Conversion in Germany

Front matter

CONVERSION IN GERMANY

An Analysis of Patterns of Diffusion in Evangelical Church Planting (2010-2020)

Frank R. Liesen

Contents

Tables cern nee euren 19 Figues „en. ee einen 21 Preface 4... eier REA ne 23 Chapter 1 Introduction... use ke 27 Literature RevieW inercio A N i 28

Thesis Statement .s5éascscscsivés cdedecssessasostidesteasedssssossseaecasatelecvivvesedesodese 41

The Distinctiveness of the Study sesiis 41

Chapter 3

African Migrants in Germany .uunenneemseenensennnsenseennsenneenstennenn 74 African Migrant Churches in Germany .ueneesensenseeneensenneennennnen 75 Failure of Reverse Mission in Germany ..nenneneneseneneneenne

Potential of Reverse Mission in Germany ....

Conelusion. u... san The History of Redeemer City to City in Germany „s.s... 80 The Origins of Redeemer City to City nneneeneneenseenneennseenseennenn 83 CONCLUSION nenne 87 Coneclüsion EEE P A T E E T 88 Local Context of Hope Center... 91 History Of Hope Center u... 91 Transmissió Manainn aa a a 94

Moved by Spiritual Experiences Translation csc csseisdateescdasecssesdedeadssateessesdedteseaesdeedasdadeadtssteeaeddapeestistcease 99 Drawn by Community Dynamics ....usenenseneenseensensenneensennn 102 Turnaround nenne es 104 Affirmed Point and Process Transformation Embraced Social Action... 113 Changed by Pentecostal Application ....eeneneenenen 114 Retransmission un... EE ate dsadtaateses 116 Training in Retransmission acusen 117 Provided Opportunities for Retransmission «00... 118 Summary of Diffusional Themes ssis 120 Translation „u. ee een 120 Jurnaround orosenie Rerik 120 Tränsformations..aueun uses 120

Retransmission u... dive sdbncatdcdesvivnteteiveuswastateiesavtaveasts 121

14 Contents Local Context of Gospel Church Munich 0... eee 124 Transmission ass sacs sues ncessconcsees cose cove svsetesesivadsiosesssastssud iini 126 Committed to Corporate Transmission... teense 128 Moved by Spiritual Experiences seciscinnssucinsuiniunies 130 Translation cssicissessecesstusccecccsacdenstuacdessestedesstancdesevsctedisetacndiorscrdeestueess 131 Attracted by Translated Programs sussessoc iuris 131

Turnaround einen enges 136 Connected Conversion and Discipleship 0.0.0... 142

Transformation u... caste aacennsarsenlencatieianiddhesdicievansteedaeees 143 Embraced Social Action. am an 148 Changed by Spiritual Application... 150

Retransmission sssini ioios iess iniaa ia ea isnin 151 Training in Retransmission cenieni 152 Provided Opportunities for Retransmission «0.0... 154

Transmission roninai en ea anal 155

Translauon. „u... een 155

Turnaround eroriaren an E

Overview of Research at ConnectKirche Erfurt «00... 157 Local Context of ConnectKirche Erfurt... 158 History of ConnectKirche Erfurt... 158 Observation of a Worship Service „une 160 Transmission

Committed to Corporate Transmission... 162 Moved by Spiritual Experiences suisses 164 Translation: .,snesnintesskeiineerieselelen Related through Translated Communication Drawn by Community Dynamics ....nenensensenseensensensennennn (Not) Affected by Pentecostal Translation 0...

