Preaching the Gospel in Germany

Preaching the Gospel in Germany PREACHING THE GOSPEL IN GERMANY
Otis Gatewood

It is indeed a great joy to talk to you about the spreadixig of the gospel of Christ in Germany. Even though I shall talk primarily about Germany, I hope to tell of opportunities in other European nations.

Evangelists have gone to many other parts of the world, hut we have been slow to realize that there is a need for going mto Europe. Nothing was done in Eurone by churches of Christ until following the second world war, but since then, churches have been established in Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany. I know when we think about Europe, we may think of a country that has been Christianized, but also wre must think of a country that has been troubled, and when it is troubled, America is troubled. Up until following this last world war, we were to a great extent, isolationists, when it came to European affairs. But now since the world has been made smaller by fast airplanes and fast methods of transportation, we have learned that as is Europe, so is America. If Europe is at war, wre are at war. If Europe is at peace, we are at peace, and so it is of vital concern to us as to what happens in Europe. When we go to Europe to teach, wre go among people who were our ancestors. They are therefore easy for us to understand. They are people who do not have to be taught to believe in God, Christ, or the Bible. They already believe in that. They do not need to be educated. They are among the leading educators of the world. They have produced some of the best scientists of the world. Rome of the best musicians of the. world have come from Europe. So naturally in thinking of spreading the gospel of Christ, it should have been our thought a long time ago to go to Europe with the message of the gospel of Christ. Why we haven't, I do not know.

1 am sure that many of you are vitally interested in what has been going on down in Italy. The evangelists who have gone to that field have done a wonderful job of preaching the gospel among almost impossible difficulties. But Brother Paden has already made a report on that field, so I shall not say more. In France, Brother and Sister Maurice Hall, Brother and Sister Melvin Anderson, and Brother and Sister John Akin are faithfully teaching the word of God. It is unique that they are in Paris, the largest city in Europe, and it is fine to know that in the midst of the most wicked city in the world, about 60 people have already been baptized and a place of worship has already been purchased. Native men are being taught to preach the gospel.
We go on into Belgium, where we find Brother and Sister S. F. Timmerman. They are working gallantly and they are doing a fine work. Three congregations have been established, one in Pepinster, one in Liege, and one in Vervieres. In Holland you find the work that lives as yet in honor of Brother Jacob C. Vandervis, who is now 75 years of age and is too old to continue that work and has returned to America. But there, Brother Harry Payne, Brother Bill Phillips, and Brother Bob Bakuis, a native of Holland, are laboring with two fine congregations, one in Haarlam and the other in Amsterdam.

While we are looking for opportunities to preach the gospel in Europe, there are people in Norway who are inviting us to come; there are people in Denmark who are pleading for preachers; there are people also in Sweden who are interested. There are also great opportunities as we look down further to the south in Athens, Greece, where members of the church have already sent numbers of packages of clothes and food to heal those people in mind and body. And then when you go over into Palestine, you find many Arabians who have been converted to believe in Christ and the Jews who are busy building up their country. I am sure that we are all glad to know that Brother E. Gaston Cogdell is studying Hebrew in a Jewish seminary in Cincinnati in preparation for going back to establish the church in Jerusalem, the place where it was originally founded. Then as you go from there down in the south and on east, you find the Mohammedan empire, with perhaps Cairo presenting the most wonderful opportunity. Think of this, friends. There are more Mohammedans in the world than any other non-Christian religion, and up to this time we do not have a single evangelist devoting his time toward teaching the gospel of Christ to the Mohammedan world.

