How is that possible?
I drive through snowy winter landscapes towards Siegen on Sunday morning. The temperature outside is between -6 and -9 degrees Celsius. Will anyone even make it to the first service at Calvary Chapel in this cold? My worries are unfounded as 300 people celebrate with passion and conviction at 9:30 am. The story of Diospi Suyana – instead of a sermon – seems to get under everyone’s skin.
Now the flying change follows, because at 11:00 a.m. 450 people, including a good 200 young people, crowd into the church hall. It gets full and more people sit in the side room. In the evening, a heavy snowstorm sets in before the 3rd service. Nevertheless, by nightfall, around 80 participants are sitting in their seats.
Why do so many listeners flock to the now too small auditorium every Sunday? The Apostles’ Creed is upheld here just as much as in the Protestant and Catholic churches. But there is one crucial difference. The members of Calvary Chapel believe the content from the bottom of their hearts. They entrust their lives to the man on the cross who left his grave three days later.
Could it be that so many churches in Germany remain yawningly empty because the pastors have lost faith in the risen Christ? And who takes Christ’s statement seriously: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me!”
In principle, the mainline churches have it in their own hands. Either they rediscover the holiness of God and the power of the Bible – then we can wake up again, or they drive the last old grannies out of their ranks with a cheap zeitgeist. Then the last one can put out the light.
In the meantime I have given over 1,000 talks in Germany on the subject of “Diospi Suyana”. And time and again I discover congregations that are so overcrowded that they can compete with a sardine can. These faithful Christians do not gather out of a sense of duty, but following an inner impulse. Full of confidence, they live out their faith in the Eternal One, who became man in Jesus Christ to redeem us. The Holy Spirit fills them with “living water”. And this is exactly what Jesus Christ promised his followers. /KDJ
