of the people in the church was an element that enabled me to reach the hearts of German people. It was a part of my missionary strategy. In preparing my sermons, I spent much time reading newspapers, listening to the radio and watching television in order to know the problems and the facts of German society. My main question was: how can the Gospel be an answer to the concerns of the people here in Germany? Mission in this context meant “to make the Gospel a response to questions and concerns of men and women of today.” I tried to proclaim the Gospel to Germans in the German language with examples from the German context. Even though I came from Africa and sometimes I used my African imagination, each listener was following the message in his or her own language and with examples from their own society. As a result, I hoped that neither the message nor my way of speaking would be strange to the listeners.
I wanted the Gospel to become practical, authentic and real. The fundamental issue was to know: what did the word of God have to do with the daily lives of Christians in Germany? Developed by an African, this approach was attractive in that it made the Bible and the Gospel particularly current and real to people. I did not tell people about stories which happened thousands of years ago, but I spoke about the message of God which transforms the lives of the people who live in a modern and post-modern world. I called people to put their hope in the promises of God, to open their eyes to see injustice and violence, and to be committed as a “letter of Christ” (2Cor. 3:2) to the world. I had many opportunities to talk about the global financial crisis and to share about the link between the wars in many countries of the southern hemisphere and economic injustice. I found among German Christians a spirit of solidarity.
I learned many things, so that the mission came to mean enrichment and a sharing of life experiences.
The spoken word as a way to share about life, pain, faith, hope, transformation
As a missionary, I was sent to work with people of all conditions and all ages.
To them, I was carrying a word of hope and solidarity for their lives. Many people now have the sense and courage to live according to the ideas I have been preaching. I remember, for example, a man who, after having heard me preach on the day of Pentecost in 2006 in Münster, said, “I have learned today that the Gospel can take into account the concerns of my life! I am encouraged and I thank you, Mr. Pastor.”
I still have a letter from a girl who wrote me about how she was convinced by my preaching in the parish of Bad Oeynhausen. Since then, she and her family are increasingly involved in the parish. On 27th May, 2008, at the ceremony to complete my work in Germany, I was pleasantly surprised to see this girl coming to me to introduce her mother and sister. Thus, a lifetime commitment in the church was possible due to the power of the Gospel, understood as a testimony to life and the sharing of hope.
Speaking of hope, I was often approached by pastors to speak to desperate young Africans and Germans. I remember a German mother who had recommended that her son meet me. The richness of our conversation was enough to open up horizons and a glimmer of hope to the young in searching for direction in his life.
Speaking of life, I remember the answer I gave to a woman who asked whether I had conducted the funeral of someone in my parish in Germany. The spontaneous response was: “I came not to bury the dead in Germany but, through the Gospel, to help those who are alive here.” I used the example of Ebed-Melek, an African in the king’s palace in Jerusalem, who acted to save the life of Prophet Jeremiah (Jer 38:1-13).
How could I make people more alive in the church? How could young people find their place in the worship service? The worship that I celebrated together with my colleagues was alive and attractive because of its multifaceted liturgy enriched by the African songs that I was able to teach people to sing.
My smile and my vivacity both in song and in preaching were contagious because I did not let any part of the worship service become boring. Each person there could celebrate his or her emotions. Many young people who were tired of a “cold” worship service were attracted by this kind of worship. So part of my mission was to transform worship so that it became a time of joy, freedom to glorify God and of sharing the vitality of Christ. Life was understood as something to share through the gestures and words of blessing.
The spoken word as a blessing
In May, 2009, my colleague Remi Nsemi lost his father. Remi received this news while he was with us in the office. Like others, I took time to console him. Remi told us the circumstances of the death of his father. He was very sad about one thing: his father did not speak before dying. The whole family expected that, at the end of his life, their father would speak words of blessing which would serve as elements of a new beginning for them. We know that at the end of a worship service, words of comfort, consolation, support, and blessing are always spoken. Through these words the end becomes an occasion of hope, of experiences of love in community and an opportunity to begin anew at the beginning.
Searching for words that would make possible a new beginning to life, my colleagues and I created a worship service of blessing, a new kind of worship that we introduced and celebrated in several parishes in the Church District of Gütersloh and elsewhere. My concept of a ministry of blessing came from the words which God said to Abraham: “And you shall be a blessing.... And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen 12:2-3).