Now, as we return to Europe, we see Germany, the trouble spot of Europe. Yes, the nation that is to Europe what Europe is to America, and as we say, ‘as goes Europe, so goes America,’ so we can say also, ‘as goes Germany, so goes Europe.’ It seems therefore, to be only natural that we have more missionaries in Germany than we have in any other place in Europe. Germany has been our enemy for two world wars and it is good to know that we are doing much there to make them not only our friends but also our brethren. More people have been converted in Germany than in any other nation in Europe, or perhaps in all other nations in Europe. That doesn’t mean that evangelists in Germany have done any better work than the others; we just had more men to work there. The people’s ideas seemed to be uprooted in a greater way. They were in want and were quite receptive to the gospel of Christ. There are many of us tonight that could point a finger of accusation and scorn to Germany and say, “You killed our sons and caused trouble and unrest in the world.” Yet members of the church of Christ should be very grateful to Germany because it was Martin Luther, a German, who broke away from the Catholic church in the 14th century and started the Reformation Movement. If the Reformation Movement had not been started by Martin Luther when it was, perhaps we would not be so far along in the Restoration Movement tonight and many of us might not have heard the gospel of Christ. Since Germany has been the leader in the Reformation Movement, since she has produced so many scientists, educators, and musicians, we should be convinced that Germany is capable of great good, just as she is also capable of great harm. It is my firm conviction that if we can firmly establish the cause of the Lord in Germany, we will have done much to spread the kingdom of God throughout all of Europe.

It is good to be able to say that after 3 V2 years of labor in Germany that there are now in Germany nine congregations. If you would have told me 3V2 years ago when we went to Germany, that I would be back here now telling you that there were nine congregations in Germany, as optimistic as I was in regard to the work in Germany, it would have been hard for me to believe. It would have been hard for most of those who have gone to believe it and even sometimes now, we stop almost in the midst of our work and say, “Is it true, what has happened?” And yet it has happened, And yet what has happened is only the beginning of what is going to happen in Germany. What has been done in Germany has not been the result of what one person or one congregation has done. It has been the result of4 the co-operation of a number of gospel preachers and a large number of churches who have realized that it is their responsibility to stand behind those who go and support them so that they can go and work as they should.

Brethren, we are just recovering from a period of time when an evangelist went away from our shores to preach the gospel when, to a great extent, he had to go at the risk of being starved to death and then forgotten. It hasn’t been too long that churches have been interested in shouldering the responsibility and staying behind the man who went and supported them, but not only supporting them, but yea, advising them. Not long ago I knew of a man who returned from a foreign field, after having spent several years there. He came back to his home congregation. He was there for a Sunday and they didn’t even give way to let him report to that congregation. They only called on him for a short talk following the regular sermon. The elders of the church didn’t even have a meeting with the man while he was in their city to discuss with him what he was doing. They thought, ‘ We are supplying the funds, that’s enough.” But, brethren, in New Testament times the churches took an interest in what the preachers were doing. The fact that Paul and Barnabas reported to Antioch wThat they had accomplished in Asia is proof that the church took an interest in what they were teaching and how they were doing it. I am glad tonight to know that churches in America are again beginning to do the same thing.

I know that it is different from the way pioneer preachers had to go in this country. I know that there are pioneer preachers who are 'in this audience tonight, who have gone out in mission fields in America when they didn't get even the expense of the trip that they went on. Many of them have made far greater sacrifices than those of us who are going today with the support of fine congregations and fine Christian people standing back of us. But oh, what a tragedy it is to see that there are within the church those who think that we ought to return to those old days when churches would not send preachers out and stay behind them. But some churches still think their only responsibility is to send evangelists their money and leave them alone, let them do what they want to, and take no more interest in them. The Lord placed upon the church the responsibility of planting the gospel in aU the world. Paul said that the manifold wisdom of God should be made known by the church (Ephesians 3:10.).

I am glad that over in Germany there are a number of faithful brethren supported by a number of different con-gregations and that these brethren are working together. We have learned how to work together peacefully, har inoniously, and constructively to build up the church of the Lord. It is easy for us preachers to bUe and devour one another and it is sometimes hard for us to go into a new place and learn to work together, but I am glad to know that we have learned how in Germany. Shortly after Christ was baptized he chose twelve apostles to help him, and then seventy more disciples. They were not scattered mto all parts of the world. They concentrated their efforts 'in Palestine until they had changed that country to such an extent that Peter could preach one sermon on the day of Pentecost and convert three thousand. We are trying to follow their example, but let me point out a few other things to show you exactly how we are working in order to help one another and each contribute to what the other is doing in our work in Germany.

