Claudia Währisch-Oblau-The Missionary Self-Perception of Pentecostal Charismatic Church Leaders From The Global South in Europe (Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies) (2009)

The Missionary Self-Perception of Pentecostal/
Charismatic Church Leaders from the Global South

in Europe
Global Pentecostal
and Charismatic Studies
Edited by
Andrew Davies, Mattersey Hall Graduate School
William Kay, Bangor University
Advisory Board
Allan Anderson, University of Birmingham
Mark Cartledge, University of Birmingham
Jacqueline Grey, Southern Cross College, Sydney
Byron D Klaus, Assemblies of God Theological Seminary,
Springfield, MO
Wonsuk Ma, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies
Cecil M Robeck, Jr, Fuller Theological Seminary
Calvin Smith, Midlands Bible College
VOLUME 2
The Missionary
Self-Perception of Pentecostal/
Charismatic Church Leaders
from the Global South in Europe
Bringing Back the Gospel
By
Claudia Währisch-Oblau
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2009
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
ISSN 1876-2247
ISBN 978 90 04 17508 2
Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Chapter One. Methodological reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2. The UEM Program for Cooperation between German
and Foreign Language Churches, 1998–2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3. Other European Protestant church responses to migrant
churches: A short overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4. Description of my research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.5. Reflecting my own role as agent and researcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.6. Interpretative paradigms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Chapter Two. The field of study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2.1. Terminology: “Migrant churches” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.2. Delimiting “pentecostal / charismatic” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.3. Constructing a pentecostal / charismatic discourse field . . . . . 39
2.4. Migrant churches: Categorizations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.5. Historical dynamics: Foundation and development of
migrant churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
2.6. Migrant churches as part of a globalized discourse network. 56
Chapter Three. The role of the pastor: The relationship to one’s

own congregation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.1. The pastor as father and shepherd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.1.1. The shepherd: Mediator between God and the
congregation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.1.2. The authority of the shepherd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.1.3. “To stay with God always”—The spiritual life of a
shepherd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.1.4. Sacrificing oneself for the congregation and living as
a role model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3.1.5. Becoming a shepherd: Call, training, ordination and
gifts of the Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
vi contents
3.2. Defending one’s call: Biographical stories as legitimation

narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.2.1. Call narratives in a pentecostal / charismatic context 84
3.2.2. No legitimation narrative: Observations and possible
reasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
3.2.3. Legitimation narratives I: Called by a prophetic
word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.2.4. Legitimation narratives II: Deciding for the ministry
after a miracle experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.2.5. Legitimation narratives III: Called by visions and
dreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
3.2.6. Legitimation narratives IV: Woman pastors . . . . . . . . . . . 104
3.3. Mediators of divine power in a market situation:
Observations and analysis of the pastoral role. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
3.3.1. The market situation: Undermining pastoral
authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
3.3.2. Asserting pastoral authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
3.3.3. Growing into authority: Calling and ordination . . . . . . . 127
3.4. Summary: Mediators of divine power in a market situation . 130
Chapter Four. Following the call: Expatriation narratives . . . . . . . . . . . 133

4.1. Theoretical framework: Some considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
4.2. Intertwined call and expatriation narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
4.2.1. ‘Circular’ stories: How the call was realized after all . . 144
4.2.2. ‘Oscillating’ narratives: How the call became clear
over time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
4.2.3. Called after expatriation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
4.2.4. Struggling to understand call and expatriation . . . . . . . . 172
4.2.5. Concluding remarks: Intertwined call and
expatriation narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
4.3. Expatriation as consequence of the call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
4.3.1. Independent charismatic missionaries: Success
stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
4.3.2. Missionaries sent by pentecostal churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
4.3.3. Concluding remarks: Expatriation as consequence of
the call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
4.4. Pastoral call and expatriation not connected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
4.4.1. V.K.: For me it was so wonderful to go to Germany . . 208
4.4.2. A.M., P.S., I.A.: Asylum in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
contents vii
4.4.3. Spiritual interpretation instead of expatriation

narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
4.5. Expatriation narratives: Some final observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Chapter Five. Being on a mission: The relationship to the outside

world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
5.1. “What is your mission?” Observations from the short
interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
5.2. Missionary practice: Evangelizing Germans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
5.2.1. Street evangelism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
5.2.2. Tracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
5.2.3. Gospel music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
5.2.4. Other means . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
5.3. Conceptualizing evangelism in interdenominational
dialogue: The long interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
5.3.1. Locating oneself globally: Sent to the world . . . . . . . . . . . 237
5.3.2. Describing one’s message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
5.3.3. Reflections on contextualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
5.4. Imagining Germany and Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
5.4.1. Restoring a ruined church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
5.4.2. “Bringing back” the Gospel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
5.4.3. The German nation in the economy of salvation . . . . . 262
5.4.4. Territorial spirits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
5.4.5. Summary notes: Imagining Germany and Europe . . . . 269
5.5. Conceptualizing evangelism in the global pentecostal /
charismatic network: The ‘spiritual warfare’ paradigm . . . . . . 271
5.5.1. Evangelism in the framework of spiritual warfare:
The anglophone West African Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
5.5.2. Evangelism in the framework of ‘spiritual warfare:’
Concretizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
5.6. Conclusion: Evangelism, inculturation and clashing
paradigms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Chapter Six. Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

6.1. The current situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
6.2. Dialogue fields: A description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
6.2.1. Ministerial authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
6.2.2. Immigration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
6.2.3. Mission and evangelism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
viii contents
6.3. Ecclesiology and the politics of difference: Who defines

Christianity in Europe? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
6.4. The functional question: Does a missionary self-image
further or hinder integration? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
6.5. The theological question: Are European churches ready to
be evangelized?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Appendix. Expatriation narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Index of Names, Places, and Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is an edited version of my doctoral dissertation, “Migrants

with a Mission”, which was accepted by Heidelberg University in 2007.
For publication, new material was added to give this study a perspective
beyond Germany.
A study like this one cannot be written without assistance and inspi-
ration from many people. Here, I can just name those who were the
most important.
Michael Bergunder kept pressing me to do this study, and then
became the best doctoral advisor I could hope for. His encourage-
ment and critical feed-back during the process of writing were invalu-
able.
The United Evangelical Mission and the Evangelical Church in the
Rhineland allowed me to make the writing of this study part of my
job description and therefore provided me with the necessary time
and space. Pars pro toto, I want to thank Jörg Baumgarten and Wilfried
Neusel for their support.
Colleagues and friends from many places have shared their insights
and research results. I immensely appreciate the advice, critique and
support from Ursula Harfst, Werner Kahl, Jörg Haustein and the group
of doctoral students involved in Pentecostalism studies at Heidelberg
University. Exchanges with my Dutch colleagues (among others, Mech-
teld Jansen, Kathleen Ferrier, Sjaak van’t Kruis, June Beckx) were par-
ticularly helpful, as were long conversations with Kwabena Asamoah-
Gyadu and Afe Adogame. Conversations at the yearly meetings of the
interdisciplinary European Research Network on Global Pentecostal-
ism (GloPent) were also inspiring.
Special thanks go to Cecil M. Robeck who graciously agreed to read
the manuscript before it was submitted to Heidelberg University, and
who gave some invaluable feedback from a Pentecostal perspective.
Allan Anderson had plenty of excellent advice when it came to prepar-
ing the final manuscript. My thanks go to him as well as to Andrew
Davies and William Kay for including this study in the Global Pente-
costal and Charismatic Studies Series.
x acknowledgements
To my husband and my two daughters: Thanks for bearing with me

through the sometimes stressful times of finishing this study, for your
listening ears, and your support!
And finally, I want to thank the pastors who were willing to be
interviewed for this study. I have learnt so much from listening to them.
Their trust and openness made it possible to write what I have written,
and I hope that their voices will be heard.
chapter one
METHODOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS
1.1. Introduction
When, in 1998, the United Evangelical Mission (UEM)1 started its

“Program for Cooperation between German and Foreign Language
Churches”, nobody involved had much of a clue about the field they
were entering. The outline for this program had evolved over nearly
two years and changed considerably in the process. UEM, a for-
merly German mission organization which in 1996 had restructured
to become a mission community of 35 churches on three continents,2
wanted to become instrumental in starting one or more international
congregations in its German region3 which would serve as symbolic
representations of the international character of the body of Christ.
When it was pointed out to the respective UEM committees that inter-
national and migrant churches already existed in Germany, the focus of
the program was adjusted towards cooperation between German and
foreign language churches,4 even though nobody was quite sure what
kind of cooperation was necessary and expected. Consequently, the ser-
vice instructions for the coordinator of the program described rather
vague tasks:
– Compile a list of all existing migrant churches within the UEM
German region;
– Make contact with existing migrant churches;
1 www.vemission.org/en.
2 A detailed analysis of this process can be found in Kai Funkschmidt, Earthing the
Vision—Strukturreformen in der Mission untersucht am Beispiel von CEVAA (Paris),
CWM (London) und UEM (Wuppertal), Frankfurt / M.: Otto Lembeck Verlag 2000.
3 The UEM German region comprises six regional Protestant churches (German:
Landeskirchen), namely The Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, the Evangelical

Church of Westphalia, the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau, the Evangeli-
cal Church of Hesse-Waldeck, the Church of Lippe, and the Evangelical Reformed
Church, and the von Bodelschwingh Institutions Bethel.
4 For a discussion of terminology, see chapter 2.1.
2 chapter one
– Describe experiences and problems of cooperation between mi-

grant and indigenous churches;
– Work to improve the relationship between migrant and indigenous
churches;
– Examine structural and legal possibilities of establishing interna-
tional congregations.
In April 1998, I became the first coordinator of the UEM program,
a position I held until the end of 2006. As a trained theologian and
ordained minister with more than a dozen years of experience of living
and working in Asia, I was considered well-qualified for the position.
But nothing I had seen during my work and travels in India and
China and my involvement in international congregations in different
places prepared me for what I encountered on the new job. I vividly
remember my first visit to a West African charismatic midweek prayer
service: About thirty men and women meeting in the small, modern
sanctuary of the local Protestant church, ecstatically singing “Jesus is
the winner man, winner man all the time,” all praying at the same time
at the top of their voices, walking around, raising their arms, shaking,
kneeling, screaming, crying; the pastor reporting several visions that
seemed utterly strange to me—this was unlike any worship service I
had seen anywhere before. I was asking myself whether what I saw was
even Christian!
Soon afterwards, I attended a big revival service at another West
African led congregation. The predominantly black congregation of
several hundred people packed the large hall of a German Pente-
costal church. There were praise songs at a headache-inducing volume,
prayer times during which everybody shouted at the same time, and a
sermon by a rather stout Ghanaian guest preacher whose message basi-
cally was: ‘If you just pray enough and give tithes and offerings to the
Lord, you will become a rich man like myself.’5
All of that might not have been so troubling, had it not been for the
pastors of these two churches who explicitly called themselves ‘mission-
aries’, planning to reach out not only to their own nationals, but to Ger-
5 Much later I found out that the preacher that day was Nicholas Duncan-Williams,
one of the most famous ‘charismatic’ Ghanaian mega-church leaders. Cf. Paul Gifford,
African Christianity. Its Public Role, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana Univer-
sity Press 1998, p. 77 ff.; Paul Gifford, Ghana’s New Christianity. Pentecostalism in a
Globalizing African Economy, Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2004, especially
chapter 2.
methodological reflections 3
man society as a whole, and speaking about wanting to bring revival

to the ‘dead’ German churches. The UEM program had been started
with the unspoken assumption that migrant churches were formed as
a kind of diaspora where people from a certain national or denomina-
tional background could find a ‘home away from home’, a place where
they could sing and pray in their mother tongue, and in the ways to
which they were accustomed. This was, after all, the reasoning behind
the formation of congregations for migrant workers that were set up in
partnership between overseas and German Protestant churches in the
1950s and 1960s.6 Ecumenical contacts between such congregations and
German congregations were considered important in the framework of
the UEM program. At the same time, it was expected that international
congregations would be formed under German leadership and within
German church structures. But here now were people who were doing
what the UEM program intended to do, with a theology that seemed
at least borderline heretical, and they were not even asking anybody for
permission!
I soon realized that these two pastors were not freak exceptions.
They represented a large number of migrant church founders, all of
them from a pentecostal / charismatic7 background. Neither I nor oth-
ers in my church knew very much about them. We had no idea of
their background or their theological and spiritual traditions; we did
not know how they came here or why, and what they were actually
doing. We did not know the driving forces behind the emergence of
hundreds of new migrant churches within just a few years.8 The major-
ity of the pentecostal / charismatic churches in the UEM database are
less than ten years old. In contrast, most of the European Protestant
migrant churches have been existing for 50 years or longer, while Asian
Protestant churches were mostly founded about 30 years ago. If a pro-
gram for cooperation with migrant churches was to include Pentecostal
and charismatic churches which so far had been mostly ignored,9 it
6 E.g. the Hungarian Reformed Congregation, the Finnish Lutheran Congrega-

tion, and the Korean Reformed Congregation in North Rhine-Westphalia. See also:
Kirchenamt der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland (ed.), Kirchen und Gemeinden
anderer Sprache und Herkunft, Frankfurt / M.: GEP Verlag 1997.
7 More on definition and terminology in chapter 2.2.
8 The database comprised 340 congregations in 2002; 383 in 2003; 397 in 2004;
428 in 2005; 431 in 2006. Of course, some of the new churches were included years
after they were established. But the database counts 26 congregations newly founded
between October 2004 and February 2006.
9 By 1998, all cooperation between EKD churches and migrant churches had
4 chapter one
was imperative to get to know how Pentecostal / charismatic migrant

churches saw their own role, and how they formulated their vision. We
needed to understand their theology and practice. We needed to hear
what they expected from German churches, and what kind of cooper-
ation with us they hoped to receive.10 The research that has, ten years
later, led to this study, soon became an integral part of the program
work.
As the research started, it quickly became clear that we were not
dealing with an exclusively German phenomenon, but rather with a
fundamental change in the make-up of north Atlantic (i.e. European
and North American) Christianity which was starting from the mar-
gins rather than from the centers. Travelling on public transport in any
major city in Europe on a Sunday noon, one can observe dressed-up
African or Tamil families clutching their well-worn Bibles, a serious
Chinese student explaining the basics of Christian faith to her friends,
Tamil teenagers practicing worship songs, or a Latin American reading
a Christian book. All of them are on their way to church; to a Sun-
day service which will likely begin at noon or even later because the
building they are using for worship is rented from an indigenous con-
gregation which has to finish its own Sunday morning worship first.
And while in London and Amsterdam, Cologne and Prague church
buildings are being turned into shops, housing space or even pubs, new
congregations started by migrant Christians have been setting up wor-
ship spaces in disused factory halls, car parks, or even converted cine-
mas. These Christians and congregations represent a Christianity that,
if noticed at all, is mostly perceived to be foreign, transient, and diaspo-
ral, in short: a minority phenomenon which might need some protec-
tion and support, but nothing that would have an impact on majority
Christianity.
For centuries, European Christianity has been closely bound up with
national and ethnic identities. The Reformation, with its emphasis on
Bible translation and its introduction of worship services in the respec-
tive vernacular rather than in ‘globalized’ Latin may not have ini-
tiated this process, but certainly propelled it forward. Consequently,
exclusively centered on Protestant and Orthodox churches. International convents in

Frankfurt and Berlin did not have Pentecostal member churches.
10 When it came to Protestant and Orthodox migrant churches, there had already
been plenty of dialogue, and there was a much better knowledge about what they
wanted and needed from the German churches.
the northern European, overwhelmingly Protestant countries had their

Lutheran state churches, and England the Church of England. In Hol-
land, Germany and Switzerland, Lutheran and Reformed Protestant
churches were ‘mainline’ along the Catholic Church which in South-
ern Europe as well as in Poland and Hungary comprised the large
majority of believers. Eastern Europe was shaped by national ortho-
dox churches. The emergence of the Moravian, Methodist, Baptist, and
other ‘free’ evangelical churches did not change this picture much, as
they remained small minorities and also organized themselves along
ethnic and national lines as well. In the dominant European Christian
perception, faith can only truly be expressed and lived in one’s mother
tongue. Migrant Christians, consequently, have been encouraged to set
up their own church structures which are supposed to “help them pre-
serve their identity,” but rarely welcomed into existing congregations, as
any ethnically or culturally mixed congregation would have been seen
as forcing both indigenous and migrant Christians to “lose their iden-
tity.” As a result, migrant churches in Europe developed at the margins
and have only recently become more visible.
The World Council of Churches, together with the Churches’ Com-
mission for Migrants in Europe, has just published a study11 which
attempts not only to map migration in and to Europe, but also its
influence on churches there. It states that of the estimated 24 million
migrants in Europe, about half belong to Christian churches which
range from Oriental and Eastern Orthodox through Roman Catholic
to Protestant, Pentecostal and Charismatic.12 Highlights from other
studies can give a glimpse of what this means concretely:
– In Amsterdam, an estimated 2,500 indigenous Dutch go to church
as opposed to 24,000 migrants, who usually attend congregations
founded and led by migrant pastors. About 1.3 million Christian
immigrants live in the country, worshipping in more than 900
migrant churches and more than 200 indigenous churches with
foreign language worship services.13
11 Darrell Jackson and Alessia Passarelli, Mapping Migration. Mapping Churches’
Responses. Europe Study, Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe / World

Council of Churches, 2008, pdf downloadable from www.oikoumene.org/en/news/
upcoming-events/ev/se/article/1722/european-study-quotmapp.html, accessed 10 Sep-
tember 2008.
12 Ibd. p. 29.
13 Hijme Stoffels, A Coat of Many Colours, in: Mechteld Jansen and Hijme Stoffels
(eds.), A Moving God. Immigrant Churches in the Netherlands, Münster: LIT-Verlag 2008, p. 21.
6 chapter one
– In Italy, almost two thirds of all Protestants are now of foreign

origin.14
– In Paris alone, there are an estimated 250 African and Antil-
lean Christian churches (this is a higher number than that of all
congregation of the Protestant Federation), and 19 Chinese con-
gregations (there are fewer French Reformed Churches in the
city).15
– In the United Kingdom overall, 14 % of those who regularly
attend church are not white;16 in London, this figure may be
as high as 58 %.17 The directory of Black and Asian minority
churches lists more than 1,300 of an estimated 4,000 ethnic minor-
ity congregations with more than half a million members.18 The
fastest growing religious movement in the country is the Nigerian-
led Redeemed Christian Church of God.19
– The largest mega-church in continental Europe, The Embassy of
the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations in Kiev, was founded
and is led by a pastor from Nigeria, even though its membership
is more than 90 % Ukrainian.
– The largest mega-church in Western Europe is arguably Kingsway
International Christian Centre in London, led by a pastor from
Nigeria and attended mainly by migrants from more than 30
countries.20
Even though the general situation of churches in the USA is quite
different from that of the European churches, similar developments
14 Benz H.R. Schär, Essere Chiese Insieme. Uniting in Diversity, downloadable from
www.cec-kek.org/English/ciampino_languages.pdf, accessed 10 September 2008, p. 3.

15 Féderation protestante de France, Les Églises issues de l’immigration—Rapport
proposé par le groupe de travail suscité par le conseil de la FPF, www.protestants.org/

textes/eglises_immigration/constat.htm, accessed 20 August 2008.
16 Tearfund (ed.), Churchgoing in the UK. A research report from Tearfund on
church attendance in the UK, April 2007, downloadable from www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/

hi/uk_news/6520463.stm, accessed 21 September 2008.
17 Jehu J. Hanciles, Migration, Diaspora Communities, and the New Missionary
Encounter with Western Society, in: Lausanne World Pulse, July 2008, pp. 5–9, down-
loadable from www.lausanneworldpulse.com/archives.php, accessed 1 September 2008,
p. 7.
18 www.bmcdirectory.co.uk/index.php, accessed 3 September 2008.
19 Stephen Hunt, ‘Neither Here nor There’: The Construction of Identities and
Boundary Maintenance of West African Pentecostals, in: Sociology, vol. 36 (I) 2002,
p. 151.
20 www.kicc.org.uk/Church/History/HistoryToday/tabid/44/Default.aspx,
accessed 27 October 2008.

can be observed there. A recent study by the Pew Forum on Reli-

gion and Public Life and the Pew Hispanic Center21 has found that
Latinos now comprise about 6 % of all evangelicals in the US, and
that Hispanic immigration is changing existing churches in profound
ways. The foundation of churches by African immigrants has so far
seen less publicity, though the plan of the Nigerian-founded Redeemed
Christian Church of God to build its North American headquarters on
500 acres of recently acquired land not far from Dallas, Texas, made
national headlines.22 Yang Fenggang and Helen Rose Ebaugh state
that immigrants, rather than de-Christianizing religion in America,
have in fact “de-Europeanized” American Christianity.23 They point
to more than 3,500 Catholic parishes where Mass is being said in
Spanish, 7,000 Latino Protestant (mostly evangelical or pentecostal)
congregations, more than 2,000 Korean-American and more than
700 Chinese-American churches while stating that many immigrant
Christian churches are incorporating people from diverse national ori-
gins.24 Actually, Korean churches are believed to be the fastest growing
churches in the United States.25
But migrant missionary churches are not only a north Atlantic phe-
nomenon. African, Korean and Indonesian pentecostal / charismatic
churches can be found in many major cities in the People’s Repub-
lic of China as well as in Hongkong and Singapore. There, students
and business people congregate, but also reach out as evangelists to
local Chinese. In Hongkong, pentecostal / charismatic Filipinas who
originally came to the city as domestic workers have also started a
number of churches. Ghanaians and Nigerians have started churches
in places as far apart as Johannesburg, Melbourne or Buenos Aires.26
21 The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life & Pew Hispanic Center (eds.),
Changing Faiths: Latinos and the Transformation of American Religion, 2007, down-
loadable from www.pewforum.org/surveys/hispanic/, accessed 3 September 2008.
22 See Simon Romero, A Texas Town Nervously Awaits a New Neighbor, in: New
York Times, 21 August 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/national/21church.html,

23 Yang Fenggang and Helen Rose Ebaugh, Transformations in New Immigrant
Religions and Their Global Implications, in: American Sociological Review, 2001, Vol. 66
(April), p. 271.
24 Ibd., p. 282.
p. 6.
26 Own observations from travel and discussions with migrant pastors.
8 chapter one
The spread of Pentecostalism through migrant churches has become

a truly global trend.
This is the situation in which the UEM Program for Cooperation
between German and Foreign Language Churches developed. In the
following, we will take a closer look at this program as one example of
a European response to the growing presence of migrant churches.
1.2. The UEM Program for Cooperation between

German and Foreign Language Churches, 1998–2008
Before looking at the UEM program itself, a short introduction to

the different players on the German church scene is necessary. The
two main churches in Germany are the Catholic Church with about
25.6 million members of which approximately 2 million have a migra-
tion background,27 and the mainline Protestant28 Evangelical Church
in Germany (EKD) which is organized as a network of 23 regional
churches, the so-called Landeskirchen, with around 25.4 million mem-
bers.29 As the EKD churches define themselves as culturally German,
they have not made any conscious attempt to integrate migrant Chris-
tians; and have few migrant members and only a handful of non-
German speaking congregations. The EKD, though, has assisted a
number of mainly Protestant migrant churches to establish their own
structures in Germany, and has established the so-called “Conference
of foreign pastors” (Konferenz der Ausländerpfarrerinnen und Ausländerpfarrer—
KAP).30 In addition to these two mainline churches, there are 24 ortho-
dox churches with a combined number of about 1.4 million members,
all of them with a migrant background. On the Protestestant side,
the so-called ‘free churches’ like the Baptist Federation, the Methodist
Church, the Federation of Free Evangelical Congregations, the Feder-
ation of free Pentecostal Churches and many more, have a combined
27Cf. www.dbk.de/stichwoerter/data/01200/index.html, accessed 28 October 2008.

28In German, a difference is made between “evangelisch,” best translated as “Protes-
tant,” and “evangelikal” which denotes evangelical in a more narrow sense. To avoid
confusion, we have capitalized ‘Evangelical’ where it denotes the name of a Protes-
tant church in Germany. Lower-case ‘evangelical,’ in contrast, denotes the narrower
meaning.
29 For these and the following statistics, see www.remid.de/remid_info_zahlen.htm,

30 Cf. www.ekd.de/migrantengemeinden/migrantengemeinden.html, accessed 28
October 2008.
membership of roughly half a million members. Some of these churches

have been very active in integrating migrant Christians and congre-
gations, while others have remained ethnically German. There are no
reliable statistics about Protestant and pentecostal / charismatic migrant
churches; in 2005, I estimated at least 1,100 congregations with 55,000–
80,000 members.31 The Catholic and the Evangelical Church, as well
as a number of orthodox and evangelical free churches are cooperating
in the Association of Christian Churches (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der christlichen
Kirchen—ACK ).32
To turn back to the UEM program: Its first year was mainly taken
up by simply trying to find pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches
within the regional realm of the UEM (mostly in the state of North
Rhine-Westphalia) and establishing contact with them. Even though
most of them were using buildings of the Protestant churches, no sur-
vey had ever been compiled, and few connections established. Con-
tacts with and support for migrant churches had so far been limited
to Protestant and Orthodox churches. It quickly became clear that
the work of the program should concentrate on Protestant and pen-
tecostal / charismatic churches since the Orthodox churches preferred
to work with German churches through the Association of Christian
Churches.
In August of 1999, all known Protestant and pentecostal / charismatic
migrant churches were invited to a workshop under the title “Together
Building up the Body of Christ in Germany”. More than 40 representa-
tives from 24 churches met for a weekend with high-ranking represen-
tatives of the Evangelical Churches in the Rhineland and of Westphalia
and identified five prime areas of need for migrant churches in which
they asked for support from German churches:
1. Financial support;
2. Rooms for worship and activities;
3. Recognition as churches;
4. Contact persons in German churches;
5. Theological and intercultural training for church leaders.33
31 Claudia Währisch-Oblau, Migrationskirchen in Deutschland. Überlegungen zur
strukturierten Beschreibung eines komplexen Phänomens, in: Zeitschrift für Mission,

Frankfurt / Basel: Basileia / Lembeck, 1–2/2005, pp. 19–39.
32 Cf. www.oekumene-ack.de/Mitgliedskirchen.42.0.html, accessed 28 October 2008.
33 Workshop materials have not been published; minutes of the workshop were
circulated internally both in migrant and German churches.

10 chapter one
In response, German church representatives basically ruled out

financial support beyond that given to a small number of established
Protestant migrant churches. Recognition as churches, on the other
hand, seemed a need that could be addressed. The workshop par-
ticipants therefore decided to elect a “Committee of Foreign Lan-
guage Churches” with representatives from African, Asian and Euro-
pean migrant churches to serve as their mouthpiece in their relation-
ship with the Evangelical Churches. This committee, in close cooper-
ation with the Ecumenical Desks of both Evangelical Churches, devel-
oped the so-called ‘list process:’ Migrant churches that fulfill five cri-
teria (1. Adherence to the basic faith formula of the World Council
of Churches; 2. Signatory to a commitment for ecumenical coopera-
tion; 3. Organizational stability [e.g. registered as a society]; 4. Willing-
ness to participate in ongoing education programs organized in Ger-
many; 5. Two recommendation letters by other churches or church net-
works) were to apply to the Committee of Foreign Language Churches,
which had added a representative from each of the two Evangelical
Churches to its number, to be included in a list of churches regarded
as ecumenical partner churches by the two Evangelical Churches. This
would give pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches, many of which
were not accepted as members into the local Associations of Christian
Churches due to their small size, a more secure status as the Evangeli-
cal Churches promised to make the list known to government agencies
dealing with migrants, so that the ‘list churches’ could benefit from
regulations for ‘pastor visas’34 and eased travel regulations for asylum
seekers to attend worship services. It took until 2001, though, until this
process could finally be implemented, as the Church Commissioners
for Sects and Worldviews in both Evangelical Churches raised strong
objections. None of these objections were ever made public, but they
were voiced in several internal meetings. Finally, it was decided that the
commissioners should not have a right to veto the inclusion of churches
into the list, and that they should direct all inquiries regarding migrant
churches to the UEM program officer rather than handling them them-
selves.
34 The so-called “Arbeitsaufenthalteverordnung” (Decree for the Regulation of Work
Stays) allows religious clergy to serve migrant workers in Germany without a work
permit. (AAV § 5.6).
In September 2008, the list had 137 member churches from four
continents.35 The Committee of Foreign Language Churches has, in
some ways, become a supervisory board for the cooperation program.
Its migrant members are elected for a two-year term by their respective
language / culture groups36 at annual meetings of list churches which
also serve as important forums to voice needs, problems, and visions for
cooperation.
As many pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches were not regis-
tered bodies in 1998, the UEM program organized several workshops
to train church leaders in legal and administrative matters. A large
number of migrant churches registered as charitable organizations with
the assistance of the program. The need for theological and inter-
cultural training was also taken up immediately after the 1999 work-
shop. In the following years, a number of seminars and workshops were
devised by an open working group of migrant and German representa-
tives on topics ranging from “Intercultural Counseling” through “The
Holy Spirit and the Pentecostal Movement” to “Knowing German
Immigration Laws.” As particularly pentecostal / charismatic migrant
church leaders continued to voice the need for more intensive educa-
tion, a process was initiated in October 2000 to develop a curriculum
for a 10-weekend course titled “Church in an Intercultural Context”
(kikk).37 At two open meetings, more than 50 migrant church leaders
collected their ideas and suggestions which were then put together by a
working group of six migrants and three Germans. The first kikk course
started in October 2001 with 16 participants who had been chosen from
almost 50 applicants. Further courses with about 20 participants each
have been running every year since.
The need for rooms for worship and activities has been increasing as
the number of migrant churches has grown. At the same time, the clo-
sure of German church buildings due to the financial problems of both
the Evangelical and the Catholic Churches has begun to exacerbate an
already difficult situation especially in some large cities, leading larger
churches to rent commercial space, usually in disused factory halls, and
forcing smaller churches to simply meet in private homes.
35 A current list is always available at www.vemission.org/fileadmin/Dateien/
Arbeitsbereiche/Fremdsprachige_Gemeinden/.
36 Currently: Anglophone African, francophone African, Korean, other Asian,
European and Latin American.

37 kikk stands for ‘Kirche im interkulturellen Kontext’.
12 chapter one
My own role, during the nine years of coordinating the program,

shifted significantly. While the first two years were taken up mainly
by building trust on both sides, the years from 2000 to 2003 were
shaped by assisting migrant churches in securing legal structures for
their work, developing programs and activities of cooperation, and
consciousness raising work within the German churches and Ger-
man society. As German churches became more aware of the migrant
churches, more and more local programs were developed. From 2004,
one of my main occupations was advising both German and migrant
churches in their existing cooperation projects, and occasionally medi-
ating in conflicts. In early 2005 I began to work on this study, and
research again became an important focus of the program. My suc-
cessor, from 2007 to 2008, has concentrated on local projects of coop-
eration and theological dialogue between migrant and German Chris-
tians.
As of October 2008, the future of the UEM program is unclear.
UEM, due to financial constraints, has terminated the position of the
program coordinator, hoping that the work will be taken over by the
Evangelical Churches.
1.3. Other European Protestant church

responses to migrant churches: A short overview
In Germany, the UEM program has remained rather unique. A num-

ber of regional churches, though, have named persons responsible for
establishing contacts with migrant churches and developing programs
with them. Cooperation of the Landeskirchen with migrant churches is
coordinated by the EKD, though each church is free to choose its own
approaches. With strong support from the Protestant churches, ‘inter-
national convents’ of migrant churches were set up in the cities of
Frankfurt, Berlin and Cologne; and a Council of African Churches in
Hamburg. The Mission Academy attached to the University of Ham-
burg runs the African Theological Training in Germany (ATTiG)38
which is aimed at anglophone African church leaders in northern
Germany, while the Bavarian Lutheran Mission has established a
38 See Freddy Dutz (ed.), Gemeinsam lernen in der fremden Heimat. Dokumenta-
tion des ATTiG-Pilotkurses, Hamburg: EMW 2004.

training course for migrant church leaders in southern Germany under

the title of “Mission South North” (Mission Süd-Nord).39
The strongest and earliest response to the establishment of migrant
churches was clearly made in the U.K. Following the seminal research
of Roswith Gerloff,40 the Centre for Black and White Christian Part-
nership was established in Birmingham in 1978, offering a Certificate
in Theology Course at Selly Oak College by using a truly innova-
tive approach which has remained singular in Europe.41 Already in
1977, the Black Christian Concerns Group had been set up by British
Black majority churches. After both institutions closed down, Churches
Together in Britain and Ireland (CBTI) formed the section of Minor-
ity Ethnic Christian Affairs (MECA) in 2003. “The work of MECA
revolves around four main strategies:
– Stimulating and facilitating networking between Christian com-
munities in Britain and Ireland of African, Asian, Caribbean and
other heritages.
– Stimulating and facilitating networking between Black Minority
Ethnic and mainstream Christian communities.
– Providing a focus for resources for and about Christian communi-
ties of African, Asian, Caribbean and other heritages.
– Focusing on six key issues: Economic, Environment, Media, Polit-
ical, Social, and Theological.”42
Ethnic minority Christian agencies like the large African and Carib-
bean Evangelical Alliance43 and many smaller ones44 have helped to
give migrant Christianity a voice in Britain.45
39 Cf. www.evpfalz.de/migration/misueno_08.pdf, accessed 28 October 2008.

40 Roswith Gerloff, A plea for British Black theologies: The Black church movement
in Britain in its transatlantic cultural and theological interaction with special references
to the Pentecostal Oneness (Apostolic) and Sabbatarian movements, Frankfurt: Peter
Lang 1992.
41 Cf. http://birminghamblackhistory.com/religion/the-centre-for-black-and-white-
christian-partnership.html, and Walter J. Hollenweger, Umgang mit Mythen. Interkul-

turelle Theologie 2, München: Christian Kaiser Verlag 1982, pp. 181–188.
42 Cf. http://cte.churchinsight.com/Groups/42999/Churches_Together_in/
Our_work/Minority_Ethnic_Christian/Minority_Ethnic_Christian.aspx, accessed 28
October 2008.
43 www.acea-uk.org, accessed 28 October 2008.
44 See the listings in the Directory of Black Majority Churches UK,
www.bmcdirectory.co.uk/agency_list.php, accessed 28 October 2008.

45 See also Joe Aldred, Minority ethnic Christianity in Britain and Ireland today,
2004, downloadable from http://cte.churchinsight.com/Articles/66817/Churches

14 chapter one
Indigenous churches in Britain have also taken up the issue of how

ethnic minority Christians can not only be integrated into their exist-
ing congregations, but also be represented within the leadership. The
Church of England operates a Committee for Minority and Ethnic
Anglican Concerns which is directly responsible to the General Synod
and works to encourage and engage participation from the Church’s
black and minority ethnic populations at every level.46 In 2005, a clergy
diversity audit was conducted, ascertaining that only 2.2 % of all clergy
belong to ethnic minorities. Among them, though, is the archbishop of
York, Rev. Dr. John Sentamu, a high-profile immigrant from Uganda.
The United Reformed Church has both a number of single-ethnic
minority congregations and a growing number of multicultural con-
gregations.47 It also operates a Racial Justice and Multicultural Ministry
Committee.
In the Netherlands, the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (Protes-
tantse Kerk in Nederland—PKN ) and its predecessors, the Samen-op-Weg-
Kerken (Churches Together on the Way), have, since the 1990s, been
very active in supporting migrant churches. In 1997, they helped estab-
lish, and have since continued to finance, Samen Kerk in Nederland—SKIN
(Together Church in the Netherlands), an organization of now 67 dif-
ferent migrant churches48 which has assisted migrant churches in hav-
ing a higher profile not only among indigenous churches, but also in
society and politics. It certainly did this organization no harm that its
first general secretary, Kathleen G. Ferrier, the daughter of the first
president of Suriname, is now a parliamentary deputy of the CDA, the
governing party in the Netherlands.49 Since 2001, the Hendrik Kraemer
Institute in Utrecht which is run by the PKN has, in cooperation with
SKIN, been offering training courses for migrant church leaders.50
A policy paper of the Samen-op-Weg-Kerken published in 2002, Born
in Sion,51 called the indigenous churches to move from ‘missionary’
_Together_in/Our_work/Minority_Ethnic_Christian/Further_articles_available.aspx,
46 Cf. www.cofe.anglican.org/info/cmeac, accessed 28 October 2008.
47 www.urc.org.uk/assembly/assembly2005/multicultural_urc.html, accessed 28 Oc-
tober 2008.
48 Cf. www.skinkerken.nl, accessed 28 October 2008.
49 Cf. www.cda.nl/ferrier/cv.aspx, accessed 28 October 2008.
50 Cf. www.pkn.nl/hki/default.asp?rIntNavStepMotherNavId=
0&rIntNavMotherNavId=415&inc=info&rIntNavId=415&rIntId=11545, accessed 28
October 2008.
51 MDO Binnenland (Sjaak van’t Kruis), Geboren in Sion. De relatie tussen de
and ‘diaconal’ attitudes towards migrant churches to true ecumenical

relations, encouraging them to see ecumenical diversity as an enrich-
ment rather than a threat. A further booklet published in the same
year, Relations with Migrant Churches,52 described different models
of cooperation between migrant and indigenous churches and inves-
tigated possibilities in the area of mission. Regardless of the great com-
mitment of the church leadership towards becoming a multicultural
church, and successful projects of cooperation with migrant churches
like the Kerkhuis in Amsterdam,53 though, many local Dutch congrega-
tions show a rather limited interest in cooperation with migrant Chris-
tians and churches. In June 2008, the outgoing Secretary General of
the PKN, Bas Plaisier, publicly criticized his church as “far too white”
in an interview published in the national church magazine.54
In France, the Projet Mosaïc of the Fédération Protestante de
France, established in 2006, has been working together with Défap
and CEVAA, two Protestant mission agencies, to create links between
migrant churches and the congregations of the FPF and to help inte-
grate migrant churches into the evangelical / Protestant French land-
scape. There are many joint activities in Paris, monthly meetings of
church leaders in Lyon, an ‘African pastoral’ is about to be created in
Marseille, and in Strasbourg, training is offered to migrant church lead-
ers.55
In Italy,56 large numbers of immigrant Christians have been ab-
sorbed into the existing Protestant churches, particularly the Walden-
sian Church where city congregations are now often more than two
Samen op Weg-Kerken, de migrantenkerken en organisaties van christelijke migran-

ten / Born in Sion. Policy framework for the relationship between the Uniting Churches
in the Netherlands (‘Samen op Weg’) inter-church ecumenical organisation and the
immigrant churches and organisations of immigrant Christians in the Netherlands,
2002.
52 Pluim, Irene; Kuyk, Elsa; van’t Kruis, Sjaak, Relaties met Migrantenkerken.
Ervaringen en perspectieven, Utrecht: Kerkinactie 2002.

53 www.kerkhuis.nl, accessed 28 October 2008.
54 Dirk Visser, Ds. Bas Plaisier: ‘Onze kerk is veel te wit,’ in: Kerkinformatie, no. 160
(2008), p. 4.
55 E-mail communication from Antoine Schluchter, 4 October 2008. See also
www.protestants.org/textes/eglises_immigration/, accessed 20 August 2008.

56 Cf. Annemarie Dupré, “Being Church Together—Essere Chiesa Insieme.” The
arrival of Christian migrants changed the Protestant churches in Italy, Document 123-
07, Third European Ecumenical Assembly, Sibiu 4–9 September 2007, downloadable
from www.chiesacattolica.it /cci_new /PagineCCI /AllegatiArt /2843 /Dupre_EN.doc,
16 chapter one
thirds black. In several cases, small and dying congregations were

revived by this influx and have become lively and growing. Protes-
tant Sunday worship in many places is now bi- or even multilingual.
This simply happened spontaneously and was, at the beginning, neither
planned nor reflected theologically or ecclesiologically. Newly founded
migrant churches have also, in many cases, joined the Federation of
Protestant Churches in Italy, which consequently launched a process,
“Essere chiese insieme” (Being Church Together) to reflect what has been
happening and to look for ways forward. The large presence of migrant
Christians within local congregations represents a major challenge to
traditional Protestant Italian identities and forces the churches to fun-
damentally rethink their ways of worshipping and organizing their con-
gregations. Conversations with Waldensian pastors quickly turn to the
enormous practical difficulties which arise when newcomers in the
church become the majority.57 In 2007, the Synod of the Waldensian
and Methodist Churches discussed the following urgent questions:
“aa) how to work with very different theological approaches and un-
derstanding of the Bible?
bb) how to guarantee a correct balance between the needs and habits
of migrants and Italians? How to handle this when many different
nationalities are worshipping together.
cc) what about different approaches to ethical problems: divorce,
homosexuality, violence in the family, the role of women etc.?
dd) what is the role of the pastor, the deacons, the church organis-
ers? What about the church council or parallel decision making
bodies?
ee) migrant Christians are questioning our way of being church. The
missionary process starts to be inverted. It is no longer going only
from North to South. Christians from the Southern hemisphere
often have a strong missionary attitude towards the secularised
industrialised World.”58
The synod also discussed how Italian churches should relate to
churches abroad which are sending migrants to Italy, and which con-
gregational and federational models could be found to further integrate
57 Personal conversations with about 10 Waldensian pastors at an international
seminar for pastors on “The Challenges of Migration for the European Churches”,
organized by the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, the Protestant Federation of
France and the Waldensian Church in Palermo, 24–31 October 2006.
58 Ibd. p. 5.
migrant Christians and congregations. The underlying question was

phrased by the synod as “How can we become Protestant churches in
Italy and not only Italian Protestant churches?”59 A separate development
of indigenous and migrant congregations, while technically the easiest,
is not an option for the Waldensian and Methodist churches.
As migration is not only a national issue, churches have also
responded on the European level. In March 2004, the Churches’ Com-
mission for Migrants in Europe organized an international consultation
in Ciampino, Italy, on the issue of “Being Church Together—Unity
in Diversity.”60 After intensive exchanges between migrant and indige-
nous participants, the conference made a number of recommendations
to European churches on the local, national, and continental level,
stressing the necessity of developing multicultural ministries, two-sided
learning processes, and adequate representation of migrant Christians
in decision-making structures. The conference also stressed the impor-
tance of training for second generation migrant youth. Since then,
the Conference of European Churches has continued to put strong
emphases on migrant issues as well as issues of intercultural and interre-
ligious communication, though its documents and statements basically
ignore the presence of migrant churches and Christians and their con-
tributions.61
In May 2004, the Conference of Rhine Churches and the Com-
munity of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE) / Leuenberg Church
Fellowship held a consultation on the challenges of migration and asy-
lum in Europe. In its “Liebfrauenberg Declaration,”62 the conference
clearly centered on diaconal and advocacy approaches towards migra-
tion, but basically ignored the ecclesiological challenges brought about
by the mushrooming of migrant churches and Christian communities
59 Ibd. p. 6.
60 Cf. Benz Schär, Essere Chiese Insieme. Uniting in Diversity. Summary report
on the Conference “Essere Chiesa Insieme / Uniting in Diversity” (Ciampino-Sassone,
Italy, 26–28 March 2004), downloadable from www.cec-kek.org/English/ciampino
_languages.pdf, accessed 10 September 2008.
61 See the list of current issues at www.cec-kek.org/, accessed 29 October 2008.
62 Conference of Rhine Churches and Community of Prostestant Churches in
Europe / Leuenberg Church Fellowhip, “Liebfrauenberg Declaration” of the Rhine

Churches on the challenges of migration and asylum. Results of a consultation of the
Conference of Rhine Churches and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe / Leuenberg
Church Fellowship from 10–12 May 2004, at Liebfrauenberg, Alsace, downloadable from
www.cec-kek.org/English/LiebfrauenbergE.pdf, accessed 29 October 2008.
18 chapter one
in Europe, simply calling on local parishes to “make premises available

for migrant communities,”63 and on local congregations and diaconal
agencies to “open up to more intercultural exchange,” adding that
“equal rights and equal participation presuppose that people with a
migrant background can make their own contribution in the life of
parishes and church organizations in the same way as local people.”64
A look at the materials currently available from the CPCE65 makes
the Eurocentric outlook of this body glaringly obvious: Whether the
Federation speaks on evangelizing, theology for Europe, or diversity of
churches, the impact and contribution of migrant churches is almost
completely ignored.
1.4. Description of my research
After this general overview, it is now time to turn back to a descrip-

tion of the research which resulted in this book. Since 1998, I have
been a participant observer at worship services, night prayers, pas-
tors’ meetings, seminars, revivals, training meetings and crusades orga-
nized by more than 90 different migrant churches in North Rhine-
Westphalia. In many cases, I have only been to one activity at a given
church. But in the case of some larger churches or church networks,
I have attended several activities over the years, and therefore I have
been able to observe some developments. After most, but not all vis-
its, I wrote down shorter or longer research notes. Most times, I was
a just a visitor. Occasionally, I was a preacher or speaker—a change
of perspective that also gave me new insights. Originally, I found the
pentecostal / charismatic preaching style rather manipulative. I had the
impression that the preacher did whatever he (there are very few
woman preachers) could to get an emotional response from the con-
gregation. Only when I started to preach myself, I realized that preach-
ing in a pentecostal / charismatic setting is much more of a two-way
street than preaching in a ‘mainline’ Protestant setting: A congregation
that responds with shouts and Amens, with applause and Hallelujahs
is able, especially when it is large, to push a preacher into a certain
63 Ibd., no. 27.

64 Ibd., no. 28.
65 www.leuenberg.net/side.php?news_id=68&part_id=68&navi=16&sys=, accessed
29 October 2008.
direction. As pentecostal / charismatic preachers usually do not follow

a written manuscript, it is easily possible to lose one’s planned out-
line due to the congregation’s responses. To me, preaching in a pente-
costal / charismatic setting resembles a dance in which each side may
lead for while and then allows itself to be led by the other.
I also participated in meetings of networks of migrant churches: I
regularly attended the gatherings of the African Council of Churches
in Germany (Western Region)66 which I also advised on matters of
legal structure and set-up. Since 2000, I was present at most meet-
ings of the Council of Pentecost Ministers, an anglophone African net-
work of predominantly male pastors and evangelists, the majority of
whom come from Ghana.67 I was occasionally invited to the Council
of Korean Churches in NRW, though, due to the necessity of transla-
tion, this only happened when the group felt the need to discuss some
matters with me. I also participated in two events organized by Korean
Churches Together in Europe. Between 1999 and 2006, I organized
meetings of migrant churches at least once, and sometimes twice a year.
These included local round tables as well as annual meetings of the ‘list
churches’. I was also involved in planning and organizing a number
of intercultural worship services in different cities, with as many as ten
German and migrant congregations involved.
Over these nine years, I established relationships with more than
100 pastors, elders, and founders of migrant churches, the majority of
whom are pentecostal / charismatic. We have had formal and informal
talks and discussions, they have asked me for help and I have asked
their advice and feedback, we prepared joint activities, we discussed
theology and spirituality, we shared our biographies, and we prayed
and chatted. Whenever I felt that I had learned something of particu-
lar importance, I took notes after such encounters. During this period,
I built an extensive database of Protestant and pentecostal / migrant
churches in North Rhine-Westphalia. In addition to my field notes, I
collected leaflets, flyers and tracts, videos and DVDs.68 I elicited and
66 Founded in 1999, defunct since October 2004.

67 According to its leaders, the CPM was highly active in the mid-1990s, then
practically ceased to exist for several years until it was revived again in 2000. It
remained a very small and marginal group until 2002, when attendance at meetings
suddenly grew to about 40–60 persons.
68 Migrant churches tend to document special services, concerts, revivals etc. Videos
and DVDs are then sold and circulate within informal networks mostly defined by
language and cultural background.
20 chapter one
stored information about church activities, the number and nationali-

ties of their members, and their contacts to churches overseas and in
Germany. The degree of information about each church varies. Since
all churches applying to be added to the list of recognized churches
have to fill a questionnaire with their application, I usually know more
about the ‘list churches’ and their pastors / leaders than about the other
churches. Generally, my information about each church has come from
the church leadership, i.e. the pastor or elders. I have had few close
contacts with ordinary church members.
With the beginning of the kikk course, other research avenues
opened. From 2002, biographical interviews were conducted with all
participants, and the notes on these interviews were made available to
me by the course organizer, Gotthard Oblau. I also received written
reports about each weekend course from him. As one of the examiners,
I read all final papers by the participants which dealt with topics like
“Barnabas as a missionary” or “Migrants in the Bible and what we can
learn from them”.
From October 2000 to March 2001, Ursula Harfst served as pastor-
in-training and from April 2002 to September 2005, as assistant pas-
tor under my supervision. She shared with me her reports on her
visits to worship services and other church activities, as well as notes
on important conversations she had with migrant church leaders.
All of the information she gathered also became part of the UEM
database.
In 2001, I took a one-month study trip to pentecostal and charismatic
churches in Ghana and Nigeria, visiting mostly churches and min-
istries with either daughter churches or related churches in Germany.
I was a participant observer in worship services, prayer meetings both
in churches and in private homes, Bible studies, deliverance services,
all night prayers, a Redeemed Christian Church of God Holy Ghost
Night with more than 200,000 attendants, prayer camps, and street
revivals. In 2002 and 2003, I had opportunities to return to Ghana and
observe some more worship services and prayer camp meetings. My
observations in Ghana and Nigeria have been invaluable in providing
some background on African migrant churches in Germany, and have
also helped to build trust with migrant church leaders here, several of
whom helped to arrange my schedules and found hosts with whom I
stayed.
For this study, I have decided to focus on pentecostal and charismatic
pastors and church leaders. Several reasons underlie this decision: First
and very pragmatically, the pastors and leaders were the people whom
I knew best, and with whom I interacted on a daily basis. I had
built trustful relationships with them and could expect them to talk
to me openly. My contact to church members was much more limited,
and, due to my role in the UEM program, there was a clear status
difference which would have made research very difficult. Secondly,
the concentration on pastors and church leaders allowed me, within
a manageable sample, to deal with a great variety of people from
different ethnic, national and denominational backgrounds. As other
studies tend to concentrate on one, two, or at most three congregations,
I felt that I should make the most of the possibility to do a cross-
sectional study. And thirdly, with one exception, all of the interviewees
were church founders, therefore key actors who could be expected to
reflect and explain their missionary and pastoral motivation.
I combined a qualitative, empirical approach with some quantitative
elements. First of all, I conducted 24 extensive interviews with pastors
and church leaders in an inductive process of theoretical sampling.69
With one exception, I had known my interview partners for several
years, had had a number of informal talks with them over that period,
and cooperated with them in one or more activities. This means that I
knew them as people interested in cooperation, and I knew that a rela-
tionship of trust already existed, which I felt was necessary for the kind
of interview I planned. All extensive interviews were done employing
a loosely structured list of questions. They started with a broad ques-
tion to generate a biographical narrative which lasted from about 3
minutes to more than 45 minutes, depending on the interlocutor. Then
followed questions about how they understand their pastoral role and
how they understand and practice their missionary vocation. In the last
part of the interview, I asked about the ethnic / national composition
of their churches, about their denominational identity, and about their
sense of integration into the German church context. The interviews
were recorded on tape, and later transcribed. For reasons of compari-
son, I then did 80 short telephone interviews, each lasting about 7–10
minutes, with both pentecostal / charismatic and ‘mainline’ Protestant
pastors, following a set questionnaire. With these interviews, I had a
double purpose: First of all, I wanted to see whether I could find a
69 Cf. Hubert Knoblauch, Qualitative Religionsforschung. Religionsethnographie
in der eigenen Gesellschaft. Paderborn / München / Wien / Zürich: Schöningh/UTB

2003, p. 100 ff. For a list of interviewees, see Appendix II.
22 chapter one
distinct pentecostal / charismatic phrasing and understanding of mis-

sion. Secondly, I wanted to poll church leaders to find out about their
expectations of the German churches in terms of their integration into
German society.
1.5. Reflecting my own role as agent and researcher 70
As I have described above, this study is the outcome of an encounter.

There was no research agenda before I got to know migrant churches,
rather, the agenda was set by the encounter and the need to make
sense of it. After all, the overall aim of the UEM program was to
establish cooperation between migrant and indigenous churches—and
true cooperation will not be possible without at least some understand-
ing of both sides’ visions, aims and methods. Therefore, this study
is action research,71 part of a political, consciousness-raising process
in which I am involved both as an agent and as a researcher: My
hope is that it will contribute to a better relationship between indige-
nous Protestant churches and migrant churches in Europe. The fact
that UEM, which oversaw my work, and the Evangelical Church in
the Rhineland, which paid my salary, made this study part of my job
description shows that there is a political interest in this kind of knowl-
edge at least within the German church. Similarly, migrant pastors have
agreed to be interviewed because they are hoping that the results of
70 For an overview of the recent discussions, within the social sciences, on sub-
jectivity and reflexivity, cf. Breuer, Franz, and Roth, Wolff-Michael, Subjectivity and
Reflexivity in the Social Sciences: Epistemic Windows and Methodical Consequences.
Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research [Online Journal], 4(2),
May 2003. Available at: www.qualitative/research.net/fqs-texte/2–03/2–03intro-e-htm.
Date of Access 20 February, 2006. For a reflection of being inside / outside, see also Ezra
Chitando, The Insider / Outsider Problem in Research on Religion and Migration, in:
Adogame, Afe und Weissköppel, Cordula (Eds.), Religion in the Context of African
Migration. Bayreuth African Studies Series, No. 75, Bayreuth: Pia Thielmann & Eck-
hard Breitinger, 2005, and Afe Adogame, To be or not to be? Politics of Belonging and
African Christian Communities in Germany, ibd.
71 Monica Colombo describes action research as follows: “It is a question of insti-
tuting a research context as a place in which it is possible to construct a program

of analysis and reflection around the problems which are met in (work) practice
with the aim of sustaining sense-making processes.” Colombo, Monica, Reflexivity
and Narratives in Action Research: A Discursive Approach. Forum Qualitative Sozial-
forschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research [Online Journal], 4(2), May 2003. Available at:
www.qualitative/research.net/fqs-texte/2–03/2–03colombo-e-htm. Date of Access 20
February, 2006.
this study will have a positive impact on their situation. These agen-
das need to be understood, and the ensuing interactions to be ana-
lyzed. Therefore, this study was written from a constructivist perspec-
tive:72 This includes a relativist ontology—realities exist only as multiple
constructions which are socially and experientially based; a subjectivist
epistemology—research findings are created by the process of interac-
tion between the researcher and the researched; and a hermeneutical
and dialectical methodology—individual constructions are elicited and
refined, and then compared and contrasted to generate one or more
constructions on which there is substantial consensus.
If it is agreed that every social science researcher is also an actor and
influences the settings in his or her research, then my own role as an
agent and researcher is just gradually, but not fundamentally different
from someone who ‘only’ does research. Nevertheless, the intertwining
of my roles as agent and researcher in this process needs to be carefully
considered. I can see at least three different, but not always distinct
levels on which I have related to pentecostal and charismatic migrant
church leaders:
First of all, most of my interlocutors got to know me as a contact per-
son through whom they could establish a relationship with a dominant
church in Germany. They contacted me because they expected help
and assistance in establishing their own structures, recognition of their
ministry, and a ‘point of contact’ through which they could reach out
into German churches and bring them revival. Similarly, in my contact
with them I was hoping to establish a relationship that would make
cooperative projects possible. This is what I would call the ‘political
level’. There was a certain way of mutual instrumentalization involved:
each side needed something from the other side, but was also willing to
give something in the hope of making some gains later on.
Secondly, over the years, I established close, trusting, personal rela-
tionships with many pentecostal and charismatic pastors and church
leaders. We talked about our experiences of the Holy Spirit, we prayed
together, and I worshipped and preached in their churches. They knew
that I am not a Pentecostal in the denominational sense of the word,
but they nevertheless claimed me as one of their own, as a “woman
of God” through whom the Holy Spirit speaks. For years, I have been
72 For the following cf. Guba, Egon C., The Alternative Paradigm Dialog, in: Guba,
Egon C. (ed.), The Paradigm Dialog, London etc.: SAGE 1990, pp. 17–27.
24 chapter one
considered a full and respected member of the Council of Pentecost

Ministers, an anglophone African network of about 40 pastors; even
though I keep insisting that I do not fulfill the membership criteria. I
was asked to participate in blessing, anointing and deliverance rituals,
and even to assist in the ordination of two pastors. This is what I would
call the ‘spiritual level’. On this level, my interlocutors have had a deep,
personal impact on me. They have challenged and enriched my faith
and the ‘mainline’ protestant, somewhat pietistic spirituality in which
I was reared. They have taught me about the power of prayer and
the power of a faith that trusts in God alone, without any institutional
security. They have taught me that faith is a matter not only of the
mind, but also of the body, and that emotions may be expressed during
worship. I will never forget the elder who approached me after my first
sermon in an African charismatic church. He put an arm around my
shoulder and said: “Pastor, I can see that you have the love of Christ
in your heart. But you don’t show it in your body!” In that process,
though, I have also come to value the riches of my own tradition. I have
changed a lot through this encounter, but I have not ‘gone pentecostal’.
The question to what an extent a researcher can and should ‘go native’,
or reversely, how strictly the researcher should demarcate him- or
herself from his or her objects is particularly important when it comes
to research on Pentecostalism.73 On the other hand, on this level a
degree of trust was built that was enormously helpful both for the
political level as well as for my research.
Thirdly, I became a researcher. I went to worship services and lis-
tened, sang and prayed with those present, but I also took notes that
I expanded into thick descriptions afterwards. I preached, I blessed, I
anointed—and at the same time I observed, made mental notes, ana-
lyzed what was happening and what I was doing, and, on a meta-level,
even reflected what was happening with me while doing all of this.
Coleman aptly describes this “split” between the participant and the
observer. It cannot be bridged, not even by conversion to Pentecostal-
ism, and remains an inherent contradiction.74 This is what I would call
the ‘academic’ level. On this level, there is a danger of instrumental-
izing the other levels for research ends, of reducing the people with
73 See Simon Coleman, Studying ‘Global’ Pentecostalism: Tensions, Representations
and Opportunities, in: PentecoStudies vol. 5 no. 1, 2006, pp. 1–17.

74 Ibd., pp. 5–7.
whom I related to objects of my observation. On the other hand, on

the political level my interlocutors also had an interest to let me see and
understand certain things, while trying to hide others. Time and again,
I was faced with suspicion and mistrust because I was asking so many
questions. Without the spiritual level, a lot of my research would not
have been possible. But on this level, there have also been numerous
attempts to convert me. Of course, both the political and the spiritual
levels influenced how I observe and analyze, what I perceived and what
I might have overlooked. But because they exist, I was able to share my
research results with some of my interlocutors and get feedback. My
approach is discursive; my research is dialogical and can therefore be
validated both communicatively and argumentatively.75
1.6. Interpretative paradigms
I have already stated that this study follows a constructivist approach.

My interest is to understand how pentecostal / charismatic pastors and
church leaders interpret themselves. I will not discuss whether their bio-
graphical narratives are ‘true’ in the sense that they told me what hap-
pened historically; rather, I want to understand how my interlocutors
construct their biographies, and what kind of meaning they themselves
give to events in their lives. Similarly, I look at how they construct and
describe their roles as pastors and leaders, and then how they discur-
sively construct their role as evangelists. These constructions occasion-
ally clash with conclusions that I have drawn from my observation
of their practice—where this happens, how these different constructs
came about needs to be analyzed very carefully.
In transcribing the interviews, I decided not to follow the tran-
scription rules widely used within ethnographic and anthropological
research.76 First of all, I do not believe that any number of written
75 Cf. Hubert Knoblauch, Qualitative Religionsforschung. Religionsethnographie
in der eigenen Gesellschaft. Paderborn / München / Wien / Zürich: Schöningh/UTB

2003, p. 166 f.
76 See, for example Hubert Knoblauch, Qualitative Religionsforschung. Religion-
sethnographie in der eigenen Gesellschaft. Paderborn / München / Wien / Zürich:

Schöningh/UTB 2003, Uwe Flick, Qualitative Forschung. Theorie, Methoden, Anwen-
dung in Psychologie und Sozialwissenschaften. Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Ver-
lag, 1995, or Peter G. Stromberg, Language and self-transformation. A study of the
Christian conversion narrative. New York: Cambridge University Press 1993.
26 chapter one
symbols can come close to representing spoken language. Transcrip-

tion turns the spoken word into written word, into something differ-
ent altogether. Written language follows different criteria than spoken
language, and what can be heard and understood well may become
unintelligible by transcribing it closely. Therefore, my transcripts were
slightly edited by eliminating ehs, ohs, and stutters, making them more
‘readable.’ Secondly, all interviewees were non-native speakers, regard-
less of whether German or English was used during the interviews.
They were struggling to express themselves in an unfamiliar idiom.
Generally, those speaking in English showed stronger language skills
and better grammar than those speaking in German. Both in tran-
scribing and in translating the German interviews into English, obvious
grammatical mistakes were corrected, again to allow for better read-
ability. To make sure that such editing did not misrepresent what the
interviewees wanted to say, each of them was given the transcript and
asked to make changes to it if necessary. Interestingly, while several
interviewees insisted on authorizing the transcripts even before I had
started to explain the process to them, none of them suggested any
alterations to the transcripts they received. I believe that this is due to
the fact that they wanted to tell their story, be understood and taken
seriously. Transcripts which would have shown their inadequacies in
expressing themselves in a foreign language would have been seen as
humiliating and belittling their mission. In a sense, the interviewees
entrusted me with their message, giving me the role of an interpreter.
The ‘polished’ end product of the written interview, then, was closer to
what they wanted to project than was the raw material.
In this study, I have no interest in understanding my interview part-
ners better than they understand themselves by focusing on inadvertent
or unconscious utterances.77 Rather, I treat the interviews in their writ-
ten form as literature which can be analyzed hermeneutically. To give
readers the possibility to test my analysis against the interviews, the
biographical narratives from all interviews have been appended to this
study.78
When it comes to rescripting and interpreting the words and actions
of pentecostal / charismatic church leaders, great caution is necessary.
77 This is clearly the attitude of Peter G. Stromberg in his analysis of conversion
stories. See note 76 above.

78 See Appendix.
In a recent paper,79 David Martin has issued strong caveats for the
researcher in Pentecostalism. He warns of silent ontologies “which
determine what is to count as real, primary and consequential and
what is to be discounted as epiphenomenal, secondary and of no con-
sequence.”80 Such ontologies could be expressed in “the higher status
accorded to ‘the political’ by comparison with ‘the religious’ ”,81 or
in according rationalization “a central place in determining what is
to count as real change and significant development.”82 Instead, Martin
suggests, “people have to be allowed to speak on their own account
. . . Initially a message needs receiving in its own terms as though it
made natural or, at any rate, adequate sense.”83 Martin calls rescript-
ing a “precarious business . . . above all not to be conducted as though
what believers say is fantasy waiting for analytic solvents to transfer it
to some more basic category.”84 Pentecostalism is not a “diverted and
neutered social protest”,85 and the power of faith is not an illusion, as it
can, for the most part, “bring about the transformations it promises.”86
Rescripting therefore needs to be done “with respect to the messages
received”;87 and both in the use of metaphors and rhetorical framing,
the researcher needs to be aware of underlying, reductionist ontolo-
gies.
What Martin suggests, here, is to look at religion as, first and fore-
most, religion. This is not as simple as it sounds. Social science, and
even science of religion, is about the rational explanation of phenom-
ena. But what happens when religious science is confronted with tales
of miracles, with prayers that clearly expect God to act in this world,
and with consequent behaviors that do not make sense in a Western-
ized, rational logic (like, for example, praying for business success to
such an extent that there is not enough time to work for it)?
In rejecting reductionist ontologies, Martin refuses any kind of an
interpretation of religion that would assume that while expressing cer-
tain views or sentiments in a religious way, or while worshipping and
79 Martin, David, Undermining the Old Paradigms: Rescripting Pentecostal Ac-

counts, in: PentecoStudies, vol. 5 no. 1, 2006, pp. 18–38.
80 ibd. p. 18.
81 ibd. p. 19.
82 ibd. p. 29.
83 ibd. p. 20.
84 ibd. p. 20.
85 ibd. p. 32.
86 ibd. p. 20.
87 ibd. p. 20.
28 chapter one
praying, people were actually meaning or doing something else that,

in reality, was more important than the religious interpretation they
were giving to it. A case in point would be Paul Gifford’s suspicion that
the majority of pastors of new pentecostal and charismatic churches in
Africa have become pastors not because of a call, but rather because
founding a church provided them with a career opportunity.88 This
means that, above all, the inherent logic (and possibly also the inher-
ent contradictions) of pentecostal / charismatic utterances needs to be
teased out. Therefore, I will analyze my interviews first and foremost as
religious texts that make religious sense.
This interpretation process takes place within the general debate
about the role of religion and integration in Europe, which, particularly
after 9/11, concerns itself almost exclusively with Islam.89 As far as I
can see, there is a basic, underlying question that openly or hidden
shapes much of the current discourse: What makes ‘good’ religion? 90 At a
time when different religions and different ways of living religion are
competing on a ‘religious market’, that question becomes ever more
important. When the issue at stake is integration, then ‘good’ religion
is whatever is compatible with European basic liberal and democratic
values, while anything that questions or challenges these values is at
least suspect, if not outright ‘bad’.91
When it comes to Pentecostalism, the question of whether and
in which ways it constitutes ‘good’ religion is also commonly asked,
though rarely openly admitted to within the research community. The
answer to this question depends on research and political paradigms:
For example, as Simon Coleman92 suggests, anthropology with its
88 See Gifford, Paul, African Christianity. Its Public Role, Bloomington and Indi-
anapolis: Indiana University Press 1998, p. 345.
89 See, e.g., Jonathan Birt, Good Imam, Bad Imam: Civic Religion and National
Integration in Britain post 9/11, in: The Muslim World, vol. 96, issue 4, pp. 687–705.
As far as could be ascertained, Christian religion has only become an issue in cases of
fundamentalist ethnic German resettlers from Russia who have refused to send their
children to school.
90 See also: U.J. Wenzel (ed.), Was ist eine gute Religion? Zwanzig Antworten,
München: C.H. Beck Verlag 2007, and Peggy Levitt, God needs no passport: Immi-
grants and the changing American religious landscape, New York: The New Press 2007,
who discusses this question in a US-American context.
91 Cf., for example, the radio interview with Suffragan Bishop Hans-Jochen Jaschke,
Deutschlandfunk, 9 February 2006, documented at www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/

interview_dlf/467413/, accessed on 27 February 2006.
92 Coleman, Simon, Studying ‘Global’ Pentecostalism: Tensions, Representations
and Opportunities, in: PentecoStudies, vol. 5 no. 1, 2006, pp. 1–17.

binary paradigm of “local good, global bad” tends to subsume Pen-

tecostalism under the “polluting aspects of modernity,” and therefore
as ‘bad’. Where political paradigms are of primary importance, Pente-
costalism will be constructed as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ according to whether it
furthers or hinders sought-after political processes, i.e. it is understood
within a functional perspective. When Paul Gifford93 concludes that
the new, charismatic Christianity in Ghana is “dysfunctional” when
it comes to bringing Ghana “into the world’s modern political and
economic system,” he implies that he is dealing with ‘bad’ religion,
even if he does not say so explicitly. Similarly, the ongoing debate over
whether Latin American Pentecostalism should be considered liberat-
ing or oppressive94 is, at its base, a discussion about ‘good’ and ‘bad’
religion. When it comes to a journalistic treatment of these issues,
the answers seem fairly unequivocal: Pentecostalism is subsumed under
American right wing influenced fundamentalism and therefore ‘bad’
religion.95
The popularity of functional approaches in research on Pentecostal-
ism can be attributed exactly to the kind of rationalizations David Mar-
tin has so aptly criticized. Whether a certain religious approach func-
tions politically in this or that way can be observed empirically, though
any interpretation as to what is the exact cause of that particular func-
tion remains open: “A religion has consequences without being the creature of
what it in fact creates.”96
93 Gifford, Paul, Ghana’s New Christianity. Pentecostalism in a Globalizing African

Economy, Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2004, p. 191 ff.
94 Just as two examples, see Schäfer, Heinrich, Protestantismus in Zentralamerika.
Christliches Zeugnis im Spannungsfeld von US-amerikanischem Fundamentalismus,

und Wiederbelebung “indianischer” Kultur, in: Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft und
Religionswissenschaft Vol. 75, Münster 1989, pp. 138–145; and Shaull, Richard and
Cesar, Waldo, Pentecostalism and the Future of the Christian Churches. Promises,
Limitation, Challenges, Grand Rapids (MI) / Cambridge (UK): Eerdmanns 2000. More
material on this debate can be found in Evangelisches Missionswerk in Deutschland
(ed.), Pfingstbewegung und Basisgemeinden in Lateinamerika, Weltmission heute 39,
Hamburg 2000, which contains an extensive bibliography. For a somewhat different
construction of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ religion, see Corten, André, Pentecostalism in Brazil.
Emotion of the Poor and Theological Romanticism, London / New York: Palgrave
MacMillan 1999, who states that glossolalia as the religious discourse of the poor is
“unacceptable” in the political sphere. (pp. 92–97)
95 See, for example, the series by Deutschlandradio, “The New Christianity,” broadcast
from 27 December 2006 to 4 January 2007. www.dradio.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/

576849/. The broadcast on Nigerian Pentecostalism was especially critical, accusing
Pentecostal / charismatic evangelists of exploitation.
96 Martin, ibd. p. 21.
30 chapter one
Looking at pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches, a functional

approach is also rather attractive. From a political viewpoint, it is
important to understand whether the theology and practice of these
churches helps or hinders integration, whether it motivates people or
paralyzes them, whether it gives them a voice or takes it away, whether
it allows them to function in a secular society or leads them into
ghettoes or parallel societies. It is not surprising that a number of
large research projects have recently been started to explore exactly
these issues.97 Depending on the answer to these questions, pente-
costal / charismatic theology and practice is then assessed as ‘good’ or
‘bad’. This has immediate consequences in the process of cooperation:
‘Good’ practices will be encouraged and supported, while ‘bad’ prac-
tices will be criticized, and their perpetrators isolated.
With my interest in cooperation, I have been tempted time and
again to construct migrant Pentecostalism as ‘good’ religion in the
framework of the above-mentioned questions. This has included argu-
ing that pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches were actually fitting
the German Protestant churches’ agenda on integration. But through
my interviews, this construction has proven questionable. Pentecostal
and charismatic pastors and church leaders talk little about integration,
social projects and political action. At the same time, they claim that
they are “not the problem, but rather the solution.” But when describ-
ing the problem and the solution, they do not use political, but rather
religious categories: Europe has moved away from God, and therefore
God has brought them here to help bring about a return of the conti-
nent to God.
The questions asked by social sciences researchers are not the ques-
tions migrant pentecostal and charismatic pastors ask themselves. Mi-
grant pentecostals and charismatics ask what God is doing in and
through their lives, how and where they are being led, and how they
can be blessed and bless others. They ask how their prayers can be
efficacious so that revival will actually happen. They ask how they can
reach out, with their religious message, beyond language and cultural
barriers.
97 See, for example, the research project “The Religious Lives of Migrant Minori-
ties” by the Social Science Research Council, www.programs.ssrc.org/intmigration/

migrant/, or the project on the participation of immigrant churches into Dutch soci-
ety, http://www.immigrantchurches.nl/wordpress/about/research-design/, accessed 19
August 2008.
My interlocutors have their own understanding of what makes ‘good’

and ‘bad’ religion, following a religious and ethical paradigm. ‘Good’
religion is a faith that shapes and permeates one’s every action and
word. It shows itself in time-intensive religious practices—e.g. a longer
worship service is better than a shorter one, the more time one prays
the better etc.—and in clearly demarcated personal ethics. For an
example, see the ethical guidelines in the Lighthouse International
Christian Fellowship Church Handbook:98 “I pledge myself to the fol-
lowing lifestyle commitments: 1. Strive for excellence in my Chris-
tian life. 2. Submit to authority [sic] of the Bible in matters of faith
and conduct and to the control of the Holy Spirit. 3. Co-operate
respectfully with the Pastors / Leadership of the Church. 4. Participate
actively in promoting the cause of Christ, including endeavouring to
win others for Christ. 5. Refrain from activities such as profanity, gam-
bling, dishonesty, substance abuse (drugs, alcohol, tobacco), all immoral
activity—including the reading and viewing of pornographic literature,
homosexuality, lesbianism, or any other sexual activity outside of mar-
riage and also any other behaviour that might cause Christ to grieve. 6.
Maintain a personal appearance and dress which would honour Christ.
Refrain from behaviour which would bring discredit upon the Lord
or offend a weaker Christian brother or sister.” When it comes to the
question of cooperation, they will decide how deeply to get involved
according to whether they see their partners as practicing ‘good’ reli-
gion.
My encounters confirm David Martin’s suggestion that the life world
of pentecostals and charismatics is “a complex giving and making
of moral account,”99 and that life stories are told as “moral tale.”100
This is important: Though often marginalized, migrant pentecostals
and charismatics do not see themselves as victims. They may have no
political influence, but they pray for changed government policies and
even confront the “demon of racism” in their spiritual warfare.101 Prob-
lems that are constructed as political in a Western rationalized frame-
work are defined as spiritual in a pentecostal / charismatic religious
paradigm. And while they may not be agents in the political arena,
98 Published privately by Lighthouse Christian Fellowship, 2005. No page num-
bering.
99 ibd. p. 35.
100 ibd. p. 35.
101 I have witnessed this during several all night prayers in Anglophone African
churches.
32 chapter one
they are definitely agents in the spiritual arena. Not surprisingly, pen-
tecostals and charismatics recount their life stories in the horizon of
the “sacred narrative”102 of the Bible, they “script their own autobiog-
raphy out of Scripture. Like Scripture itself, their autobiographies are
testimonies.”103
It should have become sufficiently clear that even where cooperation
is happening, European and migrant churches are each constructing
an image of the other that is quite different from how each side sees
itself. In consequence, a guiding question behind this study is whether
each side will be able to have it’s own image of the ‘other’ challenged
and changed sufficiently so that more than superficial cooperation is
possible.
102 ibd. p. 36.

