Berlin 2017
Siehe, ich bin bei euch alle Tage bis an der Welt ende
This is one of the two inscriptions in giant gold letters on the front of the Berliner Dom, the cathedral on whose lawn I spent most of my reflection and journaling time. It is Matthew 18:20, when Jesus sends out his followers to tell the world that there is finally a way to experience perfect love and life the way it was meant to be experienced: in fellowship with God. This is the reason we came to Berlin, and it is fitting that my favorite spot in the city proclaims it.
You’d think that in a city where the (in my opinion) grandest, most beautiful of the attractions quotes Jesus, the people would know at least something about who Jesus was, why his life was significant, and what he taught. You might hold this opinion more strongly if you also knew that the German church and state are not separate, and religion classes are part of the core curriculum in elementary schools, and are offered as electives through high school. Sadly, the most common answer I heard when I asked students if they could give me a summary of Jesus’ main message was “I don’t know.” There were also a couple answers of “love one another,” and one “the Ten Commandments?” There is also a pervasive belief in the relativity of truth, creating a cultural apathy for God and the perception that discussion of his existence is irrelevant. Students associate God with organized religion; specifically, the brand of Protestantism administered by the state, which seems to teach little of the Bible, and requires high taxes of its members.
When we did find students who were open to having conversations about the gospel, they never had an issue with Jesus or his message. Their obstacles were consistently with the form of organized religion they’d been exposed to, with ways people who called themselves Christians had sinned against them or others, or with the lack of hard evidence of the existence of God. When we explained that God isn’t concerned with peoples’ memberships with a church or how good a life they live, but just wants people to admit that they can’t achieve God’s standard of perfection on their own, which breaks their relationship with God and every other created thing, and that through deciding to follow Jesus this relationship is immediately and eternally restored, students were often pleasantly surprised. One of the STINTers (American interns who are there for one or two years) shared a story about how one time, he shared the #fallingplates video with a German student who said the religion he had the most experience with was Christianity, and afterwards the student said that the video seemed like a brand new religion!
During the three weeks our team of 15 students and 6 staff spent in Berlin, we spent time at 7 universities, asking students to share their perspectives on things like the nature of God, human nature, the meaning of life, the source of spiritual truth, and who they believe Jesus was. We initiated 502 of these conversations, engaged in 275, and through this, presented the gospel and brought 50 people to a point of decision, and we have one new brother in Christ! Also, we spoke with people from 47 different countries. We also helped the Cru movement there host a few outreaches, including a pancake breakfast and weekly volleyball games, helping Christians we met on campus get connected with other students involved with the movement.
My favorite conversation I got to have was with a student named Romina who grew up going to a Catholic church with her parents and grandma, but in her early teen years she decided to step away from religion, and from a belief in the God of the Bible, mainly because she didn’t see any evidence of God working or interacting with her life or her world. In the years since she’d stopped going to church, she’d forgotten basically everything she’d been taught about the Bible and about Jesus, so when I asked her what she knew about Jesus’ message, she said, “I don’t know, feel free to educate me!”That was a perfect door for my teammate and I to share the gospel with her, as well as discuss her obstacles further. At one point during our discussion, she actually said the words, “I love this! You’ll make a believer of me yet!” It was obvious God was working in her heart, and I feel incredibly blessed to have been a part of helping someone understand the beauty of Jesus’ grace. She wasn’t ready to make a decision to follow Christ at that moment, but we left some resources with her, so please be praying that she will continue to pursue truth, and perhaps feel led to attend a Cru meeting and connect herself with some of the Cru students from her campus.
Another highlight for me was a conversation I had on our very last day with a student named Johanna. One of the staff women, Mindy, had met Johanna on an earlier day at one of our main universities in Berlin, but had set up a second meeting with her in Potsdam, where she lived. So Mindy and I took the train down to Potsdam to meet with Johanna. She gave us a tour of the Prussian palaces and beautiful palace gardens there, and at one point somehow the topic of religion was brought up briefly, and from what I could tell Johanna thought that religion was pointless, perhaps even harmful, and religious people were no better, consistently starting wars throughout history. Later, we went to lunch, and through our questions just trying to get to know Johanna, we found out that she has a huge appreciation for death and the macabre. Somehow Mindy turned this into a conversation about how Jesus was the only person who has claimed to have overcome death, as well as the evidence for his resurrection. Johanna was intrigued, but it was clear she was skeptical. We recommended some further resources to her, which she said seemed interesting. She also said that she had an audiobook of the Bible downloaded on her phone, and had always meant to listen to it, but it was just too long and intimidating so she’d never started. We told her that the Bible can be summarized in four main points, and that we actually had a four-point summary in German. We went through it with her, and the more we discussed, the more engaged she became in the conversation. She would ask questions that would lead straight into the next thing we wanted to talk about, and even restate the principles in her own words. It was amazing to watch someone transition from a slight belligerence toward God to a gentle appreciation of the concept of grace, and humbling to have gotten to take part in that.
My personal main takeaway from the trip was a reexamination of my paradigm of eternal significance. I spent so much time sitting in awe before cathedrals, palaces, monuments, memorials, and artifacts that are older than anything I’d seen before, amazed at the great feats of beauty that man can accomplish. Here’s an excerpt of something I wrote the first evening I spent sitting in front of the Berliner Dom:
As I sit here, journaling in front of the Berliner Dom … I’m reminded of the length of history: all the things this cathedral has seen, all the hundreds of thousands of people who have marveled at its façade through the centuries from the very spot I’m sitting, the 100+ people milling about the plaza at this very moment & how many different cultures & languages must be represented among the very people surrounding me. I marvel at the length of eternity in comparison to this cathedral: it was built relatively recently, all of history considered, and it won’t be around forever. Then I consider the people around me: the woman in front of me pausing to sit and eat a snack before she continues her bike ride, the group of Germans about my age to my left, the tourists with the selfie stick a short distance across the lawn, the live musicians across the square. These people are eternal. They are made to live forever in perfect harmony with God. They are created to experience perfect love. How many of them do? How many of them know that this is what their purpose is, and where the satisfaction they are searching for lies? Human souls are infinitely more valuable to God than a beautiful cathedral.
Three things are eternal: God, his Word, and people’s souls. Constant awareness of how my time and energy are spent pursuing eternally significant things rather than things of insignificance is a practice, and one at which I aim to improve every day.
I’d like to thank everyone who supported me financially and in prayer. You are the ones who made this trip and these beautiful conversations possible, and I invite you to celebrate with me in the decision we saw someone make for the first time to follow Christ!