David Lipscomb College and the churches in Nashville have made a great contribution to the work in Germany by releasing and sending Brother and Sister J. C. Moore. Somebody asked “Why is he going over there? He is not a preacher.” But I don’t know of anybody that has done more for our work there than J. C. Moore. One thing, he has taught us preachers how to manage our 'business and, you know, preachers are about the poorest business managers that you will find. Now some of you say, “Oh, I don’t know about that. What I get I manage pretty well. I just don’t get enough.” Well, that may be the reason we can’t manage very well. We just don’t get enough to manage. But Brother Moore has been there and he knows how to take care of the funds that have been contributed to the work. He knows when he is getting a bargain and if somebody wants to go do something and he knows that it is a bad deal, he will tell us about it.

There are Brother Lloyd Collier, Brother Palmer, Brother and Sister Helsten, Brother and Sister Bennett, Brother and Sister Artist. Ah, as I name over these, I think of the different places that they can fit into the work over there. Brother Collier is the kind of a man willing and ready to go around and do all the jobs no one else wants to do. Brother Palmer is the kind that likes to teach in a school and can lead our singing and teach people how to sing wonderful songs. Not long ago we had a singing, and it was wonderful to hear those people sing the gospel of Christ in the German tongue. It is a great inspiration to listen to Brother Palmer lead them. Brother Bob Helsten, why, he is the most humble man in our midst, willing to work himself to death. No one would know he’s around much, but everybody learns to love him. When everybody is discouraged, he can think of something funny to say and it really helps. One of our best evangelists for holding meetings is Brother Bennett. Brother and Sister Berinett are fine workers. Brother Artist got his Doctor’s Degree in science. Somebody might ask, “Why would you want him over there?” Well, no one is any better qualified than Brother Artist to go in and talk with those modernists. He is always ready to show them that the Bible is inspired. Also in Germany are Brother and Sister Keith Coleman, Brother and Sister Richard Walker,'Brother Herman Zie- gert, Brother Delmar Bunn, Sister Helen Baker, a trained nurse, Sister Katherine Patton, a stenographer, Margaret Dunn, and Irene Johnson. Then down in Munich, there are Brother and Sister Bob Hare, Brother and Sister Jack Nadew, Brother and Sister Max Watson, and Brother and Sister Dick Smith. Let me say that out of this group, there is not a premillinialist, modernist, smoker, or warmonger in the whole group. The brethren who are over there are energetic and anxious to plant the church of the Lord, and there is not a brother ip our midst who has been questioned doctrinally or judged as unsound. The congregations that are sending them are congregations that are known in the brotherhood as being firm in the truth, willing to stand behind them, advise them, and are personally interested in their welfare. But what is being done in Germany is not just being done by Americans alone. If you would have told me three years ago that by this time, we would have Germans standing in the pulpit preaching, native preachers who had been Nazis and German soldiers, I wouldn’t have believed it. I don’t know how the providence of God led us to do it, but we found another Martin Luther over in Germany in the form of Dieter Alton. Fred Casmir and Helmut Prochhow are also fine. I think David Lipscomb College and the men who have taken time to instruct them and the churches who brought them here, can be justly proud of the accomplishments in sending those boys back to Germany to preach the gospel of Christ. Dieter Alton, Fred Casmir, and Helmut Prochnow are able to defend the church before anyone. When I mention these boys I am reminded of what Africa did to help with the work in Germany. The Central church in Nashville has been helping for a long time to establish the. church in Africa and as a result of that work today, we are blessed wonderfully in Germany through the providence of God. There was a young German man, back in about 19P8 who went down to Africa He saw the unrest that was in Germany and he got him a job to stay away from the influence of the Nazis and sent for his sweetheart to come down and jom him. He was working for a rope factory, and while there in Africa, the war broke out be-tween America, Germany, and Britain. He was interned and while he was in prison, the church of Chrst there -where Brother Chester Brown and Brother and Sister George Hook were preachug, needed an engineer. Brother Steineger, this young man that went from Germany and was interned, wras an engineer. They released him to them, and what did that do? What did that start? Ah, that started back in 1945. In 1946, Brother Sherrod and I, one of the elders of the Broadway church, who is hore (he has paid his own way to Germany twice) went to Germany, thinking we were beginning the foundatmn of the work in Germany; but down in Africa, something was working that we didn't know about. Brother Palmer and I landed in Germany on June 6, 1947. But on exactly the same day, Ulrich Steineger landed in Bramerhaven. He didn’t know we were landing and we didn’t know he was landing, but a few days later, here came a message from Africa, through America, to Germany saying there was a Christian in Hamburg who was converted in Africa. We wrote for him to come to Frankfurt. He came and has been working full time in the church there, since. He is one of the most influential men in our congregations. His name is Ulrich Steineger. He has a fine Christian wife and four children. He takes the leadership in the Tiergarten congregation, does personal work daily and is now going to Heidelberg regularly to help with that congregation. I verily believe that if every American had to leave Germany tomorrow the church would go on, because of men like Dieter Alten, Fred Casmir, Helmut Prochnow, Ulrich Steineger and a number of other German men.