103 ibd. p. 36.
chapter two
THE FIELD OF STUDY
2.1. Terminology: “Migrant churches”
The first chapter applied the terms ‘migrant churches’, ‘migrant con-
gregations’, and ‘foreign language churches’ interchangeably. At this
point, some terminological considerations are necessary, because the
terminology used has theological and political implications.1 First of
all, the term ‘church’ needs to be clarified. Within the migrant church
scene, there are organized denominations with clear decision-making
hierarchies as well as congregationalist networks in which local congre-
gations are fairly autonomous; there are mega-churches with attached
satellite churches as well as local, independent churches not affiliated
with any denomination or network.
In Germany, terminology is not unified. Within the German Evan-
gelical Churches, migrant churches are usually referred to as “Gemein-
den anderer Sprache und Herkunft,” congregations of another language or ori-
gin. This implies, from the viewpoint of a large denomination, that
all migrant churches are also part of a denomination. Independent
local churches are simply ignored, because they cannot be ‘church’.
This has immediate implications as most German local Associations
of Christian Churches will only accept congregations affiliated with a
denomination as members, thereby effectively excluding many migrant
churches. Within the framework of the UEM program, it has therefore
become important to speak of “Migrations-kirchen”, ‘migration churches’,
when referring to these churches within a political framework. When it
comes to local cooperation however, we speak of cooperation between
congregations. For a long time, migrant churches were termed “Aus-
ländergemeinden” (Congregations of / for foreign citizens) or “ausländische
1 These terminological considerations are based on my 2005 paper, Währisch-
Oblau, Claudia, Migrationskirchen in Deutschland. Überlegungen zur strukturierten

Beschreibung eines komplexen Phänomens, in: Zeitschrift für Mission, Frankfurt/Basel:
Basileia / Lembeck, 1–2/2005, pp. 19–39.
34 chapter two
Gemeinden” (foreign congregations). This is no longer the case within

the Protestant churches, taking into account the fact that many of the
members of these churches now hold German citizenship. Evangeli-
cals, on the other hand, still comfortably use these terms.2 In the ver-
nacular however, “fremdsprachige Gemeinden,” foreign language congrega-
tions, is also often heard. While the different / foreign worship language
and the foreign origin of many of their members is indeed an impor-
tant characteristic of migrant churches, both terms have been criticized
because they classify these churches as other, implying that what is ‘nor-
mal’ is defined by the indigenous churches. Consequently, a slow move-
ment towards the term “Migrationskirchen” (migration churches) could be
observed in the last few years.
In the Netherlands, the term Migrantenkerken (migrant churches)
seems to be most common, though “immigrant churches” is increas-
ingly used.3 The churches organized in SKIN (Samen Kerk in Nederland)
also refer to themselves as migrant churches, though the current gen-
eral secretary, June Beckx, prefers the term “immigrant churches” to
stress that these churches are there to stay.4 “Immigrant churches” is
also the preferred term within the USA.5 In Britain, “Black-led / black
majority churches” is a common terminology—the term ‘Black’ here
understood as comprising all ethnic minorities.6 The term “ethnic
2 For an example, see the interview with the new chair of the Coalition for Evange-
lism, Birgit Winterhoff, in: EINS! Das Magazin der Evangelischen Allianz in Deutsch-
land, Bad Blankenburg: Deutsche Evangelische Allianz, 1/2006, pp. 16–18. The Arbeits-
kreis für Ausländer (Working Group for Foreigners) of the Evangelical Alliance speaks of
“Christian congregations of foreign citizens” (christliche Gemeinden ausländischer Mitbürger),
see its website www.ead.de/afa/welcome.htm, accessed on 3 March 2006.
3 See, for example, MDO Binnenland (Sjaak van’t Kruis.), Geboren in Sion. De
relatie tussen de Samen op Weg-Kerken, de migrantenkerken en organisaties van

christelijke migranten / Born in Sion. Policy framework for the relationship between
the Uniting Churches in the Netherlands (‘Samen op Weg’) inter-church ecumenical
organisation and the immigrant churches and organisations of immigrant Christians
in the Netherlands, 2002, and Mechteld Jansen and Hijme Stoffels, Introduction, in:
Jansen / Stoffels (eds.), A Moving God. Immigrant Churches in the Netherlands, Münster: LIT-
Verlag 2008, p. 4.
4 Personal communication from June Beckx.
5 Cf. Helen Rose Ebaugh, Jennifer O’Brien & Janet Slatzman Chafetz, The Social
Ecology of Residential Pattern and Memberships In Immigrant Churches, in: Journal

for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 39, issue 1, 2002, pp. 107–116.
6 See Joe Aldred, Minority ethnic Christianity in Britain and Ireland today, 2004,
downloadable from http://cte.churchinsight.com/Articles/66817/ Churches_Together

_in/Our_work/Minority_Ethnic_Christian/Further_articles_available.aspx, accessed
28 October 2008.
the field of study 35
minority churches” can also be found. In France, the term “Groupes

et Eglises issues de l’immigration” (flashily abbreviated as GE2i) seems
to be the agreed expression at least among Protestants.7
Generally, when dealing with the phenomenon in continental
Europe, the term ‘migrant churches’ is the most used. It is a sociolog-
ical description, but it has severe theological drawbacks. As the Angli-
can Bishop of York, John Sentamu, has pointed out,8 all Christians are
migrants because they have no lasting city on earth, but rather belong
to the wandering people of God. Paroikia, the Greek root for the term
parish now used for geographical congregations within the German
Protestant churches, originally denoted the part of town where migrant
workers settled. Nobody belongs to the church because of his place
of residence or his origin—all are invitees called from the hedges and
fences by Christ. The term ‘migrant church,’ as it is used now, blurs
this theological insight and unquestioningly accepts the current defini-
tions of ‘migrant’ and ‘indigenous.’ The same considerations hold true
for the term ‘immigrant churches.’
Representatives of Pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches have
suggested that they be called “new mission churches.” This is also a
theological term, and one that would not stress their foreignness, but
rather the reason for their existence, namely their missionary calling
from South to North and East to West.9 While theologically attractive
and meaningful, this expression is of limited usefulness for this study
because it is too broad to be used as a sociological category: New mis-
sion churches are also being founded by German Pentecostals, Charis-
matics, and Evangelicals as well as by overseas (usually American or
Korean) missionaries reaching out primarily to indigenous Germans.10
7 See Antoine Schluchter, Accueillir les Eglises issues de l’immigration—Enjeux

et Perspectives. Exposé donné au synode national des Eglises réformées évangéliques
indépendantes, à Plan-de-Cuques le 17 mars 2007, dans le cadre d’une réflexion sur les
questions d’immigration, downloadable from www.defap.fr/rubrique.php?id_rubrique
=74, accessed 4 September 2008.
8 Cf. Sentamu’s speech at a conference co-organized by the UEM program in
2002, quoted in Oblau, Gotthard, Rassismus in der Kirche überwinden, in: Transparent.
Zeitschrift für die kritische Masse in der rheinischen Kirche, 16. Jg. Nr. 67, December 2002.
9 Cf. Währisch-Oblau, Claudia, Mission und Migration(skirchen), in: Dahling-
Sander, Christoph; Schulte, Andrea; Werner, Dietrich; Wrogemann, Henning (eds.),

Leitfaden Ökumenische Missionstheologie, Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser / Gütersloher Ver-
lagshaus 2003, pp. 363–383.
10 Typical examples for such ‘new mission churches’ are the Evangelical youth
church e/motion in Essen (www.emotion-online.de, accessed 7 March 2006), the

36 chapter two
Therefore, I see no viable alternative to using the terms ‘migrant

churches’ or ‘foreign language churches’ in a strictly sociological sense
for churches and congregations which have been founded by people
with a recent migration background, are led by them, and have a
majority of members from such a background. Such churches and
congregations may have a number of indigenous German members,
and may even conduct some of their worship services in German.
This is becoming more common as a second generation is growing
up in these churches, which is far more fluent in German than in the
language of their parents.
2.2. Delimiting “pentecostal / charismatic”
What is Pentecostalism? And what is denoted by the term ‘charis-

matic’? The answers to these questions define the scope of the study
I am undertaking here. And they are anything but easy.
Recent discussions11 in research on Pentecostalism have centered on
a basic methodological alternative: Is the movement being defined
by essentialist categories, or is a non-essentialist approach used which
maps the movement along historical and synchronous connections?
Essentialist categories can come from a variety of fields, among them
theology, religion, sociology, ethnology and anthropology. Donald Day-
ton, in his groundbreaking book Theological Roots of Pentecostalism,12
basically describes Pentecostalism as ‘Evangelicalism plus speaking in
tongues’.13 Dayton’s definition of pentecostal dogmatics, while precise,
Christus Centrum Ruhrgebiet in Duisburg, a German Charismatic foundation (www

.ccr-net.de, accessed 7 March 2006), and the Christliche Gemeinde Köln in Cologne
which was founded and is being led by North American missionaries, but consists
almost exclusively of German members. Cf. http://cgk-online.de/1.html, http://cgk-
online.de/5.html, accessed 3 March 2006.
11 Especially at the Conference of the European Research Network on Global
Pentecostalism on ‘What is Pentecostalism? Constructing and Representing Global

Pentecostalism in Academic Discourse’, Birmingham, January 19–20, 2006.
12 Dayton, Donald, Theological Roots of Pentecostalism, Peabody (MA): Hendrick-
son Publishers 1987.

13 Ibd., epilogue, pp. 173 ff. In a similar vein, Csordas defines as members of
the Catholic charismatic movement those who attend prayer meetings and speak in
tongues. Cf. Csordas, Thomas J., Language, Charisma and Creativity. The Ritual Life
of a Religious Movement. Berkeley (CA) / London: University of California Press 1997,
p. 49.
is limited to North American white ‘classical’ Pentecostalism, as Walter

Hollenweger has convincingly shown.
In a complex theological model, Hollenweger14 demonstrates how
Pentecostalism developed from roots in black oral religion, Catholicism,
the Holiness Movement, and was also shaped by political criticism
and ecumenism. Using the Azusa Street Revival as paradigm, Hol-
lenweger constructs a Pentecostalism that is a border-crossing move-
ment15 shaped by an oral liturgy, a narrative theology, maximal (lay)
participation, acceptance of dreams and visions, and a deeper under-
standing of the unity of body and soul. Hollenweger’s contribution
has been invaluable in that he has not only shown Pentecostalism as
a global movement, but also as a specific way of living and prac-
ticing faith and theology: Oral rather than written, narrative rather
than systematic, experiential rather than doctrinal. Within a defini-
tion this broad, though, Hollenweger includes within Pentecostalism
a number of non-Western churches which themselves would firmly
reject the label ‘pentecostal’ and which are rejected as false churches by
churches which define themselves as pentecostal. Cases in point would
be the Kimbanguist Church16 or Aladura Churches like the Church
of the Lord Brotherhood17 which met with strong rejection from pen-
tecostal / charismatic members of the Committee of Foreign Language
Churches when they applied for membership in the list process. Of
course, there have been cases where one pentecostal church labeled
another one as false or even anti-Christian, so this criterion needs to
be used with caution. But it does seem counterintuitive to include dis-
tinct groups of churches into one category when both the groups to
be included and the groups within that category reject such a catego-
rization. Though Hollenweger’s call to pay attention to oral liturgies
and narrative theologies needs to be heeded in the research on Pen-
tecostalism where written theology or confessional statements (if they
14 Hollenweger, Walter, Charismatisch-pfingstliches Christentum. Herkunft, Situa-

tion, Ökumenische Chancen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1997.
15 Borders in the sense of all human deliminations: Azusa Street crossed borders
between Black and White, poor and rich, men and women, clergy and laity, and
geographical boundaries.
16 For a self-introduction of this church, see www.kimbanguisme.net, accessed 8
September 2008. Cf. also Benjamin Simon, Gemeinschaft und religiöse Praxis im
diasporalen Kimbanguismus—die Situation in Deutschland, in: Zeitschrift für Mission 1–
2/2005, pp. 40–53.
17 www.clbrotherhood.com, accessed 8 September 2008.
38 chapter two
even exist) often contradict the theology present in Sunday sermons

and testimonies,18 his construction of Pentecostalism generates a picture
too wide-ranging to be of much definitory use.
With more research into the globalized nature of Pentecostalism, the
question becomes more urgent as to how this extremely multi-faceted
movement can still be represented as a single global phenomenon, even
if it has neither a common dogmatic basis nor a universal institutional
framework. Harvey Cox’s ingenious definition that Pentecostalism is
the ‘sibling’ of jazz which is different everywhere but still immediately
recognizable as jazz19 leaves us with a beautiful metaphor, but no real
answers either.
According to Michael Bergunder, an essential definition of Pente-
costalism is impossible. This leaves scientists with only one route: The
mapping of Pentecostalism according to diachronous and synchronous
connections.20 A church or a movement can only be labeled as ‘pente-
costal’ if there is a historical connection to the “vast and vague interna-
tional network”21 surrounding the Azusa Street Revival of 1906 as well
a synchronous interrelatedness with other groups, churches or individ-
uals which similarly can be traced back to the beginnings of the move-
ment. Only if these connections have been firmly established, a dis-
cussion of what actually makes up the distinct pentecostal identity can
follow.
Bergunder’s criteria, at least in theory, provide the tools to actually
delimit ‘Pentecostalism’ and to decide once and for all whether a cer-
tain church or ministry can or cannot be labeled ‘pentecostal / charis-
matic’. But in practice, problems remain.
18 Though this is only too true also for Lutheran and Reformed Churches!
19 Cox, Harvey, Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the
Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-first Century, Reading: Addison-Wesley Publish-
ing Company, 1994, p. 143.
20 Cf. Bergunder, Michael, Crossing Boundaries: Issues of Representation, Identity
and Postcolonial Discourse in Pentecostal Studies. Paper for the Conference of the
European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism on ‘What is Pentecostalism?
Constructing and Representing Global Pentecostalism in Academic Discourse’, Birm-
ingham, January 19–20, 2006. Bergunder, Michael: Constructing Indian Pentecostal-
ism: On Issues of Methodology and Representation, in: Anderson, Allan and Tang,
Edmond, Asian and Pentecostal. The Charismatic Face of Christianity in Asia, Asian
Journal of Pentecostal Studies Series 3, Oxford: Regnum and Baguio City: APTS Press
2005, pp. 177–186 and 205–209.
21 Bergunder, Constructing Indian Pentecostalism, p. 186.
In a critical response to Michael Bergunder, Allan Anderson22 has

pointed out that it is difficult, if not downright impossible, to establish
diachronous links to the first stage of Pentecostalism for all ‘third-world’
pentecostal movements and churches. The criteria, while clear, cannot
always be operationalized in practice. This is especially true in the case
of independent migrant churches where historical connections are often
impossible to verify.
I would want to add a definitional concern: What exactly establishes
a ‘connection’, both synchronously and diachronously? Is it a visit by
a missionary fresh from Azusa Street, an exchange of letters, a sub-
scription to The Apostolic Faith?23 In the case of the migrant churches
studied here, the diachronous links are often extremely tenuous, espe-
cially in cases where a local independent church was founded by some-
one originally affiliated with a non-Pentecostal church. And how do
we define synchronous connections when most migrant churches are
not organizationally affiliated to either a denominational pentecostal
church or any international pentecostal or charismatic body? Do orga-
nizing a revival with Morris Cerullo, subscribing to Kenneth Hagin’s
“Believers’ Voice of Victory,” traveling to preach in other independent
churches around the world constitute a sufficient connection? I myself
have plenty of such diachronous connections, but would state that those
do not necessarily make me a Pentecostal.
2.3. Constructing a pentecostal / charismatic discourse field
I believe that my research is not possible without a kind of hermeneu-

tical circle: Even if a migrant church does not call itself pentecostal
or charismatic—and quite a number of churches avoid these labels—
24
there have often been certain markers or characteristics that made
me look for diachronous and synchronous connections to the pente-
costal movement. Once I established such connections, I could then
22 Cf. Anderson, Allan, ‘Crossing Boundaries: Issues of Representation, Identity
and Postcolonial Discourse in Pentecostal Studies.’ A Response to Michael Bergunder.

Paper for the Conference of the European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism
on ‘What is Pentecostalism? Constructing and Representing Global Pentecostalism in
Academic Discourse’, Birmingham, January 19–20, 2006.
23 The journal of the Azusa Street Revival.
24 For reasons, see the discussion below.
40 chapter two
look at the identity markers of this particular church to refine my own

understanding of what a pentecostal or charismatic identity might pos-
sibly include. Because I started into this circle through my encoun-
ters with African and Asian Pentecostal and charismatic churches, my
understanding of Pentecostalism varies significantly from those whose
paradigm of understanding has been shaped by classical white Ameri-
can Pentecostalism.
Before I turn to the markers or characteristics that I used as indi-
cators for a possible pentecostal or charismatic identity, I want quickly
to discuss descriptions of pentecostal identity given by several other
researchers whose insights I found helpful in looking at migrant church-
es in a German context.
Allan Anderson suggests using the term ‘pentecostal’ “for describ-
ing globally all churches and movements that emphasize the working
of the gifts of the Spirit.”25 More precisely, Pentecostalism should be
seen “as a movement concerned primarily with the experience of the
working of the Holy Spirit and the practice of spiritual gifts.”26 This is
a very broad, theological definition, but it is useful in constructing a
difference between pentecostal / charismatic and ‘mainline’ Protestant
as well as evangelical27 churches, both of which have been shaped by
a dialectical theology that is very suspicious of the religious value of
any kind of experience.28 Still, I believe that Anderson’s definition is too
broad to give more than a starting point, and could be further speci-
fied.
Droogers29 gives three common characteristics of Pentecostalism
from an anthropological perspective:
25 Anderson, Allan, An Introduction to Pentecostalism. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press 2004, p. 13.

26 Ibd. p. 14, quoting Robert M. Anderson, Vision of the Disinherited: The Making
of American Pentecostalism, Peabody (MA): Hendrickson Publishers 1979, p. 4.

27 Evangelical here in the narrow sense, “evangelikal” rather than “evangelisch”.
28 Just as an interesting observation: The German version of the “Four Spiritual
Laws”, a kind of Christian-theology-in-a-nutshell devised by Campus Crusade for

Christ, has a chapter on how not to depend on one’s feelings. Several of the English
versions of the same text omit this chapter. Cf. www.greatcom.org/laws/german/ and
www.greatcom.org/laws/english/, respectively, both accessed on 14 March 2006.
29 Droogers, André, Globalisation and Pentecostal Success, in: Corton and Marshall-
Fratani, Between Babel and Pentecost. Transnational Pentecostalism in Africa and

Latin America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2001, pp. 41–61.
– A central place given to the presence of the Holy Spirit in worship,

– A conversion experience which leads one into the church as an
alternative community,
– A dualistic world view.30
The sociologist Frans Kamsteeg31 also names a conversion experience
as an important identity marker for pentecostals. While all of these
can be shown as pentecostal identity markers, they are, perhaps with
exception of Droogers’ first point, shared by evangelicals, too. I would
claim that despite many overlappings, there is a distinct difference
between Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism.
Michael Bergunder suggests that a distinctive pentecostal identity
would have “something to do with a certain spiritual praxis (intuitive,
experiential Spirit-centered devotion; oral liturgy; firm Biblical orienta-
tion; narrative theology and testimonies; strong lay participation; heal-
ing and so on),”32 even though this praxis would be subject to constant
change and dependent on mutual affirmation.
André Corten,33 a political scientist, uses a discourse theoretical
approach to come up with four important characteristics of pente-
costals:
– The discursive category of the ‘poor’ which in Pentecostalism are
those who, through their religious emotion, have an immediacy to
God and the Bible that needs no theological training;
– Emotion as basis of the religious discourse, enacted and exterior-
ized in glossolalia, singing, free speech and gestures;
– Praise as an illocutive ‘original’ or ‘primary’ utterance which is
neither true nor false, but ‘unacceptable’ within the political dis-
course;
– Organization within a ‘sect’ as the ‘anti-politics’ of the poor
(though this may change as a church develops).
This last characteristic has also been stressed by the sociologist David
Martin who talks about the pentecostal “walk-out” from society.34
30 Ibd., pp. 44–46.

31 Kamsteeg, Frans, Prophetic Pentecostalism in Chile. A Case Study on Religion
and Development Policy. Studies in Evangelicalism 15, Lanham (MD): The Scarecrow
Press 1998, p. 25.
32 Bergunder, Crossing Boundaries, p. 10.
33 Corten, André, Pentecostalism in Brazil. Emotion of the Poor and Theological
Romanticism, London / New York: Palgrave MacMillan 1999.

34 David Martin, Undermining the Old Paradigms. Rescripting Pentecostal Ac-
42 chapter two
For this study, I can describe certain worship practices and dis-
course fields that led me to inquire whether a particular migrant church
could be placed within the synchronous and diachronous networks of
the pentecostal movement. This was particularly important as many
churches try to avoid denominational labels and therefore would not
denote themselves as either ‘pentecostal’ or ‘charismatic,’ preferring
the term ‘non-denominational’, sometimes coupled with ‘full-Gospel’.
In several cases, when asking for a denominational label, I was told that
the church in question was, for example, “evangelical, Bible-believing,
Spirit-filled, and baptist.” Another pastor told me: “If I am in Nigeria,
I will call the church pentecostal, because I will expect every Nigerian
to know what pentecostal means. In Germany, I will not call it pente-
costal, because Germans will not understand what it means. So I rather
call it evangelical.”
I believe that the avoidance of denominational labels has at least two
reasons: One is that, especially in more international churches, mem-
bers tend to come from a variety of denominational backgrounds to
which they still claim a sense of adherence. To make all of them feel at
home, a church calls itself ‘non-denominational.’ The other reason is a
political one: Migrant church leaders have picked up very quickly on
the fact that the label ‘pentecostal’ or ‘charismatic’, in Germany, may
lead to one’s church being suspected as a ‘sect’ or even ‘cult’. Few Ger-
man pentecostal and charismatic churches are part of the local Asso-
ciations of Christian Churches (ACK),35 and none of the pentecostal
denominations participate in the national ACK. Eager to be accepted
and not marginalized, migrant churches, especially when not connected
to a mother church overseas, rather try to develop a relationship with
the Protestant Churches which they rightly perceive as the dominant
church organization in Germany. But such a relationship is only possi-
ble if they downplay their pentecostal or charismatic identity.36
So what then are indicators that a migrant church could be part of
the pentecostal network? As my encounters usually started by partic-
ipant observation in worship services, certain worship practices have
counts, in: PentecoStudies, vol. 5, no. 1, 2006, pp. 18–38. Also, by the same author:
Pentecostalism: The World Their Parish. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers 2002.
35 ACK—Arbeitsgemeinschaft christlicher Kirchen.
36 This need to downplay ‘stigmatizing’ identity markers to be accepted within
mainstream society has recently been described by Kenji Yoshino as ‘covering’, follow-
ing Erving Goffman’s 1963 study on stigma. See Yoshino, Kenji, Covering. The Hidden
Assault on our Civil Rights. Random House 2006.
shown themselves as suggestive of a pentecostal / charismatic identity.

The elements below are not meant as definitional, but have been col-
lected through observation. They include the following:
– Oral liturgy and an absence of ‘formed’ elements like the Lord’s
prayer or a confession of faith;
– Absence of liturgical clothing / vestments;
– ‘Praise and worship’ as a distinct liturgical element;
– Gestures, movement, dance, and openly shown strong emotions,
especially during praise and worship times, but also at other times
during the worship service;
– Communal prayer times during which everybody may pray aloud
at the same time (with possible speaking in tongues);
– A practice of sharing testimonies within the worship service;
– Congregational participation in the sermon through calls, shouts,
songs and gestures (“call and response”);
– Prayers for healing and deliverance (possibly with laying-on of
hands, falling down of the person prayed for, and other manifesta-
tions);
– Prophecy;
– Strong lay participation in leading the worship, preaching ser-
mons, and conducting prayers;
– Evangelistic altar calls or a call to rededicate one’s life to Christ.
These practices in themselves are expressions of certain discourses
which are circulating globally within the pentecostal / charismatic
movement, both through mass media and through the varied and inter-
national personal contacts that this network provides. At the same time,
local churches and movements appropriate and adapt such discourses
into their cultural and spiritual frameworks, making Pentecostalism a
true example of a “glocalized” movement,37 in which individuals can
combine both global and local forms of identity into a “globalized cos-
mopolitanism.”38
37 Cf. Marshall-Fratani, Ruth, Mediating the Global and Local in Nigerian Pente-
costalism, in: Journal of Religion in Africa, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 1998,
Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 278–315; Corten, André and Marshall-Fratani, Ruth, Between Babel
and Pentecost. Transnational Pentecostalism in Africa and Latin America. Blooming-
ton: Indiana University Press 2001.
38 Roudometof, Victor, Transnationalism, Cosmopolitanism and Glocalization in:
Current Sociology, London / Thousand Oaks, CA / New Delhi: SAGE Publications, Jan-
uary 2005, Vol. 53 (1), pp. 113–135. It should be noted, though, that African theologian
44 chapter two
The discourse fields enumerated below were encountered in migrant

churches in Germany which are linked to the pentecostal / charismatic
movement at least through synchronous connections. None of the indi-
vidual fields alone would suffice as a pentecostal / charismatic iden-
tity marker, but combinations of the fields below are being used in
this way, both by pentecostals / charismatics themselves, and by outside
observers.
These, sometimes overlapping, discourse fields include:
– Constructing a biography which defines a conversion experience
as the clear starting point of one’s Christian life;
– Recounting one’s life as a moral tale: Moving from sin and
wickedness in the past into holiness today (consequently, no weekly
confession of sins during the worship service!);
– A constant spiritual, narrative (and often quite unsystematic) inter-
pretation of even mundane experiences, reading positive events
in one’s life (e.g. physical healing, a visa for stay in Germany,
financial prosperity) as God’s answer to faithful prayers, and, con-
versely, negative events as satanic attack, possibly due to a lack of
faith or sufficient prayer;
– A spiritual interpretation of the ‘political’, describing the world as
a battlefield between the life-affirming power of God and the life-
destroying powers of demons / the devil, necessitating acts of spir-
itual warfare to protect oneself and one’s church, and to further
certain political agendas (a typical example would be the exorcism
of the territorial ‘demon of racism’ I have witnessed in several
African all night prayers);
– A clear delineation between the ‘natural’ and the ‘supernatural’,
with a consequent assignment of ‘supernatural’ manifestations to
the Holy Spirit (“signs and wonders”, “power encounters”, glos-
solalia, gifts of prophecy, of the discernment of spirits, of healing
etc.);
Ogbu Kalu rejects the term “glocal” to describe African Pentecostalism, opting instead
for “globecalisation” to “explore the interior dynamics and process of culture contacts in contexts
of asymmetrical power relations.” Ogbu Kalu, The Pentecostal Model in Contemporary
Africa, in: in: Cox, James L. and ter Haar, Gerrie (eds.), Uniquely African? African Chris-
tian Identità from Cultural and Historical Perspectives, Trenton (NJ) / Asmara (Eritrea): Africa
World Press 2003, pp. 215–240.
– The claim to be ‘operating in the power of the Spirit’, with an

expectation that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, one can
confront the ‘powers of darkness’, work miracles etc.;
– An interpretation of dreams, visions, auditions, inner urges, intu-
itions etc. as the speaking of the Holy Spirit;
– A literal, Biblicist reading of the Bible that treats individual verses
(often without any regard to the context of that particular verse) as
speaking directly to the reader, providing guidance and answers to
concrete questions;
– The claim that the Bible can be understood without any theologi-
cal training, simply through guidance by the Holy Spirit;
– A definition of the pastoral role in terms of the five-fold ministry,
a calling by the Holy Spirit, and charismatic giftedness (“anoint-
ing”), disregarding any kind of theological training;
– An understanding of salvation that is tied to a ‘decision for Christ’
based upon one’s free will, and a consequent baptism by immer-
sion, rendering infant baptism invalid;
– An expectation of the imminent second coming of Christ for a
final judgment which strengthens the urge for evangelism so that
as many as possible are ‘saved’ beforehand.
This does not mean that a pentecostal or charismatic identity is lim-
ited to these discourse fields. Pentecostalism is a movement without
clear borders, and its identities will be defined differently by differ-
ent people in different contexts, and are constantly being negotiated
and re-negotiated within the movement. Identities are constructed
and reconstructed according to the need of delimiting one’s own
against ‘the other’.39 In the encounter between migrant and indige-
nous churches in Germany, both sides are engaged in this dialectic
process of constructing their own identities as well as those of ‘the oth-
ers’. The issues named above are not just seen by me as differenti-
ating pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches from German Protes-
tant churches (as well as from African Aladura churches!), they are also
being stressed by my interlocutors as fields where they see their the-
ology and practice as ‘different’ from what they perceive in terms of
theology and practice within the Protestant church.
39 Cf. Reuter, Julia, So nah—und doch so fern. Soziologische Beobachtungen des
Fremden, in: nah & fern. Kulturmagazin für Integration und Partizipation No. 31,
Karlsruhe: von Loeper Literaturverlag 2005, pp. 33–37.
46 chapter two
So far, I have been using the terms ‘pentecostal’ and ‘charismatic’

together. I have done this on purpose as the definitory difference
between these two seems to become ever more blurred. The New
International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements40
makes a threefold distinction between “classical Pentecostals”, namely
American pentecostal denominations tracing their roots back to the
revivals in Topeka and Azusa Street, the “Charismatic Movement”
defined as the charismatic renewal within the Catholic and Protestant
churches in the US, and “Neocharismatics”,41 defined as “18,810 inde-
pendent, indigenous, postdenominational denominations and groups
that cannot be classified as either pentecostal or charismatic but share
a common emphasis on the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, pentecostal-
like experiences (not pentecostal terminology), signs and wonders, and
power encounters.” The vague vastness of the third category shows
that this categorization really comes down to something like American
denominational pentecostals, charismatics in the American mainline
churches, and everything else, which is not very useful. Nevertheless,
for the sake of communication I find it helpful, when thinking glob-
ally, to make a rough distinction between two freely floating categories,
keeping in mind that there are mutual influences and blurry borders:
– “pentecostal” denotes the historically older, established denomina-
tional church structures which use the theological teaching about
the baptism in the Holy Spirit with initial evidence of speaking in
tongues as an important identity marker;
– “charismatic” denotes the historically newer movements which
stress non-denominationalism, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, pros-
perity teaching and spiritual warfare.
Keeping in mind that all such categorizations are just constructs to help
systematize a very amorphous, fluid phenomenon, I will now proceed
to attempt a description and categorization of pentecostal / charismatic
migrant churches in Germany.
40 Burgess, Stanley M. and van der Maas, Eduard M. (eds.), The New International
Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements. Revised and expanded edition,

Grand Rapids (MI): Zondervan 2002, Introduction pp. xviii ff.
41 The term Neopentecostals is also commonly used.
2.4. Migrant Churches: Categorizations
A statistical overview of migrant churches in Germany, or anywhere

else in Europe, relies to a large extent on estimates and educated
guesses.42 Therefore, this study will limit itself to the data collected in
the UEM database for the regions of the Evangelical Churches in the
Rhineland and of Westphalia, comprising the area of North Rhine-
Westphalia, plus some smaller areas of neighboring states in the south.
When migrant churches are described from the outside, two cate-
gories are usually applied to ascribe identity: Nationality of the mem-
bers, and denominational identity of the church, though newer research
has shown that this is inadequate.43 Such outside descriptions fit with
Protestant churches which display a national-denominational identity,
like the Finnish Lutheran Church. They are questionable, though,
when it comes to categorizing a church like Lighthouse Christian Fel-
lowship which has members from more than a dozen countries and
calls itself non-denominational. Nevertheless, a very broad categoriza-
tion which uses the denominational markers “pentecostal / charismatic”
and “Protestant/evangelical”44 can be useful to catalog migrant church-
es. Using these markers, 291 of the 431 migrant churches recorded in
the UEM database can be labeled as pentecostal / charismatic, and 130
as Protestant / evangelical.
Grouping migrant churches by the country of origin of their mem-
bers is a much more difficult proposition: While some churches are
clearly mono-cultural and mono-national, others are multicultural and
multinational. Of the 291 pentecostal / charismatic churches in the
42 Cf. Darrell Jackson and Alessia Parelli, Mapping Migration. Mapping Churches’
Responses. Europe Study. Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe / World

Council of Churches, 2008, pdf downloadable from www.oikoumene.org/en/news/
upcoming-events/ev/se/article/1722/european-study-quotmapp.html, accessed 10 Sep-
tember 2008. For more details on the situation in Germany, cf. Währisch-Oblau, Clau-
dia, Migrationskirchen in Deutschland. Überlegungen zur strukturierten Beschreibung
eines komplexen Phänomens, in: Zeitschrift für Mission, Frankfurt / Basel: Basileia /
Lembeck, 1–2/2005, pp. 19–39.
43 Cf. Hijme Stoffels, A Coat of Many Colours, in: Mechteld Jansen and Hijme
Stoffels (eds.), A Moving God. Immigrant Churches in the Netherlands, Münster: LIT-
Verlag 2008.
44 “Protestant” denoting European churches founded during the Reformation pe-
riod, and “evangelical” denoting later foundations like the Baptists, Methodists. The
distinction is definitely a European one, where some Protestant churches used to be
state churches, while the evangelical churches are so-called “free churches.”
48 chapter two
UEM database, at least 190 are international (defined as having mem-

bers from at least three different countries) and / or internationalizing
(defined as engaged in a conscious process of internationalization even
if membership is overwhelmingly from one ethnic group or national-
ity), while of the 130 Protestant and evangelical churches, only about
20 are not organized along national-denominational parameters. A
categorization of pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches along cul-
tural, ethnic or national lines, therefore, is a construct that re-ethnifies
churches most of which would reject any ethnic or national label for
themselves. Nevertheless, a rough continental categorization of mem-
bership majorities is a possible way of establishing classifications.
Multi-ethnic and multicultural churches are dominant among the
African-majority churches, with a very small minority limited to mem-
bers of only one ethnic group. The reverse is true for Asian churches:
Here, only a very small minority has members from more than one
nationality. Language is most likely the main reason for this phe-
nomenon: Most African-majority churches use English and French
(occasionally also Lingala or Portuguese) as their worship languages,
sometimes with translation into an ethnic language45 and / or German,
while Asian churches normally use a national or ethnic language like
Korean or Tamil. Internationalizing Asian churches tend to switch to
German and / or English as their worship language.
Looking at the nationalities of the members of migrant churches, it
should be noted that members in anglophone African churches mainly
come from Ghana and Nigeria,46 with smaller numbers from Sierra
Leone, Liberia, Cameroon, Togo, and Kenya, and the occasional per-
son from Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, South Africa, Zambia and Uganda.
Members of francophone African churches are predominantly from the
45 This would predominantly be Twi, an Akan language from Ghana. The large
majority of anglophone sub-Saharan African immigrants in Germany seem to be
Ashanti from Ghana. As far as I know, there are no statistics to prove this claim,
but Ashanti are definitely the most visible group within anglophone African migrant
churches.
46 According to official statistics, 23,963 Ghanaians and 16,956 Nigerians lived in
Germany on 31 December 2003. Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Migration,

Flüchtlinge und Integration, Bericht der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Migra-
tion, Flüchtlinge und Integration über die Lage der Ausländerinnen und Ausländer in
Deutschland, Berlin August 2005, p. 567. There are estimates, though, that the number
of undocumented Ghanaians may be almost as high as the number of those with a
legal stay permit.
DR Congo and Angola (even though Angola is Lusophone),47 but also

from Ivory Coast, Togo, the Congo Republic or Cameroon. Clearly,
the large majority of African migrant church members come from
West and Central Africa, while East and South Africans are a very
small minority. Almost all anglophone and many francophone African
churches also have a small minority of non-African members, both
indigenous Germans and migrants from other countries.
Among the Asian churches, the Korean48 churches make up the
largest group, followed by churches of Tamils49 from Sri Lanka. There
are several Chinese, Indonesian and Vietnamese churches, but very few
churches with members from Japan, Thailand, Nepal and India. Most
Asian churches have a very small minority of German members, in
almost all cases spouses of a migrant church member.
Among the European / North Atlantic churches, Italian churches
make up the largest group, closely followed by Anglo-American English
speaking churches. The Finnish Lutheran Church, the Hungarian
Reformed Church and the Dutch Protestant Church also have a num-
ber of congregations recorded in the UEM database. Fewer in number
are Spanish, Latvian, Estonian and Polish churches. There is only one
French church.
Near and Middle Eastern Protestant and Pentecostal churches make
up a very small but distinct group. It includes Turkish speaking church-
es (often also with Kurdish members), Arabic speaking, and Farsi speak-
ing churches.
Latin American churches are overwhelmingly Brazilian and Portu-
guese-speaking. Brazilians, who can travel to Germany without a visa,
constitute the largest Latin American immigrant group.50
47 No official statistics are available of the number of migrants from these countries.
Most migrants from Congo and Angola came as asylum seekers, and large numbers
of them have been deported over the last few years. (No statistics on deportation are
available, but I have seen several large congregations of francophone Africans dwindle
to very small numbers due to deportation.) At the same time, anecdotal evidence points
to the fact that at least some Congolese seem to have been able to gain German
citizenship, but again no statistics are available.
48 According to official statistics, 23,979 Koreans lived in Germany on 31 December
2003. As many Koreans have already opted for German citizenship, the number of
Korean migrants is considerably higher. Bericht der Beauftragten, . . . ibd.
49 41,062 citizens from Sri Lanka lived in Germany on 31 December 2003. Again,
many Tamils have already taken German citizenship, so their number is considerably
higher than these statistics show. Bericht der Beauftragten, . . . ibd.
50 On 31 December 2003, 28,557 Brazilian citizens were recorded in Germany.
Bericht der Beauftragten . . . , ibd.

50 chapter two
As the table below shows, African and Latin American churches are
overwhelmingly pentecostal / charismatic, while slightly more than half
or the Asian and European / North Atlantic churches are Protestant or
evangelical.
Table 1. Migrant churches by origin of members and denominational family

(Source: UEM database, 27 March 2006)
Protestant / Local Congregations Pentecostal /
Area / Country of origin evangelical of African Instituted charismatic
of majority of members churches Churches51 churches
Anglophone Africa 4 1 97
Francophone Africa 4 41
Africa: bi- or multilingual 6 7 58
churches
Africa, other languages 4 1 4
Africa total 227 18 9 200
(app. 18,000 members)
Sri Lanka (Tamils) 7 23
Korea 31 13
other Asia / Asian 16 12
international
Asia total 102 54 48
(app. 4,000 members)
Italy – 20
Other Europe / North 45 13
Atlantic / international
Europe / North Atlantic 45 33
total 78 (app. 2,600 members)
Latin America 3 8
Near East 10 2
Total 430 130 + 9 291
(app. 16,000 members) (app. 23,000 members)
Congregations vary in size from very small, with less than a dozen
members, to very large, with more than a thousand members. Euro-
pean Protestant congregations have the highest membership figures,
51 African Instituted Churches like the Kimbanguist Church or the Celestial Church
of Christ can neither be grouped with the pentecostals nor with the Protestants / evan-
gelicals, and therefore make up a category of their own.
while pentecostal / charismatic congregations tend to be smaller. The

average membership of the latter is estimated at 80 members, though
few churches actually have this number: Most churches consist of about
20–50 members, while a smaller number have more than 150.52
We have already stated that categorizing migrant churches by de-
nominational markers and the country of origin of their members
forces them into a framework which often does not correspond to
how these churches would identify themselves: Most, if not all of the
churches listed in the pentecostal / charismatic column would describe
themselves as “New Mission Churches” with an international outlook
and mission, even if they predominantly reach out to migrants from a
certain language group. In this, they clearly differ from the churches
in the Protestant / evangelical and AIC columns which tend to share
a more ‘diasporal’ outlook, focusing on keeping alive the faith tradi-
tion and culture of a certain group defined by ethnic and narrower
denominational markers, and limiting possible evangelistic activities to
this group.53
While 130 of the 291 pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches in
the UEM database are locally independent and do not have any
denominational association, 161 have affiliated with a “non-German”
denomination. Looking at church names, we can identify two differ-
ent affiliation fields: Affiliation with a ‘mother church’ overseas (or
origin-oriented affiliation); and affiliation with a migrant mega-church
or other migrant churches in a purely ‘diasporal’ denomination. The
term ‘denomination’ here was chosen to denote an organized church
structure which should be distinguished from more loosely ordered net-
works.
Churches affiliated with an overseas ‘mother church’ either belong to
a pentecostal denominational church, or to large charismatic ministries
which have planted branches in different countries. Several overseas
52 The UEM database records membership figures for 147 churches which represent
a cross section of different types, nationalities, denominations, and sizes. In cooperation

with a research project on the religious landscape in North Rhine Westphalia, aver-
age membership numbers were estimated at 160 for Protestant churches, and 84 for
evangelical churches. A description of the project (in German language) can be found
under www.ruhr/uni/bochum.de/relwiss/RP/Beschreibung.pdf, accessed 28 Septem-
ber 2005.
53 This could clearly be established from the short interviews, see also chapter
5.1.
52 chapter two
pentecostal churches with a larger number of congregations in Ger-

many (e.g. the Church of Pentecost)54 have established a national or
Continental European diasporal structure which functions with a cer-
tain degree of independence even though the leadership has to answer
to the headquarters abroad.
Within diasporal denominations, two distinct patterns of internal
structural organization can be distinguished: One is what could be
loosely termed a centralized structure which is built around a central,
charismatic leadership figure (usually called ‘head pastor’, ‘apostle’, or
‘general overseer’) who has the final say on all important matters, and
organized within a ‘lead congregation—satellite congregations’ model.
I call such structures “diasporal mega-churches”. The other form of
diasporal organization could be called ‘congregational’ or decentral-
ized, with each congregation within a denomination being fairly inde-
pendent, and all congregations equal. Neither a single leadership figure
nor a ‘lead congregation’ is visible. These structures can be defined as
“diasporal congregational denominations”.
Both denominational fields described here are “non-German,” i.e.
either having their headquarters in another country, or being led by
immigrants. But migrant churches do not only affiliate with overseas or
other migrant churches: In early 2006, forty-nine pentecostal / charis-
matic migrant churches in the UEM database were affiliated with a
German denominational network, most of them with the Federation
of Free Pentecostal Churches,55 but some also with the Baptist Feder-
ation,56 or the Federation of Free Evangelical Churches.57 Of these, 14
congregations were also affiliated with an overseas denomination and
16 congregations also with a diasporal denomination, therefore display-
54 This church is now the largest non-Catholic denomination in Ghana. Personal

communication from Cephas Omenyo, University of Ghana, Legon.
55 Bund freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden (BfP), the largest German Pentecostal denomina-
tion. See www.bfp.de., accessed 12 September 2007.

56 The Baptist Federation in Germany has a strong charismatic renewal movement,
and a number of its local congregations are clearly charismatic in character. For more
information, see the website of the movement, www.ggenet.de, accessed 10 September
2007.
57 Like all free churches in Germany, the FEG also has struggled with challenges
and influences from the charismatic movement, and cautiously opened towards it.
See www.feg.de/uploads/media/Charismatisch_oder_anticharimatisch.pdf, accessed
10 September 2007.
ing what could be called “denominational hybridity.” Denominational

affiliations are obviously not seen as mutually exclusive, but as overlap-
ping. It should also be noted that we are not looking at a static field,
but a very dynamic one: Most migrant churches are young and devel-
oping, and may move from no affiliation to different affiliations over
time. In the next chapter, we will look at some examples of such move-
ments.
2.5. Historical dynamics: Foundation and development of migrant churches
How are pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches started? From my

own observations and from personal communications with church
founders and leaders, the following ways have been identified:
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a number of churches were estab-
lished diasporally by students, refugees and other migrants who, after
coming to Germany, found it difficult to integrate into existing Ger-
man churches. They got together with others from a similar theological
and / or cultural background and started Bible study groups that even-
tually grew into organized churches. Some of these groups crystallized
around a person who came from abroad with a clear pastoral call, but
no official mission from an established church.
Somewhat later, a few established overseas pentecostal denomina-
tions sent a small number of missionaries with the particular assign-
ment to found churches in Germany, or to consolidate and pastor small
groups that already existed.
Once a number of churches had come into existence, the most com-
mon way of starting new churches was either by a hostile split, an
amicable separation, or by conscious planting. As far as I have been
able to observe, splits seem to occur especially when more than one
person claims leadership within a congregation. Pastors within pente-
costal / charismatic migrant churches have a strong understanding of
their own authoritarian role,58 but at the same time they believe and
teach that the Holy Spirit can gift and prepare anybody for ministry.
In many cases, local churches do not have structures for the sharing
of authority once a person besides the pastor claims a call for a pas-
toral role. Bitter conflicts which result in hostile splits are often the con-
58 See chapter 3.
54 chapter two
sequence, with the challenger taking a part of the congregation with

him / her when he / she leaves. In some cases, the officiating pastor and
the challenger have been able to work out their conflict in such a way
that it resulted in an amicable separation, usually with the challenger
setting up a new ministry in another city so as to not take members
away from the existing congregation.
Over the past few years, churches affiliated with overseas denomina-
tions and diasporal mega-churches have become increasingly active in
planting new congregations.
Generally, the genesis of a church says very little about how this
church develops and affiliates later on. This is clearly shown by the
two following diagrams which map the genesis of a number of African
churches in the Rhine-Ruhr area:
Genesis of African Pentecostal / charismatic

churches in the Rhein-Ruhr area
Sources: Personal communication by several African pastors, own observations
Diagram 1
Diagram 2
These diagrams show how, in the first case, a diasporally founded inde-
pendent local church could bring forth, through splits and separation,
three local independent churches, two of which then developed into
mega-churches and established a number of daughter churches, and
one church that eventually affiliated with an overseas ‘mother church’
and afterwards planted further congregations for that mother church.
In the second case, a church founded by a missionary assigned
for that purpose by a Ghanaian church saw several congregations
split away, one of which became a mega-church by bringing forth
daughter churches on three continents, while the other three affil-
iated with overseas ‘mother churches’. From one of these overseas
denominational churches, a new independent local church then split
away.
It should be noted, too, that the congregations of the Church of
Pentecost in North Rhine-Westphalia, though founded through two
different splitting processes, now belong to the unified organizational
structure of the Church of Pentecost / Germany. From their perspec-
tive, possibly, this diagram would look quite different, with different
churches as precursors from which the unified Church of Pentecost
then flows.
56 chapter two
2.6. Migrant churches as part of a globalized discourse network
Above in chapter 2.3, we have described a pentecostal / charismatic dis-

course of which migrant churches are an important part. This discourse
is enacted in sermons and Bible studies, in printed and electronic
media, and, particularly, in pastors’ meetings which regularly take place
within different networks shaped by language, ethnic59 or cultural back-
ground.60 This discourse is not limited to certain migrant subsets. It is
bound into international and transnational networks of exchange and
discourse which make up the global pentecostal / charismatic move-
ment.61 “P / c Christians are a far-flung network of people held together
by their publications and other media productions, conferences, revival
meetings and constant travel.”62 Their exchange and theologizing is,
therefore, by and in itself also intercultural. “The self-understanding as
a Spirit-baptized Christian turns into a global trade mark that becomes
transnationalized through discursive networks.”63 It should be noted
that while there has been some research on the discourses which cir-
culate within this movement,64 the role of migrant churches in this cir-
culation process has not received much attention. This is somewhat sur-
prising as it is likely that, in addition to satellite TV, printed materials,
and international conventions and crusades, the migration of pente-
costals and charismatics would be one of the factors driving the inter-
national circulation of certain topics and ideas within this globalized
discourse.
59 According to a Congolese informant, all Congolese pastors’ networks have a
strong ethnic or regional identity.

60 In the region of the UEM program, three Congolese, two Korean and two Tamil
networks could be identified in addition to a large Anglophone West African network,

the Council of Pentecost Ministers.
61 See Joel Robbins, The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christian-
ity, in: Annual Review of Anthropology, 2004, pp. 117–134, and also, Afe Adogame, The
Quest for Space in the Global Spiritual Marketplace, in: International Review of Mission,
Vol. LXXXIX No. 354, July 2000, pp. 400–409, and Sebastian Schüler, Unmapped
Territories. Discursive networks and the Making of Transnational Religious Landscapes
in Global Pentecostalism, in: PentecoStudies, vol. 7, no. 1, 2008, pp. 46–62.
62 Robbins, ibd. p. 125.
63 Sebastian Schüler, Unmapped Territories. Discursive networks and the Making of
Transnational Religious Landscapes in Global Pentecostalism, in: PentecoStudies, vol. 7,

no. 1, 2008, pp. 46–62, p. 53.
64 See, for example, André Corten and Ruth Marshall-Fratani, Between Babel and
Pentecost. Transnational Pentecostalism in Africa and Latin America. Bloomington:

Observations over the past nine years have shown that migrant
churches regularly invite preachers and evangelists from the home
countries or regions from which their members come. In the case of
international churches, preachers will come from the different home
countries of the members, since contacts are usually made along lines
of personal acquaintance or relationship. Occasionally, preachers from
other countries will be featured during special festivals or revivals.
We have seen a Brazilian speak at a Francophone African festival, a
Hongkong Chinese at the anniversary of a Nigerian church, and the
occasional (Black) American at crusades or revivals. Preachers from the
country of residence are also invited fairly regularly, even if they do not
belong to a pentecostal or charismatic network.
Observations also back up the assumption that in pentecostal / char-
ismatic migrant households, Christian satellite TV programs like God
TV,65 Trinity Broadcasting66 and numerous others67 are regularly
watched. In terms of print media, books and magazines by US Amer-
ican Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal authors like Kenneth Copeland
or Maurice Cerullo (to name just two famous and influential ones)
as well as lesser-known writers like Dave Roberson68 circulate and are
being read and discussed. The German Pentecostal evangelist Rein-
hard Bonnke69 is also popular particularly among African migrants,
many of whom own and circulate books, DVDs, and video tapes made
by his organization, Christ for all Nations. Similarly, books and DVDs
of prominent preachers and evangelists from Africa, Asia and Latin
America also circulate, though they remain, with few exceptions (like
Paul Yonggi Cho from Korea) limited to their own language and
therefore to certain subsets of the pentecostal / charismatic migrant
scene. While Myles Munroe70 and Chris Oyakhilome71 are popular
Indiana University Press 2001, and Murray Dempster et al. (eds.), The Globalization of
Pentecostalism. A Religion Made To Travel, Oxford: Regnum 1999.
65 www.god.tv, accessed 22 June 2007.
66 www.tbneurope.org, accessed 22 June 2007.
67 For a listing of stations receivable in Germany, see www.christtv.de, accessed 22
June 2007.
68 His book, The Walk of the Spirit—the Walk of Power. The Vital Role of Praying
in Tongues, Tulsa (OK): Dave Roberson Ministries 1999, was given to me by one
migrant pastor as a “must read.”
69 www.cfan.org, accessed 22 June 2007.
70 www.bfmmm.com, accessed 22 June 2007.
71 www.christembassy.org/english/profile.htm, accessed 22 June 2007.
58 chapter two
among English-speaking African migrants, Latin Americans will know

Cesar Castellanos72 and Tamils D.G.S. Dhinakaran.73
Pastors in particular, but also church members make use of Christian
websites like Crosswalk,74 share links with each other, and forward to all
of their contacts e-mail newsletters from such organizations containing
sermons, Biblical reflections, debates on political issues and even jokes.
I regularly received such forwarded newsletters from pastors to whom
I had a closer relationship. Most of such materials were in English, but
some also in French. They also exist in other languages like Korean or
Tamil.
The discourse on evangelism among pentecostal / charismatic mi-
grants is also influenced by theological training. Some pastors have
been trained in seminaries in their home countries (or return for such
a period of training after some time abroad); others spend time in
pentecostal, charismatic or evangelical seminaries or Bible schools in
Germany or Europe. International ministries like Rhema have also set
up Bible schools and training centers.75 It should be noted here that
pentecostal / charismatic migrants also attend evangelical courses and
training programs like the Emmaus Bible School administered by the
Central Africa Mission,76 or Protestant intercultural training programs
like the kikk course organized by UEM. The kikk courses have shown
that participants will choose what they accept and retain, and which
content they reject.
But migrants are not only recipients of this discourse, they are also
producers. Pentecostal / charismatic migrant pastors regularly travel to
preach and evangelize, not just to their home countries and churches,
but also to other places, following invitations based on personal ac-
quaintances through informal networks. While pastors of smaller
churches are usually limited to travel in Europe due to financial con-
straints, pastors of larger churches also engage in intercontinental
travel, speaking in places as far apart as Korea and South Africa,
Colombia and Australia.
Many migrant pastors, particularly those with larger churches, also
produce their own booklets or books77 which are sold after Sunday ser-
72 www.mci12.com, accessed 22 June 2007.

73 www.jesuscalls.org/profile/dgs.asp, accessed 22 June 2007.
74 www.crosswalk.com/pastors/, accessed 13 September 2007.
75 www.rhema-germany.de, accessed 11 September 2006.
76 http://zamonline.de/dt/emmaus.php, accessed 11 September 2006.
77 Two examples from my collection are Sarpong Osei-Assibey, Going The Extra
vices, at conventions, and when such pastors speak in other churches.

They likely also circulate in the writers’ home countries, especially
when printed there. Pastors from larger churches also use mass media,
having regular spots on private, satellite or internet-based radio and
TV stations.78
Furthermore, almost every church produces their own DVDs featur-
ing conventions, seminars, or teachings, both with their own pastors
and with guest speakers.79 Such DVDs circulate beyond the produc-
ing church through individual contacts and exchanges. In recent years,
larger churches have set up their own websites which are also used to
publish sermons and teachings.80
Last but not least, pentecostal / charismatic migrant church networks
have set up their own theological training facilities81 in addition to
numerous seminars and workshops organized locally, regionally, nation-
ally or even internationally.82
Whatever can be said about the theology of pentecostal / charismatic
migrants living in Germany needs to take into account that these
migrants are part of a global, diffuse, informal and multi-focal dis-
course network. As Sebastian Schüler has noted, “in Pentecostalism
everyday religious practice can be seen as ‘glocal’ acts that link reli-
gious agents to an imagined global community.”83 Schüler adds that
“religious agents in Pentecostal communities often represent them-
selves as members of a global godly family [ . . .] The imagined global
Mile. The Secret To Your Blessing, privately published 2007 (ISBN 978-3-00-021573-5),
and Bosun Ajayi, Return to the Narrow Path, Lagos: Ibunkun Alafia (Nig.) Co. 2006.
78 For example, the Tamil pastor interviewed for this study produces two 30-minute
broadcasts per week for Holy God TV (for more information, see www.christtv.de/
neuigkeiten.html, accessed 6 August 2007), while a Nigerian pastor based in Ober-
hausen has a weekly sermon hour Reborn Radio (“Station for African Diaspora”), see
www.rebornradio.com/pastorjeremiah.asp (accessed 6 August 2007).
79 A number of such DVDs are in my collection, including footage of deliverance
and healing sessions, preaching, Bible studies, and teachings on issues like “successful
marriage.”
80 See, for example, www.houseofsolution.org (even featuring video!),
www.faithcentre.de, www.wolic.de, all accessed 6 August 2007.

81 E.g. the Institut Biblique et Théologique in Bochum, www.ibtb-online.de, accessed
11 September 2006, Excel College of Ministry in Essen, or the discipleship school

at Evangelische tamilische Maranatha-Gemeinde Schwerte. See also the list of UK
institutions at www.bmcdirectory.co.uk/institute_list.php, accessed 30 October 2008.
82 For just one example, see www.womenofpurpose.de, accessed 8 August 2007.

no. 1, 2008, pp. 46–62, p. 47.
60 chapter two
community of Spirit-baptized Christians creates a third space that func-

tions as an idealized space of migration. [ . . .] The third space serves as
a reference point for everyday practices. As an imaginative place of
affiliation it becomes a predisposition for real transnational networks of
discourse and practice.”84 This basically means that we can expect pen-
tecostal / charismatic migrants anywhere in Europe or Northern Amer-
ica to have been shaped by this imagined—and, as we will see, often
very real—global community. Consequently, the interviews analyzed
in the next three chapters can be read as broadly representative not
only for pentecostal / charismatic migrants in western Germany, but for
all of those who are engaged in South—North migration. We need to
keep this in mind as we move on to explore, in the next three chapters,
the theological self-interpretations of pentecostal / charismatic migrant
pastors.
84 Ibd., pp. 52 f.
chapter three
THE ROLE OF THE PASTOR:

THE RELATIONSHIP TO ONE’S OWN
CONGREGATION
The ordination service at the Congolese charismatic church was in full

swing.1 Testimonies had been given by several people about the suitabil-
ity of the person being ordained: “He has been like a father to me and
my family.” The pastor responsible for the ordination, a Congolese pen-
tecostal, had preached a sermon about the calling of Elisha. He had
likened the throwing of Elijah’s mantle over Elisha to the ordination cer-
emony, but stressed that the ministerial anointing had to come from the
Holy Spirit. Such anointing could only be had by tirelessly walking in the
ways of the Lord, as far as “across the Jordan”.2 And it was this anoint-
ing of the Holy Spirit “that makes the difference in the ministry.” He
had pointed out that to follow the call of the Lord, one literally had to
give up one’s means of support: As Elisha had slaughtered his oxen and
burned his plow,3 the pastor-to-be had to give up his worldly profession
and lead a sacrificial life in the ministry. He would have to live for his
congregation first and foremost, concentrating on them and turning his
back to the world, like a conductor turned his back to the audience and
concentrated on his orchestra only.
Now, the pastor-to-be was kneeling on the floor in front of the congre-
gation. Several invited pastors of different denominations and nationali-
ties were anointing his forehead with oil and praying for the man being
ordained to be filled with the Holy Spirit. In his final prayer, the pastor
responsible for the ordination asked for the anointing of the Holy Spirit
to come upon this new minister. He enumerated every gift that should
be bestowed upon him: “The gift of tongues, the gift of prophecy, the gift
of teaching, the gift of miracles, the gift of healing—let all of them come
upon your servant, for his ministry in this congregation.”
This ordination service reveals, in a nutshell, a perception of pastoral
ministry which is common among pentecostal / charismatic migrant
1 Ordination Service at the Ministère de Sénévé, Düsseldorf, June 18, 2006. Quotes
taken from field notes.

2 See 2. Kings 2: 1–15.
3 1. Kings 19: 21.
62 chapter three
pastors. A certain understanding of pastoral ministry is regularly ex-

pounded in sermons, it comes across in informal exchanges between
pastors, and it informs the interactions between pastors and their con-
gregation members. In the following chapter, this study will provide an
attempt to describe this discourse systematically. It is based on extended
interviews with 20 male and two female pentecostal / charismatic mi-
grant pastors from three continents who were asked to recount how
they had become pastors, and how they defined and lived their pastoral
role. The answers showed both striking commonalities and notable dif-
ferences, all of which will be delineated below.
3.1. The pastor as father and shepherd
A pastor is like a father, who, when the child does something good,
he praises the child, and when he does something that is not so good,
corrects the child.
When asked to define the role of the pastor4 in relationship to his
congregation, almost all my male interlocutors used the same imagery:
The pastor is a shepherd and father to the congregation. Of the two
female interviewees, one also used the image of the shepherd, while the
other portrayed herself as a friend and mentor, but at one point in the
interview also described her congregation members as her children.
Like all metaphors, the images of shepherd and father / mother are
open to interpretation, and different people will stress different aspects
and dimensions of these metaphors. In the following chapters, these
interlocking aspects and dimensions will be described and analyzed in
greater detail.
3.1.1. The shepherd: Mediator between God and the congregation

One dimension of the shepherd imagery used so frequently in the
discourse about the pastoral role is what could be termed a ‘mediatory’
self-understanding: The interlocutors described their role as mediators
4 Actually, three of the interviewees identified themselves as apostles, and two as
evangelists, even though all said that they also function as pastors. The distinction
between the different offices is based, in Pentecostal / charismatic discourse, on Eph.
4:11 and known as five-fold ministry. In addition to apostles, evangelists and pastors,
this passage mentions prophets and teachers.
the role of the pastor 63
between God and the congregation, a position into which they had
come by divine calling, and which gave them great authority. It is inter-
esting to see that this concept is shared by African American preachers:
“When the African-American preacher assumes his pulpit, he reaffirms
for himself and his congregation his ‘chosen’ role as God’s messenger.
He is the intermediary between God and the congregation.”5 In some
of the interviews, this self-concept came across explicitly and clearly,
while in others, it was stated more subtly. The more explicit statements
came from African interviewees, regardless of their nationality, while
the Asian interviewees were more indirect.
One, the pastor represents God before the people. And two, he repre-
sents the people before God. That’s the first thing, he stands between
God and his people, and he stands between the people and God.
In a way, the pastor has been ordained, and has been authorized by God
to mediate for the church, and there is a need for the members of the
church also to recognize this authority, and give the due respect to the
pastor. Otherwise, my understanding is, that if you are a member of the
church, and you don’t respect the authority of the pastor, you might not
get the blessing that you need.
I think that the pastor is representing God. So God has given him [sic]
this authority.
These three statements by West African pastors contain the most
pointed wording of all the interviews. Here, the pastor clearly stands far
above and outside the congregation, and is much closer to God than
his members. It is implied that the people cannot access God directly—
the pastor stands in ‘between’. The pastor’s place is God-given, and can
therefore not be questioned. Furthermore, non-acceptance of the pas-
tor’s role will result in a lack of ‘blessing’: The fullness of life, prosperity,
the solution of problems can only be attained by subordinating oneself
to the person God has put in a place of authority.
How does a pastor represent God to his congregation? Most inter-
locutors described the mediatory role as a prophetic one: A pastor
needs to discern what God wants to say to the congregation, he needs
to receive guidance and revelations, and he has to impart them to the
church which has to listen and to follow.
5 Gerald L. Davis, I got the Word in me and I can sing it, you know. A Study of the
Performed African-American Sermon, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press

1985, p. 69.
64 chapter three
The spiritual father, you are intermediate between the congregation and
God. So you receive from God, and you give it to the congregation.
God runs his church on ‘Thus sayeth the Lord!’ It is his will that must
be done. And the pastor must be positioned in a way to correctly discern
what God is saying. And be strong enough to follow it and to lead the
people.
A pastor must learn how to pray every day, and also, a pastor must
learn how to be led by the Holy Spirit, because people will come to
you from time to time, they will come with many things to you and God’s
leadership is very important. [. . .] People will come with very good ideas,
but it’s up to the pastor to know whether all good ideas can be helpful
for the church. So we really need God’s idea, and God’s idea comes as
you spend much time in prayer and also in study the word of God.
Clearly, the idea behind these statements is that God will reveal his will
to the pastor rather than to mere congregation members. But to receive
such revelation, pastors need to position themselves—they need to lead
an intensive spiritual life.6
Another aspect of this representation of God to the congregation was
unfolded by two other interviewees:
You know, sometimes they [i.e. pastors] are referred to as ‘Daddy’ or
‘Father’, because they see them as—we cannot see God, but we can see
this man.
Every pastor should have God’s nature. God’s nature, God’s number one
nature is love.
In the fatherly love of the pastor, the congregation members can see
the loving character and nature of God himself. God does not remain
invisible and abstract; he is mirrored by his representative and ambas-
sador. Such wording seems to suggest that a pastor is by nature different
from his congregation members. His representation of God is not just
functional, by transmitting God’s will to the congregation, it is literal:
he is like God, he makes God visible in the love that he shows to the
congregation members.
The pastor represents God to the people through his words, his
nature and his actions. At the same time, he also represents the people
before God. He is the one who has to constantly pray and intercede for
his congregation and its members.
6 More on this in chapter 3.1.3.