Turnaround osc sscccsccssescscccdsccacescsscncecdsscucesessensncsssvacesesscacendssvacesessenseas 171 Affirmed Point and Processioni 175 Connected Conversion and Discipleship 0.0.0... eee 176 Transformation „aueh 178 Pursued Scripture Formation uennnnsneiennn 181 Embraced Social ACH Oth u.a een 183

Provided Opportunities for Retransmission «00... 188 Summary of Diffusional Themes... 190 Transmission Translation ce ir ERDRanee Tornaod eas en ra NEE Transformation uses ren 191 Retransmission. sensin reniir a a ES 191 Chapter 6 Cross-case Analysis .cscsscccssscssssssssivsssssssesssssssestsesseasssusscantovuses 193 Multi-Faceted Transmission: Engaged with the Multi- Versatile Propagation u... este 194 Committed to Corporate Transmission... 196 Biblical’Dissemination...n nern

Caring Translation: Related through Careful Translation in ä Loving Community een 201 Careful Translation u... nee 201

Related through Translated Communication «00... 204 Loving Community anesessensensensensensensensensensensennsensensensensennennenn 207 (Not) Affected by Pentecostal Translation* 0... 209

Clear Turnaround: Enabled Conversion through Clear

Glear.Invitätions=n:.2.0 ea N N 210

Explicit Discipleship: sessar 214 Connected Conversion and Discipleship 0.0... 216

Deep Transformation: Pursued Deep Discipleship with

Biblical Standards and Social Engagement... 218

Deep Discipleship: aan 218 Pursued Scripture Formation ....ussensnnenseensensennennennnenneen 221

Social Engagement ...n een 224

Continual Retransmission: Propagated Retransmission with a Continual Facilitation of Outreach

Continual Propagation...

Continual Facilitation ss use eters Een 233

SUMMAIY nie pes ENESES E E S 235 Chapter 7 Conclusion ....c:sccccsssscsecsssissecssesssecetcanssstecconssonsteonssndonessuetentehaade 237 Review of Thesis and Research Methodology 0.0... see 237 Flow of Dissertationes an a 238 Summary and Implications. smise ccccavscscateasecisivacuccstenchetessscscidescens 238

Caring Translation. u... een 239

Clear Turnaround ss. ann ni nina 240

Deep: Transformation. sesa as 241

Potential Applications „u.a nennen 243

Outlook: 2.2. 22:2. en reellen 247

Appendix 4 Codebook a... aaa

Appendix 5 Coding Procedure and Overview of Diffusional Patten. oiciscceicscisestetecericeelessnstinaeicetecnsat dt enidael a stieadetecuagtts

Appendix 6 Letter of Introduction and Church Consent Form ou... cece eesseesseesseeesseeeseesneesneecneenneeeneensees

Bibliography nun

Tables

Table 1 List of converts who participated in interviews at HCB Table 2 List of converts who participated in interviews at GCM Table3 List of converts who participated in interviews at CKE

Figures

Fig. 1 The Diffusional Matrix of Conversion ....uuunneeneenenneensennsenneenn Fig.2 Our Heart Strategic Discipleship Plan at CKE .... Fig.4 The Gray Matrix

Preface

The motivation to engage in this research project came from my own conversion experience as a teenager. Born and raised in Germany, I had little interest in spiritual matters and believed the EKD, the church I was born into, was the last place to look for God. My radical conversion from no faith to trusting Jesus for my salvation occurred as an exchange student in the United States. Since then, the following question intrigued me: “How can secular Germans find faith even though most have closed the chapter of Christianity and do not consider the Christian faith a viable alternative to finding meaning in life?” Hence, the research question for this dissertation evolved to discover how people in secular Germany can experience transformational conversion. A qualitative study of three evangelical church plants and a limited selection of converts allowed me to trace the stories of conversion and better understand how evangelical churches can “make disciples” despite their adverse context.

The journey of drafting this dissertation after a long break from academia was truly enriching and challenging. Special thanks belong to several people who played a crucial role in helping me succeed in this process. Dr. Paige Patterson made it possible for me to enter the World Christian Studies program through scholarship opportunities. Dr. Keith Eitel inspired me with his deep commitment to academic excellence and the inerrant Scriptures as the ultimate authority in contextualization. My mentor Dr. Schulze spent many hours encouraging me, discussing every step of my research, and intriguing me with new or alternative perspectives. Finally, my wife Terrae, and our good friend Jane DeVries, spent long hours proofreading my dissertation. Thank you to all for their willingness and sacrifice to walk alongside me. Gott allein sei die Ehre.