Besides these men who are already working full time in Germany, WP ha^e some more boys 'm school here in America and some who are giving their full time to training in Germany. There are two more boys now in David Lipscomb College—-Hans Novak, and Dieter Goebel. Two are now attending A. C. C.—Rene Oheneaux Repond and Dieter Buchholz, and soon two will be receiving training in Harding College. In addition to this we are giving training to a number ol young men in our school in Frankfurt. Three years ago we started a school in Frankfurt with only a few students registered. When it opened for the third y ear in September 1950 there were twenty five young men and women registered. In this school only religious subjects are taught and our specific aim is to train teachers, preachers, and church leaders. We have a regular course of study in which we teach the same Bible courses taught m a regular four year college. The third year mcludes courses that are usually offered to complete a Master of Arts Degree in religion. In addition to these courses that are taught in the day time, we have numbers of courses that are taught at night, time in order to prepare the members of the church who cannot attend during the .day time. All of these classes are taught in a building that was completed January 1951 and is located just across the street from the University of Frankfurt. If any of our students desire to study secular subjects they can get this training in the University tor we do not teach secular subjects. We have class rooms in our build'ng for five hundred and a small auditorium that seats two hundred and now a larger auditorium that will seat nine hundred ^s being built at this same location. All together in and near Frankfurt we teach about forty classes per week and have enrolled between two and three thousand people. Of course not all of these classes are taught in this one building but in different halls that -we have rented for this purpose. But rooms for such classes are getting harder and harder to get. It has always been a problem to find places in which to conduct Bible classes and church services. But we were able to get them because we were helping so many peonle with food and clothing, and the universities, schools, and city officials were glad to do us favors. But the longer we have been there the more and more we have converted people. Naturally the Lutherans and Catholics do not like this and have been bringing pressure on city officials to not let us have those buildings. In some places they have succeeded in closing the school buildings we were using. For example, in Heidelberg we were teaching about one hundred children but the schools have closed their doors and now we have no places in •which to teach them. Fo1* these and other reasons we believe it is time for us to erect buildings of our own in which to teach and preach. This is necessary if our work is going to continue to be successful. For that reason my brethren in Germany sent me liack to America to raise funds for seven different church buildings with class rooms. These buildings are to be erected in Frankfurt, Hanau, Heppenheim, Heidelberg, Mannhenn, and in Munich. All together we. will need about $200,000.00 to erect these buildings.

You might think that the German brethren should pay for the erection of these buildings, and they are doing all they can. Several of the congregations have laid aside substantial amounts, considering their incomes, to help in erecting their buildings. But it would take a number of years for the German brethren to §et aside enough money to erect the buildings that are needed now. For that reason we came to America with the conviction that American brethren would be glad to furnish the money for these buildings and thus push the work in Germany ahead so that we can take advantage of the opportunities that are there now. But we are not waiting' for buildings to be erected before we work with all our strength. Summer before last we decided that we would like to conduct the first gospel meeting in Germany. We didn’t know whether the people would come or not, but we experimented to see by renting a large tent in which to conduct a tent meeting. We were well pleased to see about five hundred people every night coming to hear the gospel of Christ. Then this last summer we bought our own tent and moved it every two weeks to a new location and I have seen as many as seven and eight hundred people per night coming to hear us preach. This coming summer and perhaps every summer from now on our tent will be on the move again while we go out to harvest souls for the kingdom of God. In these tent meetings two of us usually do the preaching while the rest of us do personal work. As we go out to do personal work we take the young men along with us who are in our school and teach them and train them just as Paul trained Timothy and Titus by giving them actual experience under our guidance in teaching and winning souls for the Lord.