The pastor is a shepherd, like a shepherd who cares for the sheep. That
means, first of all, that the pastor must pray for the congregation, must
have much time to pray for the congregation.
I need to try to pray more, pray more, I have more responsibility. A
brother, perhaps, just prays for himself, perhaps also for the congrega-
tion, but I as a pastor, [. . .] I find it my duty to get to know each and
every one of our members, so that I can pray precisely for everyone, and
this is what I do.
You [as a pastor] should aim to be very, very prayerful, because you have
a duty, you have a sheep to take care of, you have a sheep to intercede
on their behalf to God—so you should be very prayerful.
Care for the congregation members is here first and foremost defined
as a spiritual task. The pastor is not characterized as a professional who
counsels and advises, but rather as a kind of amplifier who transmits
people’s needs to God who is then expected to act and help. Whether
the pastor is simply someone who has more time to pray, or whether his
prayers are seen as more efficacious remains open here. What is clear,
though, is that as the mediator between God and the congregation, the
pastor has great authority.
3.1.2. The authority of the shepherd

From where does the authority of the pastor come? All interviewees
agreed that their authority comes from God. Because of their calling
and close relationship with God, pastors receive divine guidance and
revelation. This means that in relationship to the congregation, they
speak with an absolute authority and expect obedience. They are the
shepherds, the members are only sheep.
My authority? God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. [. . .]
The spiritual father, you are intermediate between the congregation and
God. So you receive from God, and you give it to the congregation. So
all your life must be different.
The pastor must be authoritative. God did not call us to be Lords and
masters, at the same time, God is not a democrat. And God did not call
us to run the church by consensus of opinion. God runs his church on
‘Thus sayeth the Lord!’ It is his will that must be done. And the pastor
must be positioned in a way to correctly discern what God is saying. And
be strong enough to follow it and to lead the people.
The authority we have is from God. [. . .] When it comes to the church,
the pastor has absolute authority. Authority in the sense that he should
decide what happens [. . .] And so his authority, I would say God gave
66 chapter three
him that authority, and he exercises this authority in whichever area he

is. [. . .] Nowadays, the congregation or the important elders, they are
more powerful than the pastors, and which is, in my own opinion, it’s
not well, it’s not okay. The reason why I say this: If someone is given
a position of authority, he should be given that absolute authority to be
able to function. And for him to be able to function effectively, he must
be able to say: ‘this we will do, that we will leave for later. This, I will
pray about it, and whatever the Holy Spirit reveals to me, that’s what we
will do.’ [. . .] While the congregation, in the other sense, he’s not to lord
over them, or be boss over them, rather to be a father to them, and the
congregation to be able to listen to him: ‘Oh, you are the pastor, that’s
okay, let’s go ahead’.
Clearly, these pastors see themselves as mediators of divine authority:
They pass on to the congregation what God wants to tell them, and
therefore cannot condone any questioning or disagreement. There is
no room for any kind of consensus-seeking or democratic decision
processes: The church is not governed by majority, but by divine fiat,
and only the pastor knows what this is.
This opinion was not only held by the male interlocutors. Both inter-
viewed women pastors explicitly voiced the necessity that congregation
members had to accept the authority of the pastor, because any disre-
spect or disobedience would cause problems in the congregation:
I think, first of all, the pastor should know that he [sic] has special grace.
And the people also, they must be . . . they have to see the grace that
God has given the pastor and accept the leader. Because if the people
don’t accept him [sic] as the leader, then there’s going to be problems in
the church.
Authority—okay, anyway comes from God. [. . .] But people need to rec-
ognize your authority. If they don’t recognize, hmmm, it’s very difficult
to go ahead with them.
Again, these statements leave no room for a democratic style of church
government. But while clearly supporting the suspicion often held by
Protestants that pentecostals and charismatics have a very authoritarian
understanding of the ministry, the interviews and also field observations
show that in practice, things are not so simple. For all interviewees, the
authority of the pastor is basically a deducted authority. It does not
belong to the person of the pastor, but to God, and depends, as will be
shown, on proper spiritual practice.
First of all, we should not forget: The congregation does not belong
to the pastor, it belongs to Jesus. [. . .] Authority comes from God.
Therefore, we must not abuse this authority. [. . .] But through prayer,
through the Bible, and especially through the Holy Spirit [. . .] we can
get the right direction from God.
The authority as an apostle or pastor does not come from people, but the
authority comes from the Holy Spirit. I can give an example: A pastor,
an apostle, must watch over his church in the Holy Spirit. [. . .] So many
things happened in our congregation because of my prayers. Why that?
A pastor or apostle, in front of his congregation, has to be holier, he
has to have a very strong faith, because all of those problems in the
congregation, we can’t solve them with our flesh, our intelligence, or our
science. No, we only have a solution if the leader of the church remains
properly before God. Therefore, this is a great task.
Both these statements claim a God-given authority for the pastor, but
immediately qualify this in such a way that the authority is seen as a
great responsibility and burden. Pastors are not dictators who impose
their own ways and ideas, but just mediators of a power outside of
themselves. To be able to access that power, they need to do hard
spiritual work.
One interviewee’s statement shows, though, that many might easily
misunderstand what pastoral authority is all about:
Many pastors think this is a great job: ‘We can sit in an office and have
a few servants, and we tell them do this or that.’ But this is not my
opinion. In my position as a pastor, I start from cleaning toilets to office
work. Because Jesus has said we must be servants, therefore, we as pastors
must take care of our sheep, these sheep, what they need, and there are
sick sheep too, and handicapped sheep, and all kinds of problems and
difficulties which need to be solved. That is our important task [. . .] We
have an authority that is given by God. And this authority has to remain
even though we are servants. We cannot just let go of this authority,
because then we cannot serve God. This authority has been given by
God, and we must understand, this is our calling, and we work for the
people. I, for example, am a pastor, and I have to watch carefully about
what is happening in the church.
Obviously, this pastor suspects that some other pastors might have
chosen the ministry to attain a position of power. He himself may have
been criticized for being too authoritarian, as his emphasis on being a
servant does not deny the fact that he strictly controls what is going
on in his church. But this statement shows that the great authority
of the pastor is intimately tied with his hard work for the sake of the
congregation members.
Other interviewees similarly qualified their statements about pastoral
authority by pointing out that they had to be humble servants of their
congregations:
68 chapter three
When we say ‘I am the pastor’, the Lord himself must have called
and anointed us. That gives the authority, and the congregation should
accept and recognize this. Not use our fist and say ‘I am the pastor, you
must submit etc.’ No. And I believe authority also comes by serving.
So the members should humble themselves and respect the pastor, and
the pastor should also humble himself and respect the members.
Furthermore, some of the interviewees explicitly limited the pastoral
authority to spiritual questions, while describing other matters as being
subject to discussion of the whole congregation. And even in spiritual
questions, there was a clear expectation that revelations might not
solely be made to the pastor, but that elders and other leaders could
experience similar guidance from God, so that they would more easily
follow the leadership of the pastor.
It depends on what is in question. But the pastor plays a significant role.
In spiritual things, I would say the authority lies with the pastor.
It is very simple, God gives authority. [. . .] I don’t mean I decide every-
thing by myself. Sometimes I do, but we also discuss. [. . .] Sometimes,
we need to wait until God has convinced the others, too.
Again, the qualification is evident: A pastor can only push authorita-
tively in a certain direction if he is sure that he is following divine direc-
tions. But if he is sure, no more discussion is possible.
With pastors claiming such a kind of divine authority in a situation
where there are many competing churches and pastors,7 the problem
of how to assess somebody’s claim to authority is a burning one, and
came up in many interviews even though it was not asked for explicitly.
Several pastors stated that any pastoral claim to authority had to be
backed by a certain lifestyle, thereby developing some kind of criteria
for such an assessment:
Before you can really say someone is a pastor, you need to watch him,
his character: Does his character reflect that of God, or what the Bible
teaches? So all these things must be put into consideration before you
can really say that this person is a pastor. If all those things apply to his
life, then he should be given the absolute authority to be able to function!
A real pastor gets his authority from God. [. . .] I mean if [someone] says
he is called, if he says he has the backing of God, I can’t question that.
But you know, the Bible tells us that we will know, from the fruits, what
the person is.
7 More on this in chapter 3.3.

These statements suggest, at least indirectly, that congregation mem-

bers and pastoral colleagues have the right and the duty to assess and
evaluate any pastor claiming divine authority to see whether he or she
does indeed speak what God has said, and lives a lifestyle that would
be considered biblical. Here, possibly, is one of the causes of member
migration from one church to another: A pastor who does not show the
characteristics expected of someone truly living a spiritual life does not
need to be followed.
That such considerations may indeed play a role can be seen from
the following statement by one of the interviewed pastors:
If you don’t accept the authority of the pastor, you better leave to another
church where you will respect the authority of the pastor; otherwise you
will not get the blessing!
Here again, the mediating function of the pastor comes into play.
The blessing that church members wish to receive is tied to their
obedience, their submission to their pastor, but not to their membership
in a certain church or congregation. Switching congregations will not
take away the blessing, only disrespectful behavior against a particular
pastor. This interviewee, while claiming an extraordinary authority of
the pastor, also conceded that congregation members had the right to
assess whether this claim was substantial or not.
While what has been described above could be seen as the majority
discourse, it is by no means uncontested. One interviewee explicitly
tied the pastoral authority to the office of a pastor rather than to the
call or anointing of a particular person. He also stressed that pastoral
authority was not just given by God, but also acceded to the pastor by
the congregation members:
We know that God gives us power and authority, but obviously, the Bible
did not say he gives only the pastor authority. The pastor stands in
an office, not a position. According to Ephesians 4, he is in an office,
that means if this personality is not in that office, another personality
can fit in there. So it’s not a position, it’s an office or it’s a function.
Therefore, his authority, actually, doesn’t come from his position, his
authority comes from the people. The acceptance of the people, the
people, the people that he leads will give him his authority depending
on how he discharges his duties.
Two of the interviewed pastors explicitly rejected the idea that pastors
had a special authority:
Any pastor say he have authority over his church, I think he is not yet
saved, he is not born again. That’s the way I feel it. [. . .] The church is
70 chapter three
not mine. [. . .] It’s Jesus that owns the church. Because the people in the
church are God’s people, they are not mine. [. . .] So I’m not superior,
I’m not the authority over the church. I’m only a servant.
All members have the same Holy Spirit; no one has more or less. The
difference is in the responsibility [. . .] Many pastors think they are top,
or the first, or different from other people. No! We must understand that
we are all the same, there only is the problem of different responsibilities.
[. . .] Sometimes I visit a church and the pastor sits on an extra chair in
front, like a chief—that is not appropriate in the church, we only have
one chief, Jesus Christ. [. . .] I am not of the opinion that the pastor must
be an ‘extra man’.
While the first interlocutor makes it clear that he expects to mediate

divine guidance to the church, he also expects that members of his
congregation can be mediators like himself. The second interlocutor
again has a more functional understanding of the pastoral role—not
the spiritual gifts or power are different, only the responsibilities of
a pastor or a member. By ceding all authority to Jesus Christ alone,
both interviewees open up the possibility of a more democratic way of
assessing divine guidance within a church.
But even the interviewees who denied a special authority of the
pastor stressed that whatever pastors said and did hinged on their
spirituality. We shall therefore turn next to what pastors had to say in
the interviews about their spiritual lives.
3.1.3. “To stay with God always”—The spiritual life of a shepherd

With many of the interviewees claiming a special spiritual authority as
pastors, one question immediately suggested itself and was put explicitly
to all interviewees: Do pastors have to lead a spiritual life that is
more intense, more time-consuming, in short: superior to that of their
congregation members?
Interestingly, the answers given varied widely. On the one hand,
a majority of both male and female interviewees insisted that their
spiritual life had to be quantitatively more intense than that of their
congregation members: As they were leaders, they had to give, but they
could not give what they have not received before.
If a pastor is like a member, one cannot call him a pastor. A pastor who
just prays one hour, half an hour, I cannot call him a pastor. [. . .] That
means as pastors we need to learn more, pray more than the others.
If people pray for two hours, members of the church, the pastor should
pray four. If people fast once every week, pastors should fast more. He
should study the Bible more, and he should read more. [. . .] You can’t
lead anybody who knows more than you know. Also, pastors need to be
able to position themselves that God can give them wisdom, and God
will give them knowledge.
When I was a Christian, I never fasted. As a Christian, I came to pray
on Sundays, and afterwards, I forgot. But today it is not so, I must pray,
fast, I must always search the face of Jesus Christ.
These statements show a somewhat mechanistic and quantitative
understanding of spirituality: Only those who pray longer, fast more
often, and read the Bible more than all others will truly be able to be
leaders, to receive revelation and guidance from God. It is their spiri-
tuality that sets pastors apart, and that enables them to maintain their
authority. Such a quantitative concept has, of course, the advantage
that it gives one a relatively easy method to assess the claim to pastoral
authority.
On the other hand, a minority of interviewees refused the notion
that they had to live a more intense spiritual life than their congrega-
tion members:
It is very, very important for every Christian to have spiritual nourish-
ment in the morning, from the father, to read his word, to pray and ask
and praise and ask, it is very, very important, not only for me, but for all
who have been born again.
The task for the pastor is to not be alone. He must always walk together
with his people. I think the people need to learn how their pastor prays
and understands the Bible, and then walk together. I am not of the
opinion that the pastor should be an extra-man.
These two pastors clearly disagreed with a view that sets pastors
apart from their congregations as spiritual super-humans. But the fact
that the second speaker explicitly repudiated any position of a pastor
as “extra-man” suggests that this understanding is actually common
among pentecostal / charismatic migrant pastors.
One interviewee, while agreeing to the fact that a pastor should lead
a more intense spiritual life than his congregation members, at least
acknowledged that a strong, prayerful spirituality was not limited to
pastors:
Generally, yes [the pastor should pray more than his congregation mem-
bers]. But not absolutely, no. [. . .] Some old women, they have much
time, they pray much more than pastor, that’s right. So not absolutely,
no.
72 chapter three
Regardless of whether or not they believed they had to have a

stronger spiritual life than their members, all interviewees expressed
the thought that they could not function properly unless they kept a
very close relationship with God.
I must always settle it within myself that nothing will be able to separate
me from the love of God. [. . .] If one wants to stay connected to God,
one must continually stay within the realm of the Holy Spirit, to lead
and guide and console. This is why I always encourage myself, each day
when I wake up, that I pray: ‘God, teach me what to say today.’
In all interviews, the pastors described their work as basically spiritual,
and therefore in need of being nurtured and nourished by spiritual
means. These were clearly seen as far more important than any kind
of professional training or scientific knowledge which could not touch
the spiritual realm. The interviewees stated that there was a spiritual
reality behind the visible reality, and that this spiritual reality influenced
everything from one’s individual life to the political scene. Therefore,
they did not describe themselves as powerless and marginalized even
though they lived in Germany without a secure visa status, but rather as
people who, through their spiritual life, tapped into a source of power
that was stronger than anything the political or social world could give
them.
In the life of Jesus Christ, his strong side was prayer, was prayer. We
could see that when Jesus did miracles, when Jesus did miracles, that
was: Jesus had had much time in prayer. And I believe a pastor has to do
this, to pray much. And secondly, to read the Bible.
Prayer was named by all respondents as extremely important in the
spiritual life of pastors, not only as intercession for the congregation,
but also as a kind of ‘listening prayer’, a prayer that ended with receiv-
ing guidance, vision, revelation from God. Many interviewees stated
that they prayed until they had received what they called “an answer”
from God to their questions.
A pastor must learn how to pray every day, and also, a pastor must
learn how to be led by the Holy Spirit, because people will come to you
from time to time, they will come with many things to you, and God’s
leadership is very important. [. . .] So we really need God’s idea, and this
God’s idea comes as you spend much time in prayer, and also in study
the word of God.
I always depend on the Holy Spirit, or Jesus Christ. I pray a lot to receive
something from him, before I take a step, yes. Because if you didn’t pray
more, and you didn’t read more, you can never receive something from
God. And to give to the congregation. [. . .] So it’s up to you always, wait

upon the Lord, and God to give you something. Because the Bible says
Moses always waited upon the Lord to receive something from him and
give the Israelites.
Prayer and fasting were also described as tools which equip the pastor
with spiritual armor and weapons for a spiritual battle. Some intervie-
wees explicitly described a world which was ruled by demons and dev-
ils against which theological knowledge and professional training were
worthless. They saw themselves and their congregations under attack
by demons and devils, and stated that in these battles only spiritual
strength could give them an upper hand:
[The pastor] needs to have time to pray, needs to have time to set himself
apart, and wait upon God in fasting, because in every area you can go—
maybe coming from the Evangelical circles, you don’t know this!—but
every area has got some certain types of spirits, and you need to be able
to break through to be able to have a ground to establish everything [. . .]
And you need the strength from God to be able to pray through these
things, to be able to establish anything, to be able to get anything going.
And so, you need to maintain a consistent holy life. You need to maintain
a consistent prayer life. You need to maintain a consistent reading and
studying of the word.
A spiritual pastor needs to take care that no demons or devils destroy our
thoughts. One must really remain in God; stay more, better with more
prayer and word of God.
Need, need [to have a special spiritual life]! Because as a leader, you get
all the attacks. It’s much—you are much more vulnerable to be attacked
and to fall. Because anybody is watching you. We need special protection
from God, special protection!
Asked about their spiritual practices, the interviewees described the
great lengths to which they go to maintain their spiritual strength.
I pray at least once every hour, and read at least 50 chapters of the Bible
every day. Fifty, otherwise I cannot get through. That is my task. I get up
at 4 a.m., and then I first read the Bible, then three hours of prayer, and
in the evening, I and my family [pray] for two hours, and the rest, my
wife and I. So we pray about seven hours every day.
[God said]: ‘You begin to pray at 12 midnight every day.’ And that’s why
till today, my alarm is permanently set to a quarter to 12 at night. I try
to go to bed earlier, and even when I don’t go to bed earlier, I still will go
by 12 midnight. [. . .] I could pray for one hour, for three hours, for four
hours, it depends on how alert and awake I am.
Mostly, every week I set a day apart, and then, in every three months, a
74 chapter three
week. There are times also that I am led by the Holy Spirit to fast for
21 days. [. . .] But in between, the pastors—if I’m in Ghana, we go on a
retreat on a regular basis. We go to the mountain. [. . .] So that has been
my practice. When I’m led by the Spirit, I go to the mountain. Even
when I’m here, I go to somewhere in Solingen, there is a place there,
[. . .] I go there, hide myself.
Even if the concrete practice varies, a spiritual discipline is described

by all the interviewees quoted above. Regularity seems very important
to them, though there may also be occasions to put in a special effort:
“When I’m led by the Spirit, I go to the mountain.”
In the interviews and also in informal conversations, pastors talk
freely about their spiritual practices. Pastoral spirituality is not a pri-
vate matter, it is public and of concern for the congregation. As pas-
tors describe their own role and function, a regular spiritual discipline
becomes the most important tool to enable them to do what they actu-
ally expect to do. Spiritual discipline is more important that theological
or managerial training, and prayer and Bible reading are seen as the
most important task of the pastor. Without such spiritual discipline, the
pastor will not have spiritual power, and therefore no authority.
3.1.4. Sacrificing oneself for the congregation and living as a role model
The passages above aimed at describing and analyzing how pente-
costal / charismatic migrant pastors understand their own authority
and spirituality. Interestingly, in the interviews, these aspects had to be
teased out by explicit questions. But when first asked to describe their
position as pastor in relationship to the congregation, most interviewees
started out explicating the image of the shepherd or father / mother in
terms of the sacrifice it demanded of them, or in terms of the love
and service they were rendering to their congregation. They made it
very clear that being a pastor did not mean looking out for oneself,
and that the profession was not an easy one. Unspoken, there may also
have been the rejection of the common premise that many of these
pastors entered the ministry for personal gain, and came to Germany
for ‘greener pastures’.8 It is not surprising that the strongest statements
in this vein came from pastors who do not receive a fixed salary from
8 See Gifford, African Christianity, 345 ff., and also Nsodu, Mbinglo, Black Angels
in the White Man’s Country, Legon / Accra 2004, which has been quite influential in
the debate about migration of pastors from Ghana to Europe and Northern America.
their congregations, but live from (often small) donations and the salary
their wives draw, often from unskilled labor. Clearly, the Johannine
imagery of Jesus as the good shepherd who sacrifices his life for his
sheep informed this kind of understanding.
. . . a pastor should be like a father and a nursing mother.9 And . . .
sensitive to this role. Even Paul said in 1. Corinthians: ‘Many want to
be teacher, but not many are fathers.’ Fathers, not only do they give
life to the children, but they take care of their whole life. That’s why I
want to always be like a father and like a mother with love. They feed
them, they love them, they sacrifice their lives. Personally, I also think
good shepherd. That came from St. John’s Gospel. [. . .] A Pastor must
sacrifice his life to the congregation, for the congregation. [. . .].
The pastor must be sacrificial. The work we are called to do does not
give much room for personal convenience. [. . .] The pastor has to be
compassionate, like Jesus Christ, and he has to show a good example of
compassion.
A pastor has to have a very wide heart; he has to be able to bear so many
things. I cannot tell these stories of what we go through, but it’s like . . .
you need a very big heart, the heart of a father. This is where we know
these who are pastors and these who are not.
According to the interviewees, shepherding and fathering / mothering

a congregation far exceeds holding worship services, preaching rousing
sermons, and even working miracles:
What makes a man of God is the way you relate to the people. [. . .]
Everybody can do miracles, everybody can preach a great sermon, it’s—
in fact, preaching is one of the easiest things every pastor or every
Christian leader can do [. . .] but that is not enough. What is enough is,
after the preaching, after everything, the people watch you, they watch
how you relate to them.
It is evident from the interviews that the self-definition as shepherd

and father puts enormous expectations and pressure on the pastors.
They describe themselves as living for their congregation members,
sacrificing themselves for their gain. In this again, they see themselves
as fulfilling a mediating role, making God visible to the people.
9 This Korean pastor was the only one to also use the image of a mother. All other
pastors remained within the father imagery. This may be due to cultural factors: In
Chinese and Korean Buddhism, the figure of a female Boddhisatva, Guanyin, is very
important in popular religiosity. This has had some clearly discernible influences on
Christianity, and popular sermons have been stressing motherly images of God, which
in turn would encourage motherly images for pastoring.
76 chapter three
Every pastor should have God’s nature. God’s nature, God’s number
one nature is love [. . .] Love can make you touch everyone’s life, love
can make you touch all nations, love can make you touch the sick, the
prisoner, the depressed, people with all kinds of problems . . .
The interviewees described themselves as comforters, challengers, advi-
sors, counselors, social workers, helpers with bureaucratic procedures,
interpreters—often accessible around the clock10 and always expected
to have advice and a solution for whatever problem.
Well, the pastor is a shepherd. You know, the shepherd is supposed to
care for the sheep. He is supposed to be able to understand the sheep,
know their problems, know how to cater for them, know how to feed
them, know how to console them when they are hurting, know how to
relate to them, know how to communicate with them. But in a nutshell,
he is supposed to be the shepherd, the caretaker, so to say, of the flock.
We help in every kind, regardless of what situation we are faced with.
As pastor, we really have to have a position as servant, not a director,
that is not a calling. As a servant, that means regardless of the situation,
being ready, 24 hours, with these members, or a Christian who comes
with problems, then go there directly to solve these problems. There is
sickness too, and family problems, and all needs to be properly taken
care of.
A pastor is a servant. [. . .] Sometimes I come to the church at ten o’clock
in the morning, and I get home at 1 a.m., I get home at 1 a.m., so it is
over 12 hours. On Sundays, sometimes I forget to eat, even, I make sure
that I, I call out my whole life for the people [. . .] Throughout weekdays
too, I have counseling sessions, but I make sure that the people see and
know that I love them, and they see and know that I have time for them.
It is not surprising in such a context that a number of the pastors inter-
viewed explicitly talked about being role models for their congrega-
tion members. The shepherd-father does not just preach and counsel,
pray and perform miracles. He—and his family!—live an exemplary
life which is a challenge and a comfort to the congregation.
He [the pastor] needs to be an example, more than any other leader. He
must try to be an example.
[The pastor] must try to be an example for his congregation. He must
take great care, because he is a public man.
10 “I always sleep with my mobile phone right next to me on the bed, so that people
can always reach me.” A Nigerian Pentecostal pastor, talking to German pastors-in-
training about his work, 13 June 2006.
I see the role of the pastor as a model, being an example for the people.
[. . .] And for me, it’s a motto, that a pastor should study the word,
practice it, do what the word says, before he teaches it. And being a
model for the people—the people should see you practicing what you
are telling them. You should be an inspirer! A pastor should aim high!
You should have a goal, you should be in a position where people find
you attractive, something that I want to be, I want to be like my pastor, I
want my marriage to be like my pastor’s marriage, I want my children to
become like my pastor’s children. That is how I see the role of the pastor,
to be a model in everything, to be an example for the people of God to
follow.
For you to be an effective leader, you must always be an example, be an
example in serving others, be an example—you need to be an example
of forgiving others! People watch you. [. . .] They, they study and they
watch the pastor, someone will not read the Bible but they read the life
of the pastor as, as the Bible! So they will do what the leader does.
It is obvious that within this discourse about the pastoral role, there
is no distinction whatsoever between the office and the person. Being
a pastor does not just mean to perform certain functions, but rather
to become a totally changed person, somebody who through one’s life
inspires, encourages and challenges all congregation members. Being
a pastor is not a profession, it is a calling: A calling into a totality of
service, into a life that is qualitatively different from one’s former life.
3.1.5. Becoming a shepherd: Call, training, ordination, gifts of the Spirit

All interviewees agreed that a pastor can only be a real pastor, a proper
shepherd if he or she has been called directly by God, through the Holy
Spirit, to be a pastor. Being a pastor is a ministry, a gift, an office that is
bestowed by God.
Nobody can be a pastor that hasn’t been called. A pastor must be called,
because the Bible let us know, in Ephesians, that when Jesus Christ went
to heaven, he sent some gifts to earth, and so he gave some to be apostle,
some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be teachers, some
to be pastors and overseers and so on. And so, if he doesn’t get the call,
he cannot be a pastor. Or you can be a pastor, but it’s not from God.
If we look into the Bible . . . all people who have started to work for God,
it began with a call from God!
I think anybody who is a pastor must first, only have the call.
The question how a call is experienced and assessed will be dealt with
in chapter 3.2. Here, we will just look into the more formal aspects of
78 chapter three
becoming a pastor, specifically how the interviewees talk about training

and ordination.
Unlike the conformity about a divine call as the prerogative of
becoming a pastor, the general discussion about the way to become
a pastor does not show much agreement. The question whether a
pastor needs professional training seems secondary. Of the 22 pente-
costal / charismatic interviewees, eight have not even had any kind of
informal theological training, ten have had some kind of Bible school
education reaching from correspondence and weekend courses to one
year at a full-time Bible school, and only four had more than one year
of formal theological training. Most of the interviewees did not discuss
theological or professional training at all as a necessity on one’s road
to becoming a pastor. Those few who did made it clear that informal
training and mentoring were considered as least as important as a for-
mal education.
I also think that every pastor must have some training, whether formal
or informal. Once he wants to do it as a profession, obviously, a pastor’s
work is a calling, but, apart from the fact that it’s a calling, if he, if
anybody want to lead a church and take it as his profession, or, what
do you say, as his vocation, then he must get a professional training. It
could be formal or informal, but that is necessary. So that he can do his
pastoral duties.
Several pastors described ways of informal training as very important,
either in addition to formal training, or as the sole route. This would
usually consist of working under the authority of an experienced pas-
tor. Both of the following quotes come from pastors who mostly had
informal training themselves:
If somebody just comes up and says ‘I’m a pastor, God is calling me to be
a pastor!’, and the person does not belong to a church, he is not under
authority, he is not under a spiritual head, somebody who is training
you, somebody who is disciplining you, somebody who can straighten
you up—then I don’t think that person has a calling!
When the calling comes from the Lord, you need to be equipped, of
course. The Lord can train you, but also as a pastor, it is necessary that
you understand the process [. . .] so I believe also the process goes on
with training. Bible school or whatever theoretical education, and also to
be mentored by an elderly pastor, by guidance, because it is not the book
knowledge, and it is not only the Spirit direction, but it is also by getting
experience imparted in you.
Ordination was not a big topic in the interviews. Only two of the
respondents, both from denominational churches, when asked about
the basis of the pastoral authority, mentioned recognition by a congre-

gation or a church organization as a prerogative:
Spiritually, [the authority of the pastor] must come from Jesus, trinitarian
God, through anointing or through calling. A pastor must be called.
I want to emphasize this very much! Innerly, personally, . . . vertically
must be very conscious that he was called by Jesus to be a pastor.
And horizontally must be recommended and called by congregation and
other people. [. . .] But first thing is anyway, pastor must the authority
come from God. [. . .] This authority from God must be materialized,
criticized, through congregation and people. This is also very important.
Some say: ‘Oh, I have been called by God, and I have all authority, but
people don’t accept it!’ [. . .] So both, I think. It cannot be separated; it
must come together, both sides.
I believe that the authority comes from the calling by the Lord. But
in this world, if we are an organization here, it also comes from the
leadership of the church.
One of the female interviewees, when asked about her ordination,
recounted that she was ordained three times, by different people, within
different networks, but she was unable to put these ordinations into a
temporal order. As she told a very elaborate call narrative, it can be
assumed that for her, an ordination is not the basis of pastoral authority.
After listening to the interviewees’ statements about their calling
and authority, questions about the necessity of certain spiritual gifts
suggested themselves: Would one have to have specific gifts of the
Spirit to qualify as a pastor? The answers show clearly that within
this reasoning, the answer is no. For most of the respondents, gifts are
tied neither to the pastoral office nor to the call. The Holy Spirit has
been poured out over everybody in the congregation; and anybody can
display great and miraculous gifts. The gifts do not make the pastor;
they are something he or she shares with the congregation members.
These gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to each believer. Therefore, a
pastor also has these . . . I am using the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit.
But that does not mean that the qualification of the pastor consists of the
gifts, no. Conversely, each believer can be used by the Holy Spirit for the
manifestation of new gifts, yes. To be a pastor, the more important thing
really is the calling by the Lord. And then God will equip that.
Like the congregation members, the pastor is equipped with spiritual
gifts when the need for them arises:
But that does not mean that, before you be a pastor, you need to have all
these gifts, to be a pastor. [. . .] So I believe that, as you go on with your
ministry life, different gifts can show up in your life.
80 chapter three
Here, the gifts are not seen as ‘belonging’ to a certain person, or

even as adhering to a certain person for all times. Rather, they are an
equipment given by the Spirit to deal with certain situations, and are
given as the need arises. For the pastor, the call is important, not the
gifts.
A somewhat different view was voiced only by the pastor from the
Church of Pentecost. This is not surprising, as in the context of a hier-
archically organized church, the freedom of action of the Holy Spirit
and the authority of the instituted leadership need to be reconciled.
This pastor described the way from the calling to the ordination so:
First of all, the Spirit acts by calling a certain person into the ministry,
and at the same time letting that person’s superiors know about this
call. In a second step, the call is assessed by the church hierarchy. Then,
the person is sent for at least some months of training, both in Biblical
theology and also in pastoral practice. After that training, ordination
takes place. And during the ordination act, the gifts of the Holy Spirit
are passed on from specially gifted persons in the church hierarchy to
the newly ordained pastor:
If they pray for you [the pastor], or they ordain you, the apostles or
prophets will impart gifts in you. The Holy Spirit gifts: The gift of
wisdom, the gift of knowledge, the gift of discerning the spirits, working
of miracles, faith, the gift of prophecy, interpretation of tongues.
No other interviewee, though, voiced this particular concept. They
rather stressed that gifts might be given at a certain time, for a certain
situation, i.e. these gifts might be “operating through” a pastor, or be
“exercised through” him. They remain gifts of God, something the
pastor or a church hierarchy does not control.
Nevertheless, all interviewees agreed that spiritual gifts were impor-
tant in the execution of the pastoral ministry. When it came to the
question which gifts might be particularly important for a pastor, sev-
eral interviewees said that it would be good for pastors to have “all nine
gifts”11 of the Spirit, even though they admitted that this might not be
realistic, or that not all gifts would be in operation at all times.
11 This list usually encompasses the gift of the discernment of spirits, the gift of faith,
the gift of glossolalia, the gift of healing, the gift of interpretation of tongues, the word
of knowledge, the gift of miracles, the gift of prophecy, and the word of wisdom. Cf.
J.R. Michaels, Article “The Gifts of the Spirit”, in: New International Dictionary of
Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, pp. 664–667.
[In a] very idealistic way, I would say, a pastor, if he has all gifts, it’s
the best. But of course, sure, the Holy Spirit gives different gifts. For
Pastor Yonggi Cho in Korea, when he was young, all these nine gifts
were shown, exercised through him. But he says: ‘Eventually, my gift was
faith.’ Faith. So, it depends upon the pastor, where he is.
I believe that the pastor needs the gifts of the Spirit, and I pray every
pastor will have all the nine.
Most pastors, though, only named two or three gifts of the Spirit
that they found important for the execution of their ministry. The
preference of certain gifts over others throws a strong light on how
these pastors understand and live their ministries.
Some pastors described themselves as miracle workers, or at least as
someone who would occasionally have to function in this role:
Each pastor must also show real power, so that people start to believe,
but you have to give people a miracle so that their faith increases. And
many people, sick people etc., need to be healed [. . .] In my opinion, it
is better if the pastor has this gift.
He [the pastor] needs to operate in the gifts of the Spirit, like prophecy,
like the gifts of healing and that. Power gifts, casting out devils and things
like that.
Others stressed the gift of discernment that would be important in
counseling situations:
For example, the pastor sitting with a couple, and they discuss, they
giving the facts, so psychology is a factor to counsel. However, when you
have two people telling you so good facts, and psychology is not making
you . . . giving you the ability to get in, then you must fall on the Spirit,
and if you don’t have discernment, the gift of discernment, and the spirit
of counsel, then you, you’re a bit tied up.
Aso, a pastor must have a gift of discernment. If somebody comes to you
and the person is lying, you need to know [. . .] In order to be a very
good counselor, if you are counseling people, and the people are talking,
you know when they are saying the reality or when they are really telling
stories. So you must have the gift of discernment . . .
Two interviewees said that faith was an important gift for a pastor.
When a pastor has the gift of faith, he could edify, he could build his
church stronger, surely.
Gifts of teaching, preaching and prophecy were also mentioned by
interviewees:
Personally, I today want to have prophecy. Because in a wider sense, any
82 chapter three
preaching is prophecy, you see? [. . .] Every preacher is a prophet. [. . .]

Prophecy is for the congregation, you see? Building of the congrega-
tion, edification of the congregation. [. . .] Teaching, education, exulta-
tion, comfort or revelation or foretelling something are all included in
prophecy.
One interviewee summarized the discourse about the pastoral call and
the spiritual gifts as follows:
Without gifts of the Spirit it would not be easy to lead a church. That
is a spiritual issue [. . .] we live by praying to Jesus, then we will receive
the right thoughts, and that’s why we cannot do everything unless we
have gotten some divine gifts. There are problems that can only be saved
by the Holy Spirit. And without that—the Apostle Paul says this, for
example—it is not that we do it with our abilities, but by God’s ability.
Pastoring, leading a church is an enormous responsibility which cannot
be carried by a mere human being. Only with the help of the divine
Spirit and his gifts can a pastor even dare to take up this work. Never-
theless, it is not the gifts that distinguish a pastor from his congregation,
because any believer can also show them or operate in them. The dif-
ference between the pastor and his congregation members lies in the
call by God and in the ‘anointing’ which symbolizes the bestowal of
the Holy Spirit, special favor, and divine commission, which will show
themselves in gifts in which the pastor operates.
Clearly, while most of the respondents described themselves as medi-
ators of divine power and guidance, this concept was not tied to the
presence of spiritual gifts. A pastor has authority because he or she has
been called, and maintains, through spiritual discipline, a closeness to
God, but not because he or she shows a special giftedness in prophecy,
miracle working, or word of knowledge. There is a tension here that
shows the lack of a clearly developed ecclesiology: On the one hand,
pastors see themselves as imbued with special authority by the Holy
Spirit—a clearly hierarchical idea. On the other hand, the understand-
ing of the spiritual gifts is ‘anarchic’ in the sense that the gifts are not
tied to a certain office. Only the relationship between call, recognition,
ordination and gifts as outlined by the Church of Pentecost pastor is
based on a more systematic ecclesiology.
It has become obvious how enormously loaded with expectations
the role of the pastor is within this discourse. It is therefore only to
be expected that divine power plays an important role in their self-
concept. They are expected to do great things, to carry great authority,
but they can do so confidently, even if they have received little training,
because the power and the abilities do not come from them, but from
God himself. To be able to tap into this power, the pastor has to
position himself:
The gifts have to be nursed through prayer, and through the word of
God.
To sum up: This chapter looked at how pastors described their own
pastoral role, and found that the metaphors of shepherd and father
are pervasive for the self-concept of the interviewees. While showing
certain divergences, a dominant discourse can clearly be ascertained
from the interviews. Its plausibility is underscored by the fact that one
comes across it often in informal meetings as well as in sermons.
My interlocutors, rather than stressing a functional understanding of
the pastor as preacher and administrator of sacraments, or a profes-
sional understanding of the pastor as counselor and manager, described
themselves as spiritual leaders, as people with a special call and a spe-
cial spiritual quality, usually termed ‘the anointing’. As the ‘father’12
of the congregation, the pastor stands between God and the people.
He has a mediating function, interceding for his church, and waiting
and listening to God for guidance and revelation about what should be
done in the church. This means that he needs to spend much time in
prayer and reading the Bible. Because he transmits the word and will of
God, the pastor has great authority, though this should not be abused.
Being anointed, the pastor will show certain powerful spiritual gifts. He
lives a sacrificial life, caring for his congregation members in all respects
at any time, and acting as a role model in all areas of his personal and
familial life. If he does not do this, his authority will not be accepted by
the congregation.
3.2. Defending one’s call: Biographical stories as legitimation narratives
In chapter 3.1, we looked at the pastoral self-concept of the intervie-

wees, by describing how they answered questions about their pastoral
role, functions, and authority. The answers given showed that for all
interviewees, the profession of a pastor is fundamentally tied to having
12 We have decided to stick with non-inclusive language in this paragraph as most
migrant pastors are male.

84 chapter three
been called into that office. Somebody who does not have a personal,
individual call to the ministry can never be a pastor or shepherd.
3.2.1. Call narratives in a pentecostal / charismatic context

But what is actually going on when pentecostal / charismatic interlocu-
tors talk about “having a call?” Interestingly, given the prominence of the
“call” in Christian discourse in general and in evangelical and pente-
costal / charismatic circles in particular, neither psychological nor social
science research has so far paid much attention to call narratives.13
Two kinds of general considerations are necessary before we analyze
the call narratives from the interviews: Firstly: What is the theological
discourse in which call narratives are constructed, and secondly: Why,
how and in what context are call narratives recounted?
Like evangelicals, pentecostals and charismatics believe that God
“has a plan for their lives,” i.e. that individual life courses have been
prepared by God. God is seen as interested and involved in the believ-
ers’ daily lives, and one of the main task of every Christian is therefore
to discern and follow God’s guidance particularly concerning major
choices (e.g. for a career or a marriage partner). The question which
choices are small enough to be made without divine guidance is one
that is often debated when it comes to counselling. Especially in a
pentecostal / charismatic context, though, increasing ‘holiness’ is often
understood as becoming more and more dependent on divine guidance
even in small matters.
Individual divine guidance in major life choices, though, is not the
same as a “call.” In pentecostal / charismatic discourse, pastoral min-
istry14 is regarded as a ‘special’ vocation, one that cannot simply be
filled by being able, educated and trained. Consequently, while pente-
costals / charismatics freely talk about having been called to be a pas-
tor, an evangelist, a missionary, they would not usually claim to have
received a call to be a scientist, a businesswoman, or a carpenter (unless
exercising these professions within a mission agency or with a mis-
sionary intention). Birgit Meyer relates how some Ghanaian Christian
13 The one exception that could be found is Jeffrey Swanson’s Echoes of the Call.
Identity and Ideology Among American Missionaries in Ecuador, New York / Oxford:
Oxford University Press 1995, which deals with a cohort of US American missionaries
working for one agency in Ecuador.
14 This would include being a pastor, evangelist, and ‘apostle,’ i.e. church founder.
video-filmmakers see their ability to produce films as a divine gift and

term their profession “a calling,” noting that they regard their films
as a way to convey the Christian message, i.e. as evangelism.15 As we
have seen above, an element of ‘supernatural’ enabling is necessary to
work properly as a pastor. Call and supernatural enabling are there-
fore closely related to one another. Not surprisingly, the Biblical call
narratives of Moses (particularly Ex. 4 where Moses is given the abil-
ity to work certain miracles to prove his divine call to the unbelieving
Egyptians) and Elisha (1. Kings 19: 19 f. and 2. Kings 2: 13 ff.) play an
important role in the pentecostal / charismatic discourse on the call.
Within pentecostal / charismatic circles, a call is usually defined as
a special experience in which an individual may have had a vision,
audition or dream, may have been particularly touched by a Biblical
passage, may have felt an inner urge or longing, or understood an
arbitrary encounter as “God speaking to me,” with the understanding
that God wanted to tell this individual to enter into pastoral ministry.
A call is never just general, but always specific and personal. Call
experiences can vary greatly according to cultural and denominational
background, but they have one aspect in common: They are genuine
only if they can be recounted. If someone has a call, he or she will
necessarily have a call narrative. A pentecostal / charismatic pastor who
could not recount such a narrative to answer the question how he or
she was called to be a pastor would not be considered a proper pastor,
regardless of his or her training, education, and experience.
Why, how, and in what context are call narratives then recounted?
Generally, pentecostal / charismatic Christianity is strongly experiential:
It is not defined by certain dogmatic beliefs, but rather by recounted
experiences. Such recounted experiences, biographical narratives, oc-
cur in the genre of “testimony.” Stephen Land explains that the point
of pentecostal spiritual experience is “to experience life as part of
a biblical drama of participation in God’s history.”.16 In pentecostal
worship settings, it is the believers themselves who function as “icons”17
in which God’s actions become visible to the congregation. Testimony,
therefore, means telling a biographical narrative as the story of divine
15 Birgit Meyer, “Praise the Lord”: Popular cinema and pentecostalite style in
Ghana’s new public sphere, American Ethnologist Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 92–110, Note 18.
16 Stephen Land, Pentecostal Spirituality. A Passion for the Kingdom, Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 3rd edition 2001, p. 74 f.

17 Daniel Albrecht, Pentecostal Spirituality: Looking through the Lens of Ritual, in:
Pneuma 14:2 (Fall 1992), p. 110.

86 chapter three
action within an individual life. Consequently, testimony, rather than

doctrinal deliberation, is the preferred mode of pentecostal theology-
making.
Secondly, as Stephen Kroll-Smith18 has argued convincingly, testi-
monies meet the “need for identity work” within groups that oper-
ate within “a stratified belief system lacking formal passage rites.”19
Testimonies function to locate individuals ritually within the social
matrix of a group. Kroll-Smith’s observations are apt even though they
are not concerned with call narratives. Testimonies in general legit-
imate authority and hierarchy, produce group boundaries and serve
to enhance group coherence.20 Pastoral call narratives in a pente-
costal / charismatic context can therefore be read as legitimation nar-
ratives: By recounting a call testimony, pastors establish and strengthen
their special position in relation to their congregation. I have witnessed
many situations in which pentecostal / charismatic pastors introduced
themselves to a foreign audience with a call narrative. A look at any
catalogue of Ppntecostal or charismatic edification literature will result
in finding dozens of autobiographical writings following the patterns of
a conversion / call narrative.
With the call playing such a pivotal role, and call narratives being
such an important staple of pentecostal / charismatic discourse and lit-
erature, it could be expected that all interviewees, in their biographi-
cal narrative answering the question “What happened in your life so
that you became a pastor in Germany?”, would have given a detailed
account of how they had been called into the ministry. Surprisingly,
this was not the case. While 11 interviewees recounted elaborate call
narratives that clearly had not been told for the first time, 13 just men-
tioned the fact of their calling into the ministry in passing. To attempt
to explain this discrepancy, the following chapter will undertake a func-
tional analysis of the different call narratives. It will be argued that elab-
orate stories serve as legitimation narratives for pastors whose calling
and role are being questioned, while pastors secure in their positions do
not have a need for such a legitimation narrative.
18 Stephen Kroll-Smith, The Testimony as Performance: The Relationship of an
Expressive Event to the Belief System of a Holiness Sect, Journal for the Scientific Study of
Religion, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Mar., 1980), pp. 16–25.
19 Ibd., p. 23.
20 This has also been shown, in a totally different context, by Dawne Moon, Dis-
course, interaction, and testimony: The making of selves in the U.S. Protestant dispute
over homosexuality, Theory and Society, Volume 34, Nos. 5–6 / December 2005, pp. 551–557.
3.2.2. No legitimation narrative: Observations and possible reasons

Thirteen of the 24 interviewees, all of them men,21 talked about their
calling to become a pastor in just a sentence or two, and in very matter-
of-fact ways.
At the age of 15 I was born again, and at the age of 21 I more or less
began a full-time ministry.
Right from the onset in Ghana, I basically had, had this desire to serve
Christ when I got born again. [. . .] I ended up studying mechanical—
being a mechanical engineer. But afterwards I felt called to ministry, and
so I had study in the Maranatha Bible College.
And so, after my conversion, I had the zeal to serve the Lord. [. . .] I
joined Christ Apostolic Church where I started to go to their seminary
school.
A friend invited me, the first time we went to a prayer meeting. It was
an all night prayer meeting, and then at this prayer meeting, I knew that
what I had also clear, that the Lord really was calling my attention to
serve him.
Obviously, these pastors did not feel any need to explain or to defend
their decision to become pastors. From their short answers, it can be
inferred that they are not in a position where their call is being doubted
or questioned.
Several more observations can be made about the group that talked
about their calling in this way. First of all, for the majority of this group,
the calling into the ministry occurred at the time of their conversion,
or very shortly afterwards. Secondly, all of these pastors knew about
their calling at a young or even very young age: The youngest were in
secondary school, and the oldest within the first few years of their pro-
fessional careers. One pastor described how even as a child, he already
had the urge to preach the Gospel. At the time of the interviews, they
had, with two exceptions, been pastors for more than ten years. Ten of
them had some kind of formal or informal theological training, and the
other three stated that they would have liked such training, “but there
was no green light from the Lord.”
What was also striking was that some of these interviewees were
willing to describe in great detail how they set up their first churches
and continued in the ministry, but were not interested in elaborating
21 Of these interviewees, nine were from Africa, and two from Asia.
88 chapter three
how their calling had occurred, or how they were so sure of having
been called. One pastor, after having been asked to elaborate on his
“inner urging” to become an evangelist, said:
I am not sure that I was able to answer your question, but it’s an inner
feeling, something that is really driving you in . . . in a particular direc-
tion. Where someone asks you to explain, maybe the tangible reasons
for—maybe you will not be able to say . . .
When pressed further whether he had had visions or auditions, he said:

I will say that I had many of them. I had many of them. Seeing myself
standing in front of congregations, talking to them. Seeing myself moving
out to isolated areas, presenting Christ to people. I had a lot of such
dreams and visions. But the conviction actually came from my heart, not
based on this.
The above statement is a clear indicator that biographical narratives

are constructed according to the situation and the audience they are
told to. It is well possible that in another context, this interviewee
would have given a call narrative based on his visions and dreams. But
knowing very well that stories of visions and dreams as explanations
for certain career choices are not acceptable in a Western Protestant
‘mainline’ discourse, this pastor might have felt compelled to downplay
events that he might have felt made him sound strange to the inter-
viewer.
On the other hand, many of the other interviewees—though not the
one quoted above!—who spoke only in passing about their calling, had
no problems to revert to visions, dreams and auditions when it came to
other turning points in their autobiographical narratives. If, therefore,
these pastors do describe visions and dreams as factors in arriving at
certain decisions, but not when it comes to their call to become a
pastor, it can safely be assumed that they feel so sure about their call,
and so unchallenged in their role as pastors, that they do not need
to employ any spectacular spiritual events to legitimize their pastoral
authority. Basically, they do not need a legitimation narrative.
To test this assumption, it is worth looking more closely at the
individual situation of the 13 members of this subgroup.
Four pastors in this sample are the founders and head pastors of
large, growing and flourishing mega-churches, with lead congregations
of several hundred members from a wide range of nationalities meet-
ing in their own (rented or purchased) premises. They have planted a
number of satellite churches in other cities. Each of them has several
pastors working under his leadership. All of them are well respected
both among their peers and by their German colleagues from differ-
ent denominational backgrounds with whom they cooperate in many
projects. All of them are traveling widely, being invited to speak and
preach in different churches and at conferences both nationally and
internationally. In short, these pastors have been visibly successful in
their ministries, and it could be argued that their success as pastors
should suffice as legitimation of their call.
Another four pastors in this sample are serving as pastors of denom-
inational churches which sent them to Germany as missionaries. They
describe their calling in the framework of being ‘discovered’ and being
given pastoral responsibility by their superiors in the church hierarchy.
I joined the Redeeemed Christian Church of God in [a city in Nigeria]
in 1992, and within a few months that I joined the church, I was given
a house fellowship center to handle. The house fellowship grew, they
opened a mission station, and the pastor called me and told me that he
would like me to head the mission station. That was how I became a
pastor.
It took me some years before the others find that I have a commitment,
and that I also fear the Lord, so they recognized me, they recommended
me to be a deacon. So I was ordained as a deacon in 1998, and an elder
in 2001. And in 2001 I was called as an assistant to help the S. area, and
through this, I was called to be a pastor.
Here, evidently, a legitimation narrative is not important, as one’s pas-

toral authority has been legitimized by the church hierarchy, through
ordination.
Three more pastors in this sample received their call into the min-
istry while being members of a denomination or ministry, and were
assigned to their first ministerial post by this church or ministry. Even
though they are no longer serving in their original churches, their orig-
inal call seems to be legitimized by the fact that they were ordained
in these churches. This is underscored by the fact that one of these
three told a long legitimation narrative about why he eventually left his
denomination and started his own church, maintaining that his original
call was still valid even though his denomination will not have anything
more to do with him. The second pastor among these three still main-
tains good ties to his original denomination, and the third is actually
a successful medical doctor by profession and has always remained a
part-time pastor. It can therefore be assumed that their need for legiti-
mation may not be so great.
90 chapter three
The final two pastors in this sample are serving independent, but
growing and well-integrated congregations. One congregation is affili-
ated with the Federation of Free Pentecostal Churches (BfP), while the
other pastor has won recognition from the Evangelical Church by hav-
ing been elected as an elder in his German geographical parish. Again,
both of them do not seem to feel challenged or questioned in their role
and authority and pastors, and therefore can do without a legitimation
narrative.
To sum up: Having founded and / or having become pastors of large,
successful or at least growing churches, or having been ordained within
a denominational structure seem to legitimize the interviewees to such
a degree that they do not see a need for further legitimation narratives.
The other 11 interviewees, in contrast, did talk about their calling
in ways that clearly suggest that these narratives serve a legitimizing
function. The following chapters will take a closer look at their stories.
3.2.3. Legitimation narratives I: Called by a prophetic word

Five of the interviewees who told longer legitimation narratives re-
counted that they were called by a prophetic intervention of a person
they met. For two pastors, the prophetic word came in addition to
dreams and visions they had had beforehand, so that the prophecies
were seen as a confirmation rather than the source of the call. For
a third one, the prophetic word came to remind him of a calling he
had forgotten. For the final two pastors, the prophetic word was what
brought the call into their lives for the first time. To begin with the last
two:
It was not my thought to come to Germany and to found a church,
but when I was still in China—that’s where I studied for three years—
there was a big evangelism meeting. During this evangelism program, I
met an evangelist who never knew me, had never met me before, and
whom I have no contact with now. He looked at me and then called me
up. I went to him, and then he started to tell me something about my
future. It was a prophetic word about my life, but I didn’t believe in it.
Then we went to this conference, and during this conference, another—
that was a woman who preached there. When this woman preached,
she said almost exactly what the other man had said. So finally I went
back to this man to ask him: What had led him to talk to me? And so
on. Then he said that he did not know me, he had never seen me, but
God had spoken to him, about me, about my work, about my calling. So
that’s how it happened, in 1987, that this evangelist, an American—there
were two other brethren with us, one from Burkina Faso, and one from
Burundi, they were there, in this room—then he started to pray for me.
And then this prophetic word came that three years later I should fly to
Europe, to go there, or that I had planned that, and there God would
use me. That’s how it was, and three years later, without me doing much
towards it, it somehow so happened that I came to Germany.22
CWO: How did you become an apostle?
I don’t know how that came, but all comes from God, Claudia. I am very
excited, because . . . ten years ago I did a correspondence Bible course in
France, and then I did studies, but then for five years afterwards, I didn’t
do anything, I just set up this choir with my kids. But then this idea of
a church came. I was traveling to Africa, and there I met a servant of
God, from Cameroun, he is one who is really blessed by God. He asked
me one time: ‘You have received a great message from God.’ Back then,
I had not been sent, I was just a servant of God, just like every believer,
every Christian. And I met this man again for two or three times, and
then he flew to South Africa. And I returned to Germany. And a few
months later, six months later, he phones me and says: ‘God has told me
that you are a man of God, I will come to you to bless you.’ I say: ‘Where
does this come from?’ He says: ‘That comes from God.’ Then I told him:
‘I don’t know, God must do everything, but I myself, I am not yet ready,
because . . .’ You see, life in Germany—I wanted to keep my job, I also
wanted to take care of my family, I didn’t want to serve God full-time.
That was not easy for me to decide. But anyhow, he said I should not be
afraid: ‘I will pay my own plane ticket because God told me that I have
to come to you.’ And then I have read in God’s Bible, and saw in Acts 9,
the calling of Paul. God called Paul, and he sent Ananias. And Paul did
not know what God does. But he just sent Ananias. And he prayed for
Paul, and Paul got his vision. Then this man himself bought his ticket,
he came here, he said to me: ‘Okay, we need to be together, you must
be set aside as a servant of God.’ And on this day, I have thought that
I might become a pastor, and then—many pastors from Germany were
there, those who have a relationship with me, they were there. And as he
was blessing me, he said: ‘You have been called as an apostle by God.’
This is how it happened.23
Some observations about the similarities in these narratives are in

order: First of all, both interviewees stressed that becoming a pastor was
not their idea at all, and that they were dubious when first confronted
with the call. In both cases, the ‘prophet’ did not know the person
over whom he prophesied beforehand, but simply met them during
a church event. This serves to underline the idea that what occurred
22 Interview with M.N. in his church office, 15 November 2005, in his church office.
23 Interview with D.I., 20 November 2005, after Sunday service in the church hall.
92 chapter three
was really a “prophetic”, i.e. a revealed word of God, and not the
possible consequence of the ‘prophet’ having watched the pastor-to-
be and recognized his talents. Also in both cases, the ‘prophet’ insisted
that God had spoken to him, and prayed for the person over whom
he had prophesied. Also in both cases, the final revelation about the
character of their calling was only given during this prayer session,
which was witnessed by several other people. So both interviewees
stress the miraculous way in which they were called.
These two narratives are clearly legitimation narratives that counter
a possible accusation of having become a pastor out of one’s own desire
for leadership, or a better life in a rich country. Because the revelation
of the call came through another person, and was witnessed by others,
it is made very clear that God has spoken in these instances.
For the third interviewee, the prophetic word did not serve as the
original call, but rather as a reminder of a call he had forgotten. After
telling his story in some detail in a personal conversation with the
author, he glossed over it in the taped interview24 which started with
a description of how he became a Christian while studying architecture
in Germany, and how towards the end of his study course, he came to
the conclusion that he had been called into full-time ministry:
I don’t know how, but in my heart, I had this impression that the Lord
wanted me to be a full-time pastor to win people. I find that sometimes
that we want something, we want to do something, we want to achieve
something, and sometimes a call comes into our heart to do something
more. And I can see that architecture is my passion, but I find that what
I want even more is to serve the Lord Jesus, and with all costs I have to
take that into my heart.25
After struggling to explain this feeling in his heart, he continued:

When the call came back to me, I felt perhaps like Peter who had
betrayed the Lord. ‘Lord, I will follow you always, Lord I will give you
everything’, but in the end, then comes a better offer and one does what
one wants. And yes, then I forgot, I have, perhaps, thought that this call
still has time. [. . .] And to be honest, what I did was to promise the
Lord: ‘Lord, if you really want me to be a missionary, I will follow you,
but now, help me first to finish my diploma thesis.’ Then I finished within
two months, and I presented it, and the professor said: ‘This can never
be realized, but you have courage, so I give you a 1.7.’26 Then I find my
24 Interview with J.S., 25 April 2005, in my home.

25 Ibd.
26 The German marking scale reaches from 1 (excellent) to 6 (failed).
pride, and so I forgot. And I found a job, and I forgot my call. But I
believe the Lord is a Lord like a daddy, he is always waiting: ‘Okay, if
you have a new toy, you can have it, but when the time comes, I will call
you again.’ [. . .] Many people think that God calls you when you are
at a low point in your life, and then you get called again by the Lord,
reminded by the Lord. But I was not at a low point in my life; I was at a
very good point in my life. (laughs) And then she [the woman who spoke
the prophetic word] reminded me.27
This is all this interviewee said on tape. In the personal conversation,
he told his story as follows:28 At a conference, he just happened to meet
a woman pastor he did not know before, about two years after he had
started working in an architectural firm. They talked for a bit, and
then, out of the blue, she asked him about the state of his call. That
was all that was needed to convince him that God had spoken to him.
He cried bitterly and asked God for forgiveness.
This narrative shares several characteristics with the two stories
quoted before: Again, the interlocutor makes it very clear that the call
could not possibly have come out of his own mind or heart. His forget-
ting the call makes that abundantly clear. His reluctance is also under-
lined by his expression that he finds the life of a pastor very hard and
difficult and that it involves paying a heavy price. Like in the other
two narratives, the prophetic word comes from a person who has no
knowledge of the situation, but is rather a chance acquaintance. Unlike
in the other narratives, though, not much is made of this prophetic
intervention. There are no witnesses, no prayers, and no further reve-
lations. The prophetic word remains rather vague, but this is enough.
The pastor knows that God has spoken, and that this time he has to
obey. It can be argued that this interlocutor, who comes from a wealthy
family and who gave up a very promising career to become a full-time
pastor, could not possibly be accused of having become a pastor in Ger-
many for any kind of worldly gain. On the other hand, particularly his
immediate family might be critical of the fact that the sole wage earner
gave up his secure income and subjected them to financial deprivation.
Towards them, this prophetic word would serve as a legitimization for
his decision to become a full-time pastor.
27 Ibd.
28 According to field notes taken immediately after the conversation.
94 chapter three
For the last two persons in this sample, the prophetic word only came
as a confirmation of dreams and visions they had had beforehand. We
will therefore deal with their narratives in chapter 3.2.5.
It is difficult to establish clear commonalities between the three
interviewees who told call narratives based on a prophetic word. The
last one had not had any theological training, the second one only
correspondence courses, and the first one is currently training with the
Baptist Federation, many years after he started his church. The two
who experienced the prophecy as the beginning of their call both come
from the DR Congo, but belong to different and competing church
networks. Their situations are also very different: One pastors a large,
well-established mega-church integrated into the Baptist Federation,
and also plays an important role as a traveling preacher, while the
other serves a small, financially struggling congregation. The third one
comes from Indonesia and works within a denominational network in
which he was ordained, but is struggling with the fact that his salary
is very low, and his visa status not stable. All three were (more or less
successfully) working in other professions before they became pastors,
and the decision to leave their paid jobs obviously was not easy for
them, as it meant a step into financial insecurity.
Still, in all three cases these narratives can be heard in a legitimizing
function, as has been shown above.
3.2.4. Legitimation narratives II: Deciding for the ministry after a miracle
experience
Two pastors, in their biographical narratives, talked about how they
had become Christians through a dramatic miracle experience. For
both of them, with the conversion, came the conviction that they had to
go and preach the message of this God who had done such wonderful
things for them. The first narrative was told by an evangelist from
Nepal:
I came to faith through a miracle. My mother was dead for 17 hours.
I had studied for one year to become a priest, I was a faithful Hindu,
I did lots of Hindu rituals, and my mother remained dead. Because I
worshipped so many gods. Because in Nepal, there are about 20 million
people, but 33 million gods. In this time that my mother was dead, no
god helped, even though I was a pious Hindu. At the very end,29 then
29 I have twice been witness to a long version of this story. The speaker told in
I heard Jesus Christ can make dead people alive again. Then I went to
a small congregation, church, then I called two brethren, they prayed,
and they said that I should pray in Jesus’ name. But I did not know Jesus
Christ. Then I prayed in Jesus’ name. Then I said: ‘Jesus Christ, if you
are true God, save my mother, give back my mother, take my life, as I
am, I will follow you all my life and be your servant.’ Concretely, after
15 minutes of praying, my mother came back to life. Then I realized, I
experienced what kind of God we have! Every morning I had—as soon
as I woke up, I took a cold shower, a bath, as the Hindus do, and I went
to the temple every morning, at 4 a.m. In my life, I had been longing for
God. I searched but . . . there was always this empty space in my heart,
I did not find what I had searched for. Then I accepted Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior, and then—Christ has changed my life totally! Not
only did he give my mother back alive, but I was a dead person, too. I
realized, I was a human being without life. Then I realized, experienced,
every person living on earth has a longing for God. They want to get to
know the real God. Then I talked to the Lord: ‘Lord, I really want to
make you known, to preach you, my whole life, as long as I live.’ I really
wanted to evangelize all of Nepal, but I couldn’t stay in Nepal due to
my persecution. [. . .] When I was in Bahrain, I was a worker, but my
wish and task was to make Jesus Christ known to people who don’t know
him, and many became Christians. I was a testimony there, and it really
worked well there. I baptized many people.30
The second narrative was conveyed by a Tamil pastor, the founder of a
mega-church with a TV healing and evangelism ministry.
I grew up as a Hindu in my time, etc. Through an accident, I got to
know Jesus Christ. Afterwards, I also thought that if God can make me
walk, then I need to walk for this God. Then I decided to become a
pastor. Then I tried to learn theology, and succeeded.31
After this very short version of his history, probably only given so briefly
because this pastor had already told me his story at great length, he
could be persuaded to tell a longer version for the sake of the recording.
Yes, I got to know Jesus Christ through my accident.32 Through this
accident, my communication was totally broken, I could not walk, I
great detail how he was walking from hospital to hospital in Kathmandu, carrying his
dead mother on his back, only to be told in no uncertain terms that this woman was
dead and ought to be buried as soon as possible. Finally, when he returned home in
frustration, his relatives actually started the washing ritual that precedes a funeral.
30 Interview with D.A., 17 November 2005 in his home.
31 Interview with P.S., 5 January 2006, in his church office.
32 In another context, this speaker recounted that as a student of building engineer-
ing, he had come to Germany for an internship in the middle of winter. Not knowing
what ice was, he slipped off the scaffolding and broke several vertebrae.
96 chapter three
could not move, I could not feel anything. I was in the hospital for six
months. Then a pastor from the US came and he said that Jesus Christ
is the only God who can help. He performed many miracles and so, but
at this time I was a total atheist, I believe in no God. But nevertheless, he
had a Tamil Bible, he gave it to me in my own language, and I opened
it and looked, and saw John 11, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ I saw this like a
crime novel, I read it like a storybook, but then there were other things
in it. Then I thought: ‘Okay, if there is such a God who can make a dead
man get up after four days, why not me?’ Then I asked: ‘Jesus, if you
really are God, let me get up, let me get up, and I will give my whole
life for you.’ On that same day the power of the Lord came, and it was
like an electric shock. Only a voice, and I saw a light: ‘You are healthy.
I am Jesus Christ. I wanted to have you, so get up!’ I said: ‘I cannot.
Who are you?’ Says he: ‘I am Jesus Christ. I know that you could not,
I know that very well, but with me you can.’ Then I tried to move, my
legs, my body, everything moved properly. Then I really got up, I walked,
walked, walked, walked, I could do it, and I am still walking. That is my
story.33
The speaker then continued to describe how, having no knowledge of
Christianity, he was searching for a church and ended up at a New
Apostolic Church. According to his own account, he felt that they
were not interpreting the Bible properly. Therefore, he wrote to the US
pastor who had first given him the Tamil Bible, and this pastor invited
him to the USA to study theology. When he returned to Germany, he
tried to start a Tamil church, but encountered difficulties:
They did not want to accept me, because I came from the US, that is
an American or foreign theology, or somehow different, so they did not
want to accept me. Because, at the same time, I have a healing gift,
because Jesus talked to me and healed me, a healing and also the driving
out of demons etc. I don’t know, but when I pray, the people, if they are
bound by demons, they cry out. I got scared: ‘What is this here?’ And the
people said: ‘Hey, I could not walk, I was in pain.’ One said: ‘I always
had headaches, now it’s gone.’ I thought, what is this? Then one pastor
said to me: ‘You are bound by the devil.’ That really scared me, what is
this? I wanted to serve Jesus, but if the devil is in me—he said: ‘You are
full of demons.’ Then I said that this couldn’t be right, and I went to a
German pastor to have him pray for me. He said: ‘No, you have a call
as apostle, and God has called you as an apostle, you must serve. You
don’t need to be afraid, there are no demons inside; you are filled with
the Spirit of God.’34
33 Ibd.
34 Ibd.
This interviewee then took another period of theological training at

the seminary of the Federation of Pentecostal Free Churches, and was
ordained as a minister by the Federation.
For now 15 years, I have served among Tamils. This is—as a pastor
I serve the whole world, not only Germans, not only Tamils, I have
become well known all over the world. Before, I was a small fly, but now
I fly around the whole world, and I think I have become such a famous
pastor, so many phone calls, and so many people—every day, at least 70
to 80 people call me, to ask for prayer, or for advice, and many pastors
call me, or come here, or invite me. This is my service, a wonderful
service. That is my story.35
These two stories show some striking parallels. Both interviewees are
former Hindus, even if one professes to have been pious, and the other
claims to have been an atheist. Both describe how they first came in
contact with Christianity in an emergency situation, and both experi-
enced a ‘hard’ miracle, an event almost impossible to believe: Someone
raised from the dead, someone healed from paralysis caused by a bro-
ken back. Both narratives have obviously been told many times, and
show some clearly formed language and stylistic elements. Both start
their prayers with a reservation: “Jesus, if you are true God . . .” Both
ask for their miracle with the promise that if God shows himself pow-
erful, they will serve him for the rest of their lives. Both experience an
instant miracle, within a short time of their prayer, and both immedi-
ately take the answer to their prayer as the reason to become pastors.
For both, the fact that they have experienced such an extraordinary
miracle serves as a strong legitimation for their professional careers.
Here the parallels end. While the Nepalese simply became an evan-
gelist, without any training, first in Nepal, then in the Middle East, and
finally in Germany, the Tamil took a long period of preparation and
theological training. This may not be surprising as the Nepalese only
had four years of formal schooling, while the Tamil was an engineer
from a highly educated family.
There is also a clear difference in the way they conduct their min-
istries: The Nepalese is an evangelist who does not claim to be able
to perform any miracles. He now works within a German free church
context and is employed, albeit depending on the receipt of sufficient
donations, by a German free mission agency. His main evangelistic
35 Ibd.
98 chapter three
efforts go towards Nepalese in Germany, but he is also very active

within a small free evangelical church under German leadership with
a very international congregation. Many of its newer members were
converted by him. Within the German church context, his career is
quite extraordinary. For a German mission agency, even if it is a ‘faith-
based’ one, to employ a foreigner with almost no formal education is
rather unusual. It is striking, though, that in the Nepalese’s narrative,
the recognition he receives everywhere due to his evangelistic gift and
calling play only a minor role. As a legitimation narrative, his story
is rather counterproductive in the sense that German evangelicals are
usually quite critical of healing miracle stories, and would be even
more unsympathetic towards a resurrection experience. Nevertheless,
the Nepalese keeps recounting his miracle narrative to audiences which
react with disdain or open mockery.36 It can therefore be concluded
that this experience plays a pivotal role for his own sense of calling, but
that, at the same time, he is so secure in his own sense of calling that he
does not need to tailor a legitimation narrative towards his audience.
In contrast the Tamil, in addition to pastoring his growing mega-
church, has developed an ambitious healing ministry. His TV broad-
casts are modeled on the formats of American televangelists, and
include footage of healing services and testimonies of people who have
been healed. With such a prominent, though fairly independent min-
istry,37 it is not surprising that a strong legitimation narrative is needed.
The Tamil provides a double legitimation, first through the miracle
narrative which also includes an explicit call into ministry by Jesus
Christ himself, and then in the second part of this story in which he
claims to have been surprised by his own healing gift which was subse-
quently identified as a calling by another (German!) pastor.
3.2.5. Legitimation narratives III: Called by visions and dreams

Two interviewees, one from Ghana and one from Nigeria, related
elaborate accounts of visions and dreams. For both, these visions and
dreams did not only occur at the beginning of their ministry, but
throughout their lives, whenever decisions had to be made.
36 I personally witnessed this at three different occasions.

37 While his church is a member church of the BfP, the Federation does not control
his TV ministry.
The first interviewee, the founder and head pastor of a mega-church

with branches in Germany, the US and Ghana, was originally a student
of satellite geodesics. Even as an undergraduate in Ghana, he had been
active in church work, and pastored a church on the side. Then he was
sent to Germany on a prestigious scholarship to do his doctorate. While
still in the language course, he was called into full-time ministry:
I was in E., in the hostel, and then it came in a dream that there was
a harvest field, and I saw some of my colleagues [. . .]. And they were
in this big field, and they were harvesting. And I was sitting by a table
with books, piled up with books, in the midst of the harvest field! So
when that dream came, I was worried, I knew that it had to do with the
work of God that I started in Ghana. [. . .] Then, this thing happened
for a series of nights. If it comes today, the next day, in my dream I will
somebody is schelling 38 my bell. And I thought maybe it is coming from
the main gate. In E., the hostel, the sound of the main gate and the bell
at my door are different, maybe for security reasons, I don’t know. So I
would just go to the main gate, and nobody was there, maybe from two,
between two and three in the night. And then one night, I heard it in
my dream and I woke up, and the thing was still schelling, and now it was
at the door, my room door. So I opened—the time I was opening, the
thing was still schelling. I opened and nobody was there. Then I realized it
was God. Then God started speaking to me. About how he brought me
up to do some work for him, and how I left that ministry, and some of
them are falling, and some of them have backslidden and gone back to
the world, and so God was giving me some vision, I was seeing them. So
I started crying. I told God he should forgive me, and: ‘Give me another
opportunity to serve you the rest of my life!’ At that time, I had one other
spiritual father, Rev. A., he had come to Britain, and he was phoning me,
communicating with me. So I told him that I need to go back. But I
think I wanted to go, maybe, to the US and do some further studies in
theology or something. And he said with [. . .] he would suggest that if
God is calling me, I should go back straight, go to the field, and if I need
to do some correspondence course to just upgrade myself, that would be
what he suggests. But if I feel that God is calling me, I should go back.
So I was preparing to go back, when the one leader of the Resurrection
Power came to see me in E. [. . .] and said: ‘We were together in Ghana,
before you came, before our leader died, and now you are here, and we
hear that you want to come back to Ghana. Why don’t you stay here
and let us establish a church here? Because there are also people here to
be won to the Lord!’ And I said: ‘Okay, if you say so, I can stay for some
time, help establish a church, but we must find somebody who will take
care of the church, because after establishing the church, I will need to
go back.’ So they agreed, and we established the church. [. . .] And then,
38 ‘To ring a bell’ in German is ‘schellen.’ The speaker is mixing languages.