Abbreviations

BEFG

BFeG

BFP

CKE CtC CtCE DMC EKD

GCM GST HCB

Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden (Federation of Evangelical-Free Churches; German Baptist denomination)

Bund Freier evangelischer Gemeinden in Deutschland (Federation

of Free Evangelical Churches in Germany; German Evangelical-Free Church denomination)

Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden (Federation of Free Pentecostal Churches; German Pentecostal denomination)

ConnectKirche Erfurt (ConnectChurch Erfurt)

Redeemer City to City network

Redeemer City to City network in Europe

Diffusional Matrix of Conversion

Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (Evangelical Church in Germany; mainline Protestant denomination)

Gospel Church Munich

Giessen School of Theology

Hope Center in Berlin

Chapter 1 Introduction

Present-day Germany is a post-Christian nation. Religious pluralism, a decrease of ethical and religious convictions originating in Christianity, individualism, and secularization describe the cultural influences in Germany.’ Mainline churches have suffered from a drastic decline in membership for several decades and expect to lose half of their members by 2060.’ The average growth of membership in conservative, evangelical denominations has been minimal. The four major evangelical denominations only grew by about 20,000 members from 2002 to 2012. Philipp Bartholomä speaks of a crisis of mission in Germany.’ Evangelical leaders of German denominations yearn to counter this negative missional trend by initiating a church planting movement since the methodology of church planting promises an increase in conversion growth.‘ This qualitative multi-case study focuses on three evangelical church plants that exhibited an unusually high number of conversions among secular Germans and traces the factors that contributed to the diffusion of the gospel. The study reveals how

1 Stefan Paas, “Post-Christian, Post-Christendom, and Post-Modern Europe: Towards the Interaction of Missiology and the Social Sciences,” Mission Studies 28, no. 1 (2011), 11, https://doi.org/10.1163/016897811X572168. The loss of Christian values as a motivational basis and the relegation of Christians to a minority status defines the term post-Christian according to Paas.

2 Elke Schäfer, “Kirchenaustritte evangelische und katholische Kirche [Membership loss in the EKD and Catholic Church]; Forschungsgruppe Weltanschauungen in Deutschland, September 1, 2017, https://bit.ly/2JEzHxF; Reinhard Bingener, “Studie sieht dramatischen Mitgliederverlust in beiden Kirchen [Study reveals drastic membership loss in both churches],” Frankfurter Allgemeine Inland, last modified May 2, 2019, https://bit.ly/2 VnpyrA.

3 Philipp F. Bartholomä, “Gibt es eine freikirchliche ‘Krise der Mission?’ Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme [Is there an evangelical crisis in mission? A critical assessment]; Freikirchenforschung 26 (2017): 218-36.

4 “2018 NC2P-Berlin Gathering Highlights,’ 2018, video, 7:13, http://www.nc2p.org/ national-stories. Leaders across denominations met during the National Church Planting Process (NC2P) conference to discuss a church planting movement in Germany from February 5-7, 2018. Paas concludes church planting does aid conversion growth despite his skepticism of the related empirical data in the church growth movement. Stefan Paas, “A Case Study of Church Growth by Church Planting in Germany: Are They Connected?,” International Bulletin of Mission Research 42, no. 1 (November 6, 2017): 40-42, 50-53.

church plants transmitted the Christian faith, translated their ministry to attract secular Germans, facilitated conversion, and moved converts to transformational changes and missional involvement. The diffusional patterns that emerged during the research disclose how and why Germans experienced transformational conversion. Each church represents one of three evangelical movements that bear hope for re-evangelizing secular Europe: migrant mission efforts, globally active church planting organizations, and new Pentecostal churches. Thus, the findings provide critical insights into the present-day phenomenon of gospel diffusion through evangelical church plants in secular Germany and add to the historical account of missions in world Christianity.