It is good to be able to tell you about these good things that God has done with us and through us in the spreading of his kingdom. But there are opportunities in Germany we have never even begun to touch. The people in Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Hannover, Stuttgart, and hundreds of other German cities are just as receptive as the people in the cities where we have already gone with the gospel of Christ. It has been our earnest desire from the very beginning to go to these cities just as soon as possible with the gospel of Christ. For that reason we have been as busy as possible in training young men who are Germans that they might help us reap the harvest of souls that is now ripe. But we should not wait until we have these young men adequately trained to go. We should go now. Daily we receive letters begging us to send teachers not only to these cities but also even to eastern Germany behind the iron curtain.

We now have an opportunity to get on Radio Luxenbourg, the only radio station in Europe on which one can buy radio time, and start broadcasting the gospel all over Germany. This station is two and one half times as strong as the strongest radio station in America. The broadcasts will begin about the first of August and all winter long we shall be going into thousands of homes with the gospel where we have never before gone. Brother Dieter Alten will be doing the preaching and in connection with these broadcasts we shall be offering our correspondence Bible course to any who desire to enroll free of charge. All winter long these broadcasts will continue and by the time next summer comes we believe that we will have fifty or one hundred enrolled from Berlin, Hamburg, and other cities. By then we should have a number of men who will be prepared to go into these new places and work together in a united effort to establish the church just as we have worked together in and near Frankfurt and Munich. But we need more American evangelists and teachers to come to Germany to help us. The German people now are particularly receptive to American preachers. They much prefer to hear American preachers to their own preachers. They are dissatisfied with their old religions and are looking for something that is new and better. If there are fathers and mothers who can send their sons away to die on the battlefields for their country there should also be hundreds of Christian fathers and mothers who will be willing for their sons and daughters to come to Germany to help us. If you have a son or daughter who has finished high school or is in college we would be glad for them to come to Germany. There they can continue their Bible training in our school while at the same time we use them and train them in mission work in a place where the people are begging for the truth. Within the next few years we hope to begin preaching the gospel in ten or twenty more German cities, and after several years of work in these cities we can tell you that we have ten or twenty thousand brethren in Germany. If we can convert a thousand in three years m and near Frankfurt and Munich we can do equally as well in the other cities. Brethren, when we make investments by being willing to give our sons and daughters into this work we are helping to make troubled Europe a peaceful place in which to live. And in so doing we are making a real contribution to the peace of this world. War with its devastation, where it has killed more than twenty-two milhon people during the last war, has made the German people particularly receptive to the gospel of Christ, and we cannot claim to be true citizens of the kingdom of God if we allow this vacuum to go unfilled. They wull turn to something, and if they do not turn to ways of peace they will again turn to ways of war. How do you know but what (tod has raised us up for such times as this. I close with the words of the song we have so often sung:

Far and near the fields are teeming
With their waves of ripened grain . . .
Lord of Harvest, send forth reapers . . .
* Hear us Lord to thee we pray.
Send them now the sheaves to gather
Ere the harvest time pass by.

If we respond and are .willing to go ourselves, we are only making an investment in the destiny of our own children. History shows us that apostasy has come in many places, and the indications are that it w”ll come again here in America through the influence of some paper, school, corrupt and selfish preachers, or cold and indifferent congregations and ciders. If we send the pure gospel to Germany now maybe in a few decades they will be sending evangelists back to our country to preach the gospel here after the truth has been destroyed by anostasy. And if we are willing to go now", willing to sacrifice enough in going and in sending, God will bless us, and if we are willing to work hard enough I feel sure that God will providentially overrule the. destiny of the rulers of the different lands so that we will perhaps have the chance to go to many nations in Europe and make our contribution in helping to prevent the third world war.