100 chapter three
when the church started growing, I said: ‘No, I have to go.’ But he said:
‘Okay now, you are finished with the language course, you have passed.
Why don’t you register with a school? When they give you some visa,
you can start something whilst you are studying, and we can see how
the thing goes.’ So somehow, they cornered me—I will say I didn’t pray
on it—but I loved the people. I loved the way they were coming and
responding, I loved the way how they were flocking—it was very fast. So
I decided to stay a little bit, and then establish a church. So that is how
the whole thing started.39
Several years later, this pastor left the denomination he had started out
with, and set up his own, independent church in another city. At the
same time, he also traveled to Ghana regularly where he set up several
churches. The very large congregation in one city there eventually
developed into the lead church of his network, even though he did not
spend so much time there.
Then, again after several years, he received a call to start another
congregation in the US.
God started speaking to me. [CWO: How?] Through dreams. And then
also, there were confirmation, through prophecy. The first time I had
a vision of myself preaching in the US, I didn’t know anything about
the US, I didn’t know any place in the US. But I realized I was in the
US. And when I went to M., it was like: I’ve been there before! And I
realized that it was in my dreams. Now, after that, I also had a spiritual
father [. . .] one time after ministry he told me that once he was sitting
down on the platform, he saw me coming from the US, with a portfolio
and something, and the church was full. So God is calling me to establish
some churches in the US. And that was at a time when I was even having
a hard time even getting my stay here [in Germany]. So I was kind of
doubting, even though I had had a vision [about starting a church in the
US], a dream before. I thought it’s just a dream. So when he said that, I
somehow doubted, because even here I didn’t have any stay. So how do
I go to the US and establish a church? So around 2002, a friend of mine,
whom I also worked with in Ghana, had established a church there, and
he phoned me and said: ‘Why don’t you come and visit us in the US?’
I said: ‘Can you give me an invitation?’, and the he sent an invitation. I
went and then they gave me a visa, and the visa was a missionary visa! It
wasn’t the normal one, the normal one they call the B1B2, but they gave
me one they call the R1. So when I went there, he told me that that’s
a missionary visa. Then my mind went on the prophecy, and also the
dream, but I didn’t know how to start, where to start from. So I started
helping some of the churches there, and then gradually God tried to
connect me to some other people, and then they said “Pastor, why don’t
39 Interview with A.O., 12 April 2005, in his home.

you establish a church here? So that you can be close to us, so that you
can also help us.” So this is how the whole thing began. But before then,
I had a dream, and then there was a confirmation through prophecy.40
As this pastor explicitly states, dreams, visions and prophetic confirma-
tion go together. For him, dreams and visions have to be validated by
persons whom he considers spiritual mentors.
For the second interviewee, a pastor from Nigeria, the call into the
ministry was, at the same time, the call to go to Germany. How this
actually came about is a long story that will be analyzed in chapter 4.
Here, we will just look into how he eventually became a pastor and
started his own church.
The second Sunday I was there [the migrant church where he had
started to worship], Pastor R. called me and said: ‘I sense you are a
man of God.’ I say: ‘I don’t know, why?’ He said: ‘I can see it in you.
Can you come to the front?’ Then I said: ‘I just don’t know,’ because the
people, they were sitting in the church, and I know only very few people.
He says: ‘Yes, okay, I know, I want you to pray for these people.’ ‘Yeah,’
I said, ‘okay.’ And then I did. Then he say: ‘After you finish, I want to
talk to you.’ Then we spoke for a while. He said: ‘Yeah, I sense it, I know
that you are a man of God.’ So, I begin to serve the man of God. Really,
it was a very nice time, serving with others under the platform of Pastor
R. And Pastor R. is a man I highly respect, he is my father. So, that was
all. [. . .]
Then, in 1996, there was a young man had a church in H., he is from
America. He asked me to always help him to assist him. You know, give
the people the word of God. He asked me to pastor the children. I told
him: ‘I have to ask God. I prayed, but God say: ‘No. Remember where
you are.’ ’ Then I told him: ‘God said no, I cannot be there, but I can
assist to pastor the church.’ I was doing that. [. . .]
Then, I was driving there that morning [. . .] then God came into my
car. It was a clear voice, very loud. It said: ‘Son, I want you to open a
church for me in N.’ Then I swerve, I couldn’t drive well, then I parked
to the other area [. . .] Then I drove again. Then it came back again. He
did it three times before I got to H. I was confused. When I got to H. I
told them that I think that I will not come here again. They said: ‘Why?’
I said: ‘God asked me to open a church in N.’ In that Sunday, I even said
to God, I said: ‘I don’t know anybody in N., I can’t, it’s impossible.’ Then
he said: ‘It’s time for you to do what I ask you to do, in Germany.’ [. . .]
So when I came to the church, I also told Pastor R. Pastor R. told me
‘We will open a branch in N., and that will be the church God is talking
about.’ I said: ‘Great. We kick off.’
40 Ibd.
102 chapter three
So along the line, that year rolled by, because I couldn’t do it. But I know
this is true. So every night when I am in bed God will say to me—many
time, sometime I wake and turn to my wife and say: ‘I am behaving
stubborn to God, because God says I should open a church in N., but
how do I do it? I don’t know a church building, I don’t know where to
go, I don’t know the other area.’ [. . .] Sometimes some men of God,
they come, they said . . . One man [. . .] one man of God, a bishop, he
came and called me up and said: ‘You are stubborn to God.’ I said:
‘How?’ He said: ‘God asked you to start something, but you refused to
start it.’ This guy is from America. Then I said: ‘What is that?’ He said:
‘You know it. I don’t need to tell you.’ I said I think he is right. He said:
‘When are you going to start?’ I said: ‘I tried, but it doesn’t work.’ He
said: ‘It’s not God, it’s you who is not ready to do it.’ Really, I was also
having a very good job. I’m also . . . I was respecting my good job to
. . . I was a Gebaeude . . . an Objektleiter, and I was paid 4,500 D-Mark, so I
don’t want to play with the money, too. That was the other thing in my
head.
And it goes on like that. Then that day I got home, that very day I got
home, then I was sitting on my couch, then this voice came: ‘It’s time
for you to just open a church for me in N.’ I said: ‘I rebuke the devil in
Jesus’ name. You tried me too much.’ I got back. Two minutes later, it
came back again. ‘It’s time for you to start a church for me in N.’ Then I
said: ‘God, if it’s you, but I cannot find a church building, I can’t start a
church in my house!’41
After a long time, the pastor was finally able to secure a church building
in N.
So that day was Friday evening! [. . .] Then in the morning, I was in
bed, God came and said: ‘I am that I am sent you!’ He said it three
times! He said, then I said: ‘God, how will I start a church when I don’t
have people?’ He said: ‘You don’t need people. I bring people. You go
there with your wife, and start.’ Then I said: ‘Well, what do I do again?
Better I tell people in my church, so they can come with me and open
it.’ He said: ‘Don’t allow anybody from [the church you are attending]
to come. Don’t convince any Africans to come, and I will bring people to
you.’ Then I woke up. [. . .] I told Pastor R. all what happened. He was
just laughing. We were on the step. He laughed for a while. He said: ‘You
got a place?’ I say yes. He said: ‘I don’t believe it!’ I say: ‘Yeah! But now,’
I say, ‘this is what I see from the Lord: I am going to start tomorrow.’ He
say: ‘Go ahead. Don’t waste time!’ That’s what he said: ‘Go ahead.’
So Sunday we went there, we start. So, I clap for a while, with my wife,
and my son, after, for a while, then I begin to preach, direct to them, just
41 Interview with P.I., 2 January 2006, at his home.

like that. I told them: ‘Thousands are here! I believe that God will bring
people.’ So after I preach for a while, one young man came in. After the
message he says: ‘I want to talk to you. I was in the train, that . . .. I
heard a voice say that told me that I should come to let you know that
God is with you in this ministry. But you don’t discourage, because there
is nobody inside. Continue what you are doing, and then God will bring
people.’ And I say: ‘That is a very good encouragement word.’ I say:
‘Thank you very much!’ And he left. Then that’s all. Then the following
week we were there, some people came.42
It is instructive to look at the commonalities and differences between

these two accounts. Both narrators were called into full-time ministry
at a time when they had started off very well in their secular careers.
For the Ghanaian, the call into ministry immediately followed his con-
version, while for the Nigerian, the call was a kind of re-conversion
that included repenting for not having followed God in the way that
he should have. Both narrators interpret their secular careers as devi-
ating from the plan that God had for their lives. Both speak about
the difficulties to actually fulfill what the visions called them to do, and
interpret their own doubts and hesitations as disobedience towards God
which necessitated further divine intervention.
It is striking that for both narrators, even the manifold visions,
dreams and auditions are not sufficient. This is in part because they
are not always sure that they have properly understood what they have
seen, and need an authoritative interpretation. For both, such inter-
pretations are given by pastor-mentors under whose tutelage they are
working. In both narratives, there are also instances where prophetic
utterances occur to confirm a certain vision or dream. The way both
of these narratives are structured, God’s direct intervention by show-
ing visions or speaking is important, but never enough on its own. The
visions and auditions become almost every-day occurrences especially
in the second narrative, but the authoritative permission by the pastor-
mentor still is what finally lets the pastor go ahead to start his own
church. Similarly, the first narrator stresses how he never moves with-
out the agreement of other pastors.
As both narrators have started their own, independent churches
after working within another church structure, it can be assumed that
their stories serve as legitimation narratives against a charge of church-
splitting. That would explain both the strong emphasis on God’s direct
42 Ibd.
104 chapter three
intervention—it is God himself who made them do what they did, not
their own aspirations!—and, at the same time, the tendency to have the
visions and auditions confirmed by senior pastors.
3.2.6. Legitimation narratives IV: Woman pastors

Both women pastors interviewed for this study told long and elaborate
legitimation narratives which rested almost solely on dreams. Prophetic
utterances also occur, but play much less of a role than in the stories of
the male narrators.
These narratives need to be understood in the light of the situation
of women pastors in migrant churches. First of all, women pastors
are extremely rare. Within the 291 pentecostal / charismatic churches
registered in the UEM database, only 11 women pastors can be found.
Two of these women serve within mega-churches in which they were
ordained, one in a denominational pentecostal church, while the other
eight are leading independent, usually small churches. As far as could
be observed over the past eight years, there is a lot of conflict within the
pentecostal / charismatic migrant scene about the possibility of woman
pastors. While few totally reject the ordination of women as pastors or
evangelists, the practice seems very rare. In informal conversations and
formal settings, women pastors have also shared how hard it is for them
to win recognition among their male peers:
When I do a crusade, or a revival, or a special service, none of them
comes, not a minister, not a member. I invite them, but they don’t come.
When they invite me, I will always go. I will also tell my members to
go. But when I invite them, they never come. Not one person, not one
member. They do not accept me as a pastor. But I know my call, I will
never get up. Never, ever. I will keep working because I have a calling.
They cannot change this, even if they don’t accept it. Even if no other
pastor ever recognizes me, I will continue. My call is from God, not from
man.43
For women who pastor small, independent churches, and who are not
recognized by others, their legitimation rests solely on their call. So it is
not surprising that both woman pastors interviewed had long stories to
tell.
43 A female pastor speaking at a gathering with German and migrant pastors.
Quoted from field notes.

The first narrator, a young evangelist-pastor originally from Camer-

oon, with a struggling, small church, received her call into the ministry
while living in Lagos, Nigeria, and working as a musician.
I was about to bring out a CD. [. . .] I was about to go to the studio
and bring out that music, when God said: “You are going to stop.” God
gave me a very, very . . . a very inspired dream, that at that time, I could
not explain it [. . .] I had this dream, I was in a church, standing on
the pulpit, with the microphone in my hand, and in that church, there
were Indians in the church, there were Chinese in the church, there were
Koreans in the church, there were Africans in the church—in short, all
kinds of people were in that church. And I was preaching there, you
know. And there was a call in the dream. At that time, my relationship
with God was so, so bad, that I could not even understand the dream!
Because at that time, I did not say I know Jesus as my Lord and Savior,
no, I was not even going to church at that time, also, you know. So I had
this dream also, and in my heart, I saw the dream and I said ‘Oh, this is
a very good dream; I think this dream is telling me about . . . I’m going
to be somebody very, very good in politics.’ So I said to myself, I better
go to the University of L. and study Political Science, because when I get
my political science, I can go back to Cameroon, and then I intended to
enter politics, and maybe I’m going to be one of the women presidents
there in Cameroon. So that was how I understood the dream, until, two
weeks later, there was no way out. There was no way out, and I became
seriously sick because I did not understand the dream. Nobody can help
me, you know, I am not saying to anybody, and I had nobody around me
at that time to help me, and so I’m going to study and come out with
my degree, and then I became so sick, so sick, you know? And they did
a lot of tests, and everything was negative, negative, they thought maybe
it was AIDS, but the test came out negative. [. . .] They thought it was
blood disease and all kinds of things, you know. But I realized I was very,
very depressed, my spirit was very, very weak. I was just thinking about
this dream, and I was afraid! I was very, very afraid that I am going
to die, and there was no doctor there at that time that can encourage
me, you know? There was no doctor, and nobody around me that can
encourage me, but I know that I have a problem with this dream! And in
the hospital there, that’s where I asked for a Bible, and I started reading
the Bible, and I started praying, praying. But God was hearing prayer
even though I didn’t even know I was praying. [. . .] Until . . . God was
speaking to me . . . [. . .] So, one night, there in the hospital, I prayed,
I prayed, I prayed. I was reading the Bible, I was not understanding
the Bible [. . .] and all of a sudden, I had another dream. Hmm! I had
another dream on the hospital bed, and at this time, you know, I saw
somebody, just like God, in the Spirit, very, very powerful, and in the
dream, there was a Bible there, and there was a coffin there. So I heard
a voice that said: ‘If you are going to preach this Gospel, you are not
going to die. If you are not preaching the Gospel, you are not going to
106 chapter three
leave this room, you are going to die. And that is the coffin that they
are going to put you inside. Do you want to enter this coffin, or do you
want to preach this Gospel? You have to choose!’ And I said, in the
dream, I look at the coffin and I said: ‘No, I cannot enter that coffin, I
am too young. I am too young to die, I cannot enter that coffin.’ And
I look at the Bible and I said: ‘Oh, I’m going to preach this Gospel. If
only going to preach this Gospel I’m going to live, I’m going to preach
this Gospel. For me this going to die . . . no, I cannot die in a foreign
land. Moreover, I don’t know where I am going!’ So, I woke up in the
dream, I realized that I was in the hospital, and it was a dream. So I
got up from the bed [. . .] and I said, let me see what I could eat! [. . .]
And I ate, and I did not even vomit that food, the food can remain in
my stomach. I started to realize there is something in that dream, that
there is something in that dream. [. . .] I started feeling strong, I started
feeling strong, and then I came out from the hospital, and I came back
home. And now the problem is, now that you’ve left the hospital, you
have a call. What to do with it? So I said: ‘It’s better for me to look for
a Bible School. But which Bible School?’, because I don’t belong to any
church, you know, I don’t know how to start with it. But I remember
that I’ve seen one Bible School one day somewhere, just like that. So I
went to them and I knock at their door, and they received me, and I
told them I want to come to this Bible School. And they said: ‘Are you
sure? Are you sure?’ I said: ‘What do you mean?’ They said: ‘Because
having the call of God is one thing, we are going to give you a paper,
you are going to fill it, and explaining it to us, how did God call you?’ So
they gave me the paper, and I filled it [. . .] and I was accepted into that
Bible School, and that was . . . I followed the Lord. I followed the Lord.
I know that this is a serious call, you know, God called me just like that,
without any ambition. You know, there are some people who have the
ambition to preach the Gospel, and there are some people that God just
calls. Just like that. Fighting with the call and saying you have another
thing to do, and God is calling you to come to do something, you know?
It . . . was crazy for my family to accept that I am preaching the Gospel.
But after seeing me, they realized that she has changed, and things have
happened, . . . and that is the way of God.44
The first thing that strikes one about this narrative is the fact that while
the male narrators of visions needed human mentors to explain their
dreams to them, this female interlocutor experiences the explanation
of her first dream in a second one in which God herself speaks to her.
In this narrative, no human being is needed to confirm the call. God
himself makes everything sufficiently clear. Also, in no other narrative
was the seriousness of a divine call related in such a strong way. For the
44 Interview with P.W., 26 October 2005 in her home.

narrator, it is either death or becoming a preacher. In this narrative,

strong parallels can be observed to the calling procedures of West
African priestesses: “It is firmly believed that no one of her own accord
becomes a priestess; the initiative rests with the deities. [ . . .] The
candidate may be struck by a strange illness which would necessitate
her being taken to the Akonnedi Shrine for treatment. At the shrine
the particular deity then reveals himself or herself and indicates his or
her intentions. It is believed that refusal to obey the ‘call’ could result in
either insanity or death.”45 Disobedience, as it was related by the male
narrators in chapter 3.2.5, is unthinkable. Later in this same interview,
the speaker recounted how her pastoral authority was constantly being
questioned, because she is both young46 and female, but that this did
not bother her very much. With a call narrative this strong, it is not
really possible to question her pastoral role within the framework of a
pentecostal / charismatic discussion. Therefore, she only mentions her
acceptance into the Bible school (which, in a pentecostal / charismatic
context, amounts to a recognition of her call) in passing. The fact that
her health came back after accepting the call is proof enough that she
has understood rightly what God wants from her.
The second narrator, a Black woman pastor originally from Brazil
pastoring a well-established, middle-size church that consists predomi-
nantly of women, also spoke about her experiences of not being recog-
nized as a pastor. As her narrative gives a very detailed account of how
she split away from the church in which she originally was a member, it
is worth quoting long passages from it.
After a detailed biographical account in which she told about her
difficult life in Brazil, her migration to Germany, then Nigeria, her
conversion there, her migration back to Germany, this pastor recounted
the long process of starting her own church and becoming a pastor.
She started out as a member at the same migrant church in which
the Nigerian pastor quoted above also began his ministry. But her
experiences were quite different from his:
I love the church! Because, I know Pastor R. since he first come to
Germany, and I love the church. But God used me. I didn’t know, but
God used me in a very strange way! Everything in the church, God
revealed to me in a dream! Every Sunday, I have something to tell
45 Kofi Asare Opoku, West African Traditional Religion, Accra et al.: FEP Interna-
tional Private Ltd., 1978, p. 76.

46 She was born in 1972.
108 chapter three
to the church. God speak to me clear! [. . .] Many things, anything in

the church, the Lord used to tell me. And they start, they dislike me,
very slowly, slowly, but they let me go and tell me. [. . .] Anytime, every
Sunday, I go to church. Where I put my feet, I love the church, I pray for
the church, I pray for the pastors, for everybody, I putting my feet in the
church, my heart closes. I say: ‘My goodness!’ Then I called to Pastor R.,
I say: ‘Something happened, it’s very strange to me. Every time when I
come here, my heart closes. And maybe, here I am under oppression.’47
And he told me, ‘Yes, I believe you are under oppression.’, and they pray
for me.48
This passage already shows how the conflict in the church is developing.
In addition to the head pastor, here is now a woman who goes up
to speak to the church every Sunday, claiming to transmit revelations
from God. It is impossible not to allow her to speak, but the leaders
dislike what she has to say. It can therefore safely be assumed that the
revelations were critical of the leadership rather than supportive.
And at that time, I had a shop, Brazilian import-export. People [. . .]
start to come with a lot of problems. They use to tell, sit down, cry,
have no help. Then I start to pray for them. Pray for one, for two, for
three—after a while, I start a prayer meeting [laughs] inside of the shop.
But I say: ‘No, I never have any idea, no desire at all, to have some-
thing apart from the church.’ It was never my idea! Then I have some
Brazilian women, they are feeling to start something. When I say—they
asking me: ‘What you think we start something?’ I say: ‘Oh, thank you
very much. I am very happy in my church; I never will leave that church,
for no reason!’ But they say: ‘A few people need your help!’—‘I have an
office in my shop, it is empty, I can give it for you, but I have nothing
to do. It is only for you to do what you want. I have my church, I am
very happy, I have my pastor, I don’t want to start any kind of thing
apart from my church.’ Then I told them, they come on Sunday. I say:
‘Okay, next Sunday, you people come, I give you the key, you organize
everything here, I make one key and give it to you. I tell you how you do
here on Sunday, the way you come in, your—how you think you orga-
nize.’ They come, they have something start with nine women. I sit down
there, I stay with them, everything it was fine. The first Sunday. And they
prayed, they sing, they did very well! Then I say: ‘Praise the Lord! Nice
they start something!’ Then I say: ‘Come next Sunday, I give you the
key. Everything is alright. You don’t need to pay me anything, because
anyway, it’s there, nobody uses it.’ Next Sunday I came to give the key
for them. When I came, everybody is there, even more people. Nobody
[of the leaders] came. They, they start. I wait, 10 minutes, 15 minutes,
47 I.e. under attack by a demonic force.

48 Interview with V.K., 28 November 2005 in the meeting hall of her church.
20 minutes, NOBODY came! Then I start to be very angry. I say: ‘My

goodness, where are these people?’ Then I went to toilet, I start to pray,
I say: ‘Lord, look all these people here!’ It was really cold, around Octo-
ber, very cold weather. ‘Where do these women go, with all their chil-
dren? What can I do?’ Then the Lord spoke to me very clear: ‘Open
your Bible.’ Then I was so angry, I open my Bible, I say ‘Okay, I open
my Bible, but what else can I do?’ And the Lord told me: ‘Read them!’ I
read the word. [. . .] He say: ‘Go there and say that word!’ Then I came,
I don’t want to show to them how I was really—then I show very nice, I
say: ‘Okay, that is that we sing, we pray, I will say one word to you.’ Then
I started to say the word, we pray, I say the word to them, I explain to
them, in my limitation, I have a concordance, then I just—of course, I
was in the [church] long enough! [. . .] I knew enough, but I was not a
preacher! At all! It was the first time, with nobody guide me, only God
himself, and nobody here to tell me things. Then I stayed there, I just say
the word to them, everybody feel I say very well, [. . .] Then everybody
say: ‘Okay, see you next Sunday.’ And I say: ‘Alright, you people come
next Sunday.’ Then I call them who were doing it, I find nobody! I leave
a message for them. Nobody call me back. Then, coming next Sunday,
I come again, I say: ‘Maybe they went somewhere, they will come next
Sunday.’ Nobody [of the leaders] came. The second Sunday, the third
Sunday, the fourth Sunday, nobody came. To today, they never came! I
say: ‘Oh, what can I do with these people now?’ Because I have no plan,
I have no idea, and also I don’t know what to do. Then I spoke to Pas-
tor R., ‘Oh my goodness, what are you having them?’ Oh, he was not
understanding at all! Anyway, he was very judging, he was not under-
standing, he was against it, and this and that. Then I feel myself very
hmmmm . . . they didn’t allow the woman preacher and so on. Then
I say: ‘Okay, what can I do with these people? They don’t understand
English, [. . .] and they can leave their house in the morning. Afternoon,
the husband is awake; they need to be there for lunch and stay with their
husband, that’s what they told me.49 The church that they want is in the
morning. And that’s the way.’ He say: ‘No, you must stop and so.’ Then
I say: ‘Listen. I cannot stop. Why you don’t help me?’—‘I am going to
think about.’ Then I say: ‘Alright, then you think about it, anything, you
let me know.’ To today, also, he never came, he never helped me, they
knew this preach, down, he curse me, he forbid the women talk to me,
because I’d be really against God. [. . .] And I just put myself back, I cry
very much, I stay very much . . . but I say: ‘I cannot leave these people
now! It’s not possible like this.’ Then I go because God speak to me, I
hear the way he guide me. And I cannot leave these people. Then I bring
everything to the Lord in prayer, and I ask the Lord if that’s his will. He
show me how he will give me people to help me, show me somehow, I
49 In Pastor R.’s church, the English language Sunday service starts at 2 p.m. and
lasts until about 5 p.m.

110 chapter three
really understand he is with me! If he is not with me, please close all the
doors, because anyway, I don’t want to do anything in this way. It was
not my idea! But very contrary, come many people to inquire.50
This pastor’s account contains different layers of legitimizing argu-
ments. In the first layer just quoted above, the narrator insists that start-
ing a church of her own was not her idea. She takes great care to make
sure the listener knows how she protested this suggestion. She only took
over a pastoring role after the original leaders of the new group simply
disappeared, leaving her with a congregation that needed a preacher.
Even then, she did not just assume a pastoral role. God himself spoke
to her and told her what to do. The narrator continues by recounting
her efforts to find the original leaders of the Brazilian group, without
success. It is then that she speaks to the head pastor of the congregation
she is still part of, who, unlike in the case of one of his male members, is
not at all supportive. So for this narrator, God’s guiding comes against
everything she hears from the people around her, and is not confirmed
by anyone. Then, in a second layer of legitimation, she recounts the
confirmation of her call by two mentors:
Then I met Pastor P.51 [. . .]. He just lunched one time with me. He say:
‘Oh, I hear you have a meeting here on Friday (because every Friday we
used to have a prayer meeting and so on).’ I say yes. Then he say: ‘Can
I come here, maybe I can help you?’ I say ‘Oh, welcome! I want you
come! I need help!’ And he come, he really encourages me a lot, helping
me a lot! Really, Pastor P. was a mentor to me like my spiritual father, I
can say. He knew me very much, encourage me, and used to come every
Friday. And it was so many people come! It was wonderful. And he start
with me, always, all the Brazilians full of demons and so on, it was a lot
of deliverance and prayer and so on. And we start. Pastor P., he couldn’t
come any more.52
It remains unclear why the pastor who has been helping so much sud-
denly cannot continue to do so. But regardless of the reason, a second
mentor soon arrives. His arrival actually is preceded by a dream:
Then one day, I got a call, from one man, what I never hear, Pastor D.
[. . .] from Sri Lanka. [. . .] He spent around six years with us, Pastor D.
What a man of God! I dream, before I meet him, [. . .] the Lord show
me, tell me. ‘Receive him in my name. He is going to be your right
arm. Receive him in my name.’ Then my mind burned, I say: ‘Who
50 Ibd.
51 A Black pastor from Britain with churches of his own in different cities.
52 Ibd.
is this man?’ I spent almost two months. I didn’t know nobody. I said:
‘I not going to look to nobody, I wait, as he say for me to receive it.
That means he is going to send.’ One day, my telephone just ring in
my shop. One voice, just like that: ‘Hallo, I want to speak with V. I say:
I am V.’—‘Yeah, my name is D., I am Pastor D., I want to speak to
you. The Lord is sending me to help you.’ I say: ‘Okay, I want to see
you.’ I felt in my heart: This is the man! I didn’t say one thing. When I
saw Pastor D., hnnnn . . . it was like I received the angel of God! What
love he bears, kind, sweet! Everybody love him, Pastor D.! [. . .] And he
was really like a father to all of us. To us, to me, to everybody in the
church! We love him, his word for us, everybody obey. We call him our
apostle, because he really is . . . I never, to today, I never met a person
in my ministry like Pastor D. He is like a unique person. A man, my
goodness, really a blessed man, and he blessed us. He came all the way
from D., every Sunday morning, to preach in the church, to help us.
Every Sunday, around six years! He never asked me one Pfennig. What a
man! We wanted to help him, but: ‘No! I don’t need! I am doing from
God. Please, I don’t need, God give me everything!’ And all the baptism,
he helped me, he teaches me, he encourages me, what a kind of a person!
After a while, we start—in the year 2000, I went to the Bible School,
Rhema, encourages me. After I finished, he told me: ‘Okay sister, now
it’s time for me to leave you. You are ready. What I supposed to do here,
God’s time is already over. You can go ahead.’ And he blessed me. Oh,
how he blessed! Everybody in the church cried! But okay, we still had the
contact, we still are very close. He is in England, his is on mission there,
but still when he comes here, he still is our apostle. And he left me, and
I stay alone, but he encouraged me: ‘Anything, please, you can count on
me.’ And of course!53
The fact that two male pastors of different nationalities and back-
grounds have been sent by God to help her in her ministry serves as a
second layer of legitimation in this account. Even though she is attacked
by many, some have come forward and recognized and supported her
call. Not surprisingly, the narrative continues with a scathing attack on
those migrant pastors who are not willing to accept her:
And we are the first Brazilian church here in Germany, and I am the
first woman as a pastor. Then, everybody chase me! The African pastors,
they dislike me badly! [. . .] They just come for one reason, they just
come with ideas to make money. [. . .] They work for their own kingdom!
What experience I have is bad, but still, it’s the truth! And I try my best
to have the relationship, but still it didn’t work. [. . .] They don’t accept
me. First they say, I have a three things against me: Woman, black—like
that!—, and I am married to a German. [. . .] Then they start to preach
53 Ibd.
112 chapter three
all over. ‘This is a sect, this is no church,’ because our church is based in
the G-12, Cesar Castellano’s teaching54 [. . .] They don’t accept women
in ministry. But to say here they don’t accept women is something very
hard. Then they look for something, and always, if you look, you find
something. And they found now, from South to North, and East to
West, they talk bad about me. Anybody who wants to come here and
have contact with me, they catch. ‘Don’t accept!’ They tell things . . . I
receive a lot of emails—people really give me bad! [. . .] I have problems
enough. I go up and down and take care of these women; I don’t like
this kind of remarks in my mind. And they don’t like, also because they
feel, I am going to influence their women. [. . .] I have no chances, but
okay, I have a chance through Jesus Christ.55
Obviously, the fact that her church was growing made this woman
pastor the subject of attacks and rumors from other migrant churches.
Possibly, this church run by a woman for women also became attractive
for black women from other churches. As the worship service is held
in Portuguese, English and German, an international appeal cannot be
denied. Against attacks and criticisms, this pastor maintains that her
call is divine. But obviously, the isolation was difficult for her, and also
led her to question her call.
When my life in the ministry, it was like that, then I pray very much
to the Lord to give me the confirmation. Then one, twice, the Lord
came to me, twice. Once he came to me, he shook me, just like that,
and when I saw I was in the hospital, one room, I saw it was in the
hospital, he told me: ‘Look!’ Then I look the glass door, window, it was
everybody in green, then I understand, it’s doctors there. Then he say:
‘Look, these people are waiting for this woman die.’ And I looked, it was
one woman, young, blond hair, a baby in the bed, and a bowl of water.
He say: ‘Go and take out what this woman have.’ I went there, I took
the baby, there is one bed beside, I put, this water, put in the floor, and
I went to this bed, I took her both hands, she was cold, but I took her
hands, and I command this demon was with her. And I saw, a demon
came, sit, stood up, and went away. [speaking very slowly, almost in a whisper]
And he told me ‘Come! Now this woman is going to be well. They don’t
know! It was unnecessary they cut her, but they don’t know. Now she’s
going to be alright. That is your ministry: Healing through deliverance.’
[shouting] Then, I was there again. Oh my goodness, a dream or what?
Then I say: ‘Lord give me confirmation again!’ Because I needed really
to be sure. Then one day, I was there in the shop, somebody ring my
54 Cf. www.mci12.com.co (in Spanish) or www.visiong12.com (in English) accessed
16 September 2008. A critical review of the movement (in German) can be found at
www.relinfo.ch/icf/g12.html, accessed 16 September 08.
55 Ibd.
telephone. They say: ‘I want to send an order through e-mail, but I

still, I didn’t get.’ Then I asked her: ‘Where do you live?’ She said: ‘I
live close to Denmark.’ And I say: ‘I am going to check what I was to
send to you, and send it, okay?’ Then I say to her: ‘Oh, but you live
there, close to Denmark, there is no Brazilians!’ And she say: ‘No, I stay
alone, it’s very hard to live here, it’s very cold, and it is only me and
my husband.’ Then I say: ‘Do you have children?’ She say ‘Nonono,
I don’t have children. Then I say: “Oh, I will pray that God will give
you a child for you.’ She say: ‘Amen. Thank you very much. Amen!’ I
say: ‘Are you a Christian?’ She say: ‘Yes, I am a Christian.’ Then the
Spirit of the Lord came over the telephone, I was so surprised! Then
the woman start to speak in tongues, and she speak to me and say:
‘You asking me a confirmation. I told you already, look at your hands!
I put my healing power in your hand! You are going to heal many
people in my name! Your ministry is healing through deliverance!’—
Again, ha!!!—Afterwards, there was: ‘Oh my God, what is it?’ I say:
‘Please, please, it is alright, everything is alright, it’s only for me.’ Then
I put down the phone and said: ‘My goodness, that’s twice the Lord
spoke to me, give me confirmation.’ And anybody who come to me, they
need to be delivered, and they get healed. But I still asked: ‘Lord, give
me confirmation.’ Because so many people talking about me, they are
disgracing me, they put me down. I am alone! Many evening, the house
of my husband, many people has been sick, and went there to pray, and
got healed, in many circumstances, very strange. The wife of his brother,
she will get a child, the doctor say this child is going to have this, eh . . .
handicap, the syndrome of Down. And everybody was very sad. But she
was already high pregnant. But my mother-in-law don’t want. Then the
Lord told me one morning: ‘Go there and pray for her.’ When I went
there, the Lord touch her, she fell under the touch, and the child was
born two weeks later and was well. Everybody was so happy, but the
doctor was crazy! ‘How can the water examination and everything?’—
I say: ‘Okay, God can do miracle, it’s okay, it’s alright.’ Many time in
the church, that’s my ministry. People I deliver. Anybody who come to
me, I can say about 80 %, because they need deliverance. [. . .] God
deliver, after that the life start to really flows, goes well, many sickness,
many marriage problem, broken children, and God really used me for
deliverance. Many confirmation, one after another.56
This part of the narrative serves up three more layers of legitimation.
These seem necessary as with all the outside attacks, this pastor con-
tinues to doubt her own calling. Asking for confirmation that she has
indeed been called into the office of a pastor, she receives a dream
(third layer) and a prophetic utterance (fourth layer), which not only
confirm her calling so far, but also add to it: She is now to do a ministry
56 Ibd.
114 chapter three
of deliverance. It is interesting here that the prophetic confirmation is

even more ‘difficult’ than in the other accounts: Not only is the woman
speaking prophetically a total stranger, she also speaks in tongues and
does not know herself what she is saying. In contrast to the prophetic
confirmations in the male narratives, this one also does not come from
a pastor, preacher or evangelist, i.e. someone considered higher up in
an informal hierarchy, but simply from another woman, a customer.
For the male interviewees, confirmation was only valid if it occurred
vertically, from above, while in this narrative, the confirmation is given
horizontally. Finally, the fifth layer of legitimation consists in the con-
firmation of her calling by proof: The dream and prophetic utterance
which told her of her healing ministry are validated by the fact that
a miracle healing actually happens. Each further healing experience is
interpreted as further confirmation for the call.
And now, I have . . . I don’t looking for nothing. Come one woman here,
full of the Holy Spirit, nice. For three weeks, the Lord spoke to me,
she asks me prayer. ‘Please pray for me, always I feel something in my
stomach.’ Then when I pray for her, the Holy Spirit tell me [whispering]:
‘No, no, don’t pray for her, she needs pray for others, then she is going
to be well.’ Strange, eh? Then I say, anyway, I’m going to say so, and:
‘Look, I cannot pray for you.’—‘Why not?’ I say: ‘Because the Lord tell
me, you need to pray for others. Then you are going to be well.’ She
say: ‘He tell you that?’ I say yes.—‘Praise the Lord!’ She start to jump. I
say: ‘Why you jump so?’—‘Because always I feel the Holy Spirit on me. I
need to pray, the Lord tell me to pray, but in my church, they don’t allow
the women pray.’ I say: ‘What church are you from? [. . .] Don’t make
me troubles!’ She come here every Friday, she pray for everybody, many
people are healed, she is helping me. Then I say: ‘Now I will have the
trouble again.’ [laughs]. So the ministry, the Lord put the people in my
way, I never looking for them, like Pastor D., Pastor P., now this woman,
Sister L., she is coming here, she is from Eritrea. She comes here, and
she is helping me. And doing a lot of very . . . really, we can see the
power of the Holy Spirit. We can see it’s God guiding. And we are going
this way.57
This last part also distinguishes this female narrative from all the male
accounts. While several of the interviewed pastors now have pastors
working under them, they mention them, if at all, only in a context of
‘I saw this person’s potential and developed it’. No male interviewee
talked about other pastors or church workers sent to him by God to
support him in his ministry. It may be an overassumption to detect a
57 Ibd.
gender difference here, but the observation remains striking. In addi-

tion, it should be noted that the motif of a woman falling ill before she
recognizes her call that we saw in the first female pastor’s interview is
being repeated here.
The woman pastor who refused to be interviewed for this study,
a Ghanaian ordained within a mega-church that normally does not
ordain women, had told me her story some years ago. From my notes
of this conversation, some further conclusions can be drawn:
C. [. . .] came to Germany in 1980, she is married and has three chil-
dren. Since the early 1980s, she served as a deacon in the H. congrega-
tion of the [. . .]. At the end, she was responsible for the finances of the
whole church. Since the early 1990s, she attended a lot of courses, read
a lot, and also attended the church’s Bible School. By 1996 she was sure
that she had been called to be a pastor, but she knew that her church
does not ordain women. In 1997, she was allowed to preach for the first
time. In spite of a clear sense of having a call, she decided not to fight
for her ordination, but rather to trust in God, to fast and pray. She did
this for several years. In 1999 she had a dream: She was in a big pastors’
meeting and could see one free seat up front. She knew that this seat
was meant for her, and tried to go there to sit down. But she was pre-
vented from doing so by some invisible power. C. took this dream as her
motivation to once more fast and pray for her ordination to finally take
place. Shortly afterwards, she was called to [the founder and General
Overseer of her church]. He told her: ‘The Holy Spirit has been dealing
with me about you. I have not had any peace. I don’t want to do this,
but I have to ordain you as a pastor.’ She was then ordained and began
to work there as a pastor. Since 2001 she has been the head pastor of the
congregation in D.—this, too, is an answer to her prayers.”58
This woman obviously knew very clearly that the fact of her calling
would scandalize her church. As she was not willing to risk her position
in the congregation, she kept quiet about it, but did not remain passive.
The times of fasting and prayer can be interpreted as a kind of lobbying
with God: If he had really called her, he had to convince her superiors.
The fact that her church leader seemed to have received exactly this
message from God served as a confirmation of her call. But being
ordained by a bishop who felt forced to do this, and in a church that
in principle does not condone woman pastors, her position is not really
secure, and it can be safely assumed that this is the reason why she did
not want to tell her story on tape.
58 Field notes, dated end of October 2002.

116 chapter three
3.3. Mediators of divine power in a market situation:

Observations and analysis of the pastoral role
So far, we have analyzed what the 22 interviewees had to say about

their own pastoral role and calling. We will now turn to other sources,
mainly written materials from different churches and my own observa-
tions, to examine how this self-understanding is actualized and lived in
the context of migrant churches in Germany.
As chapter 2 has shown, the situation of pentecostal / charismatic
migrant churches in Germany is not stable. Approximately 20 churches
are being newly established within the region of the UEM program
every year. Others split, and some simply dissolve and disappear. With
most new churches not belonging to any denominational structure, the
whole field is extremely fluid.
Such fluidity, naturally, creates keen competition among churches
and pastors, who, despite their claims to missionary internationalism,
tend to set up congregations with their own peers. This competition
can be observed in every big city in the Rhine-Ruhr area, particularly
among Anglophone and Francophone African churches, but it has also
been notable among Korean,59 Tamil and, lately, Brazilian churches.
Pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches exist in a true market sit-
uation: They compete for members within a limited constituency of
migrant60 individuals and families who, orienting themselves within a
new and foreign context, freely select the church that they like best.
So far, no research has been published on the motivation of migrant
Christians to join a specific church. It could be speculated that lan-
guage, culture, familial ties or friendships, specific spiritual needs and
experiences, and practical reasons like location and worship time all
play a role. In the case of very international churches, individuals also
might join them because these epitomize the modernity and globality
for which they are striving.61 Furthermore, strong anecdotal evidence
points towards the fact that members do not feel strongly bound to
59 It should be noted, though, that most Korean churches in the UEM region are
mainline Protestant.
60 As the number of indigenous Germans is very small in most migrant churches,
Germans are not here considered as part of the constituency. It should be noted,
though, that in situations where migrant churches have started attracting more Ger-
mans, German churches often start to see them as competition.
61 See also Afe Adogame, The Quest for Space in the Global Spiritual Marketplace,
in: International Review of Mission, Vol. LXXXIX No. 354, July 2000, pp. 400–409.
the church they have joined, but easily move between churches. As any
African, Korean, Tamil or Brazilian charismatic or pentecostal living
in the Rhine-Ruhr area can choose from a large variety of churches,
it can be argued that this situation creates an incentive for churches to
claim greater miraculous powers, to build a closer-knit community—in
short, to be ‘better’ than neighboring churches. With pastors playing
such a decisive role in building up migrant pentecostal / charismatic
congregations it is not surprising that this competitive situation should
be reflected in their self-understanding and in their practices. The anal-
ysis of the discourse on the pastoral role in chapter 3.1 and 3.2 has
shown that this is the case. Here now, observations from the field will
be added to further the argument.
3.3.1. The market situation: Undermining pastoral authority

As members tend to fluctuate freely between congregations, every
establishment of a new church means that existing churches will lose
some of their membership. This creates a sense of mutual suspicion
among pastors and leaders, which is expressed in formal and informal
conversations as well as in sermons and church publications. Pastors of
existing churches lament the activities of ‘church splitters’ whom they
accuse of poaching their members. Founders of new churches, on the
other side, claim that pastors of existing congregations are self-serving,
corrupt; do not follow the true Gospel and therefore do not deserve to
be followed. It could be argued that such strong mutual accusations are
necessary in a situation where being a pastor is so spiritually loaded,
and where Biblical tradition calls for unity of Christians and ‘brotherly
love’ among church workers: If healthy competition is not possible, then
the other has to be vilified to justify one’s own claims. This discourse of
suspicion, consequently, challenges and undermines pastoral authority.
Two examples illustrate how these suspicions are voiced. The first is
taken from a church magazine, the second from field notes. WOLIC62
Voice, the magazine of an Anglophone African independent charis-
matic church recently carried, in two successive issues, columns on the
subject of church splitting. In the first column, the author, after claiming
that a convention of his own church had not been attended by pastors
invited from other churches due to their feelings of jealousy, continued:
62 WOLIC stands for Word of Life International Church in Oberhausen.

118 chapter three
If we are doing the right thing at the right time, how come our members
leave en mass [sic]? Some ministers deliberately ‘poach’ members from
other churches but do you know one thing—remember that judgment
will begin from the house of God. [. . .] Most of these so-called pastors
here in Germany never went through a full pastoral school in Africa and
were never ordained or even called into their ministry. Unfortunately,
some of them rather ‘called’ themselves, instead of allowing God to call
them.63
The second column continued in the same vein:
This column takes a critical look at brethren who are newly called
into the ministry but incidentally began on a sour note. 50 % of grad-
uates from Bible schools end up establishing churches. Fact is that new
churches must come into existence and it has to start off somehow from
existing ones. Sadly today, the process most brethren prefer to take in
order to accomplish this dream is sometimes unnatural. [. . .]
As far as I am concerned, there are 4 types of Spiritual Calls [sic]:
Those called by God
Those called by the Devil
Those called by other people
Those who called themselves!
By their fruits you shall know them says the Bible so it is not difficult
to pick them out in the society no matter what name they give their
churches. [. . .]
A pastor once came to WOLIC and after service; he started telling
some ushers to leave WOLIC and come over to his new church, Pastor
Peterson heard it but handed the issue over to God and today that
church is no more existing.”64
The column then continued that the proper process of establishing a
new church should include the founder making his intentions clear to
the leadership of the church he was currently attending, and asking
for and receiving their blessing for this venture. There clearly were
honorable intentions why someone might want to leave one church to
establish another one:
Perhaps the new church is owned [sic] by your relation or friend and you
wish to help him.65
63 WOLIC Voice No. 3, p. 6.

64 WOLIC Voice No. 4, p. 7,.
65 Ibd., p. 8.
But not everybody who was leaving the church was doing so for
rightful intentions:
There are professional church-changers. These are people who will get
to any limit to be a new member in any new ministry simply to get
a plum position in the new church. Mark my word; as soon as they
could not get their heart desires over there, they move to yet another
new ministry.66
These columns express in writing what can be heard in numerous con-
versations. Basically, a sense of distrust prevails. Pastors feel that their
authority can never be taken for granted and is constantly being under-
mined. Other pastors are suspected of using every opportunity to take
one’s members away. Neither can one’s own congregation members be
trusted. They will simply leave if they do not get sufficient help in what-
ever crisis they might be facing, plus satisfactory recognition and an
honorable position. And if somebody is given a position of authority,
e.g. as an elder or assistant pastor, he or she may eventually still break
away, taking a number of members with him or her.67 One Ghanaian
pastor of a large mega-church has found an ingenious way to prevent
such splits: All his assistant pastors have been brought from Ghana on
so-called ‘pastor visas.’ This means that their stay in Germany is depen-
dent on their employment in that particular church—if they were to
break away, their visas would be terminated immediately, forcing them
to leave the country.
This discourse of suspicion could also be observed in one of the
largest African-led mega-churches in the Rhine-Ruhr area. In its
Church Handbook, dated June 2005, a pledge of “membership respon-
sibilities” is quoted which new members have to sign. After committing
themselves to “strive for excellence” in their Christian lives and “to sub-
mit to the authority of the Bible in matters of faith and conduct and to
the control of the Holy Spirit,” members also have to promise to “coop-
erate respectfully with the Pastors / Leadership [sic] of the Church.”68
The handbook also contains matrimonial guidelines and codes of disci-
pline, both of which again give the head pastor final say in both coun-
seling and church life matters.
That this pastoral authority, once gained, has to be guarded jealously
became very obvious in this church’s ordination service for a junior
66 Ibd., p. 8.
67 Between 1998 and 2006, I documented several such cases.
68 LHICF Church Handbook, p. 11.
120 chapter three
pastor. Despite the fact that the ordinand was the wife of the head
pastor, about half of the service instructions for her which were read
out to the congregation and signed by the new pastor in public, dealt
with her subordination to the head pastor:
[. . .] You will submit to the senior pastor;
– you are ready to serve in any capacity as appointed by the senior
pastor;
– you have no private vision that you do not submit to the vision of the
senior pastor;
– you do not act on your visions before discussing them with the senior
pastor;
– you have no critical spirit against the head pastor;
– you do not create your own following; [. . .]
– the pulpit is not your main target;
– you are prepared to serve in any area assigned by the senior pastor
[. . .].
Clearly, this was an attempt at affirming the authority of the head pas-
tor, both towards the new ordinand and also towards the congregation
which might start to prefer the newly-ordained pastor to the head pas-
tor who, by not only overseeing a number of satellite churches, but also
following many preaching invitations, is often absent from the church.
Suspicions and fears about loss of pastoral authority are by no means
unreasonable. Observations and informal conversations with congrega-
tion members and elders show that they often do not trust their pas-
tors. Rumors, substantiated or unsubstantiated, circulate among mem-
bers and can lead to a very quick loss of authority for a pastor. Such
rumors usually concern either financial wrongdoings or marital infi-
delity (or both), but can go as far as charging pastors with involvement
in the drug trade or with human trafficking. For example, a Ghana-
ian denominational pentecostal church in Düsseldorf was investigated
for such crimes by the police after anonymous letters of accusation had
been sent to the police as well as to the Evangelical Church in the
Rhineland. The claims turned out to be without any substance, but
were deemed to come from fellow Ghanaians jealous of the fast growth
of this particular church.
In another case which could be observed closely, a large Tamil-
speaking church was racked by massive internal conflicts. Several elders
and members made contact with the UEM program to voice the
following accusations against their head pastor:
– The head pastor wanted total control over everything that was
going on in the church and therefore forbade any kind of inde-
pendent activity organized by members.
– The head pastor had been spending large amounts of money
without properly accounting for them. Rumors within the church
were claiming that he had spent it on five-star accommodation
when traveling, to finance his family remaining in Sri Lanka, to
build himself a house there, and to buy one person’s silence who
was threatening to inform the church members about this.
None of the accusations were ever proven, but it did turn out that
despite a monthly church income of more than 20,000 Deutschmarks,
book keeping had been sloppy for years, and large sums of money could
not properly be accounted for. When the conflict finally came into the
open and some elders directly confronted the pastor about finances,
the pastor refused to account for the money he had used, insisting
that as the pastor, he did not have to justify his actions to elders or
church members. This claim to pastoral authority backfired badly as it
incited even more rumors, and more than half of the membership left
the church, joining different newly established churches in surrounding
cities.
Rumors about financial irregularities are particularly frequent in
situations where churches lack proper financial management and ac-
counting procedures. Many pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches
start out without church accounts, turning over the contents of their
offering boxes to the pastor without counting the money. While pastors
often complain that donations are too paltry to keep the church going,
members resent the constant pressure to give and donate money, won-
dering where the cash goes. Without financial transparency in many of
the migrant churches, neither guilt nor innocence can be proven once
rumors of financial misconduct have started, resulting in acrimonious
claims and counterclaims and ultimately church splits.
It is on the background of this situation of general suspicion that
the interviews about the pastoral self-understanding and role have to
be read. There is a very strong need for legitimization; pastors need
constantly to claim and prove that while suspicions and accusations
may be true for some other pastors, they are wrong in their own cases.
It is exactly because their authority is so fragile and subject to questions
and suspicions that it needs to be constantly asserted anew.
122 chapter three
3.3.2. Asserting pastoral authority

Only a pastor who speaks and acts with great spiritual authority will
have members who adhere to him or her. Nevertheless, pastors often
do not find it easy to assert their authority. For example, during the
kikk courses organized by UEM, discussions regularly arose among
participants about how to act when one knew from God what the
congregation should do next, but the congregation or at least part of
it did not want to follow. From the reaction of the participants, it was
obvious that this is a common problem. Interestingly, the suggestion
that they might want to discuss with their congregation (or at least with
their elders) to discern together what the will of God might be in this
situation was always roundly rejected. Rather, the participants asked for
advice from the course leaders on how to make their congregation and
elders follow and obey them. Authority, in their understanding, did not
come from acceptance by the congregation, but was rather bestowed
from above. But how can migrant pastors assert the authority they
claim to have? A number of different ways can be ascertained from
observations.
3.3.2.1. Power through spirituality

In line with what could be observed in the interviews, a first way
of asserting authority consists of displaying an intense spirituality. As
we have already seen, the discussions on pastoral authority maintain
that such authority is always the consequence of much prayer and
fasting. This understanding is clearly shared by congregation members.
Consequently, pastors make it known in sermons and conversations
how much time they spend in prayer. It is not uncommon to call a
migrant pastor only to be told by his wife that “he cannot be disturbed
right now because he is praying.” Others let their congregations know
that they cannot be called at certain times during the day because these
have been set aside for prayer and Bible reading.
Many migrant pastors also fast regularly, as often as one or two days
every week. Others habitually go for extended periods of fasting, lasting
seven, 28 or even 40 days. Such fasts usually are as public as the pastor’s
prayer times: Pastors habitually broadcast their fast during worship
services, or mention revelations gained during a fast in sermons. Often,
the announcement of a fast is coupled with the mentioning of certain
problems or issues that need prayer. The unspoken implications of such
declarations are, of course, that during such a fast a pastor’s prayers

might be more powerful, or that their revelations are important because
they were given during a time of close proximity to God. When fasts
were discussed in pastors’ meetings or during the kikk course, a certain
one-upmanship could be observed: Pastors boasted about their ability
to fast long and hard, with one even claiming that in one instance, he
went without water in a ‘dry fast’ for seven days.
Church members seem to expect such spiritual powers from their
pastor. It is striking to observe how, after almost every pentecostal /
charismatic worship service, members will stay back to ask the pastor
for a special prayer, usually for a very concrete need. Such prayers are
given quickly, with a minimum of fuss, though often accompanied by
the laying-on of hands, and with the pastor moving from one supplicant
to the next. It can be assumed that the authority of a pastor in such a
context rests very much on the perception that his or her prayers have
a better chance to be answered than one’s own prayers or those of
one’s peers. It is interesting that despite the existence of prayer groups
and prayer meetings in basically all pentecostal / charismatic migrant
churches, members seem to set such high store in the efficacy of the
prayers of their pastor. Not surprisingly, guest preachers and convention
speakers are in even higher demand for such ministrations, and time for
such individual prayers is usually factored into the program of visiting
celebrities.
All of these observations point towards a discourse in which spiritu-
ality is very much seen in a quantitative and possibly even mechanistic
way: The more time a pastor spends in prayer, fasting and retreat, the
more ‘power’ will he or she have. Such power is important because
it results in ‘blessings’ for the members, blessings that can take the
form of answered prayers for a job, a residence permit, a wife, husband
or child, or for healing in case of an illness. Pastors therefore need to
broadcast their spiritual efforts to ensure that members will trust their
God-given power, and consequently submit to their authority.
3.3.2.2. Authority through self-sacrifice

In the interviews, the pastors described themselves as shepherds and
fathers to the congregation. This image is clearly shared by congrega-
tion members: In informal conversations, pastors are often referred to
as fathers, especially when instances of help and assistance are being
recounted, or when members talk about their conversion history. Tied
124 chapter three
to the title of ‘father’ or ‘mother’ is the expectation that this pastor

will go out of his or her way to help the ‘child’ if the need arises.
This author, at numerous occasions, was introduced to migrant charis-
matic / pentecostal congregations with sentences like “She has helped
us so much, she is our mother.” Similarly, when Anglophone African
pastors phoned and addressed me as “Ma”, I knew that a plea for assis-
tance would shortly follow.
Members of pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches have ex-
tremely high expectations of their pastor’s problem solving skills, or,
if no solution is humanly possible, of their pastor’s power to effect
miraculous solutions to their problems through prayer. They contact
the pastor with whatever need they have: Visa problems, job loss, mari-
tal and family quarrels, illness, financial worries, the need for a place to
stay—everything is immediately taken to the pastor in hope for a quick
solution. These expectations can be actively encouraged during a wor-
ship service. In one instance that I observed,69 a guest preacher told the
congregation: “The pastor is always there for you. If you have a visa
problem, call the pastor. If you have a marital problem, call the pastor.
If you have no flat, [by now, the congregation had gotten into the game
and started joining in loudly for the second half of the sentence] call
the pastor. If you have a problem about work, call the pastor . . ..”
The expectation clearly is that the pastor serves as a father / mother
figure that will take care of his or her children, even if it means neglect-
ing his or her own needs. According to observations and informal con-
versations with many pastors, members are not shy about calling their
pastor in the middle of the night if a problem needs immediate atten-
tion. Not surprisingly, basically all pentecostal / charismatic migrant
pastors carry mobile phones which they do not even switch off dur-
ing the most important meeting, and which they will answer even in
a situation where such behavior is frowned upon. Particularly African
pastors frustrate their German colleagues because they might, e.g., skip
a long-planned appointment to plan a joint worship with a German
congregation simply because a congregation member called to ask for
a home visit and prayer for a sick child, or because a member needed a
translator in dealing with the German authorities.
These expectations put enormous pressure on the pastors because if
solutions cannot be provided, the pastor will see his authority under-
69 Word of Life International Church Oberhausen, Sept. 2006. Quote taken from
field notes.
mined and his membership diminishing. A striking example of this was

communicated to me by a Ghanaian pastor. He described the case of
a female congregation member who had been unable to conceive a
child and was now asking the congregation for a large sum of money
to undergo fertility treatments. When it was suggested to him that he
might counsel the couple to come to terms with their childlessness, he
refused to do so. “They will simply think that we are unable or unwill-
ing to help solve their problem and leave the church.”
How much this pastoral role of problem solver is perceived as nec-
essary for church growth and membership maintenance was expressed
time and again in informal conversations with pastors about the need
and the Biblical commandment to rest. A sentiment expressed repeat-
edly was: “You German pastors can afford to be lazy, because you are
not paid by your members. If we do not take care of our people, our
families will have nothing to eat.” The equation is simple: A pastor
who is not constantly available for his congregation members (except
during prayer times—prayer seems to be the only possible excuse not
to answer one’s phone) and who does not, by physical or spiritual effort,
provides solutions to burning problems, will have no authority, and
therefore no members who follow him.
3.3.2.3. Networks of authorization

So far, we have described ways of individually asserting one’s author-
ity as a pastor. But legitimation processes do not just function between
a pastor and his or her congregation; they also take place within net-
works of churches. Within the scene of pentecostal / migrant churches,
fluid and vague networks can be observed which help local pastors to
assert their authority towards their congregations. Pastors invite guest
preachers to their own church, and gladly accept invitations to preach
in other churches. Both the presence of guest preachers and being
asked to preach serve as steps within a complex process of negotiating
authority. To bring in prominent guest speakers enhances the authority
of a local pastor, as does the fact that he or she is in great demand by
other churches.
To look at terminology or certain catch phrases is a good means by
which to demonstrate how such a negotiation of authority works con-
cretely. When guest preachers are introduced in a pentecostal / char-
ismatic migrant church or convention, the person in question is usu-
ally given the title “man / woman of God.” This designation is rich
126 chapter three
in associations as its Biblical connotation is immediately clear to the

audience: The one person called “man of God” in the Bible is the
prophet Elisha70 who had received a “double portion”71 of the anoint-
ing of the Holy Spirit, and therefore the power to work astonishing
miracles. Consequently, once a pastor is recognized by his or her peers
as a “man / woman of God”, the implication and expectation is that
this person speaks with God-given authority and acts with God-given
power. As one Nigerian pastor once explained to me when I asked him
about the meaning of that title he had bestowed on me:
You as a woman of God, there is something in you that is quite different
from any other woman on the street, and that thing is the Holy Spirit
in you. The way you talk is not the way ordinary women in the street
talk. Your ways can produce life, while the ways of the women of the
street will always produce curse and problems. So the Holy Spirit in you
differentiates you from any other somebody.72
This means: If a guest preacher is introduced as “man / woman of
God”, he or she is formally entrusted to speak with divine authority.
Whatever the guest preacher says carries special weight. (It is not sur-
prising that guest speakers usually come from far, if not from abroad,
then at least from a city several hours drive away. In this way, they can-
not become a competitor!) Field observations show that after such an
introduction, the guest preacher almost always reciprocates by telling
the congregation that their pastor is also a “man / woman of God”. As
guest preachers are often already known to the congregation through
videos, DVDs, or books, and therefore have an established authority
even before they were introduced, this ritual of mutual acknowledge-
ment of spiritual power serves as a means of establishing and strength-
ening the authority of pastors in their congregation.
70 2. Kings 4: 9 etc.
71 2. Kings 2: 9 ff. Asking for a “double portion” of the “anointing” is a staple in neo-
Pentecostal and charismatic prayer meetings and conventions. The idea was probably
popularized by neo-Pentecostal healer and televangelist Benny Hinn, who claims this
“double portion” for himself and his followers. See Benny Hinn, The Anointing,
Waynesboro (GA): Send the Light Publishers, 1997.
72 Interview with Evans Nwiku, Victory Christian Ministries, Oberhausen, 2 March
2000. An edited version of this interview was translated into German and published
in: Nwiku, Evans / Währisch-Oblau, Claudia, “Du musst Gottes Gesalbter sein, um
jemanden zu befreien.” Ein interkulturelles Gespräch, in: Karl Federschmidt et al.
(eds.), Handbuch Interkulturelle Seelsorge, Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchner Verlag,
2002.
Similarly, observations show that it is guest preachers who, in their

sermons, take up the subject of obedience to one’s pastor. In three
instances documented in my field notes, the preachers argued that the
congregational pastors had been called and placed into a position of
authority by God himself and that only through obedience to them
congregation members would be able to enjoy the blessings that they
were meant to reap. Disrespect for the pastor and disobedience to him
or her were labeled as serious sin, in line with disobedience against
God. In this context, it is not surprising that pentecostal / charismatic
churches tend to invite large numbers of pastors from other churches to
all of their special events, be it conventions, anniversaries, or crusades.
The more pastors show up for such an event, the more glory is reflected
on the host pastor. Conversely, if invitees do not show up, this clearly
indicates that the host pastor does not enjoy much authority among
his or her peers, diminishing him or her in the eyes of his or her
congregation. It can be argued that such informal networks serve as
an ‘authorizing structure’ in a situation where no church order exists to
define the obligations and authority of a pastor. As the overwhelming
majority of pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches do not have a
church order, they heavily rely on these authorizing structures.
3.3.3. Growing into pastoral authority: Calling and ordination

So far, we have described how pastors assert their authority in a situa-
tion which does not have any clear authority structures. But how, in a
fluid market situation without established church structures, does some-
body actually become a pastor? Observations and many conversations
have underscored what has also become clear in the interviews: Becom-
ing a pastor starts out with a call from God. This, of course, immedi-
ately raises the question how a truly divine call can be ascertained and
distinguished from one’s own aspirations. Many of the church splits
observed during the past eight years hinged exactly on this question:
A congregation member would insist on his or her calling to become
a pastor, possibly supported by some other members, while the pastor
of this congregation, possibly also supported by some other members,
questioned or denied the divine origin of this call, often insinuating
that the person in question was unwilling to obey the existing pastor’s
authority, was out for personal gain, or simply quarrelsome. This in
turn frequently led the newly called person to challenge the author-
ity of a pastor who could not discern that God had spoken. In such
128 chapter three
situations, church splits basically became inevitable. If, on the other

hand, the existing pastor of a congregation acknowledged the call into
the ministry of one of his or her members, solutions could usually
be found. In several cases, newly called persons started out working
as assistant or junior pastor under the leadership of the established
minister, or they were put in charge of daughter churches in a different
city, or, in other cases, they left their congregation with the blessing of
their pastor to plant a new, independent church.
Observations show that after a church split, the newly called pas-
tor usually starts a congregation without immediately seeking ordina-
tion. Rather, he or she works for a number of years to gain experi-
ence, and possibly undergoes some theological training, either in one
of the self-organized migrant programs like the Excel College of Min-
istry in Essen73 or the Institut Biblique et Théologique in Bochum,74
or through a correspondence course like the Emmaus Bible Course,
administered in Germany by the Zentralafrika-Mission,75 or by attend-
ing short courses at a Bible school either in Europe or in the home
country.76 Conversely, in the case of an assistant or junior pastor, ordi-
nation occurs soon after the person has started ministry work. Ordina-
tions are therefore rather recognition of a pastoral call and not so much
an installation into pastoral authority.
Nevertheless, the legitimizing function of an ordination should not
be underestimated, and independent non-denominational pentecostal /
charismatic migrant pastors often seek ordination by and into a net-
work to strengthen their credibility. Interestingly, networks like the
Council of Pentecost Ministers or the Eglises en Réveil en Rhénanie-
Nord Westphalie do not ordain—from the discussions observed, they
rather serve to protect the interests of those already ordained against
newcomers. Networks relied on for ordination are often US-based and
offer ordination and certification for a small fee. Migrant pastors in
73 This college is affiliated with Indiana Christian University, a part of LESEA

Ministries established by Lester Sumrall. See http://www.lesea.org/documents/icu/
icucatalog_0506.pdf, and www.lesea.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.icu, accessed 31
August, 2006.
74 www.ibtb-online.de, accessed 11 September 2006.
75 http://zamonline.de/dt/emmaus.php, accessed 11 September 2006.
76 For example, Rhema Bible School Bonn, www.rhema-germany.de, accessed 11
September 2006, or New Covenant University (FL), Düren Extension. Oral informa-
tion from Paul Tshibangu, 11 September 2006, and www.newcovenant.edu, accessed
11 September 2006.
the UEM database have been ordained by the Association of Evangel-

ical Gospel Assemblies,77 World Harvest Ministers’ Network attached
to Lester Sumrall Evangelistic Association,78 New Life Churches and
Ministries Network attached to Alan Pateman Ministries,79 and other
similarly obscure organizations. Other pastors seek ordination with a
church organization in their home country, though often without fully
putting themselves under the authority of this organization. Here, a
structure of mutual gain suggests itself: The pastor receives a framed
certificate and, in some instances, even a kind of pastoral ID, while the
ordaining church gains a contact to Europe, travel possibilities for lead-
ers who join conventions and crusades as guest preachers, and possibly
financial gain by donations from Germany.
When an ordination occurs outside of any denomination or orga-
nization, informal contacts provide an authorizing structure. In two
cases which I could observe closely, the pastors to be ordained first
got the agreement of their congregation to their ordination, and then
approached the senior pastor of another large congregation to ask them
to ordain them. In one case, of a Ghanaian ordinand, the ordainer was
the bishop of the Christian Church Outreach Mission, a Ghanaian-led
denomination with about 20 churches in Germany. In the second case,
of a Congolese ordinand, the ordainer was a Congolese pastor heading
a large Church of God (Cleveland) congregation in Antwerp. There-
fore, in both cases, the ordainer came from a denomination, but did
not ordain the new pastor into that particular denomination. This was
underscored by the fact that in both ordination services, a number of
pastors from different denominations and nationalities participated in
the ritual anointing with oil, laying-on of hands and prayers.
Both ordaining pastors were highly successful, with large congrega-
tions of their own, and therefore can be assumed to carry great per-
sonal authority. In the ordination service, they spoke from personal
experience rather than from denominational tradition, even if they used
the ordination forms of their respective churches. In their sermons, they
stressed that they personally (and not some anonymous church board)
had spent time to assess the call of the ordinand, interviewing him at
great depth, and that they had also assessed his practical work through
77 www.aega.org, accessed 31 August, 2006.

78 www.whmn.net, accessed 31 August, 2006.
79 www.alanpateman.de, www.alanpatemanministries.org, accessed 31 August, 2006.
130 chapter three
several visits to the church and talks with the elders before agreeing to
do the ordination. Their way of praying for the ordinand clearly hinted
at the Elijah-Elisha motif of passing the Spirit from one strong man
of God to the other. In addition, the anointing with oil symbolized
that a special measure of the Holy Spirit was expected to rest on
the ordinands: In the case of the Ghanaian ordinand, the strength
of the impartation of the Spirit was visualized by the fact that both
he and his wife, after being anointed together, fell down and ‘rested
in the Spirit’ for several minutes. In the case of the Congolese, the
prayer explicitly spoke of the impartation of all spiritual gifts. While
there was no impartation in the sense that the ordainer ritually passed
these gifts to the ordinand, his prayer was clearly informed by a sense
that through this ordination ritual, the gifts should come upon the
pastor. Therefore, it can be argued that in a non-denominational,
charismatic / pentecostal migrant context, an ordination serves both
as the public acknowledgement that the ordinand has indeed been
divinely called into the ministry, and as a strengthening of pastoral
authority.
3.4. Summary: Mediators of divine power in a market setting
It is quite obvious that in a charismatic setting, without clear church

structures, just to claim pastoral authority will never suffice. If there are
no organizational reasons to submit to a pastor’s power, if people can
(and do!) move from one church to the next to find one that suits them
best, then pastoral authority can only be realized if it is recognized
and accepted by the congregation members. Despite the authoritarian-
sounding theory, the practice is quite democratic, or, it might be said,
market-oriented: Members submit to a pastor out of their own free will,
and leave a church with few repercussions if they do not want to submit
any longer. They simply choose the pastor whose authority they will
respect. This chapter has shown how being a pentecostal / charismatic
migrant pastor means performing a constant balancing act: The pastor
who claims to have received a call cannot rest on it. He needs to be per-
sistent in maintaining a spiritual life that gives him a clear understand-
ing of the divine will in concrete situations. He claims great author-
ity, but if he is unable to solve his members’ problems, his authority
will be lost very quickly. It can be argued that pentecostal / charismatic
migrant pastors need to constantly claim such strong spiritual power
exactly because they have no other means of establishing authority and

keeping their congregation together. A self-strengthening circle may
well be at play: Migrant pentecostal / charismatic Christians are search-
ing for a spiritually and organizationally powerful father figure to assist
them in their marginalized and threatened situation, and pastors, in a
competitive market, claim and struggle to fulfill this role.
chapter four
FOLLOWING THE CALL:

EXPATRIATION NARRATIVES
In chapter 3, we examined the self-perception of pentecostal / charis-

matic migrant pastors in relationship to their congregations. In this
chapter, we will now turn to another important facet of their self-
understanding: In their encounters with the UEM program, almost all
pentecostal / charismatic migrant church leaders described themselves
as “missionaries.” This self-understanding was borne out by the short
interviews. Therefore, the long interviews contained a section in which
the respondents were asked about their missionary biography, tasks,
message and strategies. In the following chapter, we shall examine
the biographical narratives that recount how the narrator became a
missionary in Germany.
4.1. Theoretical framework: Some considerations
The opening question in all long interviews was: “What happened in

your life so that you became a pastor / church founder in Germany?”
This query was actually a double inquiry: It probed for call narratives
(How did you become a pastor?) which were analyzed in the previ-
ous chapter, and for narratives which would describe the interviewees’
actual movement to Germany as well as the processes of building their
church or ministry. In a pentecostal / charismatic setting, such moves
were likely to be told as stories of a call as well. The call into pastoral
ministry and the call into missionary ministry might be one and the
same, or completely distinct and coming one after the other.
In analyzing the biographical narratives of the migrant respondents,
how can we avoid the pitfalls Gayatri C. Spivak has been warning
about, namely, reducing the interviewees to “native informants” who
provide raw data to be interpreted by a “knowing subject?”1 The
1 Gayatri C. Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason. Toward a History of the
Vanishing Present, Cambridge (MA)/London: Cambridge University Press 1999, p. 49.