This literature review introduces the topic of the diffusion of the gospel and its corresponding themes of transmission, translation, transformation, and retransmission that shape the phenomenon of conversion. The various theological and sociological perspectives from authors in the academic disciplines of World Christian Studies, Missiology, and Theology precede a reflection of literature that bears on these topics in a European, and more specifically, a German context of mission and church planting. The current literature reveals the sparse research on evangelical conversions through church planting efforts in Germany. Andrew Walls, the Scottish historian who shaped the academic discipline of World Christian Studies, believes that conversion, with its affirmation and reorientation of indigenous cultures, has been vital to the cross-cultural diffusion of Christianity throughout history.’ The diffusion of the Christian message across cultures is possible because of the linguistic and conceptual translatability of the gospel, grounded in the original act of translation in the Incarnation of Christ.° Walls describes two principles that are active in this translation process and shape the forming of Christian communities in the indigenizing principle and the pilgrim principle. God accepts converts with their cultural predispositions through the indigenizing principle, causing local expressions to embody faith,

5 Andrew F. Walls, The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission and Appropriation of Faith (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002), 66-68, Kindle.

6 Andrew F. Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996), 26-29, 44, 47; Andrew F. Walls, “Converts or Proselytes? The Crisis over Conversion in the Early Church,’ International Bulletin of Missionary Research 28, no. 1 (January 2004): 4.

while the pilgrim principle challenges a culture with the binding truths of the gospel. Either principle is prone to abuse when Christian communities prevent the canonical Scriptures from challenging culture or impose culturally foreign requirements.’

Walls describes conversion as “the opening up of the functioning system of personality, intellect, emotions, relationships to the new meaning, to the expressions of Christ?* Conversion implies a transformation that utilizes, rather than replaces, pre-existing structures of thought and behavior in a continual turning process. Correspondingly, Christian teachings alter, rather than completely substitute, pre-existing worldviews.’ Ideally, converts retain and creatively reapply God’s Word within their cultural context in Christian discipleship. The discipleship of nations in their fundamental structures of cultural identity follows personal conversion in a generational process.'° Walls concludes that it is too late for revival in his native, post-Christian Scotland but places his hope in basic evangelism through migrant missionaries from the Global South who will provide a critical voice for Western churches in their struggle with syncretism." Walls’s perspective raises the question of how, and to what effect, the translation of the gospel positions culture and Scripture in the transformational process of conversion.

Lamin Sanneh, a former professor at Yale Divinity School, together with Andrew Walls, founded the Yale-Edinburgh Group of World Christian Studies. Although both passed away recently, their voices will remain highly influential among scholars of world Christianity. Sanneh notes that translating the Bible in the vernacular languages helped to preserve indigenous cultures and situated Christianity as a culturally pluralistic religion. He promotes a shift in perspective for the spread of Christianity from the missionary entity to the recipients of the Christian message, who continued to spread the gospel and plant indigenous churches.”

9 Walls, The Missionary Movement, 28-29; Andrew F. Walls, Crossing Cultural Frontiers: Studies in the History of World Christianity, ed. Mark R. Gornik (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2017), 38-42, Google Books.

10 Walls, The Missionary Movement, 35-36, 49-51; Walls, “Converts or Proselytes,” 6.

11 Andrew F. Walls and Cathy Ross, eds., Mission in the 21st Century: Exploring the Five Marks of Global Mission (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008), 198-99, 203-04; Walls, Cross-Cultural Process, 68; Walls, Crossing Cultural Frontiers, 63-64.

12 Lamin O. Sanneh, Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture, 2nd ed., rev. and expanded, American Society of Missiology Series no. 42 (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis

Sanneh welcomes indigenous cultural beliefs to blend with historic Christianity in the translation process by setting the indigenous culture in dialectic tension with Scripture.’ His view of conversion illustrates this tension between the formative influences of the Bible and culture. Conversion, according to Sanneh, is the turning of all of humanity “without leaving anything behind” or “replacing what is there with something else.” Sanneh postulates that conversion does not lead to syncretism as long as the Christian message preserves its Christian character in the indigenous context. The tension remains unresolved since genuine Christianity finds its only boundary in the faith community that converts join, continually creating new faith traditions with the potential of “fresh materials being introduced into Scripture.’ Further empirical research is necessary to determine whether Walls’s and Sanneh’s view of translation enriches the understanding of Christianity or distorts the gospel. Also, a shift in perspective to the indigenous recipient of the gospel prompts the question of the missionary contribution in the translation process.'!®