According to this promise, we wanted to make the worship service a time of blessing for all and through all from God, who is ready to bless and to use his people as tools of blessing. To implement this promise, we took seriously the Protestant principle of “universal priesthood” by involving the laity in the ministry of blessing. This kind of worship was and continues to be open to all people to show solidarity with those who suffer and feel alone. It is a way to show people that God is with them, that they can live abundantly in God. It is a way to lead those who need a new path and the light of God in their lives. It is a way to pray for those who are seeking, to intercede for those who desire help and peace, to pray for the transformation and healing of our world and our church.
This style of worship also had the positive effect of bringing people back to worship who had long ago abandoned the church. In addition, we discovered an enthusiasm among co-workers who came to feel that they are important players in the church. In this context, the mission made everyone an active participant in the church and the world, each one in movement through actions and commitment.
The responsibility to bless makes each person a missionary. Thus, the worship services of blessing became an active place of mission. In addition, they provided an opportunity to share and exchange experiences in faith, and to participate in intense meditation and prayer. Today, this kind of worship continues. It helps to strengthen the initiatives of parishes in order to build the faith of the people and reinforce their witness in society.
The spoken word as prayer
Before I close, let me underline the role of prayer in my missionary experience.
Coming to Germany was a voluntary response to the choice and to the call which God addressed to Isaiah: “Whom shall I send?” (Is 6:8) Isaiah’s yes was also mine. The context for Isaiah’s “yes” was God’s presence in the temple. “ . . . I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. . . One of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal . . . The seraph touched my mouth with it and said, ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’” (Is 6:1b-7).
This text demonstrates both the sovereignty and the presence of God who sends us out, and the preparation and the tools needed by those whom he sends into mission. For the mission remains God’s, though it may be accomplished by people in spite of all their weaknesses. Thus, God gives to those whom he sends out the means to accomplish the mission, so that they would neither take it over nor use it for her own glory.
Accomplishing the mission for the glory of God put me in a position of permanent dependence on God through an intense prayer life. Prayer was my instrument of communication with God, through which I was inspired by the Holy Spirit to announce the good news of life.
My conviction remains strong: the work of the Holy Spirit fills the emptiness which exists between those who hear my preaching and myself who preaches the word. It is the Holy Spirit who convinces and transforms lives.
That is why it was extremely important to rely on the intervention of the Holy Spirit. The success of the spoken word did not lie in the preaching only, but equally and especially in the activity of the Holy Spirit. Paul affirms this clearly: “My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power . . .” (2Cor 2:4).
This conviction which influenced my life was courageously shared with many of my colleagues during spiritual initiatives such as prayer meetings and meditation times. As a result, the mission became a school of prayer. The more the missionary challenges grew, the greater became the intensity of my prayers.
Lived out in community, the mission not only helped to reinforce our ties of collaboration and of cooperation with colleagues from different backgrounds, but it also led us to a new understanding of the internal and local mission of the church.
Conclusion
Our missionary work in Germany was a blessing for the UEM, and surely for myself and my family as well. It gave meaning to the South-North Exchange programme and strengthened the belief in the UEM’s mission work, which takes into account men and women created in God’s image. The Gospel that we
taught really did meet people in their social, political, economic and cultural contexts.
We understand “mission” as the proclamation of the Gospel of peace, and sharing of responsibilities for a better world through justice, peace and integrity of creation. Mission is also an invitation to the joy of living in trust and solidarity.
We learned more from the German people and churches in Germany:
• The spirituality of silence and meditation .
• The creative and results-oriented work, transparency in the management of human resources, material and financial resources.
• The emphasis on the social gospel; the mission becomes a socio-economic and political task.
All these shall help me to strengthen the mission of my church in Congo concerning social justice issues, the fight against poverty, violence, corruption and impunity, and the work for transparency and the establishment of the rule of law in Congo.
One area that presents a great opportunity for mission in Germany is to motivate pastors and church members to talk about their faith and to practice their own mission: mission with all and for all. This requires an apprenticeship.
How can the Gospel reach people who do not come to church? How can the good news of peace, love and hope be told to those who live on the street, and others who suffer in our communities? How can we break through the shame and fear that many people have when trying to speak about their faith? This requires training. It seems to me that training in how to talk about our faith would help the churches in Germany to get out of the current demographic crisis and to attract young people to them. This training can be reinforced by the diversification of forms of worship, and worship that reflects the needs and tastes of people. That will make the church more alive and its mission very powerful.