134 chapter four
narratives analyzed below belong to a ‘subaltern’ discourse, i.e. a dis-

course that is ignored by and opposed to the dominant discourse.2
While most of the interviewees cannot be termed ‘subaltern’ in a strict
sense, though, as they belonged to the middle classes or even elites of
their home countries, they became subaltern by their migration: Cul-
turally, socially and ecclesiastically marginalized, their stories are not of
interest since they do not follow the dominant immigration discourse in
Germany.3
But: “Can the subaltern speak?”4 After first negating her own ques-
tion, Spivak tries a cautiously more positive answer: “All speaking, even
seemingly the most immediate, entails a distanced decipherment by
another, which is, at best, an interception. That is what speaking is.
[ . . .] Yet the moot decipherment by another in an academic institu-
tion [ . . .] must not be too quickly identified with the ‘speaking’ of the
subaltern.”5 The interviewees have already ‘spoken’ by the act of their
migration, and they speak in the interviews. Of course, “when a line of
communication is established between a member of subaltern groups
and the circuits of citizenship or institutionality, the subaltern has been
inserted into the long road to hegemony.”6 But this, Spivak insists, is to
be desired—it cannot possibly be in the researcher’s interest that the
subaltern remains subaltern.
It is for this reason that the expatriation narratives analyzed below
have been attached in full in an appendix. This will allow the speakers
not merely to be re-presented by the author, and possibly be read as an
authoritative construct of a ‘pentecostal / charismatic migrant church
leader,’ but to represent themselves as individuals.
Turning to the narratives, we have to ask a second question: What
kind of biographical accounts are we facing? Careful consideration of
terminologies is necessary here, because terminology will determine
how we read these narratives.
2 For an introduction into the concept of ‘subaltern,’ see Edward Said, Foreword,
in: Guha, Ranajit and Spivak, Gayatri C. (eds.), Selected Subaltern Studies, New
York / Oxford: Oxford University Press 1988.
3 See below and also chapter 6.
4 Gayatri C. Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak?, in Cary Nelson and Lawrence
Grossberg, eds., Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (Urbana & Chicago: Univ. of
Illinois Press, 1988), pp. 271–313.
5 Ibd., p. 309.
6 Ibd., p. 310.
following the call: expatriation narratives 135
First of all, we need to realize what we have here: Oral autobiog-

raphy, life stories; a constructed, literary genre. Biographies are ‘nar-
rated life;’ they are efforts at making sense, both to themselves and
to the interviewer. They have a plot, and they have a certain form
or style. Paul Ricoeur,7 whose hermeneutical insights are important
for this chapter, defines a plot as the “synthesis of the incongruent:”8
Multiple events are unified into one story, so that “components as
widely divergent as circumstances encountered while unsought, agents
of actions and those who passively undergo them, accidental confronta-
tions or expected ones, interactions which place the actors in relations
ranging from conflict to cooperation, means that are well-attuned to
ends or less so, and, finally, results that were not willed . . .”9 are all
unified into a single narrative, whereby a succession of incidents, a
“pure chronology,” is turned into a meaningful unity characterized by
a beginning, culmination and ending. In this, every story has a dynamic
relationship to the traditions of storytelling, moving “between the two
poles of servile repetition and calculated deviance.”10 Narrative analysis
then means to attempt the “rational reconstruction of the rules hidden
underneath the poetic activity.”11
Jeffrey Swanson12 adds to this the observation that in the case of mis-
sionary narratives, the story serves to establish the identity of the nar-
rator: “Personal identity emerges as a tale to be told. [ . . .] The story
of one’s life is always being rewritten in the life of new associations and
new experiences. Unexpected events, ironic reversals of character, twists
and turns all produce discontinuities in the life narrative. These vicissi-
tudes often turn out to be even more significant for understanding the
story than its large underlying themes. Nevertheless, the story moves
towards its own telos—towards coherence, meaning, integrity, aesthetic
sensibility, and intelligibility.”13
7 Paul Ricoeur, Life: A Story in Search of a Narrator. In Mario J. Valdés (Ed.), A
Ricoeur
Reader: Reflection and Imagination (pp. 425–437). New York: Harvester / Wheatsheaf
1991.
8 Ibd. p. 427.
9 Ibd. p. 426.
10 Ibd. p. 430.
11 Ibd. p. 429.
12 Jeffrey Swanson, Echoes of the Call. Identity and Ideology Among American
Missionaries in Ecuador, New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995.

13 Ibd. p. 109.
136 chapter four
Following Gadamer, Ricoeur states that “the meaning or the signif-

icance of a story wells up from the intersection of the world of text and the
world of the reader.”14 Every literary work brings together the dimensions
of reference, communication, and self-understanding: “It is the act of
reading which completes the work.”15 What Ricoeur states here about
fiction is even more the case when it comes to the narratives gathered in
the interviews. These biographies were told to an interviewer from the
country to which the interlocutors have migrated, someone represent-
ing access to certain relationships within that country, and are therefore
part and parcel of a process of negotiation of their role and place in
their new environment. The narrators are aware that they are “read”
in a certain way but want to replace that “reading” with their own:
they establish their “narrative identity.” This means that we read these
histories not to establish their objective veracity, but rather to under-
stand their plot, and to learn from them about their narrators’ sense of
self / identity, alienation, agency and meaning.16
Secondly, these narratives were originally oral, utterances by speak-
ers who were not expressing themselves in their mother tongue, but
rather in a language which most of them spoke only brokenly. By tran-
scribing and slightly editing them into an authorized, written version,
their character was somewhat changed. This operation makes sense
insofar as this study does not use a psychological paradigm intend-
ing to discover the “unacknowledged aims”17 of the interlocutors, but
rather proposes to understand how the speakers want to be under-
stood.
Thirdly, we need to be aware of what kind of a spatial, biographical
and spiritual process these narratives are recounting. They are narra-
tives of movement: The narrators, who have moved to Germany from
other parts of the world, describe how these movements came about
and what sense they make of them. In the dominant North Atlantic dis-
course, two terms can be identified which name people involved in such
14 Ibd. p. 430; emphasis in the text.

15 Ibd. p. 432.
16 See also Manuel A. Vasquez, What Religion Brings and Gains in the Conver-
sation, in: Social Science Research Council, International Migration Program, Trans-
national Religion, Migration and Diversity. Project Background and Conceptual Framework, pdf doc-
ument downloadable from http://programs.ssrc.org/intmigration/working_groups/
religion_and_migration/, accessed 2 September 2008.
17 See Peter G. Stromberg, Language and self-transformation. A study of the Chris-
tian conversion narrative. New York: Cambridge University Press 1993.

movements: One is “migrant” / “immigrant,”18 the other one “expa-

triate.” Following Natalie Friedman,19 these two terms can be used to
sketch mutually exclusive social types,20 and then to ask which type
comes closer to the self-depiction of the interviewees. When we speak of
‘social types’ here, we play on both epistemological orientations of the
term: A social type can equally be a ‘folk notion,’ a concept people use
on a daily and intuitive basis, and an analytical tool for the social sci-
entist. If social types are understood as “informal consensual concepts
of roles that have not been fully codified,”21 they come close to Ervin
Goffman’s concept of “status images,”22 a notion that is pertinent here
as both ‘migrant / immigrant’ and ‘expatriate’ have clear status conno-
tations.
Migrants / immigrants come “for a better life,” they move due to
contingency as refugees, asylum seekers or economic migrants fleeing
from poverty and deprivation, and once they have arrived, they cannot
go back. They are victims rather than agents. Migrants come from
the South to the North, they are usually dark-skinned, they tend to
work in low-skilled jobs, they usually have a lower financial status
than the indigenous population, and they are expected to adapt and
integrate because they have moved from an ‘old home’ to a new one.
‘Expatriate,’ on the other hand, is connoted with wealth, power, and
glamour: Expatriates move as an act of personal agency. They go
to a foreign country (usually from the North to other parts of the
world) with a sense of purpose, to do a certain job, or to live out an
ideal. They move freely and can go back home (or to yet another
country) if they chose to do so. Expatriates are well-educated people
who work in highly specialized fields for which no locals are available,
and they are employed by international companies or organizations.
18 In the German discourse, the first term is preferred as dominant ideology still has
it that we are “not an immigrant country.”

19 N. Friedman, Nostalgia, Nationhood, and the New Immigrant Narrative: Gary
Shteyngart’s The Russian Debutante’s Handbook and the Post-Soviet Experience, in:
Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies 5 (Fall 2004).
20 Social types have been used in sociology since Georg Simmel. For a review of the
current discussion, see Oz Almog, The Problem of Social Type: A Review, in: Electronic
Journal of Sociology, 1998, www.sociology.org/content/vol003.004/almog.html (accessed
24 September 2007).
21 Ibd. Almog here quotes Orrin Klapp, Social Types: Process and Structure, in:
American Sociological Review 23 (1958): pp. 674–678.

22 See E. Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, New York: Doubleday
1959.
138 chapter four
They tend to live in much better financial circumstances than the

majority of the indigenous people around them, and they are usually
white (and sometimes East Asian). Expatriates are expected to show
some ‘cultural sensibility’ and local language skills, but they are not
supposed to ‘go native,’ but rather to keep some distance from the
local population: They are international, belonging to a culture that
is not defined within national liminalities, but rather by the exigencies
of international capital transfer.
‘Migrant / immigrant’ and ‘expatriate’ are heuristic terms implicit in
and structuring the public discourse. For example, in the United States
a “dominant immigrant narrative” can be identified:23 It describes the
movement from an ‘old world’ to a ‘new world’ where the immigrants
experience a clash of the two systems and suffer or adjust accordingly.
While there may be some nostalgia for what is lost, the new life, in the
end, is experienced as better than the old life. A classical example of
such a narrative set in a European context, Waris Dirie, “Wüstenblume”
(desert flower),24 was a bestseller in Germany:
At least in part, the negative connotations of the term ‘migrant /
immigrant’ can be ascribed to what Liisa Malkki25 has called “seden-
tarist metaphysics.” Commonsense ideas of “rootedness” in a nation or
culture build on a notion of nations as “sovereign, spatially discontinu-
ous units,”26 best represented in the clearly drawn national borders any
map or atlas will show. “Arborescent” metaphors proliferate: terms like
roots, uprootedness, transplantation and the like see human beings and
cultures tied to a distinct space. This territorialization of culture is not
only understood as ‘normal,’ but even turns into a “moral and spiritual
need,”27 thus becoming “sedentarist metaphysics.” Being “displaced” is
23 On this genre, see for example: William Boelhower, The Necessary Ruse: Immi-
grant Autobiography and the Sovereign American Self, in: American Studies / Amerika
Studien 35.3 (1990), pp. 297–319; Akhil Gupta, Reincarnating Immigrant Biogra-
phy: On Migration and Transmigration, in: Elizabeth Mudimbe-Boyi (ed.), Beyond
Dichotomies, Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, pp. 169–182; Natalie Friedman, Nos-
talgia, Nationhood, and the New Immigrant Narrative: Gary Shteyngart’s The Russian
Debutante’s Handbook and the Post-Soviet Experience, in: Iowa Journal of Cultural
Studies 5 (Fall 2004).
24 Waris Dirie, Wüstenblume, München: Knaur 2007 (second paperback edition).
25 Liisa Malkki, National Geographic: The Rooting of Peoples and the Territorial-
ization of National Identity among Scholars and Refugees, in: Cultural Anthropology,
Vol. 7, No. 1, Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference (Feb. 1992), pp. 24–44.
26 Ibd., p. 26.
27 Ibd. p. 30.
therefore seen as pathological, a moral and emotional problem, and

migration as something that should be avoided.
On the other hand, expatriation is considered as of growing impor-
tance in a globalizing world. High school and university students are
encouraged to spend at least a year abroad, to learn foreign languages
and engage with foreign cultures. Furthermore, within the past 40
years, a ‘culture of expatriateness’ has developed, epitomized, among
others, by CNN News and same-looking business hotels all over the
world, in-flight magazines and international Christian congregations.
Expatriates don’t have much time for sedentarist metaphysics—they are
constantly on the move and have found their identity precisely in their
ability to do so. They may come from the USA or from Germany, from
Hong Kong or Cape Town, but they bond easily with each other as
shared experiences of ‘being away from home’ are more important to
them than cultural roots.
How then do the biographical narratives elicited in the interviews
fit into this typology? Clearly, the dominant discourse would assign the
interviewees to the ‘migrant’ type. But strikingly, their narratives do
not fit the structure of a migrant / immigrant narrative. They are not
narratives of a search for a better life, and of a struggle for integration.
When describing themselves, the interlocutors tend to use the term
“missionaries;” and their narratives are suffused by a sense of calling
to the country to which they have moved.
Jeffrey Swanson, in his study on missionary self-understanding and
identity concentrating on a group of American evangelical missionaries
in Ecuador28 builds his interpretation of missionary identity around the
myth of “heroic strangerhood”29 which he sees as intrinsic to missionary
ideology: “Missionaries, in contrast [to immigrants], tend to remain
marginal not because of some unbalanced dependency upon their host
country, but because of their autonomy from it and their distinctive
motivation for approaching it. [ . . .] They tend to see themselves as
religious ambassadors sent out to represent an other-worldly kingdom,
and it is this self-perception which sets the tone of the missionaries’
confrontation with their host country.”30 Consequently, missionaries
assume a cultural posture that “dramatizes strangerhood” in several
28 Echoes of the Call. Identity and Ideology Among American Missionaries in
Ecuador, New York / Oxford: oxford University Press 1995.

29 Ibd. pp. 17 ff.
30 Ibd. p. 18.
140 chapter four
ways, approaching their host culture “as an abstract matrix of otherness

in which to develop a personal mission.”31 This strangerhood is heroic
insofar as it involves the renunciation of family and friendship ties as
well as of the comfortable living standards back home, risking disease
and even death to achieve one’s mission. In the case of Swanson’s
U.S. missionaries, the sense of heroic strangerhood is strengthened by
their awareness of coming from a nation which is seen as having a
“redeeming” function in the course of world history. Even though they
are aware that their home has become a “spiritual wasteland,” the
missionaries still construct ‘America’ as the epitome of rationality, order,
truth and purity in contrast to the world of darkness in which they live
in Ecuador.32
The interviewees of this study, in contrast, are missionaries who have
moved to the ‘rich North’ from the ‘poor South.’ Consequently, they
are under the constant suspicion that the motivation they profess for
their move is not the real one: Haven’t they rather come to live a better,
more comfortable, materially richer life than at home—i.e. aren’t they
really migrants? We will see below that implicitly or explicitly, many
narratives use images of heroic strangerhood to reject this suspicion.33
For most interviewees, though, this heroism is not based on giving up
a comfortable life at home, but rather on rejecting a comfortable life in
Germany due to their mission. Like Swanson’s US missionaries, they
regard the country they live in as “the world:” Its materialism, the
rampant and visible sexuality, and its disregard of the Christian faith
make it an ‘other’ that they have to confront with their message, but
into which they cannot and will not fully integrate.
It is this very image of the missionary as the heroic stranger who
goes out into a strange culture without fully engaging with it because
he or she is fulfilling a mission that has informed the modern notion of
the ‘expatriate businessman’ or woman.34 Where a missionary intends
to spread the Gospel of an other-worldly kingdom, the business expatri-
31 Ibd. p. 107.
32 We will see in chapter 5.4 how images of Europe / Germany as a ‘special nation’
still inform the interviewees’ world view.
33 The analysis of the interviewees’ conceptualization of evangelism in chapter 5
strengthens this finding.

34 See Mary Lyn Glanz-Martin, Sensemaking in Expatriation—An Exploration.
Doctoral thesis, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 2005. Available online at https://

ep.eur.nl/bitstream/1765/6671/1/LG ++ PhD + manuscript + Publish +++ 2004.pdf, ac-
cessed 17 March 2007.
ate is working to extend the influence of his or her company—and both

are defined as “mission!” Business language has unashamedly appro-
priated missionary language. Like the missionary message, the business
message is understood as transcending national and cultural borders.
Consequently, the business expatriate remains a ‘heroic stranger’ who
may take up hardships to promote his or her product which is seen as
useful and good for the citizens of this realm, but who will not fully
integrate there.
As will be shown below, the biographical narratives of the inter-
viewees follow an ‘expatriate’ paradigm rather than a migrant one,
reclaiming expatriate internationalism into the missionary domain from
which it originated. The speakers, who are clearly aware of the strongly
sedentarist dominant discourse in Germany, construct their narratives
as a conscious alternative conversation: They do not describe them-
selves as uprooted, or trying to negotiate different cultural patterns.
Rather, national borders are seen as unimportant, easy-to-overcome
obstacles to a worldwide mission. Questions of identity are not dis-
cussed within a paradigm of nation or culture, but within a paradigm of
spirituality or religion. As Christians, the narrators describe themselves
as part of a world-wide, de-territorialized, transnational and transcul-
tural network. As Sebastian Schüler has noted,35 transnational religious
networks “help to unhinge the religious agent out of migrant networks
and make the person understand himself or herself as a global citizen
or metropolitan.”36
Finally, the interviewees did not tell their stories as narratives of con-
tingency. While in some cases seemingly contingent factors influenced
their actions and movements, in the end all biographies were inter-
preted as the unfolding of a pre-ordained divine plan. The narrators
came to Germany because God sent them here: Divine agency simply
used political contingency. Catherine Wanner has shown in a differ-
ent context how pentecostal / charismatic Christians gain a new sense
of power and direction by transferring all agency to God.37 This actu-
ally liberates them to act and think creatively in situations where there

no. 1, 2008, pp. 46–62.
36 Ibd., p. 49.
37 See Catherine Wanner, Communities of the Converted. Ukrainians and Global
Evangelism, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press 2007, particularly pp. 220–
227.
142 chapter four
seems to be no possible way out. In short, when it comes to social typol-

ogy, by describing themselves as missionaries the interviewees choose
for themselves the ‘expatriate’ type, explicitly rejecting the ‘migrant’
role into which the dominant discourse wants to press them. The fact
that this rejection is almost totally ignored again marks what the inter-
viewees have to say as a “subaltern discourse.”
Consequently, the narratives analyzed below will be termed ‘expa-
triation narratives.’ With this terminology, we play on their disloca-
tion from the dominant narrative and take up the empowered mission-
ary self-understanding of the interviewees. We also infuse a theological
meaning to the term. According to Pauline theology, all Christians in
all places are expatriates, ex patria, since their citizenship38 rests with the
Kingdom of Heaven rather than with any nationality on earth.39 While
this remains on a metaphorical level for most, it becomes literal for
those who, as ‘foreign missionaries,’ leave their home country to work
elsewhere. At the same time, ‘expatriate’ here includes the notion of
relating to / defining oneself within the paradigm of a global, transna-
tional structure: the church of Jesus Christ.
The expatriation narratives analyzed below are stories of a life jour-
ney and describe both spatial and psychological movements and devel-
opments. There is an outer, physical, and an inner, spiritual journey,
both of which are intimately connected. The theological reading of
‘being expatriate,’ while never explicit, is implicit to these narratives.
Finally, all interviewees were chosen because they had publicly and
explicitly described themselves as missionaries in sermons, publications,
and conversations. The expectation was that their expatriation narra-
tives would throw a light on how exactly they define themselves as
missionaries. In evangelical as well as pentecostal / charismatic circles,
being a missionary is not an ordinary profession, but rather a special
vocation which usually requires a special, personalized calling.40 Conse-
quently, it seemed probable that a missionary call and an expatriation
narrative would be closely related if the person interviewed came to
Germany with a clear vision to build a church or churches here. But
38 Greek: Politeuma. It would be worth to consider the irony that several German
Bible editions (Einheitsübersetzung and Neues Leben) translate this term as Heimat, home—a
concept which strongly informs the dominant discourse on migration.
39 Phil. 3:20.
40 See again Jeffrey Swanson, Echoes of the Call. Identity and Ideology Among
American Missionaries in Ecuador, New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995,
pp. 66 ff.
what about interviewees who came to Germany without such an idea?

Would they also tell an expatriation narrative in the paradigm of a call
narrative? And how and when did they come to see themselves as mis-
sionaries even if they did not see themselves in such a way when they
arrived?
In the end, the autobiographical narratives turned out to be very
individual and not at all easy to be ordered into groups. Ten inter-
viewees (including one woman) told intertwined call and expatriation
narratives. Six of them recounted expatriation narratives as part of a
call narrative with the aim to make theological sense of an expatria-
tion that outwardly was not that of a missionary, but in hindsight was
understood as such. A further two interviewees told narratives in which
the call followed their expatriation. They did not define the call as the
impulse that set the expatriation into motion; rather, the call met them
where they were and gave that expatriation a new meaning. Finally, two
narrators struggled to understand how their call and their expatriation
were actually related without being able to come to a final conclusion.
Out of this group, six narratives will be analyzed in an exemplary fash-
ion.
The second group, with seven interviewees including the two Protes-
tants, constructed their expatriation narratives as the consequence of a
prior call into the ministry. They did not describe any changed aware-
ness of their call and role after arriving in Germany. Interestingly, none
of them told a call narrative, while six of the eight related relatively
elaborate expatriation accounts. Here, we will analyze all five pente-
costal narratives.
Six interviewees, among them the second woman, could not be
counted into either of these two groups. Four of them did not relate
their expatriation to their call in the sense of ascribing any kind of spe-
cial divine guidance to their coming to Germany. The two last intervie-
wees did not relate any expatriation narrative, but only volunteered a
general spiritual interpretation of their coming to Germany. In a short
final chapter, we will look at all of these accounts.
4.2. Intertwined call and expatriation narratives
Among the following narratives, the first two can be described as ‘circu-
lar’ stories, while the second two should be characterized as ‘oscillating’
narratives. The ‘circular’ stories had a clear, temporal narrative struc-
144 chapter four
ture and were told without any intervening questions. The oscillating
accounts consisted of different ‘packets’, each of which was elicited by a
question, and moved forward and backward on a temporal line.
4.2.1. ‘Circular’ stories: How the call was realized after all
Three interviewees told ‘circular’ stories, two of which will be analyzed
below. The narrative structure of all three is quite similar: Each begins
with a call that is more or less clearly understood, then continues with a
number of upheavals which, while outwardly leading away from the
fulfilling of the call, actually brings the called person nearer to its
realization. At the end, the meaning of the expatriation has become
clear: It was divinely ordered, a consequence of the call.
4.2.1.1. P.I.: “I never dreamt like that before”41

P.I., an ebullient German citizen of Nigerian background in his for-
ties, has been in the country for about 15 years. After working as an
assistant pastor in a large, international, African-led mega-church for
several years, he started his own congregation in 2005.42 His church is
the only migrant-led congregation in the town where it is situated, and
is rather unusual in its make-up. The majority of its more than one
hundred members are migrants, with sub-Saharan Africans making up
somewhat less than half of the congregation, while Russians and other
East Europeans, Turks and Kurds as well as some South Asians are also
active in this church. There is, in addition, a sizeable group of German
members, many of them visibly from the margins of society. P.I. has
a flourishing street ministry and has been able to bring in a number
of former drug addicts. The average age of the congregation is very
young, with many teenagers in attendance. They are also responsible
for the worship music, and lead the congregation with much enthusi-
asm, if little training. The fast growth and social composition of his con-
gregation created many problems with the German Protestant church
that hosted it at its beginnings. Less than 2 years after its foundation,
P.I.’s church was told to find new accommodation, and now meets in
41 For the full narrative, see the Appendix. Interview with P.I., 2 January 2006, at his
home.
42 See chapter 3.2.5 where his call narrative is analyzed.
commercially rented premises. P.I. is married to a Nigerian immigrant

and has teenage children.
P.I. told a story that was clearly structured into ‘chapters,’ each
new ‘chapter’ marked by an opening like “So, along the line” or a
similarly structuring term. He started his account at the time of his
conversion:
So when I gave my life to Christ, and, what happened was that the
middle of that night I was in bed sleeping. I have never dreamt like that
before. I was in dream, I dreamt, and I was in the midst of people, and
it was a very white land, white sand, just like a beach, then the—some
people came in, and I saw one man—I couldn’t see his face, he only
stretched his hand towards me with the full of tracts. Tracts, that’s for
evangelism, these tracts that you give to people. ‘There is a [unintelligible
word] to evangelize to people.’ Then I say: ‘I don’t know how to do
it.’ He said: ‘That’s what I want you to do now! Take it, go to that
[unintelligible] junction, give it to people!’ So everybody I was giving it
to, they were all white people. Then I asked him, I said: ‘The people are
here, they are not Blacks, so I know how to deal with the Black people.’
He said: ‘No, but I call you to the, the, to give to the white people.’ Then
I said: ‘But there is no white people a lot, but we have white people here,
but they are not many enough.’ He, he said: ‘Here . . .’ He said: ‘But
this is the place where there are many.’ Then I said: ‘But there are not
many here.’ He said: ‘But here.’ Then after a while, I give it, I wake
up. So I go to the church that day. I told my pastor this what I dreamt.
The pastor told me that ‘God is preparing you.’ He said, he told me to
preach the Gospel. Then I said: ‘No, I have a good job here, I will never
leave.’ Because after school, I have a good job waiting for me. Really, I
was working at the Ministry of Defense, I was a civilian paymaster with
good pay, a good money.
Several observations need to be made about this first ‘chapter’ of P.I.’s

narrative: First of all, he opens his account with the description of a
dream. As we have seen in the previous chapter, dreams have played an
important role in several call narratives. Here, the dream has a double
meaning: P.I. is called to perform a work which differs from his current
job, and he is called to perform it in a different place characterized
by whiteness: The land he dreams himself in is white, the people are
white, and whiteness is what is reflected in the dialogue with the man
whose face cannot be seen, who clearly must be God. It is a place that
is different, ‘not here,’ even though it is not specified any further.
As we have seen in other call narratives that were based on dreams,
the dream does not stand alone. P.I. does not claim to understand
it by himself. Instead, he seeks an authority to clarify its meaning
146 chapter four
and turns to his pastor, plausible behavior in a West African pente-

costal / charismatic context. The pastor’s interpretation of the dream
loads it with meaning: “God is preparing you” to preach the Gospel. It
is not P.I. himself who identifies this dream as divine vision; this inter-
pretation is coming from the outside. The way P.I. tells his story, he
follows established patterns of call narratives.43 Commonly, the person
who has received the call at first refuses to follow it. Here, P.I. refers
back to the job he was holding at the time, which he professed not to
want to leave. Again, this is plausible, as he held a government job, a
coveted position in any African country. Even more, as a civilian pay
master in the Nigerian army during a military dictatorship he was defi-
nitely in a very privileged position.
So in this opening chapter, two elements are firmly established: The
call to expatriate was a divine call, and it went against P.I.’s ‘natural’
interests. The subtext against which this narrative seeks to speak is
clear: It would be the accusation that P.I. left his country because he
was poor and seeking a better life. The second ‘chapter’ underscores
this message:
So, actually, and along the line, this friend of mine elsewhere traveled—
he was now in Germany. [. . .] One night again I was dreaming then,
eh, I was sitting in the midst of people, he came, he stretched his hand,
and then he said: ‘Come over here.’ Then actually I lifted up, I was on a
podium, as I sat with him I said: ‘Yes, this is the right place, I can now
spread the Gospel.’ And he told me: ‘No, you didn’t come here to spread
Gospel, you come here as an Asyl [sic].’ [. . .] So I wake up and now I
went to the pastor and asked him [. . .] Then he told me that he doesn’t
know it, the meaning.
It is certainly not by accident that this dream sounds like the Apostle
Paul’s dream related in Acts 16:9, and which, within the Acts narrative,
serves to set Paul’s mission to Europe into motion. P.I.’s dream then
actually shifts to a setting suggestive of evangelism: He is sitting on a
podium. But the dream is not finished: While P.I. sees himself evange-
lizing, his friend tells him that he has come for another purpose. Here,
P.I. introduces the German word for asylum, Asyl, claiming that he did
not understand it at the time.
The second step is the same as in the first part of the narrative:
P.I. seeks out his pastor for an interpretation of the dream. But in this
43 See Jeffrey Swanson, Echoes of the Call. Identity and Ideology Among American
Missionaries in Ecuador, New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995, especially
pp. 89–106.
instance, the pastor is unable to help. None of the many people P.I. asks
can give him an interpretation. But he recounts that he wrote down the
word Asyl. The word is therefore loaded with a special meaning—it is
a mysterious, divine revelation. As the narrative unfolds, it is going to
play an important role.
It is at this point of his narrative that P.I. actually identifies his
pastor by name. He is none other than Benson Idahosa, one of the
biggest names in West African Pentecostalism.44 As in any case of name-
dropping, the effectiveness of this narrative strategy depends on the
listener’s knowledge of the name dropped. P.I., who knows about this
author’s travels to West Africa and interest in the history of pentecostal
churches there, could assume such knowledge. It is likely that in con-
versations with other Germans, this name would not have come up,
while it would certainly have played a role in conversations with West
Africans who would have been familiar with the name. As with men-
tioning his profession and workplace, P.I., in his narrative, establishes
that he is not anybody coming from somewhere, but rather a person
of a respected profession and a prominent spiritual heritage. As we
could see in chapter 3, mentorship plays an important role within the
pentecostal / charismatic discourse on the pastoral role. The idea that
a ‘powerful’, ‘anointed’ leader can pass the anointing to those work-
ing under him45 means that pastoral authority can be strengthened by
naming such an important mentor.46 Remarkably, though, P.I. is the
only interviewee who kept dropping ‘big’ names during his biographi-
cal narrative.
After establishing, in his first two ‘chapters,’ that he lived and worked
in satisfactory circumstances, but was confronted with mysterious calls
to move out, P.I. proceeded to tell how his expatriation to Germany
was set into motion.
So, at the, at the along the line, this thing happens. The young man
wrote me a letter and said: ‘There is a school here. If you want to attend
a German language course, then . . . [. . .] You can take your holidays
44 See the article on him in the online Dictionary of African Christian Biography,
www.dacb.org/stories/nigeria/idahosa_bensona.html, accessed 17 September 2008.

45 As far as could be seen, such understanding was only possible if the leader in
question was male.

46 At a meeting to evaluate seminars and workshops offered by the UEM Program
for Cooperation Between German and Foreign Language Churches, one of the main
criticisms was that the UEM events did not feature ‘famous’ and ‘successful’ pastors
from the US and Britain.
148 chapter four
and do it.’ I said ‘okay.’ I did, and I went to the embassy that very
day. [. . .] There were many people there, [. . .] eight of us were the
people with the same letter of invitation to get admission to the German
language school in Germany. [. . .] So when it got to my turn, I just
move, I go back and said: ‘Let you attend to everybody. When you finish,
I will be the last one.’ [. . .] Then I walk in, I show the letter to the man,
he look at the letter [. . .] He took me to the upstairs. When I got there,
I sat down. He said: ‘You want to take coffee, tea?’ He took me direct
to his office. So the guy’s name is Holger. We sat down for a while, then
he said: ‘Okay. Drink.’ After a while, he said: ‘You fill here, you fill here,
you fill here.’ I fill, I give it to him. He said what he will do, he said: ‘Go
home, bring a police report to me, and, eh, I will give you a visa, I will
help you to get a visa.’ I said: ‘But you told the other people it is not
possible, why are you doing it?’ He say: ‘Yeah, I just want to make you a
friend.’ [. . .]
And, eh, two days later [. . .] I came with the letter, the police report.
[. . .] This senior man came. [. . .] He say: ‘Hey. Were you not the man
I asked to present the police report?’ [. . .] He told the man to open
the door. The man opened it, I went inside. I came in to him, I filled
everything. He said: ‘Give me 180 Naira. Then in three days I hope you
get your visa.’ I say: ‘But I don’t have time to come here. Can you post it
to me?’ He said :‘Yeah, give me an address, and I’ll send it to you.’ Then
I left. The following day I got the letter at home. The same day, he finish
it and post it on me. The following day I got it and the visa was in.
In this narrative chapter, we come across a motif which is common to
many of the missionary expatriation narratives encountered during the
interviews: The ease of getting a visa and traveling to Germany. While
the difficulty of obtaining a visa is a staple of the immigrant narrative,
the relative ease of travel is connoted with an expatriate existence.
Therefore, by talking about the ease of obtaining a visa and traveling,
the interviewees set themselves up as expatriates who are different from
other immigrants. In P.I.’s extraordinarily detailed narrative, we can see
how this effect is achieved. The fact that his story is highly implausible
serves to underline the miraculous character of what happened to him.
First of all, P.I. recounts that in the visa line at the embassy on that
day, there were eight people “with the same letter of invitation to get
admission into the German language school in Germany” who were all
turned down immediately. P.I., who consciously removed himself from
the others—expressing, with this, that he would have nothing to do
with any kind of racket to get to Germany—then experienced a totally
different treatment. He was invited “upstairs”—symbolizing an entry
into a sphere that would be closed for most applicants. Here again,
we have an expatriation rather than an immigrant narrative: P.I. is

not treated as a supplicant, but rather as a VIP, and offered a drink
and conversation which was so informal that it even proceeded to the
knowledge of first names. The completion of the visa application then
seems to be a simple formality and is almost pressed on him who insists
that he really has no need to go. Of course, a police report is needed—
such are the rules—, but the officer, who under normal circumstances
would be expected to be somebody who denies a visa, is here described
as someone who will “help,” because he wants to make friends.
As this story is told, it is hard to believe. As anybody working
with people from countries like Nigeria or Congo knows, the German
embassies in these countries routinely deny almost all requests for visas,
even those backed up by letters of invitation from reputable German
institutions like churches or universities. But P.I. intends to tell a mira-
cle narrative which emphasizes the fact that he was divinely ordained
to go to Germany, even if he himself was not so interested. The next
encounter with the embassy he describes emphasizes this point: When
rejected at the gate, P.I. simply suggests coming back another time—it
is the official who almost drags him in so that the visa application can
be completed, and then he even mails the visa to him.
Well, I was not even willing to come. Really, what was in my mind was
that I wanted to sell the visa to somebody else to go, because: I don’t
want to lose my job, my job was a good job, I was getting a good pay.
The government give me house and everything. I was enjoying life, it
was good. So later, when I got it, I came. I said: ‘Let me just go there
and see what is happening.’ [. . .] As I arrived, I wrestled the way to the
school, I couldn’t get anyone to understand me, I went to dial my friend,
he invited me down, so we chat for a while, then I told him . . . oh, I
saw where he is living, and he is living this Asyl . . . this Asylheim. Ahh! I
say: ‘This is the way you live?’ He say ‘yes.’ I can’t do it, I say: ‘Take me
to a hotel!’ So I check myself into a hotel, because I came with enough
money. I was with about 6,000 dollars in my pocket. So I just said: ‘Let
me stay in a hotel.’ I was taking care of everything.
Again P.I. stresses that he did not mean to come to Germany. He even
goes so far as to admit to thinking of illegal dealings—making some
money on the side by selling his visa to someone else. He stresses again
that he was not in need: He had a very good job which he did not want
to lose and an enormous sum of money in his pockets when he arrived
in Germany. Again, we have here an expatriation narrative rather than
an immigrant narrative. Life in Nigeria was not bad at all, according
to P.I. His travel did not happen in reaction to any kind of disaster of
150 chapter four
persecution, but rather as an adventure of a young man of substantial

financial means. Accordingly, he professes himself shocked by the living
circumstances of the friend who invited him to Germany, moving to a
hotel rather than staying with him. Here again, the image projected is
that of a traveler, an expatriate.
The next chapter of P.I.’s narrative finally explains how this expa-
triate, well-to-do traveler ended up as an asylum seeker after all. Of
course, the way P.I. structured his narrative it was clear from the begin-
ning that this had to happen eventually. The way the story turns is
therefore inevitable, even though there are a number of contradictions
in the details. However, the veracity of P.I.’s narrative is not what con-
cerns us here. We rather look at how he constructs his story: When it
comes to traveling as an expatriate, P.I. clearly depicts himself as an
agent. But then things happen that are out of his control: His friend
steals his passport and ticket. He cannot confirm his identity at the
embassy. He runs out of money. Police picks him up without any identi-
fication documents. He is told that his only possible way out is to apply
for asylum. Again, the message is: It was not P.I.’s plan or making to
become an asylum seeker. Rather, circumstances were against him—
though of course these circumstances have already been established as
divine agency by the first chapters of the narrative. P.I. never says so
explicitly, but implicitly, the message of his narrative is: God wanted me
to apply for asylum in Germany. He also keeps stressing that being an
asylum seeker in Germany meant finding himself in much reduced cir-
cumstances compared to his life in Nigeria. The traveler who arrived
with pockets full of dollars now had to stay in a “terrible place”, a
home for asylum seekers, a place he actually found so unbearable when
he first arrived that he moved to a hotel. The whole narrative can be
read as a refutation of the supposition that P.I. came to Germany as an
economic treasure hunter, somebody who was looking for a better life.
This might be true for other immigrants but not for himself: He had a
good life before, and life turned out much worse after applying for asy-
lum. By not questioning, but rather confirming the dominant discourse
on asylum, P.I. paints himself as different from other immigrants and
stresses his special calling. He also plays, at least implicitly, with the old
myth of heroic strangerhood of the missionary: When God leads, one
cannot remain within one’s comfort zone.
That was the time I called the president, because he was directly in
charge of our office. Babangida was the president at that time. [. . .] He
used to call me ‘small boy’, so he told me it’s not possible again ‘because
your job is in the hand of your secretary general, it’s not me. So if the
secretary general sacks somebody I have nothing to restore. So what you
need to is talk to the man.’ I spoke to the man, he said ‘no. You have
gone on leave for two weeks, two months, it’s not possible.’ So they have
the right to even sue for damage, but they will leave it. So there was no
way to run back to. So I stayed.
As P.I. constructs his narrative, he projects the image of a somewhat
wild young man who travels to Germany because he wants to see the
big world, falls into the hands of false friends, and loses everything
he ever had: His home, his job, his money, his pride. Not even the
president of Nigeria can reverse his fate.—Here again, we see how
P.I. describes himself as connected to the high and mighty, in a very
close and familiar way. The president of Nigeria not only knows him,
but calls him “small boy.”—Clearly, P.I. wants to stress that when God
leads, it is no use to rebel. This is implied in the narrative even though
he has not referred to God for a long time. But this changes as he
continues:
So later along the line, they told me: ‘Okay, what you need to do, you
have to look for a woman, then you get a paper here.’ Then I said: ‘I
can’t do it, because I’m a Christian.’
Again the same motif: P.I. who has no problems to be involved in un-
Christian behavior, balks at anything ethically questionable that would
secure his stay in Germany. When it comes to his stay, he himself has
nothing to do with it.
So along the line, I was able to find a church [. . .] I just stay one week,
the second Sunday I was there, Pastor R. called me and said: ‘I sense
that you are a man of God.’ I say: ‘I don’t know, why?’ He said: ‘I can
see it in you.’
When the true telos of P.I.’s coming to Germany is finally and miracu-
lously revealed, this again comes from the outside. So the whole long
narrative serves to establish one point: However things may look from
the outside, God himself sent P.I. to Germany as an evangelist. He did
not come as an immigrant seeking a better life, but came from a good
life and only experienced hard circumstances after his arrival. Only in
regards to agency this story does not follow the patterns of an expa-
triation narrative. P.I. is not the prime actor and mover in his story—
that role belongs to God. The call and what it entails happens to P.I.,
even though he did not want it. In the logic of a call narrative, this
makes sense: Call narratives legitimize a call by denying self-interest.
152 chapter four
Therefore, a call narrative will always be constructed around a logic of

contingency in the sense that the person called only reacts to what God
is doing. Consequently, P.I. describes himself as a ‘victim’ of the divine
call—resistance was simply not possible.
4.2.1.2. D.A.: “Nepalese don’t need a visa for Germany”47

D.A. is a quiet man exuding a lot of warmth. In his early fifties, he
is an evangelist of Nepalese background who has been in Germany
for almost 20 years. He is the only of the interviewees who is fully
integrated into a German church organization: For several years now,
he has been employed by a free church mission agency which has
commissioned him to work both with an evangelical free church in the
Ruhr area which has many members from a migration background,
and as an itinerant evangelist reaching out to Nepalese migrants all
over Europe. Long divorced from his first, Nepali, wife who objected to
his conversion to Christianity and chose not to leave the country, he is
now married to a Swiss citizen with whom he has a young child. His
adult sons from his first marriage have joined the family in Germany.
D.A. often gets invited to speak to German free church congregations,
and also has many contacts to German Protestant churches.
D.A.s narrative starts with how he was unable to continue with the
evangelism he felt compelled to do in his home country:
I wanted to evangelize all of Nepal, but regrettably, due to the persecu-
tion I could not stay, and for protection and also financial support [. . .] I
came to Bahrain. There I worked; I earned money and sent it to Nepal.
[. . .] I worked in Bahrain for two years, then I was sent to Egypt. When
I was in Bahrain, I have many—I was a worker, but my wish and my
task was to make Jesus known to people who live without him, and many
came to faith. I was a testimony there, and that succeeded while I was
there. I baptized many people. After the year in Egypt I came back to
Bahrain. Then Saddam Hussein started the war with Iraq and Kuwait
[. . .] I could not stay. All guest workers went back or flew back to their
countries, I mustn’t go to Nepal . . . Then I asked: ‘Lord, where shall I
go?’ My aim was really not to go to Germany, my aim was somehow to
go to America and study theology; that was my aim. [. . .] Then we got
information that Nepalese don’t need a visa for Germany. Then I came
[. . .] to Germany . . .
47 For the full text of D.A.’s narrative, see the Appendix. Interview with D.A. 17
November 2005 at his home.

The subtheme of D.A.’s narrative is established in its first sentence:

“I wanted to evangelize all of Nepal.” As we will see, his whole story
serves to show how this task was never forgotten, but how God broad-
ened his perspectives. In his opening ‘chapter,’ D.A. describes his flight
from Nepal in the vocabulary of a classical immigrant narrative: “Due
to persecution,” and also “for financial support” for his family, he had
to leave the country. Both persecution and financial need are classical
topoi for an immigrant narrative, and they are also the two accepted
(and always assumed) reasons for emigration in the dominant German
migration discourse.48 Unlike P.I., D.A. does not set the scene for his
story as an alternative account. For him, there were no dreams and
mysterious calls before he left. Nevertheless, in describing his actions
during his time in Bahrain, D.A. already starts to digress from the ‘nor-
mal’ migrant story: “I was a worker, but my wish and my task was to
make Jesus known.” We do not learn what work he performed to earn
his income, but we are told that he baptized “many people.” So what
looks like a ‘normal’ migrant narrative is immediately transformed into
something else: Money and safety, while important, are only the outer
reasons for his migration. The not-so-hidden (“I was a testimony . . .”)
inner meaning of his migration is his evangelistic calling. In that sense,
the migrant is really an expatriate who continues what he used to do in
a different setting.
Nevertheless, the way the narrative continues, there is very little
sense of agency. Things happen outside of his control, and the First Iraq
War forces him to leave Bahrain. As he still cannot return to Nepal, he
ends up in Germany because he could go there without a visa. Here
again, we have the motif of travel to this country which is very easy,
though in this case no miracle was necessary. As D.A. recounts how he
asked God for guidance before traveling, there is an implication that
the ease of travel is a sign that God wanted him to go to Germany,
particularly as he himself would have preferred to go to the United
States. Both motifs, the ease of travel and the coming to Germany
against one’s own plans for travel to another country, can be found in
several further narratives below and serve as elements of a legitimation
narrative.
Like P.I., D.A. recounts trials and tribulations after his arrival in Ger-
many. But while in P.I.’s case, the recounting of these trials serves to
48 For more on this, see chapter 6.

154 chapter four
underline the fact that he had no selfish reasons to come to Germany

and stay here, in D.A.’s case the trials are recounted because his deliv-
erance from them was nothing short of miraculous:
Then, I landed in Frankfurt. [. . .] I looked for a taxi, a man took me
with him, I wanted to go to a hotel. He said ‘I’m a good taxi driver,’ but
somewhere, on the highway, he said to me: ‘My car, my taxi is broken,
could you push, please?’ I said ‘No problem.’ [. . .] He simply drove
away; because he knew exactly I had money, and some things he took
away. On the highway, he left me alone. Then I remembered Psalm 23,
‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.’ It rained, there was a lot of
snow, I had a thin jacket because nobody had told me that Germany
is so cold, but I had skimpy shoes, but never mind. I went forward
[. . .] I came to the gas station; I looked for help, whether I could find
someone from Nepal. The workers at the gas station said ‘No, we don’t
know anybody from Nepal,’ but two Americans asked me, they spoke
English [. . .] ‘Yes, we can help you, we will take you to Kaiserslautern,
in Kaiserslautern, there are some Nepalese, we know exactly where they
live,’ and so they took me to Kaiserslautern at 1 a.m. in the night. The
Nepalese were surprised: 2 a.m. at night, ‘How did you get here without
an address?’ Then I said that the Americans brought me. They said, ‘We
don’t know any Americans here.’ [. . .] So I stayed in Germany.
The way D.A. narrates his life story, extraordinary things happen at
every critical juncture. The disaster of being robbed and abandoned
in the middle of the highway right after his arrival is immediately
relieved by some friendly Americans who drive him to the home of
compatriots who take him in right away. D.A. has no need to actually
use the term ‘angels’ when he talks about the Americans who helped
him; the way he tells the story clearly alludes that something miraculous
is happening. How can the Americans know where to take him if the
Nepalese have no idea who they are? The motif of the mysterious
stranger who helps and then disappears is a staple of miracle stories.
Here, we first come across a narrative element that can be found
throughout D.A.’s biographical narrative: He depicts himself as naïve
and somewhat helpless in practical matters, and therefore experiences
both that he is taken advantage of, and that others help him when
he finds himself in a difficult situation. There is no element of agency
in this narrative (at least as long as it is concerned with his moving
from place to place)—rather, D.A. depicts himself as someone to whom
things happen. But the meaning of both the bad and the good is clear:
Whatever happens to him is God’s will.
After recounting his first day in Germany in great detail, D.A. just
glosses over the next few years. Yet there is a further parallel between
P.I.’s and D.A.’s expatriation narratives: D.A. also ends up applying for
asylum without ever having intended to do so:
I met some people from Nepal, they said that I had to urgently apply
for asylum. And I did not know what that meant: ‘asylum application.’
When they heard my story, they said: ‘We can help you, but you must
not say a word!’ [. . .] Then the friends from Nepal told the whole story.
After some years I got a letter from the [asylum] office, that wasn’t me,
that was totally wrong. Then I realized I needed to put that right. So I
put it right and told the true story. After some years, Christians were in
prison, we came out in ’95, then the German regulations said that I have
to go back to Nepal. It is not bad in Nepal, we can go back to Nepal.
Then I said: ‘Okay, I will go.’ But the people in B., the Christians, said:
‘You have started a big work in B., we need you here.’ [. . .] So they
applied to the Interior Ministry for a pastor visa, and they said ‘yes.’
Again the motif of his naïveté is employed: D.A. describes himself as
unable to understand anything about what was going on. He claims
that he found out only years later what was actually stated in his asylum
application, and simply says that he “put that right.” This remark does
not sound very plausible to a listener familiar with German asylum
procedures: Normally, changing one’s story so late into the process
leads to an immediate dismissal of the asylum application. But D.A.
does not relate any negative consequences. As in P.I.’s narrative, the
reason he can remain in the country remains vague. It is enough
that he can stay. In any case, D.A. clearly wants to establish with his
narrative that he did not do anything to extend his stay in Germany.
He recounts that Christian friends of his insisted that he stay, and
secured a ‘pastor visa’ for him. Again, we see the underlying message of
D.A.’s narrative explicated: He wanted to be a missionary in Nepal,
and his coming to Germany was not of his own making. The way
D.A. constructs this part of his narrative, it is clear that he sees his
status as asylum seeker as an accident. In hindsight, he did not come
as a refugee, he came as a missionary. Therefore, the pastor visa he
eventually obtained is the visa that is appropriate to his mission.
It is noteworthy that D.A., who portrays himself as passive as far
as his legal status in Germany was concerned, shows himself as active
when it comes to church membership and his evangelism work. He
searches until he has found an organization with which he can work:
Eventually, I was searching again, even though I was already a pastor in
the American church,49 but I wanted to serve Germany. And also get to
49 On an American military base.

156 chapter four
know German people, German mentality. I was still searching. I was with
the American congregation, but that was not my aim, I wanted to get to
know the German mentality. But I was still searching, and then I went to
the Evangelical City Mission.50 I was still afraid that they do something,
perhaps they ask something that I don’t know anything about, but they
asked me whether I was a Christian. Then I said ‘Yes, I’m a Christian.’
They said: ‘Welcome, you are at home.’ [. . .] They gave me love, they
were very, very interested in my life, they just showed love, and then I
stayed in the Evangelical City Mission [. . .]. Then I moved, into the
mission house, on the ground floor was the church room, upstairs I could
live, because I had terribly many visitors and they realized: D.A. needs a
big flat.
There is a strong sense of agency here; nevertheless, miraculous things
still happen. After his long searching process, D.A. ends up with the
city mission which takes him in and even gives him a big flat in which
to stay. All good things that happen to him are gifts, not something
he achieves by his own efforts. So D.A. describes how, without having
planned this, he became a missionary to Germany:
I was serving almost 24 hours a day, I had so many people—I could
reach them, tell them about the Gospel. That is my aim, too, my wish,
that is my gift, yes, to simply tell about the Gospel. Many people have
come to faith, we have baptized many people [. . .] But my aim still is:
How can we motivate youngsters? How can we support the Evangelical
Church, those big church buildings? Yes, I still have the wish to fill these
big church buildings, but I have not succeeded. I am still praying and
asking the Lord, regardless of where I go. [. . .] The Germans have
supported me financially, and they also have prayed somehow. The Lord
simply . . . I still know how I packed my suitcase in ’96 because I really
didn’t want to stay here, then a preacher said on TV (I had an American
TV program): ‘Hey you, please don’t go! The revival will start with you!
What you are looking for, you will not get. You must change. You must
have a heart!’ Then I realized that [. . .] I have criticized the German
Christians. Then God said: ‘I still love Germany, I still do. You must
change!’ Then I went down on my knees: ‘Lord, forgive me! I really want
you to use me, Lord!’ [. . .] Afterwards, I realized that Germany needed
me. [. . .] then I participated [in the kikk course], then I understood what
the background is, why the soil is so hard. [. . .] Now I know how to deal
with Germans, I can explain well because I understand the background,
I understand the mentality, yes.
50 Evangelical City Missions are local evangelical free churches which combine
evangelistic and social work in a city context. See www.stadtmissionen.de, accessed on

11 October 2006.
In a situation where foreigners and asylum seekers are told they are
only good people if they return to their home countries as soon as
the situation there makes that possible, D.A. experiences a prophetic
intervention—even though it comes through a TV preacher, it is
described as a miraculous act by God himself—which tells him that
to return would be disobedience. It is God himself who wants him to
stay in Germany and to reach out to Germans. D.A.’s desire to leave,
while making him a ‘good’ migrant in German eyes, means a rejection
of what God wants him to do. Therefore, his decision to stay in this
country is made as an act of repentance—this is so important that D.A.
describes it in some detail. Only then is he willing to actually engage
himself somewhat more with society here by attending a training course
which helps him to understand the “background” and the “mentality”
of the Germans. Still, as D.A. continues his narrative, it is obvious that
he has not given up his dream of evangelizing Nepal:
I lived there for 12 1/2 years, and what I wanted to do, I achieved.
The congregation there could not support me financially. And at a
conference, [. . .] the pastor of the city mission in H. said: ‘D.A., what
you are doing in B., they could also do with German Christians. What
they cannot do is your task: In all of Europe, there are several thousand
Nepalese [. . .]. Please, think about it, that is your task, we’ll see each
other.’ Then they talked to their congregation about me. Then I told
my boss, the director of the [evangelical free mission], he said: ‘We
need to pray first. Don’t just go, we don’t allow that.’ [. . .] And then
suddenly, the church said suddenly: We should come to the Ruhr area,
because there are so many Nepalese here, we should start a church with
Nepalese, and at the same time, I should be spiritual counselor in this
church and also do evangelism with this church. [. . .] So we support
the [city mission] congregation here [. . .] and at the same time, I am
visiting Nepalese; I bring them the Good News. I don’t just work in the
Ruhr area, but I have also started in Holland, and now I have received
the news that 6,500 people in Belgium are also waiting for me. London
alone has 30,000 Nepalese! And all of Germany, yes, that is my task.
Long ago, 22 years ago, the Lord gave me the vision to evangelize all of
Nepal, but the political situation in Nepal is not so good, therefore many
young people have left the country. 13 million Nepalese [sic] live outside
of Nepal! Many of these Nepalese are in Europe. These people I want
to reach, that is my aim, that is what I concentrate on, to start churches
with Nepalese . . . God had time.
The way D.A. interprets his own life journey becomes clear at the end
of the narrative: His original vision is still valid. As it is not possible
to evangelize Nepalese in Nepal, God has sent him to evangelize the
millions of Nepalese outside of the country while at the same time using
158 chapter four
him as an evangelist to Germans. Therefore, even though elements of

an immigrant narrative are recognizable here, his account still remains
an expatriation narrative: D.A. came to Germany in obedience to
God’s guidance. What seemed like a rupture turns out to be the basis
for the continuity of his call. That D.A.’s narrative shows a number
of traits of a typical ‘immigrant narrative’ is not surprising considering
the fact that D.A. is the most ‘integrated’ of all interviewees. Married
to a Swiss and employed by a German free church mission agency,
he clearly differs from most of his migrant colleagues. It is quite likely
that his close contact to many Germans has informed his account in
the sense that it was made more palatable to the dominant discourse.
Again, we can see that we have a ‘composed’ narrative here: It is
circular, ending with the same vision with which it began while now
encompassing a far broader perspective. Therefore, everything which
happened in between is seen as loaded with meaning: Every step was
ordered by a divine plan.
4.2.2. ‘Oscillating’ narratives: How the call became clear over time
Three further interviewees who told their expatriation narratives within
the framework of a call narrative did not tell circular stories, but oscil-
lated in their accounts, jumping forward and backward temporally. The
two narratives analyzed here recount how an early call became clear
over time.
4.2.2.1. P.W.: “God was saying: ‘Leave that place!’ ”51

P.W. is a woman of Cameroonian background who was 37 at the time
of the interview. She comes across as strong and even somewhat fierce.
I had first gotten to know her when she was the worship leader in
an African-led church. Later, she left that church to start her own
congregation which has remained very small and struggling. P.W. is
the only woman evangelist who regularly attends the meetings of the
Council of Pentecost Ministers where she is well accepted as a musician
and worship leader for joint events, even though rumor has it that her
five young children were fathered by at least three different men. P.W.
51 The full text of P.W.’s expatriation narrative can be found in the Appendix. She
was interviewed at her home on 26 October 2005.

claims to be married, but obviously lives alone with her children whom
she usually brings along to church events.
P.W.’s answer to the opening question about how she had become an
evangelist and pastor in Germany was exceedingly short:
A very good question. I did not start in Germany, I started in Nige-
ria, that is in 1990, when I was an evangelist, and then I went to
Bible School, and then I was later ordained. And then I went back to
Cameroon, I was working there with other churches, and then I came
to Germany to continue the job, you know. It’s just the call of God; it’s
nothing else but the call of God. You know when God call you, just like
Paul, to come out of darkness into his marvellous light, then you have to
obey the call [. . .] and sacrifice.
This account gives nothing but the barest facts. All sounds very straight-
forward, and this impression is strengthened by the theological inter-
pretation she immediately adds: “It’s just the call of God; it’s nothing
else but the call of God.” Read from hindsight, in the clear knowledge
of her calling, every move in her life makes perfect sense.
Asked about her work before coming to Germany, P.W. said:
I was working as a free evangelist [. . .] in Nigeria, you know, I was
working with Lamb of God Ministry, also with Foursquare Bible Church,
and then I was also preaching on the street, helping in crusades, and
when I went to Cameroon, I applied to the Deeper Life Bible Church
[. . .]. They did not take me serious, because at that time I was still
young, just 22 years old. So told me I was just a small girl, you know, and
before they knew it, I left for Germany. When I came to Germany, and
then I saw that things were not going well [. . .] Then I also started with
several pastors. [. . .] In [. . .] I started with Assemblies of God Church,
that was under Pastor D. then God gave me a word that I have to leave
there. [. . .] So I told him I was going. You know, he just was like I was
crazy bit. God said something that I should leave, but I did not know
where I was going. That was a call now for the music, so when I went
I met Pastor A., and [. . .] we were going to sing and preach, you know.
[. . .] I asked him and he helped me, and then all of a sudden, the first
musical, they said I was out. You know, that was when I understood that
God was saying: ‘Leave that place; you have a call somewhere else.’ You
know, so I left the church and went into that evangelistic ministry.
With the first few words of this passage, P.W. sets the theme for her
life narrative: She is a “free evangelist,” i.e. while following a divine
call, she is independent of any church structure. She recounts how in
Nigeria, she worked “with” different churches, implying that she did
not belong to any of these, but just lent them her services. After her
return to Cameroon she applied to a church, obviously now seeking
160 chapter four
employment. But—and we will see this motif again and again later
on in her narrative—she was not taken seriously, just dismissed as a
“small girl.” Few of the larger churches in Cameroon ordain women
or allow them leadership roles. Consequently, a large portion of the
newly founded, free ‘charismatic’ churches are led by women.52 P.W.’s
ambitions which are based on a divine call53 are not recognized by
the—presumably male—leadership of an existing church with a very
good reputation.54
P.W. recounts her expatriation in just a half-sentence: “. . . and before
they knew it, I left for Germany.” She gives no information about how
and why she came, but she relates her move to the refusal of the Deeper
Life Church to employ her. The words “before they knew it” imply a
sense of grievance against that church, which is now upset by a certain
comeuppance: ‘These people didn’t take me seriously, but then I really
showed them what I can do!’
At this point, P.W. does not describe herself as called to Germany.
She states that only after getting to know the country she discovered
the need for evangelism: “I saw that things were not going well.” She
does not elaborate on what these things are, clearly assuming that her
perception of ‘things not going well’ will be shared by the interviewer.
As long as she just changes from church to church as an ordinary
member, P.W. does not see any need to justify or interpret her moves.
This changes when she describes her switches as an evangelist. Again,
we have the motif of divine calling which is not understood by people
around her: The pastor with whom she was working declares her to
be crazy. She, on the other hand, has “a word from God,” a direct
revelation that has clearly told her to leave, even though she has not
received guidance as to where to go next.
Again, P.W. uses the word “call” when describing her next move: She
joins another church, to do music ministry. But after the first public
performance, she is told to leave. She interprets this rejection as a
further divine intervention: “That was when I understood that God
was saying: ‘Leave that place.’ ” P.W. allows us to observe a dialectical
hermeneutical operation: What looks, from the outside, just like a
52 Conversation with Jean-Emile Njigue, General Secretary of CEPCA (Conseil des
Eglises Protestantes au Cameroun), 9 May 2007.

53 See her call narrative analyzed in chapter 3.2.6.
54 On the Nigerian Deeper Life Bible Church, see A.U. Adogame, “Deeper Chris-
tian Life Mission (International)” in: NIDPCM, p. 574.

dismissal, is more of a promotion, if viewed from the spiritual inside,

a divine call to start her own ministry.
As P.W. had said so little about her expatriation to Germany, the
interview turned back to the main research question:
CWO: How did you get a call to Germany?
I think the call to Germany was the very call to the Bible School in
Nigeria.”
P.W. then proceeded to tell the elaborate call narrative we already ana-
lyzed in chapter 3.2.6. She therefore explicitly tied her call to Germany
to her call into the ministry, even though this may not have been so
clear to her in the beginning, as the following passage shows:
CWO: Can you say something about how you came to Germany?
I think my coming to Germany was just a miracle [. . .] I had no vision
for Germany, even though my sister was studying here in the University
of M. [. . .] I preferred to go to America in case I’m leaving Africa. It’s
easy to preach there, and you can preach at any time. But I think when
she was calling me to Germany, that I have to come to Germany, I was
very, very reluctant. [. . .] And I said: ‘Come to Germany? No. [. . .]
Coming to Germany will just be like running away from the call!’ But
I did not know that you can leave one place and also continue your
call some place else. Until when I came, I entered Germany, and then
I saw the way things are going, and I said: ‘God, have mercy, God,
have mercy!’ until I stayed one year, two year, and then they were still
calling me to come to America, you know, they were telling me to
come to America, it would be easier, but I said no, I’m remaining in
Germany. I think God wants me to stay in Germany. [. . .] But I said
I did not understood that coming to Germany, okay, there is a purpose
for the Gospel, yeah. [. . .] The purpose of me coming to Germany is
really to preach the Word. To preach the Word, because at times, when
we come like this, we get involved in a lot of things. We get involved
in working, you know, and involved in looking for money—it’s also
important, helping the family back home, and then we forget our call.
And once you forget our call, to get back into the call, it’s going to take
some years, some years for you to recover what you have had before. So
I think my coming to Germany is for specific purpose by God.
After some prodding, the interview elicits a second expatriation nar-
rative. While the first narrative was structured around the motif of
rejection by male pastors, the second now centers on the question of
how coming to Germany actually correlated to her calling. By compar-
ing the two narratives, we can gain insights into how events are inter-
preted and re-interpreted according to the ‘meaning’ that structures the
162 chapter four
narrative. The outline of the plot—P.W. is divinely led to Germany and

eventually starts a church here—remains the same, but different events
are recounted to explain its movement towards a telos.
In the first sentence of her second narrative, P.W. calls her coming
to Germany a “miracle.” It is not a miracle because she made it here
against strong odds, as a German listener might assume. Rather, the
miracle consists in the fact that God can work his purposes even with
people who do not understand them: He brought her here despite
the fact that she had “no vision” for Germany. Like several other
interviewees, P.W. had thought about moving abroad, but had not
chosen Germany—she would have preferred to move to the US.
Again, P.W. does not tell much about the actual process of her
expatriation. All we learn is that her sister, who already lived here as
a student, “called” her. P.W. describes her reluctance against this “call”
which in hindsight, of course, turns out to have been divine: By stating
that she saw coming to Germany as “running away from the call,” she
implicitly strengthens her interpretation that coming to Germany was
what God planned: God could use even her disobedience to further
his plan for her life. To describe how she actually realized this call,
P.W. uses almost the same phrase she used in the first narrative: “I saw
the way things were going.” Again, she assumes that the interviewer
knows what she means, and agrees with her interpretation. This time,
she emphasizes the fact that ‘things’ were bad by adding “God have
mercy!” By adding that she later got an invitation to move to the US
which she turned down, P.W. concludes that she is now very aware of
her calling to this country. To underscore this point, she repeats it again
at the end: When she came to Germany, she had no idea that this was
“a purpose for the Gospel.”
While she defines herself as a missionary—“the purpose of my com-
ing is to preach the Word”—P.W. seems to be struggling with this self-
image. When she continues talking, she no longer uses the pronoun “I,”
but switches to “we.” In this way, it is not clear whether she speaks of
her personal story in the framework of something that would be ‘typi-
cal’ for many immigrants, or whether she simply states an observation
she has made about others—using “we” in that second context would
betray a certain ‘pastoral’ language, as sermons often tend to use “we”
as rhetorically more inclusive, though the preacher really means “you.”
So this passage, deliberately or not, allows two possible interpretations:
Either, P.W. herself came to Germany with the aim to make money,
and only later discovered her call to preach. Or, P.W. realizes that most
immigrants have the aim to do well for themselves financially in Ger-

many, while their original call might also have been to evangelize this
country. Therefore, her role is to help other migrants to recover this
call. However this may be, P.W. leaves no doubt that in hindsight the
telos of her expatriation is totally clear: “My coming to Germany is for
specific purpose by God.”
Quite obviously, P.W.’s narrative is more concerned with her legit-
imation as a female preacher, pastor and evangelist than with her
legitimation of being in Germany. She negotiates her role more in
an implicit dialogue with the many male immigrant evangelists and
pastors, and the discourse among them which usually does not allow
women to assume a role of pastor, than with the dominant German
immigration discourse. P.W.’s narrative is not much of an expatriation
narrative; rather, it is a continuation of her call narrative.
4.2.2.2. S.O.: “There was this stirring on me that I need to really move
out”55
S.O., a fast-talking man in his late forties who originates from Ghana,
came to Germany in 1991 as a chemical engineering student. He
started a Bible study group for African students which has now grown
into one of the largest African-led churches in the Ruhr area. He
has never had any theological training, and was ordained by a group
of Ghanaian pastors from different denominations several years after
starting his church. In 2006, the lead congregation moved from the
Protestant church in which it had been meeting for almost 10 years
to a large factory hall which it has rebuilt as its worship and social
center. S.O.’s church has a number of satellite churches in other Ger-
man cities, and even one in Spain. S.O. has privately published sev-
eral books which are circulating among anglophone African migrants
in Europe, but also in Ghana. He is highly respected and well known
in anglophone African circles in Germany, and has personal networks
with anglophone African migrants that reach around the globe. He is
actively looking to have more cooperation with German Protestants,
and has been involved in almost all cooperation projects started by the
UEM program. His lead congregation has entered a formal partner-
ship with a German congregation in a neighboring city with which
55 For the full text of S.O.’s expatriation narrative, see the Appendix. I interviewed
S.O. on 2 March 2005 in my home.