Philip Jenkins, who popularized the idea of world Christianity with his book The Next Christendom, points to the south- and eastward shift in the explosive, demographic growth of Christianity, moving from Europe to Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Jenkins surmises that the typical faith of a Global South Christian affirms a conservative view of biblical convictions and moral

Books, 2009), 16, 51-59, 79-84, 119-22, Google Books; Lamin O. Sanneh, “World Christianity and The New Historiography: History and Global Interconnections,” in Enlarging the Story: Perspectives on Writing World Christian History, ed. Wilbert R. Shenk (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002), 94; Lamin O. Sanneh, Whose Religion Is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003), 10- 11, 18.

13 Lamin O. Sanneh, Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity, Oxford Studies in World Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 67-69, Google Books; Sanneh, Translating the Message, 14; Keith E. Eitel, “World Christianity,’ in Missiology: An Introduction to the Foundations, History, and Strategies of World Missions, ed. John M. Terry (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2015), “Critiquing Forward: Time for Western Introspection,’ LifeWay.

14 Sanneh, Whose Religion, 43.

15 Sanneh, Whose Religion, 59, 43-47. Sanneh also differentiates between conversion as translation, focusing on “indigenous theological inquiry,’ or conversion as diffusion, which implies foreign “cultural adaption,’ Sanneh, Translating the Message, 51-52.

16 Jin Hyung Park, “Journey of the Gospel: A Study in the Emergence of World Christianity and the Shift of Christian Historiography in the Last Half of the Twentieth Century” (PhD diss., Princeton Theological Seminary, 2009), 131.

teachings, stresses personal salvation and the supernatural, and maintains a literal approach to Bible interpretation."

Jenkins believes the reverse migration of southern Christians consequently bears the potential for a revived, distinctly charismatic type of Christianity in Europe. Signs of indigenous spiritual renewal also oppose the perception that secularism effaced vital forms of Christianity.'* Even though movements of spiritual vitality remain local occurrences, they provide insights for regions with similar cultural dynamics." The case study about a second-generation African migrant church offers an example of the missionary activity of Christians from the Global South in secular Germany.

Leslie Newbigin, former missionary to India and founder of The Gospel and Our Culture movement in Britain, sought to inspire “a genuinely missionary encounter” with secular Europe and North America.” He describes Europe as a pagan society born out of the rejection of Christianity, and therefore more resistant to the gospel than pre-Christian societies. Newbigin states that effective mission work in the West is only possible when it challenges a secular worldview that relegates Christianity with its exclusive truth claim into the private sphere of subjective opinions.*! Nonetheless, the appeal to an ultimate source of authority cannot challenge culture. Newbigin rejects an inerrant approach to the Bible and believes Christian traditions have continually reshaped its content.” Instead, the calling of the church in the secular West is to testify to the gospel as universal

17 Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, 3rd ed. (Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 2011), 1-10, 101-19, Kindle; Philip Jenkins, The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 1-17.

18 Jenkins, The Next Christendom, 99, 119-25. Jenkins points to the presence of African churches in Germany, the German, evangelistic ProChrist events inspired by the Billy Graham’s crusades, or the cross-denominational charismatic movement, in Philip Jenkins, Gottes Kontinent? Uber die religiöse Krise und die Zukunft von Islam und Christentum [God’s continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe’ religious crisis], (Freiburg: Herder, 2008), 72-76, 93-100, 108-21.

19 Jenkins, Gottes Kontinent, 362-64.

20 Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986), 1.

21 Newbigin, Foolishness, 10-20. On page 19, Newbigin criticizes Protestant churches that withdrew into the private sector willingly and refrain from challenging culture with Christ’s universal claim of truth and authority.

