Snapshot #2 Outside The Square

The East German Fellowship

In the 1970s, when I was in high school, I vividly recall travelling to East Germany (when it was behind the Iron Curtain), with my family and visiting a small evangelical church in the south. A group of twenty or so adults and children gathered in the living room of an older, meagre home. Though my German was poor, it was good enough to follow the service, which was more a gathering of extended family than a public event. The singing was bright and heartfelt; there were tears of devotion in the eyes of some, singing about their Lord. 

The testimonies came thick and fast, and passionate prayers of gratitude for the Lord’s provision were offered. The sermon was grounded in the testimonies, connecting the passage to the congregation’s experiences. The pastor was more like a conductor who unpacked the stories and grounded them in the Scriptures than the 'professional' preacher. “This scripture is just for us for this week!” The prayers were not about security or protection but for courage to live authentically in the face of a truly hostile regime and the powers that supported it. Their clothes were not stylish, the communal meal was plain, but the stories of courage and grace in the midst of difficulty were inspiring. I learnt much later that the high school children present had been denied tertiary enrolment on graduation because of their disavowal of the communist youth league and their profession of faith.

Here was a community of faith whose faithful living marked it out as a joyful and appreciated witness to its locale, and also marked it for vindictive opposition from the State. It thrived in weakness in a way that I have not seen readily in our 'Christian' west. 

A number of years later, after the fall of the Berlin wall, we heard from the pastor’s wife who told us how they had so hoped that the collapse of communism would free the churches there to more powerfully witness. Instead, it had the opposite effect. Everywhere the churches were emptying as people pursued the lure of western materialism. Western Christians brought  aspirational lifestyles and conformity to consumeristic values. The young people were no longer discipled to carry their cross. Spiritual entertainment was, she felt, becoming endemic.

As I reflect on this story, I am reminded of a comment by Os Guinness, at a conference some time ago, to the effect that, wherever Western modernity takes hold, it undermines the integrity of the local church. How ironic it is that the non-western church, weak and marginalised, with few of the accoutrements of the western churches, knows little of the lassitude which besets us.

Next time: The rebel’s group that grew by accident!