164 chapter four
there are regular exchanges. His church has a strong social ministry for
migrants, but is so far attracting very few Germans.
S.O. was among the interviewees who told a short call, but a long,
rambling and very detailed expatriation narrative. With his first few
sentences, he introduced himself simultaneously as someone used to
moving around, as well as someone with a strong calling to start
evangelistic ministries wherever he went, and as someone who moved
between different Christian organizations.
I like to really say that I am a son of a policeman [. . .] and we had the
opportunity of really traveling across the country. [. . .] I got to know a
friend; one of my classmates [. . .] he led me to Christ by his lifestyle.
[. . .] So it was there that really, I had a calling, I had a stirring in my
heart, a heart really for souls that were lost. [. . .] So that’s really how
the whole thing began. Then, apart from this, I’ve also been in, let’s say,
various organization or Christian, eh, fellowship setups, because, when
you grow up in the SU56 setup, wherever you go, you try to also look
for other organizations like that. And in areas where there were no such
organizations, really, I went into also, let’s initiate some of these non-
denominational, inter-denominational fellowships.
It is striking that S.O. emphasizes his interdenominational outlook so
early into his narrative. He clearly wants to establish himself as some-
body who is ecumenically open, who likes to work with other Christian
groups than the one he belongs to himself, and who only moves out to
start something on his own if such a group cannot be found. We will
find this motif again and again during the course of his narrative.
Interestingly, even though his narrative is extremely detailed, S.O.
only mentions his move to Germany in passing:
So from there, I went, came to Europe, to pursue my Diplom [sic] course
also in Chemical Engineering at University.
Like in P.W.’s first narrative, there is no further explanation, and no
spiritual reasoning about his move. This may simply be due to the
fact that in the dominant discourse on immigration in Germany, the
wish to further one’s higher education here is a well-accepted reason to
move to this country. While many immigrant groups are not welcome,
international students are actively recruited. Therefore, S.O.’s narrative
does not have to contest the dominant discourse at this point.
S.O., at this instant in his account, does not describe himself as com-
ing to Germany with a missionary agenda. But as an active Christian,
56 Scripture Union.
he immediately started looking for a Christian community, only to be

frustrated by the German church:
I saw this Evangelical signboard over there, and so I went in there, as
a Christian. And when I went in there, service was conducted. It was
conducted in German. In fact, there were no people . . . how, I compare
to maybe how such a service are conducted in Ghana compared to this
place, there were no people in the church! Some few old people that
were there, in fact, after the church service, no one even spoke to me, so
I came out and I went home. So then, the idea came up: Can I get in
touch with other people, [. . .] maybe, we’ll have an English Association
or wherever. So that was which we led me in touch with other Africans.
And we saw that there was no any international community church
around.
Again, we can see how S.O. tries to depict himself as someone who
would have preferred to join an existing church rather than starting a
new one. It is interesting that, in the context of this interview, S.O.,
who now serves as Secretary of the Council of Pentecost Ministers,
emphasizes his evangelical background. He clearly intends to show that
the politics of difference that led him to establish an African church
were not his, but established by the German church. This is reinforced
in the continuation of the narrative.
There was an, a man who had also stayed in Ghana, worked with
Reinhard Bonnke,57 called Pastor [. . .]. He had an international church,
and he had this kind of charismatic background, so, really, there was an
interest to go. Along the line, it did not work out. So we had to find
where we Ghanaians, or, let’s say, where we Africans can have a place of
meeting.
After failing to join a Protestant church, S.O. tried a charismatic,

international church led by a German pastor who, through his relation
to Reinhard Bonnke, could be expected to be more open to Africans.
But this also failed, leading S.O. to establish an African fellowship.
We started this Christian Fellowship, like the SU type that we had back
in Ghana, [. . .] So it was a fellowship of whereby people from different
backgrounds come together to fellowship. So that least we can still keep
up with our Christian faith that we brought from Africa!
57 Reinhard Bonnke is a German pentecostal healing evangelist who has trav-
eled and preached widely in Africa. See www.cfan.org. For a short introduction, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Bonnke, both accessed 22 September 2008.
Short clips of his preaching can be found on YouTube, e.g. www.youtube.com/watch?v=
shxu0ba-SKU.
166 chapter four
Again, S.O. says very clearly that he did not have a missionary perspec-
tive. The group he helped set up was a diasporal group, even though
it was comprised of people from different African countries and used
English as its worship language. Its aim was not to reach out to Ger-
mans, but rather to safeguard the faith of African Christians. S.O. did
not give any details about what happened, but eventually his perspec-
tive changed:
It was from there that really I moved out to start [my own church],
‘cause there was this stirring on me that I need to really move out to
do something that will not only be in a local place, but whereby the
international community will equally, what, benefit from it.
Time and again, S.O. uses the term “stirring” when trying to describe
what it means to be called. Asked how he would explain his move
into the ministry to someone who might not be used to thinking in
a framework of calling or inner conviction, he struggled for words:
Actually [laughs]—I don’t know really how to explain it. [. . .] It’s an
inner feeling, something that is really driving you in, in a particular
direction, where someone asks you to explain, maybe the tangible rea-
sons for—maybe you will not be able to say ‘I’m doing this based on
this advantage or that advantage or that advantage,’ but then you realize
that your whole system is convinced that this what must be done. Some-
one, someone may think that, maybe, you are not reasonable, because,
maybe, not clear, because you cannot really explain everything in detail,
but the fact is that, having known God, and having known the way God
also speaks [. . .] I sensed it, I had a conviction about it, and it was then
that I was convinced that God is asking me to leave.
This passage clearly shows the process of negotiation of meaning
between a speaker and a listener who may be following different
paradigms. S.O. describes the “stirring” as a conviction that may not
be logically explained or deduced, an urgent inner feeling for which
no obvious reason can be given. It is this particular unexplainability or
irrationality of the “stirring” that marks it as divine intervention. And
it is this “stirring” that drives him out of a diasporal group to form
an international ministry which consciously reaches out to Germans.
Before starting his own church, though, S.O. asked one of his mentors
to advise him. The outcome, though, was not what he had expected:
So he was of the view that, okay like, he didn’t want me to really come
out [. . .] to really start a church, but he wanted me to be there to put
in my, the resources and the calling in there. But it so happened it did
not work the way he really advise [. . .] So that was where, after much
prayer, and advice from other men of God, I moved out. [. . .] So I
told many people about these intentions, this vision that God is laying
on my heart, this passion for souls, having an international Christian
community church, and at the same time also reach out to people that
are lost [. . .] So some people got up with the idea—they said: ‘Look, it’s
good. We’ll leave with you.’ And so, we took off.
S.O. openly admits that his mentor advised him to stay in the diasporal
church with which he was working at the time. But in his eyes, this
was not a divine message: S.O., within two sentences, twice repeats
the words “he wanted me” and opens the whole passage with the
phrase “so he was of the view.” As in the call narrative analyzed in
chapter 3.2.5, we here get an account about a church split. But unlike
the other narrator, S.O. does not refer to dreams and revelations to
justify his actions, possibly because he is more of an evangelical than
a pentecostal, and therefore tends to a more rationalizing narrative. In
addition, S.O., who has intensive contacts with the Protestant church,
is aware that recourse to dreams and revelations would not fulfill a
legitimizing function in a narrative told to a Protestant interviewer.
Finally, S.O. might expect that his listener is sympathetic to his rejection
of a purely diasporal ministry.
S.O. describes leaving his church as something that simply hap-
pened: Events are depicted as inevitable, following an inherent logic.
S.O., in the end, did not have any choice but to move out. He did
so after “much prayer and advice from other men of God.” S.O. is not
one to take the word of one authority as the word of God, especially if it
contradicts what he wants to do himself. But at the same time, he needs
to stress that he did not act totally on his own: He emphasizes that his
vision was shared by other members of his group who moved out with
him. Here again, he rather moves in the framework of this interviewer
than that of his own ‘scene:’ Within pentecostal / charismatic migrant
churches, leaving a church to start one’s own is tolerated if based on a
divine call. But to take people from an existing church to start a new,
independent one (rather than planting a daughter church) is heavily
frowned upon throughout the scene. Not surprisingly, several intervie-
wees strongly emphasized that they did not take any people away from
the churches they left when they established their own.
Despite its detailed character, S.O.’s narrative does not sound like
a composed story that has been performed repeatedly and has there-
fore taken on a certain, fixed form. It rather gives the impression
that throughout this interview, the narrator wants to get the historical
account right; therefore, so many names are mentioned, and so many
168 chapter four
little interactions recounted. More than the other narratives, S.O.’s

account is informed by the fact that he is talking to a German Protes-
tant interviewer to whom he wants to explain himself.
S.O.’s narrative does not concern itself with reflections about iden-
tity. The move from Ghana to Germany, and from chemical engineer-
ing into pastoral ministry are mentioned only in passing, and in such a
way that they are not to be read as upheavals, but rather as logical con-
sequences of a process of divine guidance that began in his childhood.
4.2.3. Called after expatriation

Two interviewees, both of them from Indonesia, talked about how
they had been called as missionaries long after their expatriation to
Germany as students. Here, we will look at the longer and more
detailed narrative.
4.2.3.1. A.K.: “God wants us to be an international church”58

A.K., a former electrical engineer from an Indonesian background, was
the only interviewee I did not know personally before I interviewed
him. I made contact with him because I had come across the web-
site of his church. This had originally been Indonesian, but was now
consciously internationalizing and had joined the Federation of Free
Pentecostal Churches some years ago. A.K. has not had any theological
training and has not been ordained, but functions as a pastor together
with his Indonesian wife. After I e-mailed him, he asked for a refer-
ence. When a local German charismatic pastor recommended me to
him, he was ready to be interviewed. After I had finished with my ques-
tions, A.K. asked me whether I was willing to be interviewed as well,
and posed a number of questions enquiring about my opinions of the
church in Germany, migrant churches in general, and so on.
A.K.’s expatriation and call narrative is different from that of all
other interviewees as it begins as an individual account but quickly
turns into a corporate, communal story.
I was a Christian even when I was in Indonesia, and then I came to
Germany to study. [. . .]. But as I came here, then I experience my
58 A.K.’s full narrative can be found in the Appendix. I interviewed him on 18
January 2006 in his church office, with the church secretary present but listening
silently.
renewal, [. . .] this baptism in the Spirit and so on. And then we started
to gather together with other Indonesian students.
A.K. begins with a short, individual conversion narrative which incor-
porates his expatriation narrative. As he came to Germany to study,
he has no further need to explain or justify his move. But the expatri-
ation brings him in contact with Indonesians from another Christian
tradition, and leads to his charismatic revival, which he quickly starts to
share with other Indonesians. This is a clear expatriation narrative in
the sense that the move to Germany serves the simple purpose to gain
knowledge and an education. There is no reflection about living in a
different culture, struggles for identity or integration. On the contrary,
A.K. describes himself as moving within a diaspora framework:
The first thought was, we are in a foreign country, we are foreigners,
why can’t we meet, then we can talk about the Bible and pray. That was
the beginning of this church. It was just a prayer group of Indonesian
students, and we had no other relationship. It was just for survival.
After his individual conversion story, A.K. recounts the history of his
church as a corporate call narrative. The introductory description
depicts the ‘before’ the situation which had to be left behind and which
therefore, in hindsight, is connoted negatively.59 What A.K. describes
here is the classical diaspora group. Students come and go, and dur-
ing their studies in this foreign country seek community and relation-
ships with others from the same country and of the same faith back-
ground. They are “foreigners” in a “foreign country” and live an insu-
lar life, just trying to “survive” before returning home. After depicting
the ‘before’ situation, A.K.’s narrative turns to the event that led to the
conversion of the group:
In the year 95 we celebrated the Indonesian Independence day [. . .] We
also had a seminar, and a worship service, and a celebration, and then
we also had exchanges, and then, we were collecting different points,
and then we developed this determination, that we as Indonesians, we
should be a blessing for the other nations, that we as Indonesians here
in Germany, we should not just think among ourselves, but why we are
here: Not just to study, and then finish, and then, yes, nothing to do with
Germany etc. But on this day, God opened our eyes that we should have
a greater relationship. And this vision is ‘light for the nations.’ And we
got it from Isaiah 49. So that was our turning point.
59 In this aspect, this call narrative also resembles a conversion narrative.

170 chapter four
Unlike in all other narratives analyzed in this chapter, national iden-

tity plays a big role in A.K.’s narrative. It has to be noted that this
is indeed a national identity as Indonesian, which brings together people
of many different cultures and backgrounds. In this, A.K.’s account
follows official Indonesian ideology. It is highly significant that the
call / conversion of his church to a more international outlook happens
as it celebrates 50 years of Indonesian independence. Opening up to
the outside world does not mean giving up one’s own national iden-
tity: “We as Indonesians, we should be a blessing for the other nations.”
National identities are seen as set and unchangeable, but the “light”
of the Christian faith transcends the borders between them and leads
into a new community without nullifying them. Becoming an inter-
national church does not mean giving up being Indonesian; rather
it fulfills the calling of being Indonesian. The internationalization of
the church reinforces rather than undermines as sense of Indonesian-
ness.
Interestingly for a call narrative, the actual call is described rather in
passing. There is no miraculous insight or strong feeling, just a develop-
ment of a determination during a time of exchange and discussion. But
to make sure that this event is properly understood as call, the narra-
tive adds a number of theological qualifiers: “God opened our eyes,”—
“vision,”—“we got it from Isiah 49,”—“turning point.” The change to
a new, international outlook was divinely led, not just simply a human
idea, and based on a Biblical text. And this change was not just a step,
a further development, but a reversal of what had been before.
And then as we prayed about how to put his into practice, we received a
Bible verse from the Lord, it is also in the book of Isaiah, [. . .] ‘God’s
temple shall be a prayer house for all nations.’ And this key word,
‘prayer’—oh yes, we Indonesian Christians, we like to pray, and then
we thought, why don’t we just start with this? Prayer, that we invite other
churches, other German churches in [. . .], and then we remembered
that 3 October is the day of German unification. And then we thought:
That is a good moment to invite the other German churches and pray
and fast together. [. . .] And the reaction was super, and they came,
yes.
The continuation of the narrative again shows the importance of

national identity in A.K.’s understanding. The day for the first joint
activity with Germans is, very logically, the German national day.
Again we see how international community, at this point A.K.’s nar-
rative, is not a negation of national identities, but rather its reinforce-
ment. In relating to the German context, the Indonesians build on their

strength as a praying community. They offer their ‘national’ Christian
characteristic to a joint activity.
And this was the first time, that we as a church, that we as a host also
invited a church, a German congregation, that we pray and fast together.
It was also the first time that we had a worship service in German [. . .]
Yes, that was in October ’95, and then we thought, that’s it and ready,
and then we go back to our old ways, Indonesian etc. But somehow
this vision was not fulfilled. God said: ‘No, no, not only that you are
a blessing for Indonesians, but you must, yes, the whole church must
be open so that all nations can come, yes?’ And that isn’t easy for us,
because we are Indonesians, and we would like to stay among ourselves,
with our culture, our food etc. Yes, it’s not so easy for us. But because
God talked to us in this way, I told the others: ‘God wants that we are no
longer an Indonesian church, but an international one.’ [. . .] And that
was, yes, a very difficult thing for us. And then since ’96 we have started,
everything we have changed, from Indonesian to German. And now we
do our praise and worship in German and English, and I preach in
German—yes, with my accent, [laughs out loud] with my grammar—yes,
and then it is also being translated into English. And now, our church is
no longer Indonesian, it has become international.
As this Indonesian church starts relating to its German context, it
begins to change. The call to this could be described as the call to an
‘inner expatriation:’ the church cannot remain a diasporal, Indonesian
group, but has to move out of its national identity into a new, inter-
national distinctiveness. A.K. recounts this change as something that
was very difficult, but based on clear, divine guidance: “God said . . .”
The way A.K. tells his story, the group did not suddenly develop an
interest in integration. After all, they were all students set to return to
their home countries. After a one-off event with German churches, they
wanted to go back to their “Indonesian ways” and had to be prevented
from doing so by divine intervention. Change was difficult because “we
are Indonesians.” A.K. associates national identity with culture, food,
language and worship style. All of these now have to be changed: True
internationalization means that the church is no longer Indonesian, it
has become ex-patriate. Interestingly, the church did not turn into a bi-
national Indonesian / German, but into a truly international commu-
nity, even though the language of the Sunday sermon is now German.
172 chapter four
4.2.4. Struggling to understand call and expatriation

Finally, two interviewees in this group told narratives which show that
they are still in the process of determining what their call actually is
and means. One of them shall be analyzed below.
4.2.4.1. B.A.: “God arranged that situation so that we can stay”60

The interview with B.A., a Nigerian in his early forties exuding a quiet
dignity, was somewhat artificial. I had been involved in his visa appli-
cation process, had worked with him closely during his time as a pas-
tor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Germany,
and tried in vain to mediate in the conflict that eventually cost him
his position as a pastor of the RCCG. We kept in fairly close contact
afterwards, and so I knew that he had started an independent church. I
also knew his Nigerian wife and his two young sons. Asking him about
his biography therefore meant to ask him to recount, for the sake of
a taped interview, events that I already knew about. It is therefore not
surprising that in his narrative, he spent much time to talk about his life
before coming to Germany, recounting in great detail how he became
a pastor of the RCCG after having studied mass communication and
then having started out as a branch secretary for the Manufacturers’
Association of Nigeria in Port Harcourt.
He described how he worked as a part-time pastor, but as church
work increased and started to influence his job performance, he de-
cided to resign and join the ministry full-time. Looking back, he evalu-
ated this decision in the light of the financial sacrifice involved:
I was not happy and there was nothing to look forward to in the salary
that full-time pastors have been paid in Nigeria.
According to his narrative, money remained a big topic: After strug-

gling with a meager salary for two years, he joined a computer com-
pany for some time. It is at this point that his expatriation narrative
really started:
But I felt this strong leading: ‘Don’t take that job. Go and register as
a full-time pastor!’ And I did not want to work as a full-time pastor
because the welfare package of a full-time pastor isn’t enough to write
60 B.A.’s full expatriation narrative can be found in the Appendix. I interviewed him
in my home on 9 April 2005.

home about. But I felt I had to obey God, so I registered as a full-time

pastor. [. . .] at the end of the second year, when the call came, Pastor
[. . .] came to Nigeria from US and said: ‘They are having problems with
the church in Germany, and they need a pastor. The pastor who was
there before [. . .] has resigned.’ [. . .] He would be grateful if I could
think about it and take that offer. As of that time, I was really getting
tired of being a full-time pastor in Nigeria. [. . .] Anyway, everything just
seemed to coincide at that period; that the only door that seemed open
was to come to Germany. Ah, when we started processing, I remember
the wife of my state pastor telling me that ‘it is a good thing about you
that you did not lobby to be sent to Germany.’ That I’d just been sitting
down and waiting for them to call me. ‘We know those who’d love to go,
but you did not love it, so we take it that God wants you to go there and
. . .’ In a nutshell, that’s how we ended up in Germany on the 19th of
August 2001. That’s the journey so far.
With this first ‘chapter,’ the theme for B.A.’s narrative is set: It is the
struggle between his sense of divine calling into full-time ministry and
his struggles with the sacrifices and difficulties entailed by following
this call. Obviously, in his understanding, doing God’s will is contrary
to what one personally likes. In later passages of this interview, this
sentiment will show up time and again.
Interestingly, even though the interview was conducted in 2005, B.A.
explicitly ends his account on the day of his arrival in 2001. Up to
then, it is a clear and simple expatriation narrative concomitant with
the mission policy of the Redeemed Christian Church which sees itself
as a global organization.61 Also up to this point, the narrative would
actually belong in the second group of accounts, those which describe
expatriation as the consequence of a call into missionary service.
But B.A. tells the story so that it already hints that things are not
so clear-cut: The way he introduces the topic of his divine calling is
strangely distanced. In his perspective, it is “the only door that seemed
open”—a phrasing that does not imply a strong sense of necessity to
move into a certain direction. The only explicit mentioning of a call is
put into the words of his head pastor’s wife, which again are phrased
betraying a certain distance: “We take it that God wants you to go
there . . .” All of this does not seem like a positive calling, but rather
like saying: There is no alternative, so this must be God’s plan.
61 In its 1991 “Missions Policy,” the church pledged to found 10,000 new churches
outside of Nigeria between 1995 and 2005. For this aim, it was going to train “pioneer
pastors” and “intercultural missionaries.” See: Redeemed Christian Church of God,
Missions Policy, Lagos, April 1999.
174 chapter four
The short quote of the state pastor’s wife is a sentence loaded with
meaning: First of all, B.A. makes clear that, while he was hoping to
make more money in Germany, it was his church that sent him here
and it were his superiors who decided that this meant following divine
guidance. In the light of the difficulties he encountered later, this is very
important to him. He wants to be clear of the suspicion that he moved
to Germany for financial reasons and without a divine call. But there
is a second layer of meaning to this sentence: The head pastor’s wife
derives her sense of divine calling in B.A.’s move from the fact that he
“did not love it.” Here again, we come across the main theme of B.A.’s
narrative: To follow God’s guidance means to do something which goes
against one’s own interests.
As B.A. had finished his narrative with his move to Germany, he had
to be prompted to talk about subsequent events. This study is not the
place to recount in detail the conflict between the RCCG and B.A.
which was played out with both sides trying to involve this author.
It suffices to say that it extended over almost two years and ended
with his recall to Nigeria by the RCCG Mission Board, his refusal to
return home, and his subsequent dismissal. B.A. then started a new,
independent church. This is what B.A. had to say about the conflict
and its outcome:
I would say God has a purpose for bringing us to Germany. Before I left
Nigeria, he made that clear. When it was apparent we would be coming
here, [. . .] I definitely heard the Holy Ghost say: ‘Pray for 20, eh, fast for
28 days for your mission in Germany, and pray seven hours every day.’
So I asked: ‘When do I start?’, and immediately I got another answer:
‘Start 1st of April.’ And throughout April, I fasted. My wife agreed to
join me. [. . .] And God started showing us things that had to do with
the work. And one of the things he showed us is that we are going to
have a lot of problems when we got to Germany. [. . .] So I believe, one,
that spiritually, God has a purpose for sending us to Germany. And as it
is usual, whatever God initiates, the devil opposes it. So everything we’ve
gone through, I saw it as an attempt of the devil to get us out of God’s
perfect way. And God had to use a very traumatic means to make it
possible for us to stay, [. . .]
CWO: What was the traumatic means? Just so that I understand it . . .
Yeah, the health of my son. We gave birth to E. on 3rd September of
2002, and the following day after he was born, the doctors diagnosed
that he had a heart problem, and he was operated on [. . .] His doctors
say that he has to remain in Germany for access to medical treatment
[. . .] Even when we were recalled back to Nigeria in June of 2003, ah, it
was clear that we could not go back. Because of E.’s situation, we were
allowed by the German authorities, that Aliens’ Office, to continue to
stay.62 That’s the only thing that will have kept us in Germany. And it,
it is twofold, looking at it. The mission that sent us cannot recall us, and
even if we do get angry, or upset, or got unhappy with Germany, we
cannot leave. So it is like God killing two birds with one stone: Nobody
can push you out, even you yourself, you can’t push, so you sit down
here. And if God does that, it’s because he has a purpose.
In his narrative and interpretation, B.A. follows the basic pattern that
we had established above: The struggle between his wish to follow
God’s guidance and the fact that following this guidance leads into
suffering. His basic premise, stated right at the beginning of his state-
ment, is clear: There is nothing in his life which was not ordered or
allowed by God. Therefore, whatever comes to pass needs to be read
and interpreted in the light of this premise. B.A.’s answer shows him
as struggling to come to terms with what has happened to him and his
family. He insists that it is not possible that he has come in vain; it is
not possible that he misread the call. As his basic tenet remains that
God sent him to Germany, he needs to establish why his internal voca-
tion is still true even though his church retracted his external vocation
by recalling him to Nigeria. In short, he also needs to legitimize the
fact that he is still in Germany, even though the original purpose of his
coming is no longer valid. He does this by constructing a theological
interpretation based on a typically pentecostal, dualistic world view.
First of all, B.A. interprets his difficulties as the devil’s effort to sab-
otage God’s work. Such an interpretation allows the dialectic opera-
tion of understanding all difficulties arising as affirmations that one is
on the right track: If the devil makes so much trouble, one must be
doing God’s will! Secondly, as the devil used such powerful means to
dislodge the B.A. family from its divinely ordained place in Germany,
God had to use an even stronger way to ensure the family’s stay: The
traumatic experience of giving birth to a child with a severe heart con-
dition, in this interpretation, almost becomes a matter of special grace.
It is a blessing in disguise: God has done something extraordinary to
make sure that the family will remain in Germany, and that no one,
not their mission board at home, not the enemies in the church here,
not even they themselves, can make them leave. And as God has acted
62 As B.A. came to Germany on a ‘pastor visa’, his right to stay was based on his
term with the RCCG. As soon as he was fired, his visa expired automatically. Due to
his son’s medical problems, though, he and his family were allowed to stay in Germany
on humanitarian grounds, though they did not get a residence permit.
176 chapter four
in such an extraordinary way, there must be something important for

him to accomplish in Germany. It is obvious that the difficulties B.A.
encountered did not undermine his sense of divine calling, but rather
strengthened it further.
This theological meaning-making leads B.A. no longer to tie his
calling to his church organization, but to God himself. The RCCG,
which, at the point of his expatriation to Germany, was an instrument
of God’s will, has now become an instrument of the devil against whose
plans God has to act in a rather spectacular way. The following part of
B.A.’s narrative further emphasizes and qualifies this interpretation:
And one thing that God has done that has encouraged me to continue to
stay, to continue to hold on—[. . .] So while I was praying I asked God
three questions: [. . .] Question number one: Why am I here? Two: Why
are all these things taking place? And three: What am I supposed to do
now? Three questions. And within 30 minutes, God gave me the answer
to the three. It’s one of those rare moments that he speaks and you know
that he speaks definitely. And the first question, [. . .], he said: ‘It is to be
a light to the Germans.’ Question number 2, [. . .] he said ‘There is a
treasure inside of you that has to come out, so you have to be broken.’
And he referred me to 2. Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7: ‘Now we have a
treasure in an earthly vessel.’ And then question number 3 [. . .] He said:
‘You begin to pray 12 midnight, every day.’ And that’s why till today, my
alarm is permanently set to a quarter to 12 at night. [. . .] I could pray
for one hour, for three hours, for four hours, it depends on how alert and
awake I am. But 12 midnight, I’m at the place of prayer, every day. [. . .]
And one grace that God also gave me was the opportunity to be part
of a German prayer team [. . .], and we meet twice in a month. [. . .] It
gives me an opportunity to, one, be able to pray for Germany, two, to be
able to give something back to the nation, because we received so much
help and so much favor, particularly when E. was sick.
In the first part of his narrative, B.A. recounted his own theological and
spiritual reasoning in trying to interpret what had happened to him. In
this part now, he adds a second layer of interpretation, which is framed
in a divine revelation received during an audition. In this way, his own
reasoning is justified by God himself. This interpretation consists of
three statements: Firstly, B.A. was sent to Germany with a divine call
and mission; secondly, the difficulties are meant to make him even more
effective in his mission; and thirdly, he is to start a fixed prayer routine.
In this second layer of interpretation, B.A.’s difficulties are no longer
ascribed to the devil trying to destroy God’s work, but rather to God
himself, who acts with a pedagogical aim. This interpretation clearly
breaks with the Prosperity Gospel paradigm which normally suffuses
RCCG theology and preaching.63 But to keep within this paradigm,

B.A. would have had to interpret his coming to Germany as a failure
or disobedience—something he was not willing to do. But with this
divine intervention, B.A. was able to abandon the theological paradigm
in which he had been raised, and thereby save his sense of calling.
B.A.’s story is not ‘rounded,’ not yet a finished product which has
been told and retold many times. It is a narrative in search for legitima-
tion, not in relation to German immigration policies, but rather in rela-
tion to the church that first sent him here and then tried to recall him.
It is a narrative of spiritual growth, of trying out new ways of under-
standing why the call he is so sure about led him into such difficulties.
B.A.’s statements allow us to observe the process of constructing such
a narrative, attempting to make sense by applying different and even
contradicting paradigms until a pattern has been established that fulfills
both the narrator’s and the listener’s expectations of spiritual meaning.
4.2.5. Concluding remarks: Intertwined call and expatriation narratives

The expatriation narratives analyzed above, even though they are so
different in character, have a basic structure in common: For all nar-
rators, their call developed and became clear only in the course of
their expatriation, even though some received a call into the ministry
and even as a missionary before they left their home countries. Espe-
cially the long accounts show setbacks and detours, a lot of insecurities,
doubts, and questioning. These are not simple narratives where every
step is a clear and logical consequence of a previous call, though in
hindsight, for most interviewees, even a winding path led to the right
destination. Rather, the motifs of setbacks, disobedience and difficulty
are an integral part of the narratives and serve to emphasize the divine
authorship of the call: One is not doing something one wants to do
oneself, but something one was divinely called to achieve. They are
missionaries.
63 See the sermons on the RCCG website, http://congress2006.rccg.org/ accessed
21 December 2006. The theme of the congress, “Heaven on Earth”, already shows this
paradigm.
178 chapter four
4.3. Expatriation as consequence of the call
The second large group of interviewees constructed their expatriation

narratives in such a way that their moving to Germany was interpreted
as the consequence of a previous call. Again, the individual stories vary
widely in length and character, so we will look at them individually.
The individual stories, though, can be divided into several groups.
4.3.1. Independent charismatic missionaries: Success stories

Three interviewees, all of them from Ghana, came to Germany as
independent, charismatic missionaries, and went on to found large,
successful, and international congregations. Since they have the largest
churches of the sample, all three will be analyzed below.
4.3.1.1. R.A.: “God gave me a burden”64

R.A., who came to Germany from Ghana, is a rather shy and soft-
spoken man his mid-forties who transforms into a fiery, humorous
preacher once in front of a congregation. The church he founded was
one of the first African-led churches in the Western part of Germany,
and has now grown to be one of the biggest in the country. Well-
connected to the Protestant and the Catholic church in the city where
it is located, the lead congregation was able to acquire, for a symbolic
rent, a former Catholic church building with an adjacent community
center, giving it several hundred square meters of usable space. Satellite
churches have been set up in several other German cities, and the
lead congregation is now negotiating for a second church building.
R.A.’s church, co-pastored by his Chilean wife, runs worship services in
English (with simultaneous translation into as many as eight languages),
German and Spanish. Guest preachers are commonly featured and
have included major Ghanaian and international charismatics as well
as the president of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland and the
suffragan bishop of the Archdiocese of Cologne. The church also has a
strong social outreach into its surrounding quarter, a poor area with
a high percentage of migrant inhabitants. With its excellent Gospel
choir, R.A.’s church has been attracting a sizeable number of Germans;
64 R.A.’s full expatriation narrative can be found in the Appendix. I interviewed him
in his church office on 16 February 2005.

though observation shows that many of them leave the congregation

after some years, particularly those who were involved in leadership
roles. R.A. is a sought-after speaker who travels widely in charismatic
circles. He has two teenage sons.
R.A. started his narrative as follows:
One time I was praying and I felt the Lord was urging me to go to
Germany. And the reason why it was very special for me was I never
thought of coming to Germany, because I knew that many people who
left Ghana and they came to Germany, any time they went back to
Ghana they were unbelievers! [. . .] So I have asked some of them: ‘Don’t
you go to church in Germany?’ And they said that, one, they couldn’t
attend any German church service because it was done in German and
they didn’t understand anything that was happening, and also sometimes
they go to a German church and they didn’t feel welcomed, so some of
them prefer to stay home [. . .] so when I heard the voice ‘Germany’, I
felt that this would be my vision, this would be my what I’ll be doing in
Germany, so God opened the doors for me to come to Germany, and
when I came, I started this ministry.
This first, rather brief expatriation narrative moves forward in four
steps: It begins with a divine call (though somewhat qualified here by
the addition “I felt”), continues with a reflection of why the narrator
had never thought himself of moving to Germany—emphasizing the
fact that this must have been a divine call!—turns back to the call
(this time described as an audition), and finally states how this call was
followed. The actual expatriation is recounted extremely briefly: “God
opened the doors for me to come to Germany”—the expatriation move
is therefore narrated as an act of divine ageny: God calls, God opens
the doors, and the narrator simply follows and does what he is called to
do. There are no twists and turns, no doubts, no difficulties; everything
happens according to (God’s) plan.
It should be noted here that R.A.’s call to go to Germany, according
to this narrative, was not a call to become a missionary to Germans, but
rather a vision to be a pastor to Ghanaians in the diaspora. The aim
of his expatriation is not described as evangelism and the recruitment
of new Christians, but rather to enable Ghanaian Christians abroad to
keep their faith alive. Such a ‘diasporal’ motivation to start a church is
often cited by migrant church founders, at least in conversations with
Germans. The two reasons cited by R.A. in his narrative, namely, the
language barrier and the feeling of not being welcomed by German
churches are both prominent motifs in such narratives. In informal
conversations, many African pastors have voiced their surprise that no
180 chapter four
mainline German church had thought to offer translation for foreign

participants of their worship services. In cities like Kinshasa, Accra or
Lagos, many churches offer bi- or even tri-lingual worship services as
a matter of course, using French / English plus one or two local lan-
guages. Feelings of not being welcome often resulted from the German
mainline Protestant habit of leaving the church building after the wor-
ship service without greeting somebody one does not know. But espe-
cially black Christians also have encountered open racist rejection: I
have been told how white worshippers moved away when an African
sat down next to them, how Africans were told to find a church of their
own people where they would fit in better, and even, in one case, how
the participation of an African in Holy Communion created a big stir
as several people were not willing to take wine from the common cup
after he had drunk from it.
It needs to be asked why such a ‘diasporal’ motivation is so often
recounted when further conversations usually show that the interlocu-
tors actually see themselves as missionaries far beyond their own ethnic
or language group. There may be two different reasons at work here:
One, a ‘diasporal’ motivation to start a church is very acceptable within
a German Protestant context. The right to worship within one’s own
language and tradition is held in high regard and always encouraged. It
is only when migrant Christian groups start to evangelize Germans that
conflicts with the Protestant church arise. A second reason might also
play a role: Within their own context back home, migrant pastors are
often suspected to have been motivated by ‘greener pastures,’ i.e. hav-
ing moved abroad to make more money. By centering their motivation
on serving their country people, this suspicion is somewhat deflected.
The interview with R.A. then proceeded to ask for more details about
how he made his way to Germany. His response:
I heard a voice, the voice ‘Germany’, and straightaway God gave me a
burden. So I went to the German embassy and made enquiries. [. . .]
And they said: ‘Bring your passport and bring a valid ticket.’ So the
following day I bought a ticket, I took my passport, and I went to the
German Embassy. And the forms that I filled, they, they asked ‘Do
you know anybody in Germany?’ I said ‘no.’—‘Where will you stay in
Germany?’ I wrote ‘hotel.’ And, I couldn’t complete so many areas on
the form, because I knew that it was God’s leading. So, I filled the form,
and they told me: ‘Say, when do you want to travel?’ And I said, I said
‘Friday.’ That was Tuesday—I said ‘Friday I will travel.’ They told me
to come on Thursday to collect my visa. So it was no struggle and that
made me know that it was the will of God. So when I got to Germany—
it was D. Airport I came to, and as soon as I came out from the airport, I
told the taxi driver: ‘Take me to the cheapest hotel.’ Over there, I locked
myself in the hotel for one week, just seeking the face of God in prayer,
and in fasting, and when I came out from the hotel, that’s how God
connected me to Pfarrer G., and we’ll be friends to this time, and he has
been helpful to us.
Several significant observations can be made about this account: First

and most remarkable of all, R.A. describes his call and mission as com-
ing directly from God and being totally individual. The way he con-
structs his narrative, no church context becomes visible. R.A. receives
the call on his own, and obeys it on his own. His mission is extremely
individualistic, with neither a sending or a receiving church or network.
Such entrepreneurial individualism in mission is something that can be
found often within the pentecostal / charismatic movement.
Secondly, the narrative recounts R.A.’s expatriation to Germany as
exceedingly easy: There is no account of his having to wait for an
appointment at the embassy, no account of having to answer a lot
of questions, to prove his financial means etc. As the story is told,
just a few days passed between the call and the actual journey. This
seems hardly plausible, but is used in the course of the narrative to
emphasize the basic assertion that his expatriation was a consequence
of his call. The ease of travel highlights both his obedience to God and
the supposition that God must be on his side to smooth his way: “It was
no struggle and that made me know that it was the will of God.”
Thirdly, it needs to be noted that according to his narrative, R.A.
went to Germany without any prior preparation and contacts. As the
story is told, he did not rely at all on any kind of existing Ghanaian
diaspora network. (This is in clear contradiction with his earlier claim
that his main motivation was to help diasporal Ghanaians to keep their
faith!) He simply arrived, locked himself up in a hotel, and then went
out and, more or less miraculously, encountered a German pastor who
became a friend. This is the more surprising as he was not inexperi-
enced internationally, having served as a missionary to Liberia before.
But the construction of his narrative makes sense: He was called, he
obeyed and went, and God prepared the way for him in an almost
miraculous way. Any mentioning of contacts or a pre-existing network
to fall back on would have detracted from this intended message. It is
also significant that the first person he met and with whom he built
a relationship was not a Ghanaian, but rather a German. The narra-
tive connects this relationship with the fact that R.A. had fasted and
182 chapter four
prayed for a week: “. . . that’s how God connected me . . .” Like the

first narrative, this second narrative relates every step and development
to divine agency. Everything happened because God made it happen;
and because God made it happen, everything was very easy.
The interview continued trying to elicit more detailed information
about the process of starting the church. As R.A.’s answers tended to
veer into general statements very quickly, this was not easy. Neverthe-
less, some information could be gained.
I started with seven people. We were just seven in number, and the seven
grew to, we got to the twenties . . .
Seven, incidentally, is the number of people needed to start a registered

association in Germany. But seven is also a holy number in Biblical
tradition, so giving this precise number may have some significance for
R.A. The budding church secured rooms for worship at a former cin-
ema which had been bought and renovated by a German pentecostal
congregation. The friendship with the German Protestant pastor, who
held office as the local church district superintendent, turned out to be
very helpful in securing financial and organizational assistance.
As R.A. tells the story, his newly founded church was originally
meant for Africans, though not as a secluded diaspora group:
I saw the need in here. And most part of my work here is to bring
about integration. [. . .] I saw a lot of devastation here. And they [the
Ghanaians] told me that in Germany, they have no mentor, they have no
Christian to help them, and I discovered that the Ghanaians live in their
own communities [. . .] and they speaking Ghanaian language, they eat
Ghanaian food, everything Ghanaian Ghanaian [. . .] and I discovered
that the people were very close up [. . .] some of them had no contact
to Germans! [. . .] They couldn’t go to church. So our church was the
first in, in this city to bring about having an African church in this
city, and we were able to reach out to all these people [. . .] We are a
multicultural church. [. . .] I made it very international in such a way
that people around me were urging me to have a Ghanaian church, have
a Ghanaian Bible, use the Ghanaian language, but I, I’ve felt that I was
not called to reach out to Ghanaians only. If, if I’m called to reach out to
Ghanaians I will have remained in Ghana. We have a lot Ghanaians in
Ghana today. But I discovered that I’m here for the Gospel’s sake. And I
discover—we discover in the Bible that the Gospel is for all nations! So,
we went the international way, that’s not been easy, but God has given us
grace.
After stating his initial motivation to found a church in a more diaspo-

ral sense, R.A. describes his current work differently: The ghettoized
Ghanaians do not only need to be strengthened in their Christian

faith, they also need integration. R.A. describes this new aim for his
church as something that he “discovered” due to his observations and
re-reading of the Bible. Clearly, while starting out building a church for
Africans in a German city, R.A. had a more international perspective.
This may also be due to the fact he is married to a Chilean woman of
German descent. By refusing to hold worship services in Twi, the lan-
guage spoken by most Ghanaians in Germany, he consciously avoided
building an ethnic diaspora church. In fact, his church is one of the
most international African-led churches in the region, with members
from many African countries as well as from Asia and Europe. It now
has several hundred members, a well-known Gospel choir, and runs
four Sunday services as well as several weekday services, a discipleship
school, youth and children ministries, counseling and social work.
4.3.1.2. E.S.: “I felt a call strongly to Germany”65

E.S. is a German citizen of Ghanaian background in his forties. Small,
skinny, and of nervous intensity, he charms people around him with his
quirky sense of humor. E.S. has been in Germany for 20 years now, and
has built one of the largest and most high-profile African-led churches
in the country. I have been able to observe this church since 1998. Back
then, there were about 60 members, worshipping in rented rooms in
a Methodist chapel. As the church grew steadily, the Methodists felt
crowded out of their own building, and conflicts started to arise. Even-
tually, the congregation grew too big for the chapel, and was asked
to find new accommodation. Several attempts at taking over one of
the large Protestant church buildings in the town center failed, though
the relationship to the local Protestant church remained cordial and
friendly. For a period, the congregation worshipped at a larger Protes-
tant church in a nearby city. Finally, in late 2003, E.S.’s church rented a
very run-down factory building just minutes from the main railway sta-
tion in its original place. With much financial and practical help from
the members of his Protestant host church, the building was refurbished
and changed into a church center with a large and a smaller hall, com-
munity rooms, a café, seminar rooms including a computer lab, and
65 E.S.’s full expatriation narrative can be found in the Appendix. I interviewed him
in his church office on 2 March 2005.

184 chapter four
offices. It was opened in the presence of a large number of German

guests, including the superintendent of the Protestant church district
and the mayor of the town. For the last four years, the church has
been starting a number of ‘satellite churches’ in different German cities,
and even one in Buenos Aires. The lead congregation now has several
hundred members, with a small number of Germans among them. It
is active in regular street evangelism as well as in a number of social
ministries, and also runs a discipleship school. Worship services are held
in English with simultaneous translation into German via headphones
and consecutive translation for special occasions. In the last few years,
E.S. has left much of the every day work in his church to his junior
pastors, one of them his Ghanaian wife with whom he has a teenage
daughter, while traveling and preaching all over the world, in churches
and at conventions in countries as far as Korea or Colombia. He is
a sought-after speaker in German evangelical circles as well, and has
preached in numerous German churches as well as at conventions and
special events.
E.S.’s narrative, especially at the beginning, sounds quite similar to
that of R.A. analyzed just above:
I felt called to ministry [. . .] then I moved into church planting, founded
a church in [Ghana] and felt a call to go to Germany, specifically because
I had a German family I was living with. And I felt a call strongly to
Germany. I cannot explain that because it is more of a calling from your,
what you call it, from your spirit, from your heart. [. . .] Actually, we
have to work out to get a missionary visa. Okay, that worked out, and
I came to Germany. I came to Germany not having any church. Not a
German church invited me, nor me knowing which church I am going
to. [. . .] But I just came [. . .] that was a Friday evening, and on Saturday
morning I went out to look for a place of worship. Since I was a Baptist
back then, I decided to look for a Baptist church. [. . .] So I just went
there Sunday morning for the service. After the service, a young man
came up to me and—he just spoke: ‘Hello, how are you?’ [. . .] And I
told him who I was as a pastor, and a church, and why I am here in
Germany as a missionary and stuff like that. And he said: ‘Well, that’s a
good idea!’
Here again is a Ghanaian pastor already ministering in Ghana, who

feels called to Germany. Like R.A., E.S. does not describe this call
in any detail—it is simply a strong feeling from his heart. Again, the
call is an individual one, and not connected to any particular church
that could be described as a ‘sending church.’ Unlike R.A., though,
E.S. describes his close contacts to a German living in Ghana who
assisted him in his plans. Then again, achieving a visa seems to have
worked out fairly easily. While R.A. does not specify the visa he traveled
on to Germany, E.S. does: It is a “missionary visa,” therefore it is
clear from the beginning what his role will be in Germany: He will
not tend to Ghanaians in the diaspora, but work as an evangelist to
Germans.
Like R.A., E.S. describes himself as arriving in Germany without
knowing anybody, without a network, and without a clear idea how to
start his ministry. E.S. only mentions the name of the city he first went
to in passing, and never tells us why he went to this particular place.
Like R.A.’s account, E.S.’s narrative moves forward with a sense of
inevitability: Everything that happens is divinely ordained, and because
of that, there are no difficulties. The German he meets at the Baptist
Church, his first German contact, reinforces this notion as his reaction
to E.S.’s self-introduction as a missionary is: “That’s a good idea.” Not
surprisingly, this German became an immediate supporter:
About two weeks later, I told him about my idea about starting some-
thing with English, because I speak English [. . .] So right in my flat
there, we basically started a fellowship, and that was him and myself.
And so all—we started inviting people, and I basically go out and invite
everybody. [. . .] So it’s sort of growing, growing like that. We moved
then to A., and they provided us a place, and we started a work there.
Actually, what was very integral to our work there was the street work we
did, actually. We go out, he plays the guitar [. . .], many people gather,
then I preach, I preach in English, he translates into German, and we
invited people to church. That’s how we got people to come into the
church. Eh, basically, that’s how I came to Germany, basically, I felt the
call to come here as a missionary.
Again, there are striking similarities between R.A.’s and E.S.’s narra-
tives: Like R.A., E.S. describes starting a Christian fellowship within
days of his arrival. Unlike R.A., though, he did not target Africans.
By attaching himself to an existing German church, teaming up with
a German for evangelistic activities, doing street preaching in German
and English, and bringing new people to this German Baptist church,
he shows a clear orientation towards the German host society, though
his evangelism in the asylum seekers’ home also shows that integration
of foreigners was on his agenda.
E.S. sums up this chapter of his narrative: “that’s how I came to
Germany,” and adds a reference to his missionary call. This sentence
makes explicit what has been underlying as the narrative structure: E.S.
came to Germany because he was called to be a missionary here. There
186 chapter four
is no questioning of the call, no doubting, no reference to the dominant

discourse on immigration. It is this simple: When God calls, he moves,
and things work out. But after this short break, the narrative continues:
So that’s how my work here started. I moved to W. for some time, I
did some work with this one pastor [. . .] And then, obviously, I was in
B., I started a church in B., I and then, I just felt God asking me to
come down to the R. area to start a central church and build a bigger
mission. And that’s, that’s how it happens that I moved to M. I didn’t
have any church, so I was just going on the street and preach publicly,
and, distribute tracts. [. . .] Initially, our heart was more strongly on—
just, you know, kind of having conferences and seminars, inviting people,
which we started that way and it was quite fruitful, go and get about
people. But we felt led by God to start a church where people [. . .]
would be able to come and worship . . .
The continuation of E.S.’s narrative is structured in such a way that
each step seems entirely logical. Though the facts of this section could
be recounted in such a way that one would get the image of somebody
drifting around, trying to find his place—whether within an existing
church or starting a new one—, E.S. tells a story of consistent devel-
opment and divine guidance. His call was to win people in Germany
for the Gospel, and everything he did conformed to that call. He sim-
ply worked as an itinerant evangelist and claims here that this is what
he enjoyed and found fruitful. That he finally became the founder of a
church is ascribed, in this account, to both divine guidance and a feel-
ing that this might be a strategic move. E.S. does not mention in his
narrative what he has told numerous other times, namely, that he spent
some six months in a German free church Bible school to learn more
about his host country. This would not have fit into the narrative struc-
ture he employs here, talking about his missionary vocation being lived
out step by step. There is no reflection of a need to first get to know the
host country, culture and language. If called as a preacher, one has to
preach—this is simply enough.
So we started in my flat over there again, and, eh, me and my wife
alone. [. . .] and the number increased . . . [. . .] We actually got a lot of
Germans, as well, coming in. We were able to reach a lot of Germans.
Actually, at the beginning stages, I think my church was predominantly
German, there were mostly Germans and we only had a few, a few
Africans. But well, over the years, things have changed. [. . .] Well, the
church is completely self-supportive, and, eh, basically, we, we believe
strongly that our missionary work here is going to grow and going to
grow, quite big.
At the end of his narrative, E.S. explicitly states what has already
been implied by the structure of his account: His missionary work con-
sists of making contact with individuals, and starting house fellowships
which then evolve into proper churches. There is a certain contradic-
tion visible here as E.S. names the nationalities of his first members
who were all African, while then adding that at the beginning, his
church was predominantly German. He admits that this has changed
now—as any visitor to a Sunday service at his church can see, this
church is basically a black church, with only a small minority of white
members.
As E.S., in his initial narrative, only spoke about his calling to Ger-
may in passing, he was asked after finishing his biographical account:
“What put the thought of Germany in your mind? How did you find
out you had a call to Germany?” He answered:
It’s a call from God in my heart to go there. But however, I can also
contribute it to, to the fact that, well, I am living among a German
family and thereby hearing about the spiritual situation in Germany,
also as a contributing factor. [. . .] I felt called as a missionary, I think,
I hundred percent say that. Because I didn’t even know that Africans
living in here that much. It wasn’t something I knew, not until I came
here. [. . .] Initially I wasn’t really involved with that much Africans, my
involvement has been with Germans.
While R.A.’s and E.S.’s biographical accounts show remarkable similar-
ities in their narrative structure, their motivation to become a mission-
ary in Germany was quite different: Where R.A. describes himself as
moved by the plight of his country people, E.S. was motivated by what
he learnt about Germany from German contacts in Ghana, claiming
that he did not know about Africans in Germany before he came here.
It could be stated that, though both of them ended up founding and
heading large, African-majority international churches, they moved to
this aim from opposite starting points, changing their ideas and prac-
tices after having been confronted with the situation in Germany. But
neither of them leaves any doubt that they came to Germany due to a
divine call.
188 chapter four
4.3.1.3. R.N.: “To come to [ . . .] was not a choice”66

R.N., a suave and very dignified man, is also originally from Ghana.
He has been in Germany for almost 20 years and holds German
citizenship. His wife is a midwife at a renowned university teaching
hospital; their children are grown. R.N., who is a certified pastor of
the Federation of Pentecostal Free Churches (BfP), heads a very large
and well-organized, international African-majority church with several
hundred members. His church has been a full member of the BfP for
many years, and is the only African-led church that I know of that
was able to buy property in western Germany. It does not only own
the purpose-built meeting hall-cum-offices in which its activities are
held, but also an adjacent, six-storey residential building. The church
runs a very impressive Youth Ministry (headed by a Nigerian pastor),
and its excellent hip-hop dance group which comprises both black
and white youth is often invited to perform at ecumenical church
functions. R.N., who recently turned fifty, is something of a father
figure among anglophone African church leaders in Germany, many
of whom jokingly call him “bishop.” He is also very well networked
ecumenically, and well known and respected among German pastors
and church leaders in the city where his church is located.
R.N. is another Ghanaian pastor who was willing to talk in some
detail about how he came to Germany and started his church here. He
had become a Christian while still in high school, and had received a
call to become a pastor at the time of his conversion. After telling this
very briefly, he continued:
I got myself attached to the Assemblies of God Church, ever since I
have been in an Assemblies of God church. It’s the place I’ve had
my training. So, in ’84, I had the opportunity to be a missionary in
Togo [. . .] It was during the time I serviced there that I had a contact
with Operation Mobilisation [. . .] I got to know Germany and the
outreach work Germany did in mission, the vision and different things. I
studied the whole history, and I found out that Germans were in Ghana,
especially in the Volta Region where my wife comes from. So there was
something so rich about Germany. But to come to [. . .] was not a choice!
It’s not like—oh, after my mission in Togo, the next place to go, wow,
we’re going to [. . .]—no, it was not on my calendar at all! Number one,
the reason which I also told God: ‘Please, don’t send me to Germany,’
66 R.N.’s full expatriation narrative can be found in the Appendix. I interviewed him
in his church office on 16 November 2005.

when I saw it was obvious that I was going to Germany, I was arguing
with God: ‘God, how can you send me to Germany? Number one, I
don’t speak German, I don’t know anything about Germany, apart from
the contact with OM, I don’t know anyone. [. . .]’ Number two, my wife
was studying in [. . .] so I said: ‘God, if you’re sending me somewhere,
why not to the place where my wife-to-be is? I mean that will be great,
you know, after her studies, we have our duration.’ But the door was
closed for me to go to UK or anywhere else. But then I saw myself in
Germany, in 1989, in October.
R.N.’s narrative is a classical missionary call narrative and follows the
established structure of such narratives:67 There is the description of
what he was doing before the call, the mentioning of some interest in
the country he eventually found himself in, the insistence that he did
not want to go to Germany and struggled with God about this call,
and the final acceptance. At the same time, there is a typical ‘pente-
costal’ flavor to this narrative which distinguishes it from evangelical
narratives: R.N.’s call is entirely between him and his God; no church
structure comes into play to confirm and validate the call and to actu-
ally act as a sending body.
R.N. was vague about how he knew that he was called to Germany.
He only said that it was “obvious that I was going to Germany”, but
did not volunteer any more information. How he managed to acquire
a visa also remains unclear. But the process cannot have lasted very
long, since, according to his account, he worked in Togo for five years,
beginning in 1984, but already found himself in Germany in October
1989. In this narrative, therefore, the motif of the ease of travel is
lacking in an explicit form, but implicitly, it is still there.
So when I came [. . .] I went to OM headquarters, I asked for some of
my friends, those with whom we had worked together, but most of them
were scattered [. . .] But there was one man who had just returned from
India. And this man, he just wants to begin some, you know, foreigners’
work in Germany. And then, I was introduced to him [. . .] I went to
W. I stayed for three weeks and met some pastors there—these are all
Germans, and a missionary from America. They prayed every Tuesday,
so I was with them in the prayer meeting.
Like R.A. and E.S., R.N. continues his narrative with a description
of a networking process which only started after his arrival in Ger-
many. R.N.’s account is the most detailed by far. Unlike R.A. and E.S.,
67 See Swanson, Echoes of the Call. Identity and Ideology Among American Mis-
sionaries in Ecuador, New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995, pp. 66 ff.
190 chapter four
he speaks about contacts developed prior to his coming. But as the

story turns, these contacts are worthless, as the German missionaries
he knew in Togo are now scattered all over the world. Nevertheless,
R.N. meets “one man” who connects him into a wider network. This
motif of meeting one person who plays a seminal role in how the nar-
rator eventually becomes the church founder he is today is another sta-
ple of charismatic missionary call / expatriation stories. Unlike Protes-
tants, evangelicals and denominational pentecostals who rely on orga-
nizational structures in their missionary ventures, charismatics narrate
their stories in such a way that organizations are unimportant. What
is important, instead, are chance—or, to be more precise—divinely-
ordained encounters which, while seemingly arbitrary, influence the
further course of the missionary history of the narrator. It can be
stated that this motif serves to emphasize ‘supernatural,’ divine means
of guidance in contrast to a more ‘worldly’ way of organizing mission-
ary careers in Protestant and evangelical churches. It also conforms
with a, in the Weberian68 sense, ‘charismatic’ way of organization rather
than the ‘bureaucratic’ structures preferred by evangelical and Protes-
tant mission organizations. To repeat: R.N.’s narrative shows him as
having come to Germany on a divine call, though this call remained
vague and had not been validated by an organization. To find his con-
crete place then, like R.A., he recounts how he relied on prayer:
For three weeks, I was there, and I was only in my spirit praying that
‘God, what do you have for me here in Germany?’
The response to a situation of an unclear calling is retreat and prayer
rather than involvement, observation and analysis. This again distin-
guishes charismatic (and also pentecostal) missionary call stories from
their evangelical counterparts. In this way, the interviewees emphasize
again that they are following God’s guidance rather than their own
plans and ideas. In R.N.’s case, hearing news about a particular city
becomes a possible divine answer:
So this was the first time I heard about A., I didn’t know anyone there, I
didn’t have any contact. And I think it became something that sticked
into my spirit, so when I was sleeping, and when I prayed, I have
something, a strong urge—I didn’t know exactly what the impression
was.
68 Max Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriß der Verstehenden Soziologie,
hrsg. von Johannes Winckelmann, Tübingen: Mohr 2002.

Here again, we find the charismatic disregard of any kind of orga-

nizational structures or planning: R.N. just happens to find himself in
a certain city where he had no contacts, and develops “a strong urge,”
a feeling that this might be the place he was called to. In the logic of
the narrative, the fact that R.N. “didn’t know anybody there” serves
to emphasize the notion that he was indeed divinely led to this city
rather than having wanted to go there out of his own interests. But
as R.N. feels that his urge is still vague, he decides to have another
look.
So one time I called my friend, the pastor, and I said: ‘Is there any
way that we can visit A., just to look?’ [. . .] And then we came. And
we met one Baptist brother, very wonderful brother, and he loves the
Lord so much, he hosted us [. . .] On Monday, my friend said that
we should be going back. And I said: ‘No, I’m not going back with
you.’ He said ‘why?’ And I said: ‘I want to know a little bit about
A., so please, I’ll call you.’ So after the service on Sunday, in the
week, this young man took me around the city [. . .] and he is ready
to talk about the history, how old this is, this is a very old empire,
many kings were crowned here, the coronation [. . .] And I told my
friend: ‘I’m not coming, I mean this place is so rich, and, I want to
be here.’
R.N.’s detailed narrative allows us to see very clearly how a Charis-
matic works to discern the concrete place of his missionary calling. First
of all, while not relying on any kind of organization, R.N. does not
move completely without any contacts—he relies on his informal net-
work of contacts and friends to get to know a local person. We have
already seen in R.A.’s and E.S.’s narratives how such informal networks
aided them in their early days in Germany. For the missionary moves of
pentecostal / charismatic migrant church founders, such informal net-
works play a much larger role than any established institution.
During the last nine years, it was possible to observe how such net-
works function on the basis of encounter and a feeling of a shared mis-
sion. Such networks, which can swing between times of great activity
and times of no activity at all, are extremely flexible. They are networks
of individual pastors rather than of churches; they usually have nei-
ther membership lists nor any kind of written statutes or aims. Rather,
they function on the basis of more or less unspoken shared theologi-
cal assumptions and bring people together for one or more concrete
projects. Pastors easily move between many different and unrelated net-
works, which often transcend national and theological / denominational
borders. This multitude of overlaying and sometimes even competing
192 chapter four
‘charismatic’69 networks has long been an oikoumene in its own right,

quite distinct from the organized oikoumene of the World Council of
Churches or the Pentecostal World Fellowship. Due to their vague and
loosely structured character, these networks easily remain invisible to
the outsider, and have not received much research attention so far.
In order to ascertain whether this city was the place that God
wanted him to move to, R.N. relied on his informal network. A friend
introduced him to a “Baptist brother” in the city, and R.N. went to
visit a Baptist church. There is a sense of easy ecumenism here—
denominational differences don’t count for much if the aim is to evan-
gelize a city. R.N. recounts his sense of growing excitement as he got to
know the city and its rich history. For him, it is important that this city
belongs to an “old empire” and that it was a place where kings were
crowned. For a missionary steeped in an understanding of evangelism
as ‘spiritual warfare,’70 the powers of the world have to be met where
they are centered; therefore, a place with an empire history is a good
place to evangelize. That R.N. follows such an understanding becomes
even clearer in the continuation of his narrative. He meets an American
missionary who warns him against this very place from which no evan-
gelistic ministry can be started. Rather than being discouraged, R.N.
finally knows that he is called exactly there:
This message for me, it was great! I said: ‘God, now I know that you
want to send me to A.! Not because of comfort, but because there is
an assignment. If the place is hard, I believe, it is where you will begin
anything from.’ Then I came, and then indeed, [. . .] I saw that what the
old man had said is true. For one thing, my decision was clear. Through
that I knew that God is faithful, right now I can say God is faithful,
looking back to 16 years, and I say: God is faithful. So I came here with
that strong impression, it came to me at night, praying, after they told
me about A. That’s it, and now I am in A. (laughs out loud).
R.N. furnishes us with a detailed and rich narrative which allows

us to analyze the negotiations involved in concretizing a vague call-
ing. We have already seen that prayer for guidance was an important
motif. Within pentecostal / charismatic discourse, prayer sets the scene,
it opens up a possibility for God to move and speak. In R.N.’s case,
God speaks dialectically, through the American missionary who tells
him that the city he has in mind is “a hard place.”
69 Again in the Weberian sense of the word.

70 For more on this, see chapter 5.5.
There are several layers of meaning here: First of all, the notion that
the city is “hard” needs to be understood in the framework of spiri-
tual warfare. In this city, the German empire was born; therefore, it
must be a center of forces hostile to God and the church. Starting a
church here means to confront these forces in their home place, in the
place where they are most deeply entrenched. This is hard, but it also
promises great gains if successful. Secondly, by recounting the warn-
ing of difficulties, R.N. plays on the old motif of missionary heroism
which informed so many missionary narratives in the 19th and 20th
centuries. A missionary is not meant to have an easy life; for the sake
of the Gospel, he will move to the most difficult place, knowing that
he will overcome obstacles with the power of God. The fact that this
place is difficult must mean that God wants him to go there. Finally,
there is a clear sense of irony involved here and expressed openly by
the laughter at the end point of the narrative: The warning against
starting a church in this city comes from an older, more experienced
person, and it comes from a (presumably white) American. Within the
Pentecostal / charismatic oikoumene, both that of organizations like the
World Pentecostal Fellowship and that of informal networks, Americans
still carry special clout. America is where the pentecostal movement
was born, and America is still understood in some ways as a ‘redeemer
nation,’ as a nation specially gifted with a divine calling and power. But
in R.N.’s narrative, it is not the powerful and experienced American,
but the young African who succeeds in planting a church in a “hard
place.” R.N.’s irony is the more poignant as he told this narrative in the
office of his church, situated in a compound of a block of flats, a large
church hall, offices, meeting rooms and an interior courtyard owned by
his ministry. R.N.’s church is easily the best established and wealthiest
of all migrant churches in North Rhine-Westphalia, and R.N. has long
enjoyed enormous stature among anglophone African migrant pastors
all over the country. R.N.’s narrative emphasizes that he achieved all of
this against human advice, and therefore relied solely on divine guid-
ance and power.
As R.N. ended his narrative at this point, the interview contin-
ued with a question for more details about the beginnings of his
church. His detailed answer shows, in paradigmatic ways, how a pente-
costal / charismatic migrant missionary negotiates his place in his Ger-
man environment.
I talked to this Baptist friend, and he—around the same year, he and
this Baptist friend were saying: ‘Oh, we want to start English house
194 chapter four
fellowship—Hauskreis.’ So when I came, he said: ‘Wow, look at it, we have

just begun and we have an English pastor!’ [. . .] I contacted my pastors,
my general superintendents at home, and I told him, we want to begin
a work here. So they told me important was first to start to check all the
foundational work, what is necessary, get in contact with some churches.
So I start to get in contact. I knew this Baptist church, the pastor, an
old man, very Spirit-filled, he was so generous, he welcomed me to the
Baptist church, so I fellowshipped there every Sunday. So I got to know
one other man in a pentecostal church, [. . .] and then gradually I got
to know one other pastor from the Evangelical Church. [. . .] He was
like a father and mentor to me, from the Evangelical Church. So when
I met all these people, I called them and I said: ‘I have something to
share,’ and they gave me audience. And I talked with these three people
[. . .] I told them that ‘I’m a pastor, I’ve been in mission for five years, I
went back home, and the Lord sent me here. I have come, and I want
to establish a community. And I believe, having prayed I believe that
God has sent me first of all to the African or the English community
or some people from my background. The reason why I see it is, from
this short time I have stayed, some of our people don’t have direct access
to the already established German community. Number one, language,
number two, culture, number three, I mean this family thing. So I want
to . . . I have been praying to God to first help me get these people, and
when they have a place, where they can gather themselves together as a
community, they will see the need to be [unintelligible word] and integrated,
to be in a community where they will not be lost, but they see themselves
as part of it. So this is my assignment.’ And they said: ‘Wow, we never
thought of this!’ And then they started to share with me: ‘Yeah, we had
a student here from Kenya, he came to our church for three months, but
we don’t see him again.’ Or another person . . . so they gave me such
testimony. I said: ‘Yeah, this is what I need. I mean, when they are alone,
they don’t fit in, but when they are many, they see themselves as a body,
it’s easy to fit in.’ So they said: ‘We agree, that would be helpful, and
we support.’ [. . .] So I got some papers from those pastors, they signed
that we agree, and I sent my letter from Africa [. . .] so I added it to the
Foreign Office, [. . .] they translated everything for me, and I added it all
for the Ausländeramt. I waited for the response, it took some time, I mean
the whole long process, but eventually, they agreed, it was agreed by the
church, or by the churches in the city, this foreign work is accepted and
it should be done, because they were not doing it officially. And so we
started.
First of all, the Baptist he encountered by introduction turns out
to have just started an international English language house fellow-
ship. The coincidence that within weeks of its inception, an English-
speaking pastor turns up is seen on both sides as clear proof that they
are engaging in a venture that is divinely ordained. We have stated
before how important seemingly chance encounters are within pente-

costal / charismatic narratives, and here we see this importance rein-
forced once again. Secondly, R.N.’s narrative allows us to see how he
moves within both informal, ecumenical networks, and at the same
time relates to a denominational structure at home. Coming from a
denominational church, he was not sent to Germany as a missionary
by that church. Nevertheless, R.N. relates how once he was clear about
where he was led to start his missionary work, he reestablished con-
tact with his denomination and received advice from there. It needs to
be noted that unlike the more charismatic independent R.A. and E.S.,
R.N. is advised by his church leadership to seek contact with existing
churches in Germany and not to start out on his own. If nothing else,
existing churches could help him to put a proper foundation under the
church he was starting.
Thirdly, R.N.’s contacts with different churches result in a friendly
relationship with three pastors from different denominations: A Protes-
tant from the Evangelical Church, a Baptist, and a Pentecostal. He
describes them as older, experienced, mentoring figures. It is to them
that he takes his plan to establish a church for migrant Africans and
other English-speaking expatriates. The way he describes the need for
such a church is very similar to what R.A. related about his missionary
motivation: Migrant Christians have a hard time as they are divided
from the German churches by language, culture, and a different under-
standing of community. The way R.N. describes his plans, he wanted to
found the church with the aim of better integration of these migrants—
the same intention that also drove R.A. to start his church. His three
mentors not only agree to his plan, stating how such a church was
needed and would also support what they were doing, they also work
together to support R.N.’s application for a missionary visa. This sup-
port by three leading pastors in the city was important for R.N. in
several aspects: First of all, their agreement meant an ecumenical and
therefore exceedingly strong confirmation of his missionary call. It may
be due to this confirmation that R.N. did not include a call narrative
in his biographical account, limiting himself to just one or two sen-
tences to describe his feeling of being called to Germany. Furthermore,
it was through efforts of these pastors that R.N. was able to eventu-
ally secure a missionary visa. Unlike all other interviewees, R.N. talks
about the difficulty and the long duration of the visa process, and not
of a miraculously easy experience. Within the logic of his narrative,
the reason for this is obvious: The community of pastors supporting
196 chapter four
his application stands for the divine side—they are the ones who know
God’s plan for the city, while the government authorities symbolize the
world which will always reject the Gospel. The fight between these two
is not an easy one, but after much time and effort, is won to the glory
of God.
Actually, contacts with different German pastors were instrumental
in getting the ministries of all three interviewees in this group going. But
R.N. is the only one who describes not only assistance from German
churches, but something like a contractual link in which he is commis-
sioned for a certain field which the Germans find hard to work them-
selves. The fact that he had built relationships with different denomina-
tions helped R.N.’s church as it grew and had to move locations several
times. R.N. described in some detail how he recruited members for his
church:
We started with a small group. . . . I was attending Volkshochschule [adult
education school], because of the German language. [. . .] If I meet
someone, an African, I ask ‘Do you speak English?’ If he say yes: ‘Can
we share something?’ I gave tracts, I went to the bank hall, I started
visiting some Asylheims, I invited people, praying with people. [. . .] Yeah,
I forgot something: We started with ‘African Christian Fellowship’ for
a short time, then I realized, no, this is not African Christians, it is
international. Because the future is that we don’t want to be separated,
the future is that we want to rather be integrated, we want to be together.
There’ll be some people, Germans, who’ll be interested or who would
know Jesus through our outreach, and if we say ‘Africans,’ it will put
them off. So we changed the name from ‘African Christian Fellowship,’
and it became ‘International Christian Fellowship.’ I have to write also to
the Ordnungsamt [Municipal Office] that the name has changed. So that
is how we have started.
R.N.’s narrative shows him working with African migrants at first,

approaching them in language school, in homes for asylum seekers,
or even in the street. The ‘natural’ thing seems to have been to start
an ‘African’ church, while the insight that the church should be inter-
national came later. Like R.A., R.N. sees his task as working for the
integration of Africans and other migrants. But in addition, he also
develops a perspective to reach out to Germans. Asked about how his
church finally came to buy its own premises, R.N. vividly described
the difficulties migrant churches are facing in terms of rooms even if
they have very friendly host churches: The host church will have spe-
cial programs which force the migrant church to move their Sunday
service to a different venue time and again; furthermore, it is difficult,
when renting rooms from a German church, to have programs dur-

ing the week as the buildings are in use by the Germans. The vision
to have their own building is shared by most migrant churches, but
no other interviewee described as clearly the process by which this is
achieved. R.N.’s church started putting a small amount into a special
bank account every month, and after four years, when a suitable build-
ing became available, had enough money accumulated to be eligible for
a loan, the sum of which equaled the church’s savings. As someone who
has advised a number of churches in their search for a building of their
own, I have been able to witness their negotiations with banks. Usually,
banks are reluctant to loan money to groups of migrants as so many do
not have a stable visa status, and therefore repayment is questionable.
A banker from a Christian bank, at a meeting with migrant pastors,
suggested, as a possible solution, the way R.N.’s International Christian
Fellowship had already modeled, stating that a history of saving with a
bank would greatly enhance the trust into the repayment abilities of a
migrant church.71
R.N.’s account shows that for him, visions and calling do not mean
that he has to drift and let things happen to him, as we have seen in
some of the other narratives. Rather, once a vision is there, he plans
and organizes to make that vision a reality, even if it takes a long time.
Even though he came to Germany without a clear plan and without
an established network, once he knew his call, he methodically went
to work on it. R.N.’s narrative makes do without miracles or strange
happenings; it appears as a level-headed, sober account. Nevertheless,
we have seen that pentecostal / charismatic characteristics can clearly
be established in this account. In his story, R.N. depicts himself as
a respectable, respected, and ecumenically open figure that is able to
negotiate different denominational fields.
4.3.1.4. Summary: Charismatic missionary success stories

To summarize, R.A.’s, E.S.’s and R.N.’s accounts, even though they dif-
fer in style and length, show a number of striking similarities. All three
came to Germany on a clear but vague call, as independent missionar-
ies, even though they had worked in churches (and even, in the cases
of R.A. and R.N., as missionaries abroad!) before. All of them recount
71 At a meeting of list church pastors, 2005.

198 chapter four
how they started their pastoral work within days of their arrival, prepar-
ing themselves solely through prayer. All of them report seminal expe-
riences in meeting with certain Germans who supported and assisted
them. All of them started with very small house fellowship groups that
quickly grew into larger congregations. R.A. and R.N. started out with
a perspective to assist African migrants with their integration in Ger-
many, while E.S. wanted to reach out to Germans. All three ended
up heading large, international, African-majority churches which keep
close contact with German churches and organizations.
4.3.2. Missionaries sent by pentecostal churches

Two of the interviewees, both from Nigeria, were sent to Germany as
missionaries by their respective churches. We will analyze both narra-
tives.
4.3.2.1. J.S.: “I was posted to [ . . .]”72

J.S. is a quiet, soft-spoken Nigerian in his mid-forties who had been
in Germany for about seven years at the time of the interview. With
the clerical collar he prefers to wear in public, he exudes a pastoral
aura. Originally an ordained minister of the Christ Apostolic Church
sent to pastor a rather diasporal congregation of this church in Ger-
many, he has since, with the blessing of the church president, left the
CAC structures to plant a new, missionary church. Since he arrived in
Germany, J.S. has been hoping and looking for closer cooperation with
German churches in evangelizing Germans, but found that the elders
of the CAC congregation did not share his vision. His newly founded,
still very small church is now well networked with German churches
in its surroundings. J.S. is married to a Nigerian; the couple has three
young children.
J.S. started his biographical account with his childhood. Even though
the story remains rather vague and contradictory, it shows some aspects
of a typical missionary narrative. As Jeffrey Swanson73 has shown, many
missionaries tend to begin their missionary call narratives with child-
72 J.S.’s full expatriation narrative can be found in the Appendix. I interviewed him
at his home on 29 March 2006.