22 Newbigin, Foolishness, 45-46, 55-56.

truth publicly and provide credibility to its message by living out the gospel as a community of faith, thus becoming a “hermeneutic of the gospel?”

According to Newbigin, the conversion of the whole person must include the conversion of culture. Christian faith that does not affect structures of social life remains superficial.* Whether Newbigins claim that evangelical Christians have erroneously separated these aspects of a private and public call to discipleship remains true in contemporary efforts of church planting calls for empirical exploration.”

David Hesselgrave, “the driving force behind the evangelical study of missions in the 20th century,’ proposes an approach to contextualization that faithfully communicates God’s will based on the inerrant Scriptures and translates it effectively into particular cultures.” Bi-cultural or indigenous believers are most apt for the task of contextualization, allowing for a cross-fertilization of contextualization between the communicator and recipient of the gospel.” Facing a postmodernist spirituality in the West, “true evangelical Christian contextualizers” encourage spiritual formation by a concerted effort of teaching biblical doctrines as propositional truth.” In contrast to Newbigin, Hesselgrave advocates a view of Christian mission that prioritizes the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of the lost without disregarding the need for social action.”

Hesselgrave points out that the Christian call to conversion with its exclusive truth claim and demand for ethical change was as uncommon during the time of the New Testament as it is in the twenty-first century and hence has not lost

23 Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (New York: SPCK Classics, 2014), 227, 126, 191-93, 227-33, Newbigin, Foolishness, 56-58.

24 Newbigin, Pluralistic Society, 188-89. Newbigin states that a medieval Christendom form of Christianity, controlling all aspects of society, is no longer viable. True discipleship, though, includes both personal faith and a vision for a society shaped by Christian values. Newbigin, Foolishness, 124-41.

25 Newbigin, Foolishness, 132-33.

26 Kate Shellnutt, “Died: David Hesselgrave, Scholar Who Made Missions Cross-Cultural,” Christianity Today, May 22, 2013, https://bit.ly/2I1kzey; David J. Hesselgrave and Edward Rommen, Contextualization: Meanings, Methods, and Models (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1989), 172-74, 195-96, 199-211.

27 Hesselgrave, Contextualization, 174-75, 198, 211.

28 David J. Hesselgrave, Paradigms in Conflict: 15 Key Questions in Christian Missions Today, ed. Keith E. Eitel, 2nd exp. and upd. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2018), 240, 239-40.

29 Hesselgrave, Paradigms in Conflict, 120.

its relevance.” Conversion calls for an urgent and radical decision of repentance and faith but also requires a process-sensitive approach that acknowledges conversion as a point and process of decision-making. Thus, church leaders need to allow for a time of deliberation by the convert while providing culturally sensitive opportunities for decisions of repentance and belief. Hesselgrave warns against the pressure to produce quick decisions without adequate explanations of faith in a quest for numerical success, resulting in superficial, non-transformational conversions.*' Furthermore, new believers face challenges during a period of dissonance after conversion when they require diligent follow-up by missionaries.” Converts affirm their faith through verbal confession, public baptism, and changed behavior.” The inclusion in the church and the submission to church authority are vital to the continued growth process of converts.*4 The qualitative case studies that track the experience of converts offer probing questions of biblical authority in the translation of the gospel and developmental aspects of conversion.

Paul G. Hiebert, well-known for bringing anthropological insights into the study of missions, affirms Walls’s position that the gospel has always existed in a culturally conditioned form yet does not equate with a single cultural expression. All cultures are both good and evil, and Hiebert’s proposed model of critical contextualization allows the gospel to relativize all cultures. Critical contextualization starts with the exegesis of humans in their culture and moves to exegete Scripture for specific local issues. A meta-theology prevents syncretism by relying on the inspired Bible, the interpretive work of the Holy Spirit, and mutual correction from other churches.*°

30 David J. Hesselgrave, Planting Churches Cross-Culturally: North America and Beyond, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2000), 170.

31 Hesselgrave, Planting Churches, 167-82; David J. Hesselgrave, Communicating Christ Cross-Culturally: An Introduction to Missionary Communication, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1991), 617-30.

