Taiwan Church News

Edition 3777

July 15 ~ 21, 2024

Weekly Topical

Love Thy Neighbor – A Reflection of Mission via Current German Church and Society

Reported by Lin Wan-ting from Pingtung

The Mission Ministry Committee of Payuan Presbytery held a series of training sessions for church elders and deacons of local churches. One training session for northern Pintung churches was held at Tjavadran Church on July 13th.

During the session, Evangelist Cemedas Djaljapayan, secretary of Youth Ministry Committee of Payuan Presbytery, introduced the audience a brief outlook of Youth Ministry among Payuan churches, and Ms Dongi Kacaw, former chairwoman of the PCT Worship and Music Committee, gave her thoughts entitled asAspects of Church Worship and Music Service.

Delivering a speech, entitled asLove Thy Neighbor: A Reflecting of Mission via Current German Church and Society, Rev Dr Stephen Lakkis, who now serves at the Evangelical Church in Pforzheim of Baden, Germany and had served as professor at both Taiwan Theological Seminary and Tainan Theological Seminary from 2008 to 2020, emphasized that no church is perfect on the earth.

Particularly he shared current situations of the church in Germany and invited the audience to think about the challenges faced by German churches to compare with the similar struggles encountered by Taiwan churches.

Rev Lakkis pointed out that some people may think the reasons German church are declining are due to too many non-Christian immigrants flooding into Europe, the church is not faithful enough or remains pious anymore. Some people may also think that the era of moderity has made people to give up their religious faiths, and etc. Against the criticisms, Rev Lakkis fired back,”strictly speaking, these views are very partial and superficial, as the problem is very complicated, and there is no easy answer!”

“The first problem of the German church,” Rev Lakkis pointed out, “is the continuing decline of church members”. “At present there are about 26% Catholics and 24% Christians in Germany,” he indicated, “which is indeed a manifest decline compared to the past decades.”

“Germans still baptize their children, support church finances, and emotionally get used to the Christianity rituals,” he analyzed, “but they are no more ‘related’ to the church as before.” This is a strange phenomenon indeed, he agreed by raising some samples: “some are unwilling to become church members because they do not want to donate; some are willing to donate, but they do not want to attend services.”

“The second problem is the decline of church co-workers,” he said. “Modern social and economic pressures force German Christians less capable to have time and passion to serve the church,” he remarked, “volunteer coworkers are declining across all social institutes or charities, not just in the church.”

“The third problem is that the church finances continue to decline,” he indicated, “currently German church income is about 30% short in average.” “Formal church members are required to pay 8% of income tax to the church due to a very unique taxation system in Germany,” he explained. “Meanwhile the German government has raised more taxes in the past decades,” he remarked, “yet church taxes remain the same 8% as usual.” He admitted that the church tax system in Germany becomes more and more unpopular.

“The fourth problem is the decline to recruit seminarians and preachers”, he lamented, “older pastors will retire sooner or later, but young seminarians, though quite passionate to study theology, are deterred by heavy workloads and tedious administrations.”

“The fifth problem is that church organizations need to think seriously about down-sizing or reforming,” he suggested, “in the past the churches and social welfare highly concentrate in urban areas, while church members were scattered and preferred to attend the church closest to where they live.” “But now, since the church members have steadily declined,” he observed, “this may be a chance for church resources to shake-up, re-allocate, and operate more effectively.”

“German church also faces some situations that are very difficult to judge to be good or bad right away,” he indicated, “for example, experienced and professional social welfare institutes are usually operated or managed by churches, but many people do not be aware of such relations.”

Finally, he warned, “if people are not willing to serve the church, the operation of those affiliated institutes will definitely face difficulties.” “And when such an affected institute still serves to the public,” he urged, “the church should figure out what kinds of services could be best offered when the task forces are shrinking?”

In the session of Q&A, Rev Dr Lakkis raised the concepts of modernity and individualism to explain the challenges faced by the church. He reminded the audience to pay more attention to the rise and trends of “individualism” as its ideology put personal spirituality above the fellowship of faith.

“The Bible is written for the fellowship of faith,” he remarked, “not for individualism.” He stressed, “Christian faith does not choose between either ‘loving yourself only’ or “loving God only”, but ‘loving God and loving neighbor’ both!”.

“Four characteristics of the church are ‘preaching, worship, fellowship, and action’,” Rev Dr Lakkis pointed out, “because Christians are called not to stick to the church or institute, but to proclaim good news, transform spiritual lives, and build up God’s kingdom as a new heaven and a new earth.”

Quoting John 13:34, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another”, Rev Dr Lakkis said that the significant meaning of “Christian” is showcased through “love thy neighbor”. Instead of studying the question of “how the church exists?,” it is more important to understand and remember the reasons “why the church exists?”, he concluded.

Translated by Peter Wolfe