73 Echoes of the Call. Identity and Ideology Among American Missionaries in
Ecuador, New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995, pp. 36 ff.

hood reminiscences. Interestingly, only three of the interviewees in this

study spoke about their childhood, and only J.S. included concrete
childhood stories. In talking about their childhood, Swanson’s inter-
viewees depict themselves as “set apart” early on, and in hindsight see
this as preparation for their missionary service. Such set-apartness can
also be observed in J.S.’s account: He describes himself as an under-
nourished, weak and troubled child (even though the troubles are never
explained) whose mother fights for his life. Conversely, J.S. recounts
how as a one-year old, he was able to convince a traditional healer to
treat his mother’s blindness free of charge, thereby becoming instru-
mental to his mother’s healing. Even though his account is rather
obscure, we can ascertain that J.S. saw himself as a special child, both in
his troubles and in precociousness. In any case, the repeated injections
of “I thank God for . . .” put the narrative of his early, pre-Christian
life within the framework of a greater, divine plan. Consequently, his
account of his conversion to Christianity is recounted rather matter-of-
factly, ending with a short remark about his “zeal to serve the Lord”
which replaces a story of pastoral calling, and a listing of the different
churches he passed through on his way to becoming a pastor of Christ
Apostolic Church.74 As the narrative was so brief, the interview contin-
ued with a question for more details of his expatriation, to which J.S.
said:
I came to Germany through Christ Apostolic Church, and this happened
when some of our fathers, they visited Germany and discovered that
some of our brothers and sisters, they don’t go to church. And some
way or other they are complaining because they don’t understand the
language, they don’t . . . so the church authority prayed, and you know,
decided that they will have foreign mission. [. . .] I would say this is the
call that God give to the founder to this church, Apostle Ayo Babalola,75
who God gave a revelation that the church will be planted all over
74 Christ Apostolic Church Nigeria is one of the larger classical Pentecostal churches
in Nigeria and, with missionaries abroad, describes itself as a worldwide church. See
www.cacworldwide.net, accessed 22 September 2008.
75 For more information on Babalola, see A. Anderson, African Reformation.
African Initiated Christianity in the 20th Century. Trenton, NJ / Asmara, Eritrea:

Africa World Press 2001, pp. 86 f., and also the four articles in the Dictionary of
African Christian Biography, www.dacb.org/stories/nigeria/babalola1_joseph.html to
www.dacb.org/stories/nigeria/babalola4_joseph.html, accessed on 11 October 2006.
E.H.L. Olusheye’s Mysterious Legacies of Apostle J.A. Babalola, Ibadan: Gideon
Global Publications 2004, is a hagiography for use within the CAC, but still a useful
source of information. Olusheye is the current President of the CAC.
200 chapter four
the world, and it started in Africa, in Ghana, in Sierra Leone, all over
in Africa, before they started moving overseas, through some of the
members of the church who traveled overseas, and so the church began
widespread abroad through members of the church that came abroad.
Rather than telling a personal expatriation story, J.S. answers the inter-
view question with a narrative about how the ‘foreign mission’ of Christ
Apostolic Church came into being. The account gives a double reason-
ing: First of all, the mission was started because the church leader-
ship found out that church members who had moved abroad found it
impossible to integrate to a local church there. Secondly, this mission
was then understood as the fulfillment of a vision given to the church
founder that the church would spread worldwide. As this narrative did
not include anything about J.S.’s personal expatriation, he was asked
about how he was chosen to be sent to Germany. Again, the answer
was general rather than personal:
Yes, the issue is that most of us, when we hear of overseas, we’re excited,
and we really want to go, because we think that one will be better off,
so to say, because one way or the other, it might be more comfortable.
From our thinking . . . until you get to the field, you really have to face
the challenges there. That’s one of the things that we don’t take into
cognizance, that living abroad has some challenges, even though it might
look very good from outside, to live and stay abroad is not as easy as we
thought from the beginning. So I would say, part of it will be to spread
the good news of God, and at the same time to see yourself better off,
so to say, you are abroad and so . . .. Until when you get down here that
you begin to face some of the challenges.
Through the general musings, a personal story can be detected: J.S.
came to Europe not simply to spread the Gospel, but also with the
expectation that his life would be better. In a kind of inverted ‘mis-
sionary heroism’ motive, he then discovered that life here was actually
much harder than he expected. Asked again how he was chosen to go
to Germany, J.S. said:
Actually, the church here was in operation before I came. So, but they’re
in need of a pastor. And so they wrote a letter to the church in Nigeria
that they require a pastor. And also they have some contact here with
people who are very familiar with me in Nigeria, so they made the
contact, and I said . . . you know, just like ‘We know somebody and he’s
okay,’ and then I went to the President, and he said: ‘Why, if everything
will be okay for you, whatever it requires, let us go and do it.’ And so
they processed my missionary visa to travel abroad. That was in the year
1999.
This short account throws some light about how a denominational

church in Nigeria chose a missionary to go abroad. Obviously, J.S. was
asked to serve as a pastor in Germany by acquaintances of his already
in the country. The expatriates requested a pastor from the church
leadership, and J.S. himself talked to the church president about this.
As the story goes, there was no general discussion or any deliberation
about mission policy and the qualification of staff to be sent abroad, or
any kind of preparation for missionary service. Rather, after ensuring
that J.S. wanted to go to Germany himself, the president of the church
just concurred with what had been asked for. Therefore, unlike in the
case of the charismatic independent interviewees, J.S.’s missionary visa
was processed by his home church. He clearly is a denominational
missionary sent by a church which is extending its reach beyond the
borders of its home country. During the interview, J.S. declined to speak
about his difficulties with policies of Christ Apostolic Church, reports of
which he had shared with me private conversations before. From these
conversations, the impression was gained that Christ Apostolic Church
was strongly trying to maintain its Nigerian identity, while J.S. and
other pastors abroad were lobbying for a more inculturated approach.
As J.S. felt that he could not successfully work as a missionary within
the framework of an existing CAC congregation, he finally moved out
with permission from his church leaders to start a new congregation
which is only loosely attached to the CAC.
4.3.2.2. A.O.: “We would go into the world”76

A.O., who is in his late thirties, is another Nigerian sent to Germany as
a missionary by a denominational pentecostal church, the Redeemed
Christian Church of God. Tall, confident, well-dressed and with a first-
rate command of German, he looks every inch the successful expatri-
ate. Trained in engineering and with an M.B.A., he is the only intervie-
wee who has found a qualified, well-paid secular job in Germany. It did
not surprise me that for our interview, he chose an elegant café close to
his workplace where he obviously was a regular customer. A.O is mar-
ried to a British citizen of Nigerian descent; the couple has two young
children. The new church he started after first serving in an existing
parish is consciously international, but still very small. A.O. has excel-
76 A.O.’s full expatriation narrative can be found in the Appendix. I interviewed him
in a café close to his workplace on 21 December 2005.

202 chapter four
lent contacts with the Protestant congregation which hosts his church,
and with other Protestant pastors in his city. Not long after the inter-
view, A.O. was transferred to a city in Eastern Germany by his German
employer, and promptly started a new missionary church there.
A.O. spoke in great detail about how things developed in his church
as well as in his personal life before he went abroad, beginning with
his conversion story which already shows several elements that will con-
tinue to work as a red thread through his whole biographical narrative.
Firstly, he established, right from the start, an ironic distance from the
usual framework of such narratives: “I started off as a good person.
I never really stopped myself to be bad.” A.O. knows that conversion
stories move from the bad past to the good present, but he refuses to
play along with such a simplistic division. Further on, we will see him
repeat such operations. They serve to emphasize his self-depiction as
an intelligent, highly educated, professional person who thinks for him-
self rather than buying into pre-conceived religious notions. He is not
like others—“I stood out”—and therefore becomes a leader quickly.
His move from the Anglican Church to Redeemed Christian Church of
God therefore becomes a logical move from a traditional (elite) church
to a young, vibrant elitist church.
So we [he and his wife] got there [the Redeemed Christian Church of
God], we met a man [laughs out loud] which we call a ‘crazy man’ called
pastor V., he is very educated, very learned, very intelligent man, and
he could bring a group of adults, 300 professionals together—and which
is a feat of its own because professionals [laughing] are very difficult to
control! [. . .] and shared a vision with us, a vision that Pastor Adeboye77
had, a vision of taking the Gospel into the whole world, the vision of
reaching out into other cultures, a vision, that only people like us could
do, because, one, we were young, two, we were educated, three, we could
take up the challenge, four, we could go into different cultures and fit in.
A.O. describes his congregation and its pastor like he describes himself:
educated, learned, intelligent, and professional. By calling the pastor,
whom he clearly respects, a “crazy man,” he again introduces an
77 E.A. Adeboye is the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of
God, one of the fastest-growing Nigerian Pentecostal churches. Adeboye, a former lec-
turer in Mathematics, is a sought after speaker and known and respected in Nigeria
well beyond the borders of his own church. His Holy Ghost Nights, held once a month
on a huge prayer ground on the Lagos-Ibadan Highway, draw up to a million partic-
ipants. See the church website at www.rccg.org which also has videos and radio. For
a hagiographic biography, see www.onlinenigeria.com/links/Adeboyeadv.asp?blurb=
588, accessed 22 December 2006.
element of ironic distancing into his narrative. The pastor is not crazy;
he simply presents the missionary vision to his congregation. The way
A.O. recounts it, this pastor followed the old, established patterns of
missionary heroism in trying to interest and challenge his congregation.
Mission was not something old-fashioned; rather, it was a challenge for
young, educated, interculturally open people. A.O.’s narrative ties in
with the self-image the RCCG has been promoting, namely that it is
a kind of elite force slated to evangelize the whole world within this
generation.78 In Nigeria, the RCCG is popularly known as the ‘Lion’s
Club Church’, as so many of its members are prominent bankers,
lawyers, business people and high-ranking government employees.79
A.O. then continued his story by turning it into a typical missionary
call narrative:
So, and then he kept on showing us things that God had said, really, I
looked at that from a far distance and said: ‘This vision is good, but I
don’t think I’m part of this [laughs], because I’m staying here, I have all
my roots in [Nigeria], I’ll succeed here,’ and so one day, he said: ‘You
see, we have a church in Germany that needs a pastor. Go there for
three months. If you don’t like it, come back.’ And about that time, I
was setting up something like a consultancy, which was always my desire
[. . .] So he said: ‘Before you set up something of your own, just take the
time off, go to Germany for three months, see how it is. If you don’t like
it, then come back and, and then we’ll see how it goes,’ you know. So, so
I came to Germany, and I’m still in Germany today [smiles].
One of the elements of a missionary call narrative is the ambivalence

between the attraction of the call and the fear to actually submit to it.80
This can be found here, but, as before, tempered by a somewhat ironic
distance. The way A.O. tells it, his pastor was able to deal with such
an attitude extremely well: Rather than telling him that God had called
78 On the evangelism policy of the RCCG, also see Währisch-Oblau, Claudia,
Mission und Migration(skirchen), in: Dahling-Sander, Christoph; Schulte, Andrea;

Werner, Dietrich; Wrogemann, Henning (eds.), Leitfaden Ökumenische Missionsthe-
ologie, Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser / Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2003, pp. 363–383, which
extensively quotes from policy papers of the RCCG.
79 For an in-depth analysis of this church, see Asonzeh Franklin-Kennedy Ukah, The
Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Nigeria. Local Identities and Global
Processes in African Pentecostalism. Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades an
der Kulturwissenschaftlich Fakultät der Universität Bayreuth, 17.12.2003. Available
under http://opus.ub.uni-bayreuth.de/volltexte/2004/73/pdf/Ukah.pdf, accessed on
1 December 2006.
80 See Swanson, Echoes of the Call. Identity and Ideology Among American Mis-
sionaries in Ecuador, New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995, p. 87.
204 chapter four
him to be a missionary, he simply suggested that he should try out how

he might like working in a church in Germany. To go to Germany
for three months is made to sound like a little escapade, an adventure
that one goes for before settling down for something more serious. A.O.
phrases his narrative not in pentecostal language, but rather in that of
a slightly amused, slightly cynical, educated and enlightened person.
He obviously does not want to sound like a ‘crazy’ pentecostal. In
his description of his first months in Germany, A.O. again shows the
typical characteristics that distinguish him from the other interviewees:
So I came in for three months, and started off with the work. My view
had always been, or my vision had always been the one Pastor V. had
shared with us, that is, we would go into the world, and we would make
disciples of men. So when I got into Germany, I saw that you can’t make
disciples in Germany, because you have a barrier, you have a language
barrier—that’s the biggest barrier that I supposed I saw. If you don’t
understand the language, if you don’t understand the culture, you don’t
have a thing . . . you don’t know what’s going on. So, if you want this
missionary thing, if you want to make disciples in Germany, you have
to speak the language well. My wife is British, and when we came, we
were told that she had to register, she had to, because she is a European
citizen, she had to register with the foreign department. Well, when we
got to the foreign department, they told us: ‘Both of you have to register,
because you are married. And, what we do when you register, we give
you a 3-month stay permit, and then if you want to stay longer, you come
back and we’ll give you a 5-year stay permit, and then you can work
here, you have the—whaddayou call it—Arbeitserlaubnis [work permit],
you have the, eh, Aufenthaltsbefugnis or Erlaubnis [two kinds of residence
permit] to stay in Germany.’ So we went there to, to get the 3 months,
and then we continued.
A.O. was the only pentecostal interviewee who, in his biographical

narrative, spoke so clearly about the cultural and language barriers to
being a missionary. Even though he came to pastor a diasporal church,
he saw himself as reaching out beyond Nigerians in Germany, and
therefore acknowledged a need for more time and preparation. This
part of the narrative also contains the motif of ease in obtaining a visa
to stay in Germany we have already observed in several other accounts.
In this story, though, this ease is not ascribed to any divine miracle;
it is simply explained by the fact that A.O.’s wife is a British citizen.
In the course of the narrative, mentioning this fact emphasizes again
that A.O. does not see himself as an ordinary South-North migrant.
He comes from the elite and moves within the elite; consequently, why
should Germany reject him?
I still felt, well, maybe I wasn’t going to stay here for long, maybe I was
going back, so well, but I mean, have the leeway to decide whether I’m
going to stay or go back. So then things happened that caused us to stay.
[. . .] There was no other person that would be in B., if I left, so I was
kind of, like hooked up there, being the only one there to continue the
work there. But I didn’t like the setting [. . .], it was full of diplomats, and
I didn’t think [laughs] that I would be called to diplomats, to people who
were focused on having a group of themselves. I felt I would be called
to a group of people that live here, and not people who are posted to
Germany for two years and go back to their different countries. So, after
a while, I told the General Overseer I wouldn’t stay in B., so he should
get somebody who would stay in B., but we would stay in Germany, we
would settle down in Germany, and set up a parish and look at how to
reach out to people in Germany. So, he agreed to that, and sent someone
in, and we moved to K., so that’s how we ended up in K., because then
we would start off afresh.
Again, this narrative is striking in that it doesn’t follow typically pen-
tecostal patterns. No mentioning of a call or an inner longing, a bur-
den or a vision. Rather, A.O. looks pragmatically at the situation and
decides what he wants to do. The only time he mentions a call, he does
so in a distanced way: “I felt I would be called to a group of people
that live here . . .” Being sent through a church structure, A.O. had to
get permission from his General Overseer to do what he wanted to do.
This again is told in a pragmatic, matter-of-fact way. A.O. narrates his
account so that it makes sense in a Western, rationalist paradigm. This
also shows as he continues:
I also observed that we had to learn the language very well, otherwise
we would start off a church and it would be in English. [. . .] But I
felt the first thing was to learn German. So I invested . . . we invested
a lot of money learning the language, [. . .] I did the exam called the
PSH, the final level of German speakers [grins], I got into the university
because I felt I could make it better, further my education, and also
learn the language speaking to the other students and make it better.
I do a Ph.D., a doctorate in political science [. . .] And then with the
speaking of the language, we then started to have contact with the
German congregations. [. . .] As I could go and talk, I could apply, I
could speak right [. . .]. I can go into a place and confidently express
myself in German, maybe teach in German, preach in German, pray a
bit in German, so building up that contact to the society itself. We’re
looking at, in the future, doing more things in German, and also in
English, but basically moving into what we really are, which is to be a
missionary church, to reach out to the German society and environment,
and that’s where we are now.
206 chapter four
A.O., though asking that this interview be conducted in English,

actually speaks fluent, almost perfect, very little accented German. His
approach to mission in Germany here seems rational and planned,
taking into account a careful analysis of the situation. This again ties in
with the self-image that has been established throughout the narrative:
A.O. is not some ‘spooky’ pentecostal, but an educated, intelligent
person who can meet any European on an intellectual level. This is
underscored by his mentioning, in passing, that he is working on a PhD
in political science—a move highly unusual for a pentecostal pastor,
and by his emphasis on how much time and money he spent to improve
his language skills before actually starting evangelism work. This shows
how different his approach was from that of R.A. and E.S., both of
whom started evangelizing with a few days of their arrival:
It was a phase of about three years of just going to language school,
looking for a job, I mean just basically breaking into the society before
actually doing church work or evangelistic work or missionary work.
A.O., in very pragmatic terms, also detailed how he prepared to live in
Germany long-term. Realizing the cost of sending a missionary from
Nigeria to Germany, he decided to forego funding from home and
rather stand on his own feet. The way A.O. tells his story, he could
be any young person moving abroad for an intercultural adventure. He
is the only interviewee who talks about having to take care of himself
financially in such matter-of-fact ways—all other interviewees either do
not mention finances, leaving the listener with the unspoken assump-
tion that God took care of them, or they talk about financial difficulties
in passing, using them to establish the motif of missionary hardship and
heroism. So far, A.O.’s narrative made do without any kind of theologi-
cal or spiritual reasoning. But this changed as he continued:
I always felt [laughs]—I . . . just happen to be here, happen to be the
person, but [. . .] I saw that God must have prepared me for this sort of
thing. I looked at, first the language; I found out that I picked it up very
quickly. [. . .] And two, I could understand it because of the background
that I had educationally. I know people that have problems with the
language, not because it’s a difficult language, but because educationally,
they’ve not been developed to be able to understand [. . .]. And thirdly,
I see myself, I would say, an optimist in the sense that: I came, I saw
the situation, I saw how difficult it would be, and . . . but [. . .] it could
be done [. . .]. I, looking back, believe God must have also seen that
[. . .] if this man puts himself to it, he can do it. And so, making a
tent [. . .] because you, you use the tent to, to finance yourself, [. . .] to
make everyone happy [laughs], and then you, like Apostle Paul did, also
then try to evangelize and do the church work. [. . .] Actually, Apostle

Paul was someone I studied very well, he’s my mentor, he’s . . . and
incidentally, he came to Europe as well from Jerusalem, you know. And
he was able to go into cultures; he was able to mission, to evangelize
in various cultures. And I looked at his background [. . .] I tried to see:
Do I have some of the things, the character he has that allowed him
to do that what he did? And I found out, yes, [. . .] the language was
necessary, because Apostle Paul could communicate in this language as
well, citizenship also, education as well. Also his passion to read and to
understand the principles of spiritual things, so I see myself similar to
him in some ways.
After a long, rational and pragmatic report, we now get a theological

interpretation of what has happened. Interestingly, A.O. is not using the
experience that something that should have been very difficult turns out
to be easy to then deduce that this shows that whatever happened must
have been God’s will, as other interviews did. Rather, he acknowledges
the difficulties of “breaking into German society.” But he feels that he
is up to this complicated task, and therefore believes that this is what
God wants him to do. The elitist self-perception that he was first taught
by his pastor in Lagos comes to fruition here: The task is difficult, but
he is qualified to tackle it, and God must have known this, therefore
it is God who sent him here. The way A.O. compares himself with
the Apostle Paul also shows that he is not shy to acknowledge his own
capabilities. His image of Paul is that of a highly educated, bi-lingual
intellectual who is capable of intercultural communication, and who
works at understanding what really moves the world (“the principles of
spiritual things”), i.e. he sees Paul’s theological reasoning as a kind of
higher understanding. It is in this image that A.O. strives to develop his
own personality. More than all other accounts analyzed so far, A.O.’s
narrative is that of an expatriate: An educated man who moves between
cultures due to his abilities, financially well-off and with a clear sense of
what he wants to achieve.
4.3.2.3. Summary: Missionaries sent by pentecostal churches

The two narratives analyzed above show not only differences in per-
sonality, but also the very different missionary styles of the two Nige-
rian pentecostal churches. While Christ Apostolic Church comes across
as not really having any missionary policy, with the leadership simply
reacting, without a lot of considerations, to requests from members
abroad, the Redeemed Christian Church of God is depicted as actively
208 chapter four
developing a missionary vision in its members and rationally develop-

ing policies and practices. The elitist self-understanding of the RCCG
which could also be glimpsed in the interview with B.A.81 is clearly visi-
ble also in the style of its operations in Germany: Where most migrant
congregations meet in rented church halls or old factory buildings, the
RCCG prefers city halls and hotel ballrooms for its worship services
and conventions.
4.3.3. Concluding remarks: Expatriation as consequence of the call

The five accounts we have analyzed in this section, even though they
differ widely in style and length, do show a number of commonalities:
All narrators had a clear call to be ministers in Germany before they
traveled here. Interestingly, none of the interviewees mentioned any
doubts or second thoughts after arriving in Germany. Unlike the narra-
tives in section 4.2, the accounts in this section describe lives lived in a
straight line, rather than on a winding path. Even where difficulties and
setbacks are mentioned, they are quickly overcome. Doubts and ques-
tions are not admitted. These narrators have no need to legitimize their
calling; their call is an unquestioned given, proven either by their suc-
cess or by their appointment through an international church structure.
4.4. Pastoral call and expatriation not connected
Four interviewees told expatriation narratives which show that they do

not connect their pastoral call and their expatriation. Even though all
of them understand themselves as missionaries, they do not recount a
‘missionary call’ to a certain country or place. Rather, each of them
simply finds him- or herself in Germany without attaching any spiritual
meaning to his being here.
4.4.1. V.K.: “For me it was so wonderful to go to Germany” 82

V.K. is an exuberant Black Brazilian woman in her early fifties. With
her dark, gravelly voice and her loud laugh she exudes self-confidence
81 See chapter 4.2.4.1.

82 V.K.’s full and very detailed expatriation narrative can be found in the Appendix.
I interviewed her in her church meeting room on 28 November 2005.
and an easy charm. V.K. is married to a German with whom she

has two teenage children, and with whom she runs an import-export
company dealing in German-Brazilian trade. V.K.’s church, which has
about 50 members, consists mainly of Brazilian women and their chil-
dren. Many of these women are married to Germans, but only a few
husbands have joined the church, even though all church activities are
held bilingually in Portuguese and German, sometimes also with trans-
lation into English. V.K. did a one-year course at a Rhema Bible School
in Germany, and is well connected into the Rhema network, while at
the same time also actively seeking contacts to the Protestant churches
in her city. V.K. has been a very active participant in the UEM pro-
gram, and is particularly interested in joining workshops and seminars
with German pastors with whom she develops an easy rapport despite
her strong Word of Faith theology. V.K. insisted that we do the inter-
view in English, which she considers her “spiritual language,” though
she speaks good German.
Of all the interviewees, V.K. told the most detailed life story. In
chapter 3.2.6, we already analyzed the later part of it, the call into
and the founding of her ministry. Here, we will look at what she told
about her coming to Germany. Her narrative is extraordinarily detailed
in some aspects and clearly composed. With her first few sentences,
V.K. firmly establishes her life story within the genre of conversion
testimonies.83
I born a family of 15 children, my mother was a Catholic, my father has
no religion, he was dealing with the spiritism that time when I born, and
I grew up. My family very warm, but I never have kind of teaching of
God’s word. I never had a Bible in my house.
As conversion testimonies strongly play on the contrast between the
‘before’ and the ‘after,’ the scene is set: V.K. grew up without any
religious education, and just learned some rudimentary prayers from
83 For a concise discussion about the research of conversion narratives, see Ulrike
Popp-Baier, Narrating Embodied Aims. Self-Transformation in Conversion Narratives

—A Psychological Analysis, in: Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social
Research [Online Journal], 2(3), May. Available at: www.qualitative/research.net/fqs/fqs-
english.htm. Date of Access 16 April 2007. Ulrike Popp-Baier, Conversion as a Social
Construction: A Narrative Approach to Conversion Research, in: C.A.M. Hermans,
G. Immink, A. de Jong & J. van der Lans (eds.): Social Constructionism and Theology,
Leiden, Brill Academic Publishers: 2002, and Hetty Zock, Paradigms in Psychological
Conversion Research between Social Science and Literary Analysis, in: J.N. Bremmer,
W.J. van Bekkum & A.L. Molendijk (eds.): Paradigms, Poetics, and Politics of Conver-
sion, Leuven: 2006 give good insights into the history of conversion (narrative) research.
210 chapter four
her mother. From there, the story develops, and the informed listener
already knows that he or she is in for a depiction of a sinful and
depraved life which was then fundamentally changed by the conver-
sion experience.84 But V.K. heightens the literary tension by starting
out on a much more positive note. She depicts herself as a poor, but
bright and very ambitious girl who makes the most of every opportu-
nity that arises. (The upward mobility which has been diagnosed for
so many members of Latin American pentecostal / charismatic church
members85 is clearly visible here, a long time before her conversion.)
V.K. recounts how she worked herself out of her dire poverty and even
managed to go to university. As her material circumstances improved,
migration became an option.
I start getting money here and there, then, one time, around ’79, I came
to Germany, with 1,300 dollars in my pocket. [. . .] For me it was so
wonderful to go to Germany! [laughs] Many people were asking me:
Why Germany? Because I lived in [Brazil], where they have Volkswagen,
all this big company from Germany. There, I used to know a lot of
Germans, German restaurants, German people, and also, I used to have
. . . the Deutsche Schäferhund [German Shepherd]. I used to have a little
place and I used to sell dogs. I put in the newspaper, in the German
newspaper: I go to a place, I tell them, they put it in the newspaper, in
German, and all of the Germans should buy my dogs. I used to get a
very good money! That’s how I started to have feelings for Germany.
V.K. traveled to Germany with a one-way ticket, even though she had
no plan what she was going to do once she had arrived. It is here
that the first intimation creeps into the narrative that this is not a
life that simply moves from poverty to riches. In talking of her first
trip to Germany, V.K. establishes herself as a naïve, adventurous girl
who easily might have fallen into a moral disaster. Even though she
creates the impression of having moved around in a foreign country
with astonishing ease, having found people to help her at every step,
84 Conversion stories, particularly in a charismatic / Pentecostal context, are perfor-

mative, i.e. they are told and retold. Their performance is part of a ritual in which a
religious group reassures itself about its values and aims. See also Stromberg, Peter G.,
Language and self-transformation. A study of the Christian conversion narrative. New
York: Cambridge University Press 1993.
85 See, for example, Michael Bergunder (ed.), Pfingstbewegung und Basisgemeinden
in Lateinamerika. Studienheft Weltmission heute Nr. 39, Hamburg: Evangelisches Mis-

sionswerk in Deutschland 2000, and Andrew Chesnut, Born Again in Brazil. The Pen-
tecostal Boom and the Pathogens of Poverty. New Brunswick / New Jersey / London:
Rutgers University Press 1997.
she is never very far from disaster. Following a strange man whom she
met on the train, she is almost gang-raped at night. Without language
abilities, and working without the proper papers, she might have easily
gotten into serious trouble. It is this constant possibility of disaster that
keeps the narrative flowing and the literary tension high: This girl is
going to take a fall, but how and when will it happen?
Just two observations on the side: Firstly, in her narrative, V.K.
describes (and we have also seen this in other narratives) an almost
instinctive solidarity between migrants in Germany. Marginalized and
overlooked by the indigenous population, they quickly identify each
other and help out even if they themselves have few means to do so.
Secondly, up to this point, V.K.’s story is a travel adventure rather than
an expatriation narrative. She centers on the strange things happening
to her during her first few days, just summarizing the following months
of probably boring work. In addition, her motivation for travel is noth-
ing more than a sense of adventure and curiosity.
V.K. maintains the tension as she continues her story. Things are still
going well for her. After six months in Germany, she returns to Brazil
to finish her education, and after getting her degree, she returns for yet
another German adventure. Here, she meets some Africans who tickle
her interest in this continent:
I got crazy for Africa. Then I went to Africa! Look at me! [laughs] In ’84,
I just went to Africa. I went to Nigeria. I lived three years in Nigeria.
I am the kind of person who never stop anywhere. I went to Nigeria, I
met many people, many Brazilians, they give me a job in the embassy.
Then I met many Americans [. . .] they give me a job like . . . I can say
a secret service. I work for them, I can say somehow I have a specific
job to do for them. Because I am black, but I was not African. And I
was not American. They need somebody who fits for that job for them.
[. . .] Then I have diplomatic car. Everything was wonderful for me; all
the doors open for me. I travel the whole of Africa, 21 countries, from
Nigeria all over to Ethiopia, to Addis Abbeba, all over! I know many
things, I work for them, I was very well paid, I had a diplomatic car,
I go all the parts diplomatic, I was VIP, and I have the contacts with
the Germans, Lufthansa, I travel all over the world with the Lufthansa
people. [. . .] Then I travel all over without paying anything! Then my
life was in God’s hands. One day, about ’87, I saw a program—I have
no cocktail Saturday. I was living in Lagos, because Monday to Sunday,
they were having cocktail parties, I was in all of them . . . [laughs]
V.K.’s narrative is slowly moving towards its climax. Her adventures
continue, her material life keeps getting better. V.K. is vague about
what she does to earn money, but concrete about the perks and
212 chapter four
privileges she enjoys. Here, we can clearly see the trappings of a con-
version narrative: V.K. is obviously well-off and privileged, but she lives
a rather dissipated life. For pentecostals who usually strongly object to
the consumption of any kind of alcohol, daily participation in cocktail
parties would symbolize the height of depravity. V.K., who has worked
herself up out of deepest poverty, has not found in her financial success
what life really is all about. She may be materially rich and having an
adventurous life, but spiritually she is poor—otherwise she would not
need alcohol. And now, the narrative comes to its turning point: “And
then my life was in God’s hands.” With this sentence, V.K. introduces
the dramatic event of her conversion:
But one day, they had no party, no cocktail [laughs]. Then I watched tele-
vision, but television in Nigeria was really nothing, then I just have some
noise in my house. Then, suddenly, a man said: ‘You, I am speaking to
you! God has a message for you!’ Then I say: ‘To me?’ And I really
start to laugh. And he said—and I was going here and there and I come
back—and he said again: ‘You, still God wants to speak to you!’ Then
I sit down, I say: ‘Oh really, if God wants to speak to me, I really want
to see!’ I challenge. And he say: ‘You come and see what God have for
you.’ And gave the address, and I went. That place, was very heavy in
Nigeria, because they had this kind of a political situation, they kill [. . .]
I learnt that place I supposed not to go to that place. [. . .] When I saw
where I was I said ‘my goodness, I cannot move now, because when I
turn my car, they are going to shot me. What can I do?’ Then I start
to say: ‘My God, help me!’ Then come, from nowhere, come one little
boy, he started to smile, then I open my door, I say ‘I am looking for the
American school, where they have Sunday service.’ And he didn’t speak,
he just show. Show me like that, and I turn, go to the next gate. The way
he show me I understood, then I turn my car, shake myself, and I went,
it was the next gate, perhaps 600 meter or one kilometer, it was the next
gate. Then I sit down in the last place, I stay there quiet. I said ‘not me,
let me just see what the people are doing.’ [. . .] The man asked: ‘Who
want to accept Christ?’ And I stay very quiet. Then my girl friend say:
‘She wants to accept Jesus Christ.’ And she pulled me. [. . .] I couldn’t
say one word, I just shaking my head. And he pray for me, and I feel
like two hands leaving my heart. And I accept Christ. On Tuesday, I was
really crazy for Jesus. Oh, how I love you, Jesus! My goodness! Breakfast,
lunch and dinner, I did everything with Christ. I have the understanding
about salvation, like he got open for me, everything about him. The first
time, I have a Bible. Then I bought my Bible. I finally read, I started to
read it from Genesis to Revelation, every time I read it, you don’t know
how many times, I love the word! Really, I’m crazy for the word! I say:
‘Lord, nevermore I’m going to leave you, and I’m going to say to every-
body about you. I nevermore I go back the way I was before.’ [. . .] Then
I have a promise between me and Jesus: I’m going to tell everybody your
words. Then I start in my house. Then I come back to Germany. It was
September, 27th of September, 1987.
Like many pentecostal conversion narratives, V.K.’s story has a cer-
tain miraculous aspect. God simply speaks to her, out of the blue, at a
moment when she is not distracted by a party. The motif of God speak-
ing through the mouth of a television preacher is not uncommon in
pentecostal / charismatic narratives,86 and we have also encountered it
in D.A.’s narrative. Also typically for a conversion narrative, V.K. does
not immediately repent, but rather resists the attempt at converting her.
She first laughs off the challenge by the television preacher, but then
decides to go to his church after all. Interestingly, on her way to church,
V.K. finds herself yet again in a dangerous situation. Obviously caught
between government soldiers and an insurrectionist group, she fears for
her life—and starts to pray. Immediately, a miracle happens: A little
boy materializes “from nowhere,” smiles at her and shows her where to
go. The assumption is clear: God has sent an angel to save and direct
her.
The report of V.K.’s eventual conversion is somewhat convoluted. It
is not quite clear how long she has been attending church when her
friend volunteers her during an altar call. But the rest of the story
follows the established pattern of a conversion narrative. Somewhat
shocked and surprised by her friend putting her forward, she is unable
to protest. In other conversion narratives, the narrators might talk
about “being pulled forward towards the altar.” This serves to empha-
size the fact that it is God acting in this conversion, not the narrator
him- or herself. V.K. continues to follow the established conversion nar-
rative pattern: As the preacher prays for her, something happens: “I
feel like two hands leaving my heart.” This is a typical motif: At the
moment of conversion, the converted person feels strongly at peace,
intense joy, a power flowing through her or his body, or some sense of
becoming unburdened. And finally, and constitutionally for a conver-
sion story, V.K. describes that her life is immediately and dramatically
changed. Overnight, she is in love with Jesus, she reads the Bible, she
understands the difference between her new faith and other religious
paths she has tried out, and she wants to become an evangelist.
86 TV preachers make much of testimonies attesting to this fact, as can be seen, for
example, in Kenneth Copeland’s magazine, Believers’ Voice of Victory.

214 chapter four
Just at the end of this part of her narrative, V.K. adds one sentence:
“Then I come back to Germany.” We never learn why she decided to
move back here, or how she arranged for a visa. She is simply back.
Again, we have an expatriation rather than an immigration narrative:
V.K. is a glamorous traveler who moves where she likes to go, without
any of the difficulties which would normally be encountered by a poor
person moving to a rich country.
Now that she has become a Christian, God continues to act in her
life through dreams and revelations. V.K. tells how she meets her future
husband, and gets married to him just two months later. Rejecting the
unspoken assumption that she just married him to be able to stay in
Germany,87 she recounts that she had already been shown this man in
a dream, and had understood that Jesus meant her to marry him. She
no longer acts impulsively, out of a sense of adventure as she did before,
but rather follows divine guidance.
V.K. continues her narrative as an expatriation narrative. She moves
back to Brazil with her husband, then back to Germany, and around
Germany. Nowhere in her narrative do we get a sense that she felt
called as a missionary or even simply led to Germany. While dreams
and visions often tell her what to do next at crucial points in her life,
the question of where she is located does not seem to carry the same
importance: She simply moves around as she likes. Therefore, we can
conclude that for V.K., the dimension of being called is limited to the
relational sphere of her ministry, but not to its location. V.K. has a call
to certain people, not to a particular place. In her moving, she seems
to have looked for a church that was lively and vibrant, but not for an
ethnic church. In one place, she attended a German church, in another,
an American one. Nationalities seem not to have been important to her.
Nevertheless, the American connection is quite obvious in V.K.’s
case. The church where she got converted seems to have been Amer-
ican. Later, V.K. attended Rhema Bible School (connected to Ken-
neth Hagin Ministries), an American ministry. Finally, V.K., who speaks
good German, insisted that she should have the interview done in
English, since this was her ‘spiritual’ language. Before the tape recorder
was switched on, she said that God always spoke to her in English,
87 As a Brazilian, Koch could stay in Germany without a visa for a maximum of
three months, and would likely not have gotten an extension. Anecdotal evidence over
the years points to the fact that marriages of convenience may be quite common in
Pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches.
never in Portuguese or German. A throwaway remark in her narrative,

“full of the Holy Spirit, you know how the Americans are,” points to an
understanding of American neo-pentecostal Christianity as exemplary.
But among the interviewees, V.K. is the only one who confesses to such
a strong American influence on her spirituality.
4.4.2. A.M.,88 P.S., I.A.: Asylum in Germany

A.M., a man in his early forties, came to Germany from the DR
Congo. Self-confident but reserved, he runs one of the oldest Franco-
phone churches in Western Germany which has seen a number of splits
and upheavals. Currently it has about 100 members who mostly come
from the DR Congo, Angola or Cameroon. There is a strong, bilingual
youth group which plays an important role in the church. A.M. is mar-
ried to a woman from Congo with whom he has two small children.
He has long had very good contacts to Protestant churches and pastors
in the city where his church is located, and has been very active in the
UEM program.
A.M. was obviously reluctant to talk about details of his expatriation.
The introductory interview question about how he had become a
pastor in Germany elicited some information about his pastoral work
in the DR Congo. He then continued:
When I got here—I came here as an evangelist, and therefore I had to,
first of all—that’s normal—learn the German language. I didn’t know
what would await me here personally, await me here personally, and
therefore I had to learn the German language. I learnt German for
almost a year, at W. University, and I made contacts especially with my
country people, and I also had . . . the need was very great to support the
people spiritually. And this is why I began to talk with people about the
Bible, moving from house to house. We started in one flat; then more and
more people came, we couldn’t stay in the house. We went to a church,
and over time many people came. We had to move from one church to
the next and . . . the congregation came into being, and therefore I had
to stay, from then on until today, really I had to stay in Germany and
take care of the people with the Bible and so on.
A.M.’s narrative makes do without any call narrative; he only reports
that shortly after his revival experience, which he connects to a gen-
eral revival in his country, he started to work in a church. In his next
88 A.M.’s full expatriation narrative can be found in the Appendix. I interviewed
him on 14 November 2005 in his home.

216 chapter four
sentence, he simply states that he arrived in Germany, adding as an

afterthought that he arrived as an evangelist. Like the Ghanaian charis-
matic interviewees whose narratives were analyzed in chapter 4.3, he
did not know what would await him in Germany. Nevertheless, unlike
them, he does not talk about immediately having started to preach.
Rather, he talks about learning German first, claiming that this was
“normal,” and adding that the language study was a consequence of
the fact that he did not know what the future would bring. Clearly,
A.M. shows a somewhat more integrationist approach than the Ghana-
ian charismatics. Nevertheless, he says that his contacts were mostly
limited to fellow Congolese, and that he saw their need for spiritual
support. Therefore, he begins his ministry for migrants. A.M. describes
the development and growth of his congregation as a logical conse-
quence of these spiritual needs, and then adds an intriguing statement:
“Therefore, I had to stay . . . until today.” A.M.’s narrative shows him
as somebody who simply was an evangelist as soon as he got revived,
and who continued to act as an evangelist even in his expatriate situa-
tion. His vocation was not the reason to move to Germany, but eventu-
ally became a reason to stay in this country.
Trying to elicit more information, the interview continued with a
question about details of his expatriation process. Strikingly, this did
not elicit an expatriation narrative, but only an account of how A.M.
developed into an evangelist. As a call narrative, it was rather under-
stated: As a committed evangelizing Christian, A.M. was recognized
as gifted by his peers and superiors, and therefore he was eventually
seen as an evangelist. A.M. does not mention any kind of ordination or
official recognition.
The interview continued with the question of what had given him
the idea to move to Germany. Again, A.M. did not answer the question
put to him. Rather than talking about the motivation for his expatri-
ation, he offered a theological explanation: Christians are called to be
witnesses all over the world. Only then did he actually talk about his
expatriation: Without giving any motives or reason, he simply states
that he wanted to go abroad, and that he came to Germany because he
already had family and friends here. Clearly, his expatriation was not
connected to his call. Rather, he understands his call as valid regard-
less of where he finds himself, and therefore, also in Germany. Later in
the interview, when talking about what it meant to be a pastor, A.M.
disclosed some further biographical details:
I had to apply for asylum. First of all, I could not apply for a visa as
pastor, because back then there was no church. That’s why I got . . . as
I already said, I did a German language course at W. University, so that
means I also had a place to study there. In the beginning, I had a visa as
a student, but over time, as the church grew, I needed to work for them
all the time. Thanks be to God, during this time I met my sisters and
brothers of the church in W. and they got involved in my situation and
were very active to get my visa changed. At first, it was thought that it
would be impossible, but God helped. And there was also support from
UEM, who supported us, I really don’t know, but I just know that I got
a letter from UEM, and also one from the Bible Center in Morsbach,89
and also from the W. church. And that is why a visa could simply be
changed from student to pastor.
This passage is highly contradictory. Trying to establish a time line of

his changing visa status, it sounds like he came to Germany on a stu-
dent visa, then applied for asylum and finally had his status changed
to a pastor’s visa with the help of German church contacts. All of this
seems rather implausible given the reluctance of the German authori-
ties to change the visa status of any immigrant. However, the motif of
the ease of travel which we have observed in so many other accounts
can be found here, too. A.M. does not mention any problems about his
initial travel to Germany. The visa situation only became difficult after
his arrival. A.M. interprets the support he got from different churches
and Christian organizations as divine support, which made something
that seemed impossible simple in the end. To sum up: A.M. clearly sees
himself as a pastor and evangelist. Being a pastor is what defines him,
while the place where he lives does not have any relationship to this.
P.S., the Sri Lankan who related a very detailed call narrative,90 was
asked later in the interview how he had actually come to Germany. He
answered:
I was a building engineer in Sri Lanka, and back then we had a fra-
ternal war, and this fraternal war, I must continue my work, but in
[Sri Lanka]—that’s in the north—we had some problems, and there I
was working in a cement factory. And the director of the factory, he is
an acquaintance of mine, and he says: ‘You! Go to France and get a
diploma in engineering.’ So I was sent to France on a scholarship, and
I studied there for three years. Afterwards I wanted to go back, but at
89 Here, A.M. refers to the Zentralafrika-Mission which runs Bible Correspondence
courses which are being taken by many migrant pastors. See also http://www.zamonline
.de/dt/emmaus.php, accessed 23 November 2006.
90 See chapter 3.2.4.
218 chapter four
the same time, this fraternal war started in Sri Lanka. Then I thought: If
I go back, I will have problems myself, then I better go to Germany as
a refugee. Because I had studied in France, I couldn’t become a refugee
there. Then I came to Germany, and my sister was here back then. Then
I went to my sister, and I started my life in Germany as an asylum seeker.
That was in ’81.
P.S. came to Germany long before he became a Christian. But even
now, in hindsight, he did not give any kind of spiritual or theological
interpretation of his coming. Very matter-of-factly, he told how he
wanted to avoid a civil war, and how he simply went to a country
where he already had a relative and which was willing to take him
in as a refugee. For P.S., the call into the ministry seems to be solely the
call into a certain profession, while the question of where he actually
lives and works does not seem to be loaded with any kind of spiritual
meaning. Like A.M., he does not seem to have any ‘missionary call’ to
a specific country.
I.A.’s short expatriation narrative is quite similar to P.S.’s. A Ghana-
ian, he also came to Germany as an asylum seeker, and never gave any
spiritual interpretation of his moving here:
I came to Germany purposely for political asylum. Because I was in a
Christian fellowship, but the government was not interested in a Chris-
tian fellowship. We were involved in demonstrations against the govern-
ment, and through that, most of our fellow Christians were arrested. And
we were able to escape to Nigeria, and then [unintelligible]. And before
that, I was a very good Christian, and I was also a footballer, before I
came here. [. . .] There, I get a very nice German lady called [. . .], and
the family also helped me a lot. Through that, I get the church in S., and
I communicate with them, and the church also have a branch in D., and
I came to S. as a member of the church. Before, I was a member also in
Ghana, so I introduced myself to them that I was a member in Ghana.
It took me some years before the others find that I have a commitment,
and that I also fear the Lord, so they recognized me, they recommended
me to be a deacon. So I was ordained as a deacon in 1998, and an elder
in 2001. And in 2001 I was called as an assistant to help the R. area,
and through this I was called to be a pastor, a missionary, a pastor in
2003. And through that, I went to Ghana, to Pentecost University [. . .],
Apostle Dr. Onyinah91 is there, for almost 10 months. So I came back
last August. That’s what I can say about my life.
91 Rev. Dr. Opoku Onyinah has since been elected the Chairman of the Church of
Pentecost, see www.thecophq.org, accessed 22 September 2008.

Obviously, I.A. was not comfortable talking about himself. He

sketched his biography in a few short sentences. No conversion narra-
tive, no details about the political involvement that forced him to leave
Ghana, just a listing of places to which he moved one after the other.
The whole account carries an undertone of ‘this is what happened, and
it is not important.’ Interesting about this narrative, though, is the fact
that two people are mentioned specifically: One is “a very nice German
lady”, the other one is a leader of the Church of Pentecost who is well
known to the interviewer. It does not seem far-fetched to assume that
by mentioning these two persons, the narrator aimed at establishing a
positive rapport with the interviewer.
Nevertheless, in this narrative again we do not find any kind of sense
of a ‘missionary calling’ to a specific place. There is no theological
or spiritual meaning attached, in hindsight, to his move to Germany.
Strikingly, the call to become a pastor / missionary does not strengthen
I.A.’s connection to Germany, but rather to his home country: It is this
call that results in his going back home for theological training.
4.4.3. Spiritual interpretation instead of expatriation narrative

Two interviewees did not volunteer any expatriation narrative, but
instead formulated a statement of spiritual interpretation of why they
had come to Germany.
D.I., a Congolese pastor, had this to say:
I believe with God, there is nothing unplanned. Simply, I want to say,
everything was already planned by God. I don’t want to look at myself,
what happened in Congo, but I just must say, exactly like Joseph, God
sent Joseph to Egypt because God has a plan. Jacob believed this in
advance, that’s why he sent Joseph there. I believe, God even before had
a message for me, for Germany, for the people in Germany, this is why
he sent me here, this is why I came here 12 years ago. And then I got
a new path, I went a new path, and today I can see clearly that God
planned everything in advance.
D.I. did not volunteer any information about why he left his country
and how he came to Germany. By comparing himself with the Biblical
figure of Joseph, though, he makes several points: First of all, Joseph
did not want to go to Egypt, he was sold there as a slave. D.I. therefore
implies that he did not want to come to Germany, but was forced to
do so by circumstances outside of his control. Secondly, the intrinsic
meaning of Joseph’s expatriation only became clear in hindsight—the
220 chapter four
outer reason was his being sold into slavery, while the inner reason was
that God wanted to care for his people. Similarly, D.I. hints that while
he came to Germany as a refugee, the real reason for his coming was
that God planned for him to be here. He does not see himself as a slave
to a blind fate or political upheaval, but is secure in the knowledge that
God has a purpose for him. In that sense, D.I. belongs to the first group
of interviewees, those who made theological sense of their expatriation
in hindsight.
M.Y., another pastor from Congo, had the following answer when
asked how he came to Germany:
Hmmm, in Germany—I came here with an idea. I wanted to finish my
school here, but my idea wasn’t to live in Germany. I wanted to go to
Belgium where I can speak French well with other people, but then one
day I slept and I got a vision: I saw I was in Germany, and I was speaking
with many people about God. And then I understood that I had a vision
here in Germany.
In just two sentences, M.Y. sketches a typical missionary call story: He
had certain plans for his life, but through a dream he experienced a
divine call to remain in Germany. In the light of this call, there is
no need to actually relate how he came to this country. This may be
due to the fact that he knew that his story—he was granted political
asylum—was known to the interviewer already. M.Y. can therefore also
be counted with the first group of interviewees, those who interpreted
their coming to Germany as divinely ordered in hindsight.
4.5. Expatriation narratives: Some final observations
As we have seen, the expatriation narratives show enormous differences

in style and content even though they can be organized into certain
groupings. One possible reason for this is that within migrant ente-
costal / charismatic churches, ‘missionary’ call / expatriation narratives
do not seem to play an important role. Unlike in evangelical circles
where such stories serve both to define certain groups and to legitimize
one’s own calling,92 I have never heard a ‘missionary’ call / expatriation
narrative recounted in the context of a migrant church. Neither are
Missionaries in Ecuador, New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995, pp. 128 ff.
such stories shared informally. They are only heard when migrant pas-
tors speak to a German audience and want to introduce and legitimize
themselves as missionaries.
This allows several conclusions: First of all, expatriation narratives
are constructed in dialogue and communication with Germans who
ask for them. Unlike the pastoral call narratives which aim at their
own churches, the migrant pastors’ expatriation narratives are for an
outside audience. As we have said in the introduction to this chapter,
migrant pastors constantly have to engage with a dominant discourse
on migration and immigration that questions the legitimacy of their
being here. Strikingly, the interviewees never accord the legitimacy of
their stay either to German authorities or to German society. Implicitly,
their narratives deny the right of these authorities to decide about who
is allowed to live where. The authority of government bureaucracies is
a derived one; they are only the instrument of God’s actions within the
boundaries of space and time. Here, the motif of the ease of obtaining
a visa or stay permit has its locus.
Secondly, if the expatriation narratives analyzed in this chapter are
the result of a negotiation of status in relation to a German audience,
the question has to be asked how expatriation is discussed and filled
with meaning in the discourse within the migrant churches. Is it possi-
ble that the missionary self-perception is limited to the pastors, and not
shared by the congregation members? Sermons that urge church mem-
bers to realize that they have been “sent to Germany for a purpose
which is not cleaning other people’s toilets” would point into this direc-
tion, as would the constant appeals in sermons, speeches and leaflets to
be more active evangelistically. As Nsodu Mbinglo’s impassioned trea-
tise93 shows, few West Africans so far interpret the migration to the
North in terms of a missionary undertaking.
Three final observations should be kept in mind as we move on to
the next chapter: First of all, a number of interviewees spoke about
the fact that as they were thinking about going abroad, they actually
did not want to move to Germany, but rather to another country. Two
reasons are given for this, the language barrier and the lack of a net-
work of contacts that may be tapped into. Germany is clearly not a
dream country for most of the Asian and African migrant pastors.
Francophone Africans prefer Belgium or France, while Anglophones
93 Nsodu Mbinglo, Black Angels in the White Man’s Country, privately published:
Legon / Accra 2004.

222 chapter four
and Asians dream of moving to the US, or, occasionally, to Britain.

Even though moving to Germany not by choice is interpreted as point-
ing clearly to divine guidance, it remains to be seen what this lack of
interest in Germany will mean for the relationship these migrant pas-
tors have with this country and its people.
Secondly, it is remarkable that even the interviewees who traveled to
Germany with a clear missionary call came with little or no prepara-
tion whatever. None of them had any language training before arriving,
and most knew next to nothing about the country. A period of learning
and inculturation was also not seen as necessary, with evangelistic work
taken up within days of their arrival. Such an attitude has been com-
mon among pentecostal / charismatic ‘foreign missionaries’ from the
beginning, as the earliest missionaries leaving from the Azusa Street
Revival believed that due to the gift of tongues which was understood
as xenolalia, they would not have to learn any foreign language.94 This
usually led to a practice of handing newly founded churches over to
local leadership very quickly. In the case of the migrant missionaries
in Europe and Northern America, it could have the long-term con-
sequence that despite their missionary claims, ‘new mission churches’
remain diasporal churches made up predominantly of immigrants, and
make little or no evangelistic impact on the situation in their target
countries as a whole.
Thirdly, and in a different vein: biographical narratives are attempts
to make sense of one’s life in hindsight, and the narratives documented
here are no exception. In constructing meaning, all analyzed narratives
show a striking commonality. None of the interviewees portray them-
selves as victims. Even those who talk about injustices that happened
to them do not dwell on the actual problems, but rather on the pos-
itive meaning and outcomes that they ascribe to them. They are not
sufferers of political or economic circumstances, but rather agents of a
divine plan that is worked out for them even if they do not understand
it immediately. All interviewees are adamant in their conviction that
it was God’s guidance that brought them to Germany. Consequently,
everything that happened and continues to happen to them must be
94 See M. Bergunder, Crossing Boundaries: Issues of Representation, Identity and
Postcolonial Discourse in Pentecostal Studies. Paper for the Conference of the Euro-
pean Research Network on Global Pentecostalism on ‘What is Pentecostalism? Con-
structing and Representing Global Pentecostalism in Academic Discourse’, Birming-
ham, January 19–20, 2006.
part of God’s plan and, therefore, good. With such an interpretation,

the narrators show themselves as empowered. They are not marginal
figures, but rather important instruments of a divine plan. As an elder
from the Church of Pentecost said at the end of our interview:
Now we [Africans] . . .: Some come [to Europe] to go to school, some
come for Asyl [sic], some travel for a business, and they stay here. That
means, God knows how to send everybody. Some get the visa to come,
some come by ship, some come by plane, God have the way to send
everybody.
chapter five
BEING ON A MISSION:
THE RELATIONSHIP TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD
5.1. “What is your mission?” Observations from the short interviews
Pentecostal / charismatic pastors and church leaders describe their

churches as ‘new mission churches.’ But how do they actually under-
stand their mission? Before we turn to observations on missionary prac-
tice and the long interviews, we will take a look at the short inter-
views.
Here, the respondents were asked to describe in one or two sentences
the mission of their church. In this setting, a striking difference between
pentecostal / charismatic and ‘mainline’ Protestant respondents could
be observed: The former, without exception, framed their mission in
terms of evangelism understood as the recruitment of new members,
while the latter, equally without exception, described it in terms of
community and identity, i.e. ‘diasporal,’ defining their role as guardians
and protectors of the culture of their country and denomination of
origin.
A short note is necessary to clarify terminology: In the context
of this study, ‘mission’ is understood as what churches and Christian
communities are divinely commissioned to do in a broad sense: This
might encompass preaching both inside and outside one’s own circles,
the recruitment of new members, worship, education, social services,
political advocacy and many more aspects. The concept of ‘mission’
is defined by a goal-oriented interaction between a group of ‘believ-
ers’ (a church, a congregation etc.) and those outside of this group
(whether they are individuals, communities, societies, or governments
etc.).
‘Evangelism’ is used in a narrower sense and describes any activity
aimed at recruiting active church members who adhere to the belief
system and the ethical rules of the recruiting community. In this sense,
evangelism is an aspect of ‘mission;’ depending on the theological
school, it carries greater or lesser importance. For evangelicals and
226 chapter five
pentecostals / charismatics, evangelism is the most important task of

mission, relegating any other church work to lesser significance.1
The pentecostal / charismatic responses in the short interviews
tended to define mission as evangelism and showed strong similarities
even in the choice of wording:2
To win souls for Christ Jesus.
To reach the world for Jesus.
To evangelize, so that people will come to Christ.
To preach the Gospel, to make disciples.
To preach the good news to a dying world. To make the name of Jesus
known, that people get to know Jesus as their Lord and have forgive-
ness of sin.
People should find God and Jesus. They shall believe and be saved.
Clearly, the recruitment of new members into the Christian faith
(whether for one’s own congregation or for the church in general) is
the overriding aim of these respondents. For them, mission is evange-
lism. Interestingly, in these very short answers, the respondents tend to
phrase their evangelistic aim in terms of classical evangelical language,
using terms like “to win souls” or “forgiveness of sin.”
When asked toward which people their mission was directed, the
pentecostal / charismatic responses fell into two distinct groups: A ma-
jority professed an international outlook, including Germans as their
target group, while a minority concentrates on migrants:
All nationalities around me.
To everybody, not just foreigners.
We want to reach the German nation, German people.
We want to reach out to the unchurched.
1 This study is not the place for a closer look at the ongoing global controversy
about mission, evangelism and social / political action among evangelicals and pente-
costals / charismatics, some of whom would certainly reject the sweeping statement just
made. For an evangelical understanding of evangelism shared by many charismatics,
see the Lausanne Covenant, agreed upon during the 1974 Lausanne Congress on World
Evangelism, downloadable, e.g., from http://community.gospelcom.net/lcwe/assets/
Lausanne_Covenant.pdf, accessed 12 December 2006. For a pentecostal / charismatic
understanding of evangelism and mission, see the articles by L.G. McClung Jr. on
“Evangelism”, and V.M. Kärkkäinen, on “Missiology: Pentecostal and Charismatic”,
both in: in: The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Move-
ments. Revised and expanded edition, Grand Rapids (MI): Zondervan 2002, pp. 617–
622 and pp. 877–885.
2 All quotes in the following section are from short phone interviews. Quotes in
German were translated into English.

being on a mission 227
Africans who lead a bad life in Germany.

All people, but predominantly people who speak my language—all
Africans.
It is obvious that a church that defines its main aim as the recruit-
ment of new members from many different cultures and backgrounds
will not define itself as an ethnic, diasporal group. This might be dif-
ferent if a target group were delimited along ethnic lines. But if pen-
tecostal / charismatic respondents at all demarcated a limited target
group for their evangelism, that group was in itself already interna-
tional (“Africans”).
In their answers, several pentecostals / charismatics additionally re-
flected what it meant that their church is situated in Germany:
If it is for Africans, we can stay in Africa. We need to reach the souls
here. I have just said in the church that too few Germans are attending.
We want to reach the world, beginning where we are—in Germany. We
are here to reach the Germans.
Our main focus is Germans. We are in Germany; they are the highest
percentage here. They should be the priority. We have started a bilingual
service, and I am preparing myself to preach in German.
These statements are a further indication of the fact that a pente-
costal / charismatic evangelistic outlook excludes a ‘diasporal’ perspec-
tive. The perspective is never backward, concentrated on the country
and / or culture of origin, but always forward: This leads either to an
internationalist, more migrant-oriented perspective, or to a more bi-
cultural perception in which origin and target culture are related to
each other.
The ‘mainline’ Protestant responses provided a sharp contrast to
this outlook. Evangelism was never mentioned as part of their mission
which clearly centered on groups defined by cultural liminality:
To provide English language worship and pastoral work for people who
want to worship in a reformed / mainstream tradition.
First of all: People who have left their homes shall continue their faith
lives. That should not happen in isolation, but rather in contact with the
society around us.
We are a church for Koreans. We counsel students and German-Korean
families. The second generation needs an identity; they learn Korean to
safeguard their identity.
228 chapter five
Obviously, these respondents see their churches as ‘diaspora’

churches whose main task is to provide migrant believers with wor-
ship and community in their familiar language and culture. The aim
of preserving one’s faith and culture is the overriding concern; the per-
spective is backward rather than forward. Identity is defined by roots
rather than by routes.
Two Protestant respondents expressly rejected the kind of evange-
lism that seems to be the norm for pentecostal / charismatic migrant
churches:
We want to enable people to worship in their mother tongue, because
you can only pray in your mother tongue. We don’t go into the street.
We provide worship services and counseling for Finnish people in their
mother tongue. We do not evangelize in any other way.
While a global evangelistic outlook seems to preclude a ‘diasporal’
self-definition, the reverse also seems to hold true: A ‘diasporal’ self-
understanding leads to a rejection of evangelism, at least in a ‘mainline’
Protestant context.
The short interviews were not a quantitative study, and should not be
read as such. But they provide some data to back up the general obser-
vation that at least the pastors and leaders of pentecostal / charismatic
migrant churches do not define them as ethnic, diasporal groups, but
rather as evangelistic bridgeheads in a broad effort at world evange-
lism.3 They express this very clearly in their contacts with German
churches and Christians,4 and also emphasize it in sermons and teach-
ing materials. Whether this claim is always backed up by practice, and
whether it is being shared by congregation members, remains open to
questions. Anecdotal evidence suggests that there may well be tensions
between pastors’ visions of an evangelistic, multicultural church, and
the need of members for a cohesive group which allows them to wor-
ship in their mother tongue and home culture. For example, Sabine
Jaggi, who studied an African migrant church in Bern, Switzerland,
reports tensions between the more evangelistic outlook of the pastor
and the ‘diasporal’ interests of the members, without, unfortunately,
3 We have already discussed this in chapter 2.1 in relation to terminology.

4 For just one example, see the report about the ‘Foreigners Mission Conference’
(Ausländermissionskonferenz) of the Evangelical Alliance at http://www.ideagentur.de/
startseite/nachrichten/sv-ss-topnews/article/44142/, accessed 5 December 2006, and
headlined: “God will use the foreigners to bring revival to Germany.”
giving them further reflection.5 Clearly, this remains a topic for further
research beyond the scope of this study.
5.2. Missionary practice: Evangelizing Germans
How do pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches try to evangelize

Germans? Before we analyze how evangelism is conceptualized, we
will first take a look at evangelistic practices. The following passages
are based both on the interviews and extensive observations.
5.2.1. Street evangelism

When migrant pentecostal / charismatic pastors speak about evange-
lism, they first and foremost mean street evangelism. There seems to
be no migrant pentecostal / charismatic church that does not engage in
this practice at least once in a while, and larger churches do so reg-
ularly. Going outside of one’s own church to win new recruits liter-
ally means going out: Railway stations, central squares and pedestrian
shopping streets are the areas where migrant churches make contact
with others.
The way P.W. describes the practice of her church fits many of the
migrant churches observed, particularly those with an African back-
ground. Her striking familiarity with the bureaucratic steps necessary
to engage in street evangelism in Germany was shared by several other
interviewees and shows how well those churches work within German
structures.
We go to the Rathaus [City Hall], ask for permission, and then we ask for
Sondernutzungserlaubnis [special use permit] or Straßenerlaubnis [street per-
mit] from Ordnungsamt [Municipal Office], so we get those papers, and
we do a stand, just like an Infotisch [information table], like tomorrow,
we’ll be out from 12 for four hours . . . When we are going out for
music, we also take the same Erlaubnis [permit]. So we play the music,
we contact people, we preach—you know, just like doing a Straßengottesdi-
enst [street worship service]. Now I am also thinking of Straßengottesdienst,
5 Sabine Jaggi, “Yesu azali awa.” Untersuchung einer afrikanischen, frankophonen
MigrantInnenkirche in Bern. Lizentiatsarbeit der philosophisch-historischen Fakultät

der Universität Bern, WS 2004/2005, available at www.refbejuso.ch/downloads/
refbejuso/doc/jaggi_yesu_liz.pdf (14 June 2007). See particularly pp. 39 f., 104, 171 ff.,
195 ff.
230 chapter five
maybe once in a month, doing Straßengottesdienst, and also invite the peo-
ple to come. If they don’t want to come to the church, then meet them
on the street! [. . .] I’ve seen that lots of young people are hungry for
God, but they have no background, they have no foundation, because
their parents never took them to church. So they want to learn some-
thing, and you can only meet them in the street, because most of them
will not come to church, no. You just give them the word there, and if
they want to come to church, you give them the address, you know?
Street evangelism as ‘mass evangelism,’ i.e. with music and preaching,
is one common form frequently employed by migrant churches, either
acting alone or in cooperation between several churches, sometimes
also together with German pentecostal / charismatic congregations.
Such events tend to follow a similar choreography: A central stage
(more or less elaborate depending on the resources of the respective
church) provides the point of attention. From here, music and possibly
some theatre skits are performed, congregation members may relate a
testimony about what their faith has meant in their lives, and pastors
will preach short evangelistic messages, in the case of English-speaking
pastors, frequently in English with German consecutive translation.
Around the stage, other church members congregate. They pass out
tracts to passers-by and, if they have the necessary language abilities,
try to engage them in conversation.
In terms of the effects of such events, pastors’ opinions vary. Some
interviewees related that they found street evangelism very hard, that
they tended to experience hostile reactions, especially from Germans,
and that few people were willing to stop, take a tract, and listen or talk.
Most of the time, they laugh at you, they mock at you, ‘Es gibt keinen
Gott!’ [There is no God!]—‘Jesus, was ist Jesus!’ [Jesus, what is Jesus!] You
have to—at times I just laugh also, when they laugh at me, I also laugh,
because if you don’t laugh with them, you get discouraged, you stop what
you are doing.
It’s difficult, sometimes I try to share tracts to people, and as you give
them, they will say ‘nein danke’ [no, thank you], they will not accept, or
they will take it, and before they go a few steps, they put it in a dustbin,
something like that. But we still continue to do that, we still continue to
reach everybody, when we stand at the Post [post office] or the Bahnhof
[railway station] to share tracts. No matter the color, anybody who passes
by, we give, if they take, they take. Surprisingly, sometimes people come,
even Germans, ‘we saw your tracts and then we decided to come and
see what’s happening here’, and we are happy, because if we share one
hundred tracts, and one person comes, I give glory to God.
But negative experiences, as we can see from the statements above,

do not cause the pastors to discontinue street evangelism. To the con-
trary, E.S., for example, claims that most of the German members
of his congregation first came into contact with his church through
street evangelism. How many German members this church really
has remains unclear, though. E.S. himself claims “up to 100” German
members, while one of the German members, in a recent informal
conversation, put the number at “no more than ten.” He added that
new Germans regularly showed up at the church, but rarely stayed for
longer than a few weeks, and almost never became full members. Oth-
ers pastors simply feel that it is their responsibility to preach to as many
people as possible, while the results can be left to the Holy Spirit.
Street evangelism does not always mean preaching from a stage. In
other instances, street evangelism can consist of individual encounters
with the down-and-out:
I believe to take the church to the people in their streets, in their home,
in the disco hall, in their . . . where people take drugs [. . .] We meet with
a group of drug addicts; I sit with them, I say it, some people, I tell them
to throw it away. I ask him how he can reduce it bit by bit, and come
down for a while. Then later, perhaps he can stop entirely.
Migrant churches in big cities use this approach often, since it needs
no official permits and far fewer logistics than a proper ‘crusade.’ Pas-
tors and congregation members may just spread themselves around in
an area where the homeless, alcoholics and drug addicts congregate,
sometimes distributing food, and trying to share an evangelistic mes-
sage individually.
At least in one case, this approach seems to work well: P.I. claims that
the majority of his members, only a minority of whom is of an African
background, were recruited through such street evangelism.
However it is done, street evangelism is not just the task of the pastor,
but of the whole congregation, or at least an ‘outreach team:’
We will go out in mass to share Christ to whoever is willing to wait, and,
you know, chat with us; we’ll be willing to answer some questions. We’ll
share tracts.
Sermons, Bible studies and written materials for internal use in migrant
churches point to the fact that church members may not always be
very willing or interested in active evangelism and have to be expressly
motivated to get involved.
232 chapter five
5.2.2. Tracts
Tracts are an important instrument of street evangelism, especially for
migrants whose German is not good enough for any deeper conver-
sation. Some migrant churches produce their own tracts, though these
tend to be of rather inferior quality in regards to grammar and spelling.
Much more commonly, pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches use
tracts which they obtain ready-made from German or international
mission organizations.
Three organizations whose tracts are popular among pentecostal /
charismatic migrant churches are the “Missionswerk Werner Heukel-
bach,”6 “Missionswerk Freundes-Dienst International”7 and the the
“Missionswerk DIE BRUDERHAND.”8
On their websites, all three introduce themselves as “faith mis-
sions” (“Glaubenswerk”). The first two organizations add a description as
independent, non-denominational (“überkonfessionell”) and “Bible believ-
ing / Bible based” (“bibelgläubig” / “Bibel als Grundlage”), while the third
one calls itself “evangelical” (evangelikal).9 All three organizations say
that they do not want to start their own churches, but rather serve
existing churches and organizations.
From the information available on the websites and the content of
the tracts, all three organizations are clearly fundamentalist evangelical
rather than pentecostal / charismatic.10 The tracts11 do not only follow
a traditional evangelical approach but also employ evangelical jargon,
revolving around terms like sin, repentance, salvation and eternal life.
Salvation is understood exclusively as belonging to an otherworldly
realm, and the only consequence of it in this life are peace of heart
and a sense of inner joy. There is no trace of the more holistic or even
material understanding of salvation which is common among (migrant)
pentecostals and charismatics.12
6 www.missionswerk-heukelbach.de, accessed 15 December 2006.

7 www.freundesdienst.org, accessed 6 January 2006.
8 www.bruderhand.de, accessed 6 January 2006.
9 Evangelikal, in German, means evangelical in a narrower sense.
10 This assessment is shared by the Handbuch der Evangelistisch-missionarischen
Werke, Einrichtungen und Gemeinden, see pp. 260, 261, and 270 f.
11 Tracts can be read online under http://missionswerk-heukelbach.de/index.php
?option=com_bookshelf&Itemid=25 or www.bruderhand.de/html/evangelistisch.html,
accessed 15 December 2006. Tracts of the Missionswerk Freundes-Dienst are only
available in printed form.
12 On the pentecostal understanding of the materiality of salvation, cf. the ground-
This raises an interesting question: Are the pentecostal / charismatic

migrant distributors of these tracts even aware of the fact that they are
handing out materials that do not conform to their own beliefs, and
sometimes even contradict them? For example, migrant churches dis-
tribute a tract titled “Dennoch geborgen. Ein Wort für Kranke und Geprüfte”
(Sheltered despite all. A word for the sick and tested) published by the
Missionswerk Werner Heukelbach.13 It contains the message that peo-
ple who have to live with sickness will be comforted by God. Healing
through prayer is mentioned as a possibility, but dismissed as “bodily
health” which is worthless when compared with eternal life. The tract
then leads the reader to pray for the forgiveness of sins rather than for
healing. In contrast, pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches often
evangelize through “miracle crusades,” promising the healing of all
kinds of illnesses. This contradiction was, unfortunately, not discussed
in the interviews. But most likely, such an observation would have sur-
prised the interviewees. As we will see below,14 many of them tend to
use the same evangelical phraseology when summarizing their message
without reflecting on how it is actually related to their more holistic
understanding. Others, who are aware of the differences, might under-
stand these tracts to be contextually German.
It is interesting, though, that throughout my research, I have not
come across a single migrant church that was distributing German-
made tracts or booklets written with a pentecostal / charismatic ap-
proach, even though they are easily available, as e.g. Reinhard Bonnke’s
“Vom Minus zum Plus” (From minus to plus).15 This is probably due
to the fact that such materials are not provided free of charge to
distributors. The interviewees as well as other migrant pastors clearly
expressed their concern that the cost of materials was a big issue, and
that they could only afford to distribute tracts for which they did not
have to pay.
breaking article by Miroslav Volf: Materiality of Salvation: An Investigation in the Sote-

riologies of Liberation and Pentecostal Theologies, Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Vol. 26,
No. 3, 1989, pp. 447–467. For details on the migrant perspective, see 5.5.2 and Clau-
dia Währisch-Oblau, Mission und Migration(skirchen), in: Dahling-Sander, Christoph;
Schulte, Andrea; Werner, Dietrich; Wrogemann, Henning (eds.), Leitfaden Ökumenische
Missionstheologie, Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser / Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2003, pp. 378 ff.
13 See http://missionswerk-heukelbach.de / cms / zusatz / leseproben / ih05_internet
.pdf, accessed 16 December 2006.