32 Hesselgrave, Communicating Christ, 621.

33 Hesselgrave, Planting Churches, 182-87.

34 Hesselgrave, Planting Churches, 192-253; Hesselgrave, Communicating Christ, 622-23.

35 Paul G. Hiebert, “The Gospel in Human Contexts: Changing Perceptions of Contextualization,’ in Missionshift: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium, ed. David J. Hesselgrave, Ed Stetzer, and John Mark Terry (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2010), 91-97, Kindle; Paul G Hiebert, “Critical Contextualization,’ International Bulletin of Missionary Research 11, no. 3 (July 1987): 109-11.

Unlike Hesselgrave's warning about quick decisions of conversion, Hiebert encourages leaders to refrain from setting high boundaries for conversions and presumes that conversions can begin with little theological understanding. Hiebert perceives justification from sin as the center of a biblical view of salvation but does not clearly define a minimal knowledge for saving faith. Christian leaders avoid preaching a gospel of “cheap grace” by presenting conversion as a directional shift of continual transformation and respectively emphasize the discipleship of believers.”

In his cumulative work Transforming Worldviews, a posthumous publication, Hiebert emphatically states that conversion must move beyond a change of behavior and belief to a transformation of worldview.” Deep discipling takes place as a life-long process of cognitive, affective, and evaluative transformation toward a biblical worldview.” Transformation will only replace old behavior patterns if indigenous Christians share in applying God’s Word to their contexts.” Interviews with converts provide further insights into the respective dynamics of transformation in Germany.

Keith Eitel served as the dean of the Roy Fish School of Evangelism and Mission at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He believes that in the pilgrim and indigenous principles of the cross-cultural transmission of the gospel explicated by Andrew Walls, the authority of Scripture as God’s inerrant Word needs to retain its prophetic voice in critiquing culture. Eitel sides with Hesselgrave’s evangelical approach to contextualization, stating that “Scripture critiques culture rather than the reverse.“ Thus, Eitel represents a conservative, evangelical voice similar to those of Global South Christians and challenges ecumenically oriented scholars like Lamin Sanneh, who give precedence to indigenous sources in the continuous tension between prior religious beliefs and biblical Christianity. Eitel conveys that a dialectic approach between the voices

36 Paul G. Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2008), 10, 299, 311-12. Hiebert views conversion as a directional process because of the inability to determine genuine conversion based on belief and behavior. Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews, 31-36, 308-10.

37 Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews, 11-12, 308-16. Hiebert defines worldview as “the cognitive, affective, and evaluative assumptions and frameworks a group of people makes about the nature of reality which they use to order their lives.” Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews, 25-26.

38 Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews, 319, 265-305.

39 Hiebert, “Changing Perceptions,” 99; Hiebert, “Critical Contextualization,’ 110.

40 Eitel, “World Christianity, “The Bible. Always a Prophetic Voice.”

of Scripture and culture inevitably leads to syncretism.“ He questions missional or emergent approaches to mission work that bypass biblical authority for the sake of misguided creativity.”

Correspondingly, Eitel reflects on Andrew Walls’s description of Christian conversion as “turning what is already there” and surmises that the Bible as the source of authority for the supra-cultural gospel needs to determine the cultural translation process. Deep transformation occurs when believers individually and corporately engage in self-theologizing and allow the Bible to control “the dance between text and context’ The same principle applies to ethical lifestyle choices, as believers are free to pursue culturally appropriate solutions yet welcome the voices of missionaries.* Eventually, evangelicals hope that Holy Spirit-inspired transformation will lead to a cross-cultural retransmission of the Christian faith across the globe.“ This research study inquires about the extent of self-theologizing by converts and their involvement in local and cross-cultural missions work.

Craig Otts literature reflects profound insight into the German culture due to his experience as a church planter and church planting consultant in Germany for more than twenty years. Ott broadly summarizes the church responsibility in the world in the creation mandate, which addresses the care for all of humanity and creation, and the gospel mandate, encapsulated in the Great Commission.”

41 Keith E. Eitel, “Updated Reflection on Restrictivism and Inclusivism: Is This Mission Trip Really Necessary,’ in Paradigms in Conflict: 15 Key Questions in Christian Missions Today, ed. Keith E. Eitel, 2nd exp. and upd. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2018), 71-72; Keith E. Eitel, “Challenges of World Christianities: What Is God Doing in Our World?? in Paradigms in Conflict: 15 Key Questions in Christian Missions Today, ed. Keith E. Eitel, 2nd exp. and upd. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2018), 332; Keith E. Eitel, “World Christianity,’ “Critiquing Forward: Time for Western Introspect?

42 Keith E. Eitel, “On Becoming Missional: Interacting with Charles Van Engen,’ in Missionshift: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium, ed. David J. Hesselgrave, Ed Stetzer, and John Mark Terry (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2010), 34-38, Kindle.

45 Keith F. Eitel, “Transcultural Gospel: Crossing Cultural Barriers,’ Evangelical Missions Quarterly (April 1, 1987): 132-37.

46 Eitel, “World Christianity, “History Lives Again: A Fresh Look”

47 Craig Ott, Stephen J. Strauss, and Timothy C. Tennent, Encountering Theology of Mission: Biblical Foundations, Historical Developments, and Contemporary Issues, Encountering Mission (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010), ch. 6, “The Two Mandates and the Task of Mission,’ Kindle.

In church planting, Ott encourages leaders to use multiple methods of transmitting the gospel with a well-researched understanding of the target culture but without neglecting prayer, Scripture, and a “clear gospel presentation?’ He sides with Hiebert and Hesselgrave that unless a biblical worldview of creation, sin, and judgment replaces worldviews such as the Western, post-modern worldview, superficial conversions and syncretism will follow.” A progressive path of discipleship will lead to life transformation and participation in the local church.*°

Ott supposes that most church planters work in their own cultures. The query occurs whether German church planters sufficiently reflect on their Christian sub-culture and the need for translating the gospel into the local culture of their target group.” Ott’s view of understanding the context comprehensively moves beyond Hiebert’s focus on culture to include such aspects as religious heritage, historical and current events, or personal circumstances.”

In Transforming Conversion, Gordon T. Smith combines Pentecostal, sacramental, and evangelical views of conversion and seeks to generate a theological framework for conversion that is both evangelical and ecumenical. Smith points out a paradigm shift among evangelicals to correct a revivalist understanding of conversion that is overly individualistic, offers a cheap version of salvation, and expects people to convert through evangelism instantly. In agreement with authors like Walls and Hiebert, Smith perceives conversion in most people's lives as a process and “complex development over time?” He defines conversion as a “deep turning that in turn establishes a person for growth toward transformation of the whole person.” An inner component of repentance and an outward component of baptism form the core elements of Christian conversion.”

48 Craig Ott and Gene Wilson, Global Church Planting: Biblical Principles and Best Practices for Multiplication (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011), 223, 185-228, Kindle.

49 Ottand Wilson, Global Church Planting, 218-19; Ott, Strauss, and Tennent, Encountering Theology, ch. 11, “Contextualization and Syncretism?

52 Ott, Encountering Theology, ch. 11, “Culture and Context”

53 Gordon T. Smith, Transforming Conversion: Rethinking the Language and Contours of Christian Initiation. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010), 6, 1-16, “Introduction,” Kindle.

54 Smith, Transforming Conversion, 120.

55 Smith, Transforming Conversion, 121-25. Smith describes seven aspects of a genuinely Christian conversion on pages 118-19 and in more detail in Gordon T. Smith, Beginning Well: Christian Conversion & Authentic Transformation (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2001), 157-206.

Therefore, evangelism should always portray a theological vision for the ultimate goal of conversion, namely Christian maturity. Smith delineates that a life in union with Christ advances through transformation to sapiential, vocational, social, and emotional holiness.” Smith’s depiction of revivalist conversion practices prompts the question of how German church plants across heterogenous congregational traditions facilitate conversions and integrate a path toward transformation.