14 Chapter 5.3.2.
15 This small booklet is available from Christ for all Nations, www.cfan.org (accessed
27 Spetember 2007).
234 chapter five
5.2.3. Gospel Music

Large African-majority churches use the German interest in Gospel
music as an evangelistic avenue and organize Gospel concerts, both in
their own buildings and in public halls. Such concerts always include a
short evangelistic sermon:
And with these Gospel concerts, we invite them [the Germans], and we
get . . . in all of our Gospel concerts, we get 90 % Germans attending. So
with the Gospel concerts, we will sing a lot of Gospel songs, they dance
with us, but then I always have 15 minutes time to preach about Jesus.
Clearly, the music in itself is not seen as an evangelistic method. It is
simply an attraction to bring people into the church, to prepare them
emotionally for the ‘real’ evangelism, a preached message.
Building up good Gospel choirs is a priority particularly in African
majority churches, and professional musicians to head such choirs are
very much sought after. But as good musicians tend to move from one
church to the next,16 it is difficult to maintain a consistent high quality
of Gospel music. To solve this problem, one African-led church brought
several professional musicians from Ghana on ‘clergy visas:’17 These
musicians are tied to the church as their visas will become invalid if
they leave their employment.
5.2.4. Other means

In the interviews, several other ways of evangelizing Germans were
mentioned. An important means for those pastors who have good Ger-
man language abilities is preaching in German churches. Some do this
often, and others said that they would like to have more opportunities
to do so.
Now I have the opportunity to preach in German congregations, and
I can contribute what I believe. And I think with this I reach more
Germans every Sunday as with anything else I should do.
If preaching in German churches is seen as evangelism, the unspoken
assumption is clear: Those who attend a German (mainline Protestant)
church are not yet real Christians. If they do not need conversion,
16 The wanderings of several of these musicians could be observed over the years.
17 According to § 5.6 of the Arbeitsaufenthalteverordnung, clergy of any religion can work
in Germany without a work permit if there is a defined “local need” for their services.
Such visas are tied to an employment contract.
at least they need a revival. Not all migrant pastors who are invited
to preach in German churches manage to bring this message across
tactfully. In one of the early days of the UEM program, I received a
call from an irate German pastor. He had invited the African colleague
whose church was meeting in his buildings to preach in a German
Sunday service. The African pastor, unused to the fact that he did not
get any reaction to his preaching from the congregation, finished his
sermon with the frustrated outbreak: “You are a dead church!”
Only one interviewee suggested classical ‘crusades’18 as a means of
evangelizing Germans. (In fact, most migrant churches hold ‘crusades’
or ‘revivals’ on a regular basis. But these are clearly aimed at other
migrants rather than at Germans.) In April 2006, this interviewee orga-
nized a three-day event that featured German, African and African-
American preachers (two each for every night) and was conducted
in French, English and German, with double consecutive translation
which was actually done so well, down to copying body language and
voice tone, that this ‘triple-preaching’ developed a dance-like quality
and charm. The few German attendants though, as far as could be
observed, were Christians from different Protestant and free-church
congregations rather than non-Christians.
Only one interviewee admitted openly to what many others only
implied, namely that church planting was a necessary means of evan-
gelizing Germans because German churches could not be trusted to
disciple new converts properly:
My method will be evangelism, and also to plant local churches, so that
people will hear the message, and will be able to come in. [. . .] It will be
difficult, you know, when souls have been won, and they’ve been directed
to German churches . . .
Finally: Some migrant churches do not only engage in social work for
their migrant members, but also do some social outreach particularly
in their immediate, often rather poor inner-city neighborhoods. For
example, one African-led church provides internet seminars for young
Germans who have no access to computers at home. This church and
others also have a program of food distribution to the homeless. Such
social outreach is seen as a means of holistic evangelism:
18 He actually used the German term ‘Evangelisation’ which carries no militaristic
undertones. But in its narrow definition, this term can only be translated into English
as ‘crusade.’
236 chapter five
So, when we go out there, we have two things on our mind: Bringing
spiritual help to them—that is making them find Jesus Christ, [. . .] and
then, two, we help them physically. Some of them need physical advice;
they just need wisdom to go on in their lives. Some of them need to be
told: Go back to school. Some of them need to be helped to overcome
some habits like drugs or alcohol or just hanging out with wrong friends
. . . We make sure that we don’t only preach to this people but that we
help them to come out from this.
5.3. Conceptualizing evangelism in

interdenominational dialogue: The long interviews
All interviews contained a section with questions about evangelism:

Here, we enquired about the interviewee’s ‘target group,’ his or her
evangelistic message and methods, and ended with questions about a
possible inculturation of message and methods. The results of these
interviews were somewhat disappointing: In many cases, the interlocu-
tors reproduced dogmatic statements phrased in fundamentalist evan-
gelical language which stood in clear contrast to both internal materials
on evangelism and observations at crusades and other meetings.
This result does not really surprise, though. After all, the interviews
were conducted by a German theologian. In migrant church circles,
German theology has a reputation for being strong on correct dogma.
It was only to be expected that the interlocutors would have shaped
their answers accordingly, showing that they also know their proper
doctrines.
But there may be a second reason for the discrepancy between dog-
matic statements in the interviews and sermons preached in migrant
churches. The paradigm of the questions was not the paradigm in
which the interviewees operate. The discourse on evangelism, at least
in Germany, is shaped by concepts of communication and dialogue,
with evangelization defined as “communication of the whole Gospel in
an elementary form connected with the effort to engage with experi-
entially caused and intellectual obstacles to faith.”19 In contrast, pente-
19 “So ist E. die Mitteilung des ganzen Evangeliums in elementarer Form verbunden mit dem
Bemühen, sich mit erfahrungsbedingten und intellektuellen Hindernissen des Glaubens bei den Adres-
saten auseinanderzusetzen.” Emilio Castro / Gerhard Linn, Artikel Evangelisation, in: Evan-
gelisches Kirchenlexikon, Band 1 pp. 1194–1198. See also the official documents from the
Evangelical Church of the Rhineland, Vom offenen Himmel erzählen. Unterwegs zu
einer missionarischen Volkskirche. Arbeitshilfe, August 2006; and Auf Sendung. Mission
costal / charismatic migrants conceptualize evangelism within a frame-

work of a spiritual battle in which ‘souls must be won,’ i.e. liberated
from satanic bondage. Consequently, the interview questions centered
on message content and evangelistic methods, intended to ascertain
how the migrant pastors shape their message and methods according to
the context they are addressing. But these topics play almost no role in
the migrant pentecostal / charismatic discourse on evangelism which is
not about how to communicate a message, but about how to overcome
adverse powers which prevent people from believing in Jesus Christ.
The migrants’ issues are not content and communicative methods, but
rather spiritual discernment and spiritual strength. We will look more
deeply into this conceptualization of evangelism in chapter 5.5.
Nevertheless, the interviews allow us some insight into how migrant
pentecostal / charismatic pastors define themselves and their mission in
dialogue with German Protestantism. The interviews are, in and of
themselves, documents of interdenominational and intercultural com-
munication and therefore worth an analytical look. In the following
section, we will concentrate on three aspects: How the speakers locate
themselves globally, how they formulate their evangelistic message to a
German listener, and what they have to say about inculturation.
5.3.1. Locating oneself globally: Sent to the world

The section of questions about evangelism began with the following
query: “Who are the people you are called to evangelize? Why?” This
question was framed with two different considerations in mind. First
of all, within the German churches, the discussion on migration and
Christianity centers on ethnicity and identity, and consequently frames
migrant churches within a concept of diaspora. Migrant churches are
understood as places where Christians from abroad can worship in
their own language and tradition, and migrant pastors are supposed
to serve fellow migrants from their own or a closely related ethnic
group.20 This discourse defines ethnicity in cultural terms, with religion
und Evangelisation in unserer Kirche. Proponendum 2002; and: Amt für missionar-
ische Dienste der Ev. Kirche von Westfalen (ed.), Gottes Lust am Menschen—Kongress
für kontextuelle Evangelisation 20.—23. 9. 1999. Eine Dokumentation aus der Reihe
“aus der Praxis für die Praxis”, Dortmund 2000.
20 The best example for this discourse can be found in Kirchenamt der Evange-
lischen Kirche in Deutschland (ed.), Kirchen und Gemeinden anderer Sprache und
Herkunft, Frankfurt am Main: Gemeinschaftswerk der evangelischen Publizistik 1997.
238 chapter five
subsumed under ‘cultural identity.’ But numerous conversations with

Pentecostal / charismatic migrant pastors have shown that they tend to
reject a view in which their particular religiosity is defined as merely an
expression of their ethnic culture. “We don’t dance in church because
we are Africans, but because it is written in the Bible!” is a typical
sentiment.
Secondly, mission theology, whether Catholic, Protestant mainline or
evangelical, has for the past 50 years centered strongly on issues of
Gospel and culture, contextualization and inculturation.21 Evangelical
theologians at Fuller Theological Seminary in the USA developed
pragmatic evangelism strategies by dividing the world into “people
groups,” each of which needed to be reached with an appropriately
inculturated Gospel message.22
The query about possible evangelistic ‘target groups,’ therefore,
served to help locate the interlocutors in their relationship to these con-
versations. The interviewees’ answers clearly show that they reject any
kind of ethnic limitation of their missionary calling:
God spoke to me and said he would send me worldwide.
[I.A.:] Our mission is to win souls for Christ, all tribes. German, Indian,
Black—all tribes for Christ. That’s our mission.
[D.K.:] In Church of Pentecost, our mission is a prophecy from our
forefather in 1934. That this church will reach all the world. That time,
our fathers see that they are about six or seven persons, and they travel
by foot. And God tell them that the church will reach all the world, and
they didn’t believe it. But [unintelligible word] that this God who says this
We have already seen in chapter 5.1 that this concept is shared by ‘mainline’ Protestant
migrant pastors.
21 For a first overview over these issues, see Heinrich Balz, “Akkulturation,” in: Evan-
gelisches Kirchenlexikon. Internationale theologische Enzyklopädie, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &

Ruprecht 1989, Bd. 1 pp. 74–76; Lothar Schreiner, “Kontextuelle Theologie,” in: Evan-
gelisches Kirchenlexikon. Internationale theologische Enzyklopädie, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht 1989, Bd. 2, pp. 1418–1422; and Klauspeter Blaser, “Kultur und Christen-
tum,” Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon. Internationale theologische Enzyklopädie, Göttingen: Van-
denhoeck & Ruprecht 1989, Bd. 2, pp. 1513–1520.
22 The concept of “people group evangelism,” ecclesiologically developed as “homo-
geneous unit principle,” was popularized by Donald A. McGavran of Fuller Theologi-

cal Seminary, particularly in his book: Understanding Church Growth, Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans 1970, and has been widely discussed in Evangelical circles ever since. For
just one recent example, see Peter F. Penner, Homogeneous Unit Principle, Ephesians
2 and the Early Church Praxis, in: Penner, Peter F. (ed.), Ethnic Churches in Europe—A
Baptist Response, Schwarzenfeld: Neufeld Verlag, Oktober 2006.
is the true God. The mission of Church of Pentecost is a prophecy from

our living father and God to our forefathers.
[I.A.:] What he was trying to say is that the Church of Pentecost—I
think you know it already!—is not a one-man church, yes. God through
prophecy or revelation let our forefathers know that he will establish this
church throughout the world, all nations, so our mission is that to reach
aaaall human beings, whether black or white, to Christ. Yes!
These two statements, one phrased individually and the other commu-
nally, base the de-limiting of their call on direct, divine revelation, an
audition and a prophecy, respectively. They must be understood as a
rejection of the (unspoken) idea that world mission is a project reserved
for white, rich, Northern churches, while poor Southern churches
should keep their mission to their own people. Being small and back-
ward does not mean that one cannot fulfill the Great Commission com-
pletely. The Church of Pentecost is now established in more than fifty
countries on all continents.
A number of further interviewees also insisted that their missionary
call was not limited to one culture or people group, though they con-
cretized this call as having to preach to all people in the country or
region where they found themselves.
I think I’m called to preach to everybody, because when I look back
at the dream, I saw sort of colors in the dream, there were all colors
in the dream [. . .] that dream was, I’m going to preach to all sorts of
colors, all sorts of background. So don’t limit myself to anybody, or any
groups, you know, I don’t limit myself to any group. [. . .] And I can
work with anybody, yeah, because I have realized that is the call that
God have called me. Because myself, before I was very, very reluctant.
I thought perhaps God has only called me to the Blacks, or maybe I’m
here because of the Blacks. And we are not here because of the Blacks,
we are not in Africa. I think the pastors that are in Africa are there for
the people of Africa, and the people that are here in Europe are here for
the people of Europe. Yeah.
As a missionary, we are not only sent to an individual group of people,
but rather the universal people, God’s people, everyone, as the Bible says:
‘God loved the whole world!’ And the message of Jesus Christ is for
everyone, and we must strive all we do that everyone gets the message
of Jesus Christ. So as a missionary, you are not just called for a particular
group, but rather for everyone, especially in the nation where you are.
These two statements both give a theological foundation to the delim-
iting of the missionary task. The first one does so on the basis of
an individual calling: The speaker herself would have tended to limit
herself to people of her cultural background, but she understands the
240 chapter five
vision she received as transcending this limitation. The second speaker

bases the delimiting of the missionary call on the fact that God’s love
is for the whole world. Clearly, this interviewee does not share the
idea that while the missionary task of the whole church would be uni-
versal, strategic reasoning might suggest that individual missionaries
keep within the limits of ethnic or cultural groups. If God transcends
humanly constructed boundaries, each individual missionary has to
do the same. The only limitation that is allowed is to concentrate on
the people around where the missionary finds him- or herself. But
even in this place, the message is for “everyone:” This African speaker
clearly does not understand nations as ethnically or culturally mono-
lithic units.
Some speakers reflected the fact that they had moved to Germany in
the light of their missionary calling:
I believe my mission is, now here, for the German people, as I have
already said. If my message were for Africa, I could have stayed in Africa!
But God has told me: ‘This is for the Germans, and also for the other
people who live here.’ The mission is to show them all the way to Christ.
Having become expatriated, this interviewee defines his call in terms
of the people he encounters: Living in Germany, he is called to both
Germans and “the other people who live here.” Again, the missionary
calling is bounded not by ethnic or cultural considerations, but simply
by location. The question of how to communicate the Gospel in incul-
turated ways to different groups is simply not considered.
We have said in chapter 4 that pentecostal / charismatic migrant pas-
tors define themselves as expatriates even if they never use this partic-
ular term. As they have transcended their cultural and ethnic bound-
aries, so has their calling. These migrant pastors see themselves as play-
ing their part in a worldwide commission and movement. All state-
ments above stress the all-encompassing scope of the missionary calling.
Pentecostal / charismatic migrant pastors think big when it comes to
their task and role. Even if they have a church that consists of only a
few members, they still know themselves called to ‘everybody’. When
it comes to the understanding of the call, thinking small is a sign of
unbelief.
The speakers quoted so far all came from Africa. One of the Asian
interviewees, though, had a somewhat divergent viewpoint:
Our motto is ‘Our mission is people,’ and I know exactly that God is
speaking to my heart, I have an impression that my work is in Germany.
And I asked the Lord: ‘Why in Germany?’ And he: ‘You know the
language, the culture, you have lived here fore years, you know the
Germans, their mentality,’ and okay, I know exactly that my area is in
Germany, not only to start a church, but to win the people.
Again, transcending ethnic limitations in missionary work is based on
a direct divine order. But unlike the other interviewees, this Indonesian
speaker reflects that his knowledge of German language and culture
might be an asset in his evangelistic efforts.
Several respondents, all of whom are pastoring relatively large
churches, share the understanding of an unlimited missionary call, but
find, pragmatically, that it is easiest to start a church with people of a
background that is similar to their own.
In our church, we say we are international, so we embrace all kinds of
people, from different race, from different color, from different social and
economic status into our church. And well—I have an emphasis. [. . .]
The emphasis is—maybe because of my own personal experience when I
first came to study and I had this shock—I was thinking it would be good
also to target there some of these international students who are studying
here, [. . .] migrants, people who have come from various countries, and
who are working here in various fields.
God really wants me to reach out to souls. And [. . .] when we came over
here, my vision first of all was to reach out to the international commu-
nity or people with diverse backgrounds, not the Akan community. [. . .]
So I saw that Jesus used this principle, from Jerusalem—if Jerusalem
would be your own type of people, then from there you reach out, maybe
to another cultural set-up, then at least you are trying to make sure that
you bring in more people of different cultural backgrounds, so that at
least in your set-up, you reach out to as many people as you can.
The primary is our people [. . .] after reaching them, it extends, it
increases, it gives me opportunity—now I have hands, I have tools to
reach the other people, as Jesus said. He sent his disciples first to the
house of Israel, then it goes on.
All three interviewees aim at reconciling a worldwide call to evangelism
with their own individual, narrower scope. The first explains that he
finds relating to migrants easier because he is a migrant himself. It
should be noted, though, that while such a church of migrants could
be understood as a homogeneous people unit,23 it is not one defined by
cultural roots, but rather by migratory routes. The second and third
speaker explain their limited outreach with a Biblical principle: As
23 German mainline Protestants tend to assume that all migrant churches are such
homogeneous, ‘ethnic’ units.

242 chapter five
Acts 1:8 shows, the missionary process moves from the inside out: You
start with your own people, but then you have to go beyond. Clearly,
none of the speakers believes that building a mono-ethnic church could
be a possible evangelistic strategy! By defining their limited outreach
as the first step in a longer process, this limitation is constructed as
temporary. They are preaching to migrants in Germany now, but their
congregation members will reach out beyond their own ethnic groups.
Several interviewees talked very concretely about the strategies they
were employing to achieve this goal:
Sometimes, when you have a vision, you also spell it out over a long
period of time. [. . .] You have to give yourself time, work within a time
frame. Now, we’re also having little children. [. . .] And I can say that
they speak better German than English, they speak better German than
our mother tongue. [. . .] So at least one needs to plan, that okay, if we
are able to work on them, having both, let’s say the African culture, that’s
what they have at home, and then the European culture, that’s what we
have in the society, they can be a good blend. And if they carry the zeal
that we are having now, they will be able to infiltrate—let me use that
word—into the German set-up and also make impact.
I.A: Now our plan is to equip our children in Christ, and because of
them, maybe we can work here in Germany.
S.G. [. . .] We’re equipping the children. The PIWC,24 most of the time,
we take the youth, we pick the youth there, because there, when the
Germans come, or then they can talk to them and explain more to them.
So it’s something that, first of all, when we came here, the evangelism
took our people first, and now we are taking it to the Germans through
our children.
Clearly, the speakers, despite the fact that their churches are now
almost entirely African, see their role as ‘making an impact’ within Ger-
man society. Their calling remains greater than their current church
reality and therefore forces them to make plans and take concrete steps
for a changed future. They assign the role that the first-generation
immigrants cannot play to the second generation.
To sum up: The interviewees do not share the assumption that they
should only pastor and evangelize their own people, but rather, they
perceive their calling as universal. The question of how the Gospel
relates to a certain culture is, at best, a pragmatic one, and not theo-
logically loaded. The universality of the missionary call has to be lived
24 “Pentecost International Worship Centre,” international ministries of the Church
of Pentecost.
out in each individual missionary career, and in each missionary con-

gregation. The boundaries of the missionary calling are not cultural,
but simply spatial. One’s calling is to all people around oneself.
5.3.2. Describing one’s message

All interviewees were asked the same question: “What is your mis-
sionary message?” After hearing numerous sermons and evangelistic
speeches over the years, I expected that the answers would show a
strong emphasis on material and physical blessings as the fruit of a per-
sonal relationship with Jesus Christ. Interestingly, though, many state-
ments were rather phrased within the classical evangelical language
of sin, salvation, and the need for a personal relationship with God,
which, of course, was also the missionary paradigm of the early Pen-
tecostals,25 with the respondents taking recourse to rather abstract, for-
mulaic theological terms.
It can be argued that such statements serve more to establish the the-
ological correctness of the speakers than to actually inform the listener
about their core beliefs. Walter Hollenweger points out that in pente-
costal soteriology, one has to distinguish between articulated and lived
soteriology, as these two are not identical.26 Salvation could be under-
stood both physically and spiritually, though Pentecostal statements of
faith usually concentrated on the spiritual aspect. It is likely that this
is also true, to some degree, for the interview situation, while a much
broader understanding of salvation would be preached in revival ser-
mons. Keeping these caveats in mind, we will now turn to the individ-
ual statements.
I always have four important points. So first, the love of God, that God is
a loving God and has done everything with love. Second: But what really
has separated us from God? That is sin. That’s my second point. The
third point is that despite our sin, God has built a bridge so that we can
come back to him. This is Jesus Christ on the cross. And fourthly, and
that is true for everybody, you need to decide.
25 See Donald Dayton, Theological Roots of Pentecostalism, Peabody (MA): Hen-
drickson Publishers 1987, and Steven J. Land, Pentecostal Spirituality. A Passion for the
Kingdom, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 3rd edition 2001.
26 “In der pfingstlichen Soteriologie muß man unterscheiden zwischen der artikulier-
ten und der gelebten Soteriologie, denn die beiden sind nicht identisch.” Walter J. Hol-
lenweger, Charismatisch-pfingstliches Christentum. Herkunft, Situation, Ökumenische
Chancen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1997, p. 276.
244 chapter five
This speaker, whose church is affiliated with the Baptist Federa-

tion in Germany, gives a truly ‘canned’ answer: He basically recounts
the “Four Spiritual Laws,” a summary of an evangelical, evangelistic
message which was popularized worldwide by Campus Crusade for
Christ.27 Several other interviewees also gave similar statements based
on evangelical doctrines:
The general salvation message, it’s [. . .] Jesus Christ came to die for all
of us [. . .] that man has hope through the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. That when one believes in Christ, he has a new live in Christ.
Such statements were phrased in such a general way that any Protes-
tant, evangelical, pentecostal or charismatic would have to agree. They
serve to establish the fact that the interviewees stand firmly on the
ground of ‘orthodox’ Protestant theology. This also becomes obvious
in a further formulaic answer:
We only can say to the people: ‘Jesus is the only—what? The only way.
Jesus is the only truth, and the only life.’ And must also say to people:
‘Jesus lives!’ All people. This is our message, which we have learned from
Martin Luther.
By connecting his message back to the great Reformer, the speaker puts
himself squarely within Protestant tradition, even though the phrase
“Jesus is the only way” is rather of newer, evangelical provenance than
going back to Luther.
Several speakers connected their message to the second coming of
Christ:
Primarily, we talk about the return of Jesus. But if we preach the return
of Jesus, we primarily preach the love of God. Because the whole Bible,
for me, is a summary of the love of God.
It is remarkable that the strong emphasis on the second coming, in
this statement, is paired with an accent on God’s love rather than on
God’s judgment. This is different in the case of two further respondents
who take the final judgment as the starting point of their missionary
message:
What would I tell them? [. . .] One thing is certain: One day you are
going to make the final decision. That one, you cannot run away from
it. [. . .] I will tell them: Every night that you sleep, and wake up in
the morning, you are one day closer to your death. [. . .] Today, you
27 See www.campuscrusade.com/four_laws_online.htm, accessed 7 December 2006.

want to live, you want to enjoy yourself, drink beer whenever you want
to drink beer, have sex whenever you want to have sex, go on vacation
whenever you want to. Whenever somebody calls you ‘hey, remember
your creator!’ you will return to him to get very angry. But whether you
get angry or whether you don’t get angry, it’s there [. . .] Whether you
like hell or not, whether you like death or not, whether you believe or
not, one day you will make a decision.
I reach people with a simple, plain message: ‘What happens after death?
Do you know that?’ They say: ‘It doesn’t matter.’ Then I say: ‘But it does
matter. After death comes the judgment, are you ready? Have you gotten
to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in your life? If you don’t know
him, he is there, he wants to have you!’ [. . .] My explanation for people:
After death judgment. People live, those who believe, will go to heaven,
those who have not heard the message, the good news, and those who
don’t believe will be damned.
While no longer popular today in Germany, this message can be traced
back to classical revival theology and preaching. After all, the highest
motivation for evangelism is to save souls, save people from eternal
condemnation.
Interestingly, the two women were the only interviewees who ex-
pressed their missionary message solely within a ‘material’ paradigm,
stressing that Jesus Christ provides solutions for concrete problems in
every-day life.
The message I preach is just summarized in Luke 4:16 [sic] [. . .]: ‘The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good
news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and
recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’ I think that is the call of
the Lord, yeah, that is the call. I preach the good news to the poor,
you know, and then, you know, I believe in healing, I believe in setting
the captives free, I believe in people recovering their sight, and then I
believe that God can set at liberty those who are oppressed, those, the
brokenhearted, you know, we are also preaching the acceptable year, the
coming of the Lord. I think that is the thing in the Bible.
You can trust Jesus Christ in every area of your life! That is one thing I
used to say almost every day. Luke 1:38, there is nothing impossible with
the Lord, because all of them, I can say 90 %, have no solution [. . .]. ‘I
spent 10 years in this kind of life.’—‘I married three, four times, had five
children, each one from each father.’—‘I used drug all my life; I have no
chance to come out! I have no chance. I have no power to come out.’
Then I say to them: ‘For God, there is nothing impossible. Only, you
need to give that chance to him. Trust him, only one time, you see your
life is going to change.’
246 chapter five
Both women describe salvation as holistic and phrase their state-

ments in a problem-solution framework. Jesus Christ is preached as an
answer to existential, physical concerns: He heals from illness, he frees
from drug addiction, and he enriches human lives. The underlying
paradigm here is not a paradigm of sin and salvation, but a paradigm
of a life lived in fullness, based, among others, on John 10:10.28
Several male interviewees tried to combine both paradigms in their
answers:
My missionary message is Jesus. Without Jesus, there is no other mes-
sage. Jesus is everything. Jesus is the basis for men’s salvation, basis for
men’s redemption, basis for men’s deliverance from poverty, misery, from
bondage—whatever problem, Jesus is the solution. Jesus came to die for
mankind, and so without Jesus, we don’t have any message.
We introduce to them God as father, we are living like orphans, why?
Miserable! Then we invite them to come to Father. But we cannot
come to Father, because he is holy, that is why Father sent, gave his
only son. Giving Jesus means he gave everything to us. Blessing, what
kind of blessing? Jesus, he is the King of Kings, he is God! So receiving
Jesus means—I very emphasize in our church this—we have everything!
Wealth, fame, any kind of success, all are in Jesus, actually, when we see
the reality. [. . .] This is why it is not only saving sin, that’s only part
I think. This basic, fundamental thing, but many are included in this
Jesus, what the Bible says. This why Father, heavenly Father, he loves us,
he sent Jesus, not only forgive our sins, then he loves, with all heavenly
blessings, us. That’s why come back to heavenly Father. Then, eternal
life, of course that’s, I think, main message. Eternal life, it’s not only long
life, eternal life, in this eternal life is included every blessing of God, of
course. I think this is, I can . . . summarize the Gospel message with this
John 3:16.
The style of the second statement is strikingly different from that of

the first: While the former remains in the realm of more general dog-
matics, the latter, despite some dogmatic language, displays a more per-
sonal and less ‘polished’ speaking style. The first speaker remains rather
abstract, using as his keywords ‘salvation,’ ‘redemption’ and ‘deliver-
ance.’ With this, he also pays homage to the ‘orthodox’ evangelical
tradition, which would center on the forgiveness of sins, and to the
pentecostal emphasis on physical manifestations of this salvation, which
28 See, e.g., Werner Kahl, Zur Bibelhermeneutik pfingstlich-charismatischer Ge-
meinden aus Westafrika in Deutschland, in: Michael Bergunder / Jörg Haustein (Hg.),
Migration und Identität. Pfingstlich-charismatische Migrationsgemeinden in Deutsch-
land. Beiheft der Zeitschrift für Mission 8. Frankfurt am Main: Otto Lembeck, 2006.
is expressed in healing29 and deliverance from demonic oppression, and

the neo-pentecostal notion that salvation also leads to financial suc-
cess. Clearly, he does not only have souls in mind, but also bodies and
physical livelihoods. Both the spiritual and the physical realm are tied
together in Jesus Christ. Jesus the healer and miracle worker who still
works in the same way today is the same Christ who ‘died for our sins.’
The second speaker, a pastor within a classical pentecostal denomi-
nation, connects the spiritual and the material world in the concept of
God the loving father who sends Jesus as the all-encompassing bless-
ing. The speaker explicitly states that just preaching salvation from sin
would not be sufficient in his mind. Eternal life does not just mean a
future in a spiritual realm; it means a physical life in fullness, “wealth,
fame, any kind of success” even today. These words hint at influences
from the neo-pentecostal Faith Movement, though this interviewee does
not base the expectation of physical blessings on certain principles, as
the Faith Movement does, but rather on the personal loving relation-
ship God has with people. ‘God’s love’ is also the keyword for several
other respondents when asked about their missionary message:
I don’t just present Jesus to the person like that. I start with whatever
he hold in his hand or whatever he really love. We discuss about it for a
while, then along the line I will let the person know there is something
that love him more than that. [. . .] Because I’ve discovered that many
people here, they need something that will keep them happy in their
heart, but they don’t know where to find it. That’s why some people
are taking alcohol, that’s why people are taking drugs, [. . .] I never
condemn them, I never criticize them. If you condemn them, you don’t
know what they are going through. They need joy, they need something
that will keep them happy in their life, but they don’t know where to go,
and nobody show them the way. [. . .] Because I discovered Jesus never
preached to people by condemning them. [. . .] You can say your life,
show your life to them, what you went through. For example, I was once
in alcohol, I have alcoholic problem before, when I was in school. How
God saved me from it. So when I see people alcoholic, I sometimes,
what comes to my mind first, I say: ‘I would have been like that man if
I didn’t know Christ.’ So I go to them, to let them know what happened
to me before. So, and how you can come out. [. . .] I present my Jesus to
people.
29 On the early pentecostal concept of healing as part of the provision in Christ’s
atonement, see Allan Anderson, Pentecostal Approaches to Faith and Healing, in:
Towards the Fullness of Life. International Review of Mission, Vol. XCI No. 363,
October 2002.
248 chapter five
Unlike the interviewees who stressed the coming judgment and the
possibility of hell, this pastor has an entirely positive message phrased in
relational terms. With his evangelistic work centering on drug-addicts,
alcoholics and other marginalized groups, he rejects any kind of moral
condemnation of the people to whom he preaches. Drug addiction and
alcoholism are not wrong ethical choices, but rather blind, desperate
and therefore failed attempts at gaining happiness. This interviewee’s
solidarity with drug addicts is based on the fact that he was once
an alcoholic himself. In typically revivalist fashion, he uses his own
‘salvation’ from addiction as a paradigmatic narrative to invite others
to follow his example. Because he was freed, others can ‘come out,’ too.
The missionary message here is most clearly experiential and relational:
It is not phrased in terms of a certain truth or information that needs
to be related to people (“I tell them that God loves them”), but rather
as an introduction to a person: “I present my Jesus to people,” an
encounter that will fundamentally liberate.
5.3.3. Reflections on contextualization

After having inquired about their missionary message in general, the
interviewees were asked whether they would have to phrase their mes-
sage differently depending on whether they talked to persons from their
country of origin rather than to Germans. A number of respondents
strongly rejected the notion that their message should be contextualized
according to the situation. Several interviewees framed their rejection
of any kind of contextualization of their preaching in the language of
radical Protestant fundamentalism.30
I preach the same everywhere; I only preach the correct truth. I will not
change one word of the Bible. Every millimeter has been written in the
Bible. I will not change to any foreign word because I want to remain
within the word of God.
Such language does not necessarily mean that the speaker’s theology
is fundamentalist throughout—it is also possible that such recourse
30 Cf. the short discussion of pentecostalism, fundamentalism and evangelicalism in
Walter J. Hollenweger, Charismatisch-pfingstliches Christentum. Herkunft, Situation,

Ökumenische Chancen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1997, and also Russell
P. Spittler, Sind Pfingstler und Charismatiker Fundamentalisten? In: M. Bergunder
(Hrsg.), Pfingstbewegung und Basisgemeinden in Lateinamerika. Studienheft Weltmis-
sion heute Nr. 39, Hamburg: Evangelisches Missionswerk in Deutschland 2000, pp. 43–
56.
to fundamentalist doctrine was simply meant to establish him as a

‘true believer’ and proper theologian to the German interviewer. Other
respondents gave entirely different reasons for refusing to adapt their
message:
I always tell the Germans that Jesus Christ is the same, regardless
whether I come from Africa or here in Germany, he is Christ for all.
[. . .] They [the Europeans] must not say: ‘We don’t need Jesus Christ’s
help.’ We always need Jesus Christ’s help! He helps us, he is ever the
same. He is no African, he is no European, he has created us all.
When I go out for evangelism in the street, I don’t say: Okay, this is a
black man coming, I’m going to talk to him in this way . . . no! There is
no difference in my eyes. I see all of them the same, and I use the same
words for them, yeah.
Here, the argument against contextualization is not fundamentalist, but
rather ‘political’ or relational. Any kind of tailoring of the message
according to the situation would amount to racism or apartheid, and
would make the Gospel message less than global. The Christian mes-
sage is not an abstract truth, but a person: As Christ is neither African
nor European, people must not be distinguished according to skin color
or culture. Everyone is the same in God’s eyes, and everyone needs a
relationship to him.
The majority of the respondents, though, answered the question
about contextualization by insisting that the message remained the
same while methods of evangelism could be adapted, thereby following
what could be termed a ‘pragmatic fundamentalist’ approach:
Everyone needs to hear the Gospel and the truth. If you are confident
that you are preaching the truth, there is no need to mix up the message.
But what you can do: In order to reach one, you may also try to preach
it with . . . at the back of your mind, the culture of the person you are
preaching to.
When it comes to the general salvation message, it’s the same, Jesus
Christ came to die for all of us, that one, a German needs to understand
it in the same way. But then when it comes to certain issues, you need
to approach differently. [. . .] So like, when I’m going to [. . .] church to
preach, I take out some of the emotional aspects that I would have done
in our own local church! Because I know that at that place, I am talking
to their minds, and their minds will work on it, and then it will affect
their lives.
The fundamentalist approach, which is based upon an understanding
of the Christian message as a set of dogmatically correct statements, is
clearly discernible in these statements: The “general salvation message”
250 chapter five
is said to remain unchanged regardless of the context. But their expe-

rience shows them that one has to take different cultures into account,
and as a result the respondents are willing to do this. The image they
have in mind, though, is that of an unchanged message core, which is
then clothed into different methods or adaptations.
Other respondents, while claiming that only their accidental meth-
ods changed, but not their essential message, actually do not follow a
fundamentalist approach. This can be shown by a closer analysis of
their statements.
Perhaps one always has to learn to confront one’s environment, so to say,
that’s how it was with Jesus. One can see, he was the one who could deal
well with his environment. But I think first of all I have to say, there is
only one Bible, in Africa, in Europe, in America, only one Bible, and
when we have to speak about the love of God, there is only one message.
God is the same God in Congo, in Germany, in America, but naturally,
one also has to know what kind of problems people have.
This statement, first of all, bases the unity of the message not on an
abstract truth, but on a personal God who is the same vis-à-vis different
cultures, even though he knows how to deal with each one differently.
Secondly, it stresses the fact that in global Christianity, there is one
book, the Bible, which is the basic document for all. For this speaker,
the message is all about relationship, the love of God. The relationship
aspect was also important to another speaker:
The message is always the same, regardless to which person [. . .] It’s
the message of love. [. . .] Probably, with Germans, I have to build a
relationship first, but with Indonesians, we start with food, that’s the idea,
to eat together [. . .] I think it is the most important thing that we show
this love to other people which we have already experienced ourselves.
The language here points to an experientialist rather than a funda-
mentalist approach. Evangelism is not about sharing certain dogmatic
statements which need to be adhered to, but rather about an experi-
ence to be shared in culturally appropriate ways. The third respondent
argued similarly:
The message of Christ is only one. I may be going to China, I will be
preaching about the salvation, there is nothing impossible to Christ. If I
go to North Korea, I may be preaching the same message. I don’t believe
I’m going to change. It’s the same Bible! The style, I can change, but in
Prinzip [sic], I don’t believe I’m going to change.
Salvation, for this speaker, is not an abstract term: It becomes concrete
in the statement that “there is nothing impossible to Christ.” Salvation
means a relationship, tangible experiences, signs and miracles. This is

a dynamic, experiential understanding of salvation that has nothing to
do with a fundamentalist, legalistic concept. Similarly, by underlining
that the Bible is the same document for all believers, this speaker does
not imply that there is one abstract ‘Biblical truth’ to which all believers
must adhere.
Some respondents reflected pragmatically about ways of contextual-
izing a message which they claimed was unchanged throughout:
The approach is different. [. . .] If I want to do a strong campaign of
evangelization [. . .] get on a Gospel Concert, make a program: Gospel
Concert, everybody is going to come! European, Western, German,
they’re going to come to a concert, and that’s an open door. The place
is packed! [. . .] For Africans, you just come and say ‘This is a Gospel
Crusade, there will be prayer and deliverance’—they will come in their
numbers, the place is packed, you see the response [. . .] So there’s a
difference. But the message will be the same. The message will be the
same! Jesus is Lord, Jesus will save you, and . . . yeah, the message will be
the same.
Basically, the message is the same, whether Germans or Ghanaians or
Americans, the message is the same. But [. . .] there are times you need
to change the method. In Ghana, even because of problems, because of
poverty, when you tell people that Jesus is the solution to your problems,
they will come. When they see some miracles, they will come. But when
you go to some place, miracles only won’t bring the people. [. . .] There
are some places, like, maybe, Germany, when you want to attract the
people, you need to develop maybe your music ministry, because people
are attracted by music. [. . .] You have to study the situation and to allow
the Holy Spirit to teach you what to use.
Both (African) interviewees believe that what attracts Africans to a

meeting is not what will attract Germans: Africans need deliverance,
miracles, physical and material solutions for the burning problems they
are encountering. Germans, on the other hand, do not have such
pressing material needs. In a wealthy, consumerist society, a church
can be attractive if it has good music. Both speakers claim, though,
that the message they preach is the same. The first speaker phrases
his message in such an abstract way that it hides the fact that it
can have totally different meanings depending on the context: “Jesus
is Lord, Jesus will save you”—in the African context, salvation often
means material solutions, in the German context (even though this
is not stated explicitly), simply eternal life. The second interlocutor,
while stating that his message remains the same, proceeds to give a
252 chapter five
concrete, ‘African’ message, while never disclosing what he actually

preaches to Germans. Again, this is probably just lip service to the
fundamentalist concept of the unchanged message. The speaker states
that the situation must be studied, allowing “the Holy Spirit to teach
you what to use.” Here, a dynamic element is introduced. The Holy
Spirit is not an abstract truth, but rather a living, relational power.
Clearly, the experiential approach is stronger than the fundamentalist
structure.
The statement of one of the Asian interviewees followed a very
similar pattern. After having said that the Gospel message could never
be changed, he explicated:
In Sri Lanka people are totally poor; they don’t know what’s going
to happen the next day. But in Germany there is security, they have
everything, they just want to think about eternity. In Sri Lanka you have
to think of the next day. That’s the difference. Therefore, in Sri Lanka
we preach about the next day, and in Germany we preach about eternity.
That’s the difference.
CWO: So you do make a certain difference?
Yes, but both are eternity, there the next day and here the next life.
Even though the speaker admits that his message may have different
emphases according to the situation, he insists that it is always the same
message. Even if he preaches about the solution of material problems,
he does not deviate from his message about eternal life. Eternal life
encompasses both this realm and the next. It is this statement that tells
us that the speaker, despite his claims to a fundamentalist approach,
does not follow it. While fundamentalists would claim discontinuity
between the earthly and the heavenly realm, this life and the next,
this speaker sees no division between the two. The solution of physical
problems is already part of eternal life. Eternal life already manifests
itself on earth.
Generally, the interviewees’ analysis of the differences between a
German and an African or Asian context tended to be rather superfi-
cial and simplistic. But it must be noted that these differences were not
formulated within a cultural paradigm (as German Protestants might
tend to do), but in an economic one! What distinguishes the German
context from the home country context of the speakers is that Ger-
mans have their material needs met, while Africans and Asians do not.
“Salvation” has a materialist ring for the migrants because they are
poor, struggling and marginalized. Having come to Germany, they have
realized that such a ‘materialist’ salvation message does not appeal to
Germans. Who needs Jesus to take care of their food if there is always
enough to eat? As simplistic as some statements sound, the insight
is an important one and all too easily overlooked within a ‘cultural-
ized’ outlook. The fact that cooperation between German and migrant
churches is so difficult in practice probably has far less to do with
different cultures than with their different economic and social situa-
tion.
Only two interviewees stated more concretely how they would
phrase their evangelistic message for Germans. They centered on
observations of materialism and social isolation:
Here you see the people, [. . .] you see this poverty in relationships,
that loneliness [. . .] People really don’t have this kind of, can I say,
inner rest and peace within themselves. Why? Because they keep [. . .]
having things like cars and stuff, but there is not this inner rest. It’s
like everybody is rushing for work, materialism is at hand [. . .] And
therefore, the approach should be [. . .]: Life fulfillment does not come
by having things, but life fulfillment comes by having Christ. So here is a
different approach. People would prefer to be, eh, related to, before won
over to Christ.
Society has everything in terms of material things, but deep down,
because we are social beings by nature, I can see that sometimes, people
don’t feel as happy as we imagine they feel, even feel lonely. They need
someone. And people also—after you’ve gotten everything, sometimes
you ask after the meaning of life. [. . .] So you have to show the person
that, in spite of all difficulties that maybe I face as a foreigner, [. . .] I
feel happy with my life, because there is somebody in me who gives me
this inner peace, that you can’t use money to buy. There is somebody in
me, who makes me feel, you know, so special, even if people want me to
feel low, because maybe I’m a foreigner; I’m of a different color. But that
person in me makes me feel special, and then it will make you feel even
more special, because you are in your own country, in your own land, it
will make you have more peace.
Both speakers claim that their message is about Jesus who meets peo-
ple’s needs. In Germany, they diagnose not material, but rather rela-
tional wants. People are rich, but they are not fulfilled. This is where
the Gospel meets them. They may be lonely, but they can get to know
Jesus Christ, and find a relationship with other Christians. The unity of
the message is a personal and a functional one. In every context, it is
the same Christ who meets people’s needs, and it is the same God who
wants to give all humans life in fullness.
Summing up: Despite paying lip service to a fundamentalist ap-
proach of an essential evangelistic message which consists of a dogmatic
254 chapter five
truth that demands adherence, the pentecostal / charismatic pastors

interviewed for this study follow an evangelistic approach which stresses
an affective, personal relationship with Jesus Christ who gives them
what they need, whether it be material, psychological or spiritual. They
can therefore be flexible with the actual message they preach and,
while claiming to adhere constantly to the ‘same Gospel,’ convey very
different message contents according to the situation in which they find
themselves.
5.4. Imagining Germany and Europe
“Migrants with a Mission” is the title of this study. As we have already

seen, the interviewees see themselves, without exception, as missionar-
ies with a divine call to work in Germany. But how do they look at this
country to which they consider themselves sent? Why did they have to
come here? Why are they needed?
Missionaries, be it in private talks among themselves, in newsletters,
articles or books, tend to describe their host country in “an abstract
matrix of otherness”31—missionaries aim at transformation, and there-
fore their understanding of their own role and task is inevitably bound
up with their imagination of their target country. They bring something
good that has not been there before, or they fight something bad from
their understanding of what is good.
Missionary talk is a form of symbolic mapping. The country in which
the missionaries find themselves is located within the divine economy
of salvation, and its culture and history are interpreted through a
spiritual lens. In classical missionary narratives, such symbolic mapping
usually took the form of contrasting the ‘dark heathen’ realities with
the ‘light’ of the Christian Gospel and faith. Such patterns can still
be found in the narratives of evangelical and pentecostal / charismatic
missionaries from Northern America and Europe. J. Swanson shows
how the American missionaries he studied, in their newsletters to their
constituencies at home, often constructed “America” as standing for
rationality, order, truth and purity, while “Ecuador” was described as
superstitious, chaotic, unreliable and dirty.32 The imagination of the
31 Jeffrey Swanson, Echoes of the Call. Identity and Ideology Among American
Missionaries in Ecuador, New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995, p. 107.
32 Ibd. pp. 158 ff. A quick glance at mission magazines from, e.g., the Liebenzell
host country is always bound up with the imagination of the home the
missionary has left, and with the role that he or she ascribes to him- or
herself. The ‘mission field’ is always deficient, problematic, negatively
associated, so that the Gospel message the missionary brings can be
projected as meeting needs, solving problems, and “bringing good into
the world.”33
Since the pastors interviewed for this study have reversed the clas-
sical direction of the missionary endeavor, they need to develop new
forms of symbolic mapping. Before, the “Christian North and West”
brought the Gospel to the “heathen East and South.” The imagina-
tion of Europe and North America as Christian continents is still active
in Africa, Asia and Latin America, therefore sharpening the need for
‘reverse’ missionaries from these continents to redraw the symbolic
map. As will be shown below, a kind of ‘symbolic master map’ informs
the imagining process for all interviewees, though individual concretiza-
tions can take different forms.34
5.4.1. Restoring a ruined church

First of all, none of the interviewees contradicted or challenged the
classical missionary master narrative. All interviewees were clearly con-
versant with an image of Germany as a Christian nation or Europe /
North America as a Christian region. But this image was, by most inter-
locutors, plainly assigned to the past.
. . . remind the Germans of their past, remind them that everywhere they
look, they will find a church building. Remind them that their forefathers
served God, and their forefathers were not stupid, and they laid the right
foundation for them which led to their prosperity today. [. . .] I think
the Germans need to be reminded again and again that their forefathers
were not stupid. They are very clever people. That’s why they invested so
much money—I think somebody should calculate, somebody should do
a study how much all the church buildings in Germany is worth. Stupid
people don’t spend that kind of money.
Mission in Germany, or Youth with a Mission, confirms that similar views can also be
found in 21st century Europe.
33 This slogan (Mission. Bringt Gutes in die Welt.) has been suggested to anchor a mar-
keting strategy, orchestrated by the Association of Churches and Missions in Germany,

to ‘better’ the image of ‘mission’ here. (Unpublished presentation made available to the
author.)
34 See also Elizabeht McAlister, Globalization and the Religious Production of
Space, in: Journal for the scientific study of religion, vol. 44, issue 3, 2005, pp. 249–255.
256 chapter five
For many interviewees, the diagnosis is clear: Germany was once,

not even in the very distant past, a Christian country. This is obvious
in the numerous church buildings that dot the landscape and still
shape the skyline of many cities and towns. But now, these roots are
lost.
German, so many people don’t attend a church. So I feel sorry many
times.
This is my aim [. . .] the people who live in Germany, many nationalities,
and also the Germans themselves, to go back to their roots. [. . .] Some-
how they became empty. [. . .] I believe the church must be renewed.
The church buildings really should be filled! 700 seats in the church, 500,
200 seats, but 20, 25 people—that is not enough for me!
Therefore, strictly speaking, Germany is not so much of a mission
country—in the sense that the Christian faith has not been known
there—but rather a country in need of revival. Preachers from Africa
and Asia have to go to Germany to bring this about:
My understanding of missions is someone who goes to a place where the
Gospel has not been preached before. Then he tells them about Christ.
[. . .] The letter that brought me here, I was posted there as a missionary
pastor. Which means, some people do see Germany as a mission field,
because of the need to have a revival in the land. But in actual fact, if
we look at the definition, it does not qualify as a mission field, because
Christ is known here.
The Europeans . . . because we see that they need revival, too, yes. I
once read this statistic, I don’t know whether it is still accurate, that the
newborn, the born again Christians in Germany are less than 2 %. [. . .]
And then, this was very sad for me, yes. And this is why we have this
task; this is why we want that what we experience in Indonesia should
be experienced in other countries, too, it should happen in Europe, too,
because we worship the same God. And God will never forget Europe,
we believe that.
The second statement contrasts an imagination of Germany as a coun-
try in need of revival with what pastors have experienced at home.
It is somewhat striking to European sensibilities that the comparison
between a de-Christianized Europe and a revivalist home church is
made by an Indonesian rather than a Ghanaian or Nigerian. Indone-
sia, in the German perception, is a Muslim country with a small,
oppressed Christian minority
The term ‘revival’ implies that a church exists, but that it is dead,
sleeping or weakened. Such images are indeed strongly present in the
discussions among pentecostal / charismatic migrants. Possibly due to
politeness towards the interviewer, they were phrased rather carefully

during the interviews:
The Evangelical churches should have an outreach for the Germans. I
know that they are compromising [. . .] And they should also recognize
the need for the Holy Spirit also, because he is doing the work now, and
when we think that we don’t need the Holy Spirit, his time has passed,
then the church will die.
To a non-pentecostal listener, this statement may sound comparatively
mild. In pentecostal language, though, to be found “compromising”
is a fairly damning verdict. The church belongs to God and has to
be strictly apart from “the world”—a compromising church is indeed
compromised! This speaker bases her conclusion on the fact that she
does not see the German church evangelizing anymore, the reason for
which she perceives as a loss of trust in the Holy Spirit. While not yet
calling the German church dead, she clearly sees it as dying. Another
African speaker concretized the weakness of the German churches in a
different way:
The Africans are able to travail in areas in which the German church
is yet to get back into—they were there before, but because of—I don’t
know what happened, I cannot be a judge of that, but the simple truth is
that the European church and the European believers need to come back
to the place of prayer and fasting which people like Smith Wigglesworth
and John Wesley and all the other revivalists used very effectively for
revival. The Africans are now doing that. The migrant churches are now
doing that.
The European churches which were once strong in fasting and prayer
have lost this ability and therefore need help from the migrant
churches.
In sermons, the negative imagery can be much stronger than it was
in the interviews. In a short exhortation at a meeting of the Cologne
International Convent (a group of migrant pastors and church lead-
ers), a Korean pastor reflected on Nehemiah 1, saying: “The broken
Jerusalem that Nehemiah weeps, prays and fasts about is the Ger-
man churches. They are in ruins, and there is very little hope.”35
This diagnosis was then followed by a description of what the role of
migrant churches had to be: “The migrant churches are Nehemiah.
35 Meeting of the Cologne International Convent, 12 September 2005. Exhortation
held in German, quotations translated from field notes.

258 chapter five
Like Nehemiah did, we need to take responsibility. Like Nehemiah, we

need to fast and pray. Then God will show us how we can rebuild the
churches in Germany.”
During an All-Night Prayer organized by the Council of Pentecostal
Ministers, a Ghanaian pastor preached a short sermon about the role
of Africans in Germany. He told the large, overwhelmingly black audi-
ence that the foreigners’ office might try to push them out of this coun-
try but that God had given them this very land. He had sent them
to Germany because he wanted to do something here through them.
Addressing the few Germans in the audience in particular, he com-
pared the German church with Samson. Before (“during the time of
Martin Luther”) it had been strong, but today it had been blinded, and
therefore its strength could no longer be seen. Like Samson needed a
small boy to lead him, the German church now needed the African
churches to lead them. The little boy brought Samson to the pillar
“and he could pull down the stronghold.” If the German churches let
themselves be led to the stronghold by the African churches, they could
achieve the same.36
The imagery of the role of the missionaries is strikingly different in
these two statements. Where the Korean pastor likens the migrants to
Nehemiah, an important leader of the Jewish restoration, the African
speaker is content with the role of a small boy leading the blind giant.
We will come back to this observation later.
All these statements allow us to perceive clearly the ‘spiritual master
map’ of the pentecostal / charismatic migrant discourse: Missionaries
(or revivalists) need to come to Germany because this country is no
longer a Christian one. Where the Christian church37 once shaped
society, it has now become a small minority, weakened by unbelief,
broken and ruined. The image is a restorationist one: Rather than
bringing a new message to people who have never heard it before, the
mission of the migrants is to restore the German church to its glorious
past, thereby re-making Germany into the Christian country it once
was.
My mission here is to bring back into this country that kind of faith, the
faith in God [. . .] that people come back to faith, and that’s the main
issue: Bringing people back to faith. [. . .] It’s not an old-time religion.
36 CPM Allnight Prayer, Düsseldorf, January 16–17, 2004. Sermon preached in
English, summary and quotes from field notes.

37 It should be noted that the Catholic church is plainly ignored in this imagery!
[. . .] That is my personal goal, my personal heart [. . .] Because many

people are losing their faith in God, and that is what our mission is here.
5.4.2. “Bringing back” the Gospel

A number of interviewees added a further aspect to the restorationist
imagery: They spoke about “giving something back” to the country or
continent which had first evangelized them.
I’m just looking at the country Germany, or at Europe for that matter,
people that some time, maybe hundred years ago [. . .] sent out mission-
aries to Africa, came and preached about this Biblical faith to us [. . .]
We have a mission, that Germans—the faith that they brought to us,
that same faith, must really be revived over here. [. . .] They [the Ger-
mans] themselves do not attach significance to Christianity, and this is
where we think there is a little deviation. And this is also where we think
that we can also do something.
I believe what God really gave me as task, is first of all: [. . .] We need to
give something back, because we live in Germany. [. . .] And I think
for us . . . we in Germany have more responsibility, because we are
evangelical, Protestants, and that all started here. And we simply want
to give something back . . .. What we have from our revival, back to the
Germans, to the German churches.
One thing I know . . . Indonesians think about Germans—yes, especially
how they sent German missionaries to Indonesia—they did a very good
job. But it is sad that Germany is a mission country, it’s not like it was
before. Now is our time, the time of us Indonesians to missionize the
Germans, as a return service now. [. . .] I believe the Germans did us
good, especially the missionaries, and we want to give something back.
The positive image pentecostal / charismatic pastors have of the mis-
sionary endeavors of the German churches is conspicuous in all these
statements. The mission efforts of the 18th and 19th century are seen
as a blessing without any shortcomings, something for which one sim-
ply needs to be thankful. Within the pentecostal / charismatic migrant
scene, no critical words can be heard about the relationship between
mission and colonialism. Similarly, pentecostal / charismatic migrants
do not seem to share the widely held perception that the colonial mis-
sion had a highly negative impact on the indigenous cultures it met.
The result of this gratitude towards the mission of the 19th and 20th
century is that the migrants now want to “give something back.” As
their nations were Christianized, they now want to re-Christianize Ger-
many.
260 chapter five
Such positive assessments of mission history coupled with a sense of

reverse mission as ‘giving back’ are also common in sermons, particu-
larly when new congregations or church buildings are inaugurated. For
example, at the launch of the International Full Gospel Fellowship—
Gereja Injili Seutu Internasional (IFGF-GISI) in Düsseldorf, the guest
preacher, an Indonesian based in Amsterdam, said the following:
God wants IFGF-GISI to plant a church in Düsseldorf. [. . .] This
church shall win many people, so that the room will be too small
very soon. The missionaries brought the Gospel to Indonesia. Now the
Indonesians bring it back. They were blessed, now they shall bless. The
Indonesians are smaller in stature than the Germans. [Laughter] But now
they are coming with a mission. Their aim is to bring the Gospel. [. . .]
If we bring Düsseldorf to the Lord, if we pray more and start house
fellowships, it will become a safe city.38
There is, of course, a certain subversive element in interpreting mission

history in this way: If the white missionaries who brought the Gospel
are described as a blessing to the nations they colonized, it is clear that
the missionaries coming from the South and East to the North and
West now cannot be anything else but a blessing, too. Furthermore, a
certain sense of expected reciprocity can be ascertained. The unspoken
implication is: If we do not criticize your missionaries, you cannot
criticize ours. And as we received your missionaries and their message,
we expect you to accept our missionaries and their message, too. After
all, we are bringing you nothing else than the message your people
brought to us before.
At the dedication of the ‘House of Solution’, the factory church of
Lighthouse Christian Fellowship, the guest preacher, a Ghanaian based
in London, made a similar point:
Our community and our governments don’t take churches like this one
seriously. [. . .] There is a mistrust of ethnic minority churches. We are
only perceived as people who have needs. [. . .] People, take notice: We
have something to offer to this nation. We have solutions! [. . .] This
nation has invested in us. They colonized us. They came with the Bible,
they told us about Jesus. We must be thankful for this. Otherwise, we
would still be worshipping stones and wood! Today, we are bringing Jesus
back! [Loud shouts of approval, laughter, applause] But we bring him back in a
way you [Germans] don’t know him. It is payback time. It is time for you
to receive your wages. We are confident that we can do it. Allow us to
38 30 January 2005. Sermon in Indonesian with German translation. Quote trans-
lated from field notes.

be all that we can be, so that you can be all that you can be. [. . .] With
this church dedication we announce that we have something to give. We
give something others can’t give. We deal with things that professionals
can’t solve. The solution for depression is not tablets. It is giving people a
value in themselves. That is what we dedicate this house for. We measure
the value of this building not in currency, but in changed lives.39
This statement, made at a church function with numerous Germans
(local politicians as well as church representatives) in attendance, was
provocative in several ways. First of all, the speaker plainly refused to
describe migration as a problem and migrants as people who need help
and assistance, thereby challenging the dominant discourse on migra-
tion in Germany. Rather, migrant churches had plenty to offer to Ger-
many. “We have solutions!”40 The sense of mission is clearly evident:
Germans may not understand this yet, but the migrant churches are
here to help. Secondly, mission history is described in ways explicitly
contradicting its dominant understanding in Germany. Rather than
criticizing colonial mission efforts, the speaker insists that Germany
‘invested’ in Africa by colonizing and evangelizing it. Without this
investment, Africa would still be ‘backward.’ Obviously, he attributes
Christianization with progress and modernity, which are valued in an
entirely positive way. The fact that Christianity replaced an ‘origi-
nal’ religion (and culture) is not regretted, but rather celebrated. Here
again, the speaker shows open opposition to the dominant discourse
which denounces Christian mission as “culturally destructive.”41
Thirdly, we find a clear sense of reciprocity. Just as Germany sent
missionaries to Africa, Africa is now sending missionaries to Germany.
But as Africans respected and received the message of the Western col-
onizers, Germans must be willing to accept what the migrants have
to offer. Such acceptance will allow migrants, but also the German
39 Sermon in English, quoted from extensive written notes.

40 Making a similar point, a letter to migrant churches by the Executive of the
Association of Migrant Christian Churches (dated 18 April 2005) says: “It is about
time to let the established churches and the government bodies know that we are not a
‘problem’, but partners for problem solution.”
41 For more information on this dominant discourse, see Mission und Kolonialis-
mus, in: Dahling-Sander, Christoph et al. (eds), Leitfaden Ökumenische Missionstheologie,

Gütersloh: Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser / Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2003, pp. 79–110. Novels
can also be highly instructive. A typical example from a Northern perspective is Bar-
bara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, New York: HarperFlamingo 1998. A classic
example from an African perspective which was widely discussed in Europe and North
America is Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, New York, Anchor Books 1994. (The
book was first published in 1958.)
262 chapter five
church, to live up to their fullest potential. Fourthly, what the Africans

have to give is not within the Western paradigm. It is Jesus in an
unknown way, it is a solution for something “professionals [i.e. peo-
ple trained in a Western, enlightenment way] cannot solve.” Mecha-
nized medicine (i.e. tablets for depression) will not change lives, but an
encounter with Jesus who gives people value will.42 As the missionaries
brought a new approach to Africa, Africans are now bringing a new
approach to Europe. And as Africa developed because it received this
new approach, Europe is now called to move forward by receiving what
the African missionaries are bringing.
5.4.3. The German nation in the economy of salvation

We have already seen that the interviewees did not simply describe
themselves as bringing revival to the German churches, but rather
that they envision re-christianizing the whole country, and with it the
European continent, bringing it back to the place it once had in the
economy of salvation. Two interviewees reflected about this role in
somewhat more detail.
We believe that there is something that God would do in this country.
[. . .] Every country that God makes, God gives a gift to the country.
[. . .] Now, Germany is gifted with administration and the gift of leader-
ship [. . .] Look at the previous world war that was fought! Germany had
a major hand in it [. . .] God has made Germany to be a country of lead-
ership. They are very strong in administration, organization and in lead-
ership, this is their gift. When I believe God has brought the foreigners
here, God has brought different nations here [. . .] they should know that
they’re not here only to look for money, they’re not here to look for, only,
good careers, but if they’re Christians they’re here—they must know that
they’re here on a mission. They’re here to come to encourage the Ger-
mans to wake up. When the Germans wake up, I believe all Europe;
all European countries will wake up [. . .] And I believe God will revive
the Germans, God will revive the German churches and God is only
using the foreigners here [. . .] the foreigners who are Christians—God
is using them as a reminder for the Germans, and soon the Germans
will know this is our calling, they will wake up and there’ll be revival. So
I urge every foreigner here to continue to pray for the Germans. Don’t
condemn the Germans! Just pray for the German churches.
42 See, as a classical example, the testimony by Elke Schlich, “How Jesus healed and
liberated me” (Wie Jesus mich heilte und befreite), in: Charisma 146, 4. Quartal 2008. This
issue, entitled “The blessing is coming back” (Der Segen kommt zurück) centers on the
mission of migrant churches in Germany and Europe.
The concept of nationhood which informs this statement, begs closer

analysis. Firstly, the speaker states that countries or nations have been
created by God. National cultures are not seen as communal human
expressions, but rather as divinely ordained ‘characters.’ As God fash-
ioned each nation, he gave it particular gifts which then define that
country’s task in the economy of salvation. A country or nation, here,
is metaphorically understood as a person, a ‘natural’ unit, which like
a person can have a specific calling. (Further on, the speaker named
Israel and its gift and task of evangelism as another example.) Ger-
many’s gift and task is identified as leadership. With this statement, the
speaker clearly locates himself within an international, neo-pentecostal
discourse on nationhood.43 In terms of the economy of salvation, revival
in Europe will only happen if Germany takes up its divinely ordained
leadership role in it. In recent history, Germany abused this divine gift
by starting a world war. Germany needs to be revived, needs to be
brought back to the right understanding of its nationhood and call-
ing. The speaker uses the idea of revival both in relation to the Ger-
man churches and to Germany as a country—the aim of revival is to
overcome any distinction between country and church, with the whole
country becoming Christianized and therefore turning into the church.
In this divine economy, the migrant missionaries have their role and
place. They have been sent to Europe “to encourage the Germans to
wake up” so that Germany will fulfill the role God has assigned to it.
Therefore, it would not be right to condemn the Germans, or to seek to
replace them in this salvation economy. We note that in this symbolic
mapping process, the traditional colonial imagery prevails to a large
extent. Migrants, in particular Africans, have a subservient, assisting
role, while the Whites are the leaders and movers. The migrants’ role is
nothing more than to serve as a catalyst; revival in Europe will have to
be led by the Germans.
What kind of influences can we detect here? In pentecostal mission
history, the idea that ‘nationals evangelize nationals’ has played a large
role right from the beginning. Consequently, ‘foreign’ missionaries used
43 See also Catherine Wanner, Communities of the Converted. Ukrainians and
Global Evangelism, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press 2007. Wanner reports
that at the African-led “Embassy of God” church in Kiev, national flags of many
countries are displayed during worship services. During praise time, flags are taken
down to dance with, and “after the Ukrainian flag, usually the American, Israeli
or German flag comes next,” indicating that these countries are seen as particularly
important in the economy of salvation. P. 217.
264 chapter five
to turn over newly founded churches to indigenous leadership quickly,

and to send out indigenous evangelists shortly after they had been bap-
tized, with a minimum of training. Such thinking could have influenced
this statement.44
Furthermore, it could be asked whether here, the speaker was play-
ing to a German audience. Sensitive to the fact that many Germans feel
threatened by the missionary claims particularly of African migrants,
such a statement could be primarily intended to allay fears of being
overrun by a foreign form of Christianity. One respondent explicitly
mentioned such fears:
We are here for a purpose, to awaken the church in Germany. We have
a mission, and God sent us here. So that we are not here as a threat, but
we are here to help the church in Germany. Amen!
But it could also be that migrants, and specifically African migrants,
bring with them a mindset still influenced by colonialist notions. The
fact that the speaker defines the roles of both migrants and indigenous
as divinely ordained precludes any interpretation of the inequalities as
historically developed and therefore changeable.
We will test these assumptions by looking at the statement of another
African speaker. He, like other respondents, started out with the notion
that Germany was once a Christian country but now in need of revival.
His own role, therefore, was not that of a missionary (a missionary
defined as somebody who preached the Gospel where it had not been
preached before), but rather that of a catalyst for revival:
Maybe I’m like Ananias, whose work is just to baptize Apostle Paul,
pray for him and release him into his ministry, and nothing more is
heard about Ananias. Maybe God sent me here to find just one German,
who would be filled with the Holy Ghost, and he will go and reach the
Germans. Because the work here, I believe in my own understanding—I
may be wrong—needs a German, needs someone who understands the
culture, understands the do’s and the don’t’s of the Germans, is able to
reach them and is able to minister to them. I keep thinking that maybe
I’m looking for that man, and that when I find him, or her, as the case
may be, I will have fulfilled my assignment.
These words, at a first glance, seem to show the influences of an under-
standing of mission in which the foreign missionary or revivalist comes
44 See also Allan Anderson, Spreading Fires. The Missionary Nature of Early Pente-
costalism, London: SCM Press 2007.

in and passes his message on to a local person who will then carry
on the work. At the same time, certain ambivalences should not be
overlooked. On the one hand, the speaker sees himself as the possible
catalyst for a great revival in Germany, as the one who ‘releases’ a
new German Christian leader into his ministry. On the other hand, he
defines this as a background role: Like Ananias who ‘released’ Paul,
the African pastor would fade out of the picture as the great German
revivalist does his (or her!) work. In this statement, we can detect both
a certain notion of spiritual superiority—after all, it is the African
who passes on the Holy Spirit!—and a noticeable feeling of cultural
inferiority. This speaker then explained why revival in Germany was so
important to the economy of salvation:
And then the Germans can be mobilized to reach out, because I still
believe, looking back historically, it was Europe that God used to reach
the world with the Gospel, including the United States of America.
[. . .] Right now Europe is sleeping, and only God can wake Europe.
And one of the things that produce sleep is tiredness. When a man has
worked very, very hard, he is going to sleep, and there is nothing you
can do about it. [. . .] Europe worked very hard for God, the people
worked very hard, and right now Europe is in the state of sleep, because
it has done such hard work. But Europe has to wake up. If Europe
wakes up today, I can assure you, within three years, the Lord will
come back. The whole world will be reached if Europe wakes up today.
And that’s why I believe that Satan is doing everything possible to make
Europeans get distracted from the Gospel. They don’t go to church, they
live for pleasure, they do any other thing. If Europe wakes up today, then
it’s a foregone conclusion: They have the organization, they have the
discipline, they have the know-how, they will move. They are the ones
God used before. And once God used someone before, God wants to use
that person again. . . . And that’s what we prayed for last Saturday. ‘Lord,
wake Europe, revive Europe.’ Once Europe is revived, then everything is
finished.
This speaker, too, has an image of Europe as organized, disciplined,

and knowledgeable. He does not describe these qualities as divine gifts,
but simply states that they are there. Because of them, God could use
Europe once to bring the Gospel to the world, and if Europe allows
itself to be used again in this way, the task of world evangelism could
be finished within a very short time, resulting in the second coming of
Christ. What we have here is an explicit understanding of Europe—
and not America!—as a ‘savior nation.’ But Europe is asleep. The
speaker gives a somewhat contradictory interpretation of this situation:
Europe’s sleep is understood both as a consequence of its good work in
266 chapter five
the past and as caused by Satanic intervention. Here now the migrant
churches find their role: They have to “wake up” Europe. But this is all
they have to do:
I don’t believe that God is using the Africans to do so that the Africans
will do the work. I think God is using the Africans to pray, to wake up
the European church.
Again, the symbolic mapping is informed by colonialist thinking:
Europe (though, conspicuously, not the USA!) is God’s chosen instru-
ment, the natural leader, the region that will complete the task of world
evangelism. It is not possible for Africa to achieve this goal, because
God will not replace the sleeping Europeans with African workers.
Africans can only assist by waking up Europe. This immediately begs
the question why God would not turn to the Africans when the Euro-
peans show themselves unwilling to do what he wants them to do. The
speaker had a clear answer to this:
Our forefathers in Africa made a mistake through ignorance, they turned
to demons and to devils; they did not serve God. And that’s why we a
suffering a lot today, that’s why there is so much darkness and so much
wickedness in Africa. The Europeans, the Americans, their forefathers
handed them over to God, who promised that he would keep covenant
for a thousand generations to those that love him, and do his will.
While this speaker does not go back to the old understanding of
the ‘Hamitic curse’ which assigns black-skinned people to unending
servitude,45 he has a developed theory of African inferiority: Africans
rejected God and chose to serve demons, while Europeans and Ameri-
cans made a covenant with God. Even though both decisions are now
long in the past, the consequences are still present: Africans suffer, and
Europeans prosper. Europe will be able to evangelize the world, but
Africa will not be used by God in this way, even if Europe fails its divine
calling. The old covenants override present activities. The idea that
Africa’s problems, from wars to corruption to underdevelopment, are
caused by demonic forces which found fertile ground in Africa through
witchcraft and traditional religions and culture is widely held in pente-
costal / charismatic circles at least in Ghana and Nigeria.46 It is passed
45 A West African charismatic refutation of this myth can be found in Mensa Otabil,
Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. A biblical revelation on God’s purpose for the Black
Race, Accra (Ghana): Altar International, 1992.
46 The Dutch anthropologist Birgit Meyer has shown in several studies how such
worldviews developed. See, in particular, Translating the Devil. Religion and Moder-
on in prayer camps where worshippers break “generational curses”,

rejecting and nullifying ‘covenants with the devil’ which their parents,
grandparents, or even more remote forebears might have entered into,
in sermons which reject a revival of traditional culture,47 and in many
booklets on problem-solving prayer.48
5.4.4. Territorial spirits

One African interviewee gave the following ‘spiritual diagnosis’ of the
German situation:
The spirits, that control nations, they are there. [. . .] I believe there are
two problems I see very physically that one has to address. The first one
is [. . .] hopelessness. [. . .] I see hope in the form of the confidence that
one should have to challenge things and to move on. What do I mean by
‘move on’? I mean to create, to have the social, the family strengthened.
I believe two things that are related. I believe the lack of hope comes
from the family situation, that many relationships are affected by some
principality that makes relationship issues very . . . it affects generations.
I will just give an example: When I was discussing this with someone,
he said maybe this is because of the world war, the women took over
most of the work and the men—but I said ‘you see, maybe that’s where
this spirit came in, because when you look at spiritual things, you know,
it’s usually an event that gives them a leeway.’ It brought hopelessness
and brought families being not really strong together anymore in the
sense that family, holding a family together became a very difficult thing.
Relationships, you know, are not stable, so families are not stable. And
then, the children are brought up with this instability, and then people
don’t know it, but it’s passed on [. . .] So by having all this hopelessness—
that is what I see in the eyes of people, you know, just walking in the
street and I see—I mean they have everything but then—something is
not complete. And I believe it’s spiritual. Because when the same people
go to Spain, or go to America, or go to some other place where the
dominating spirit is not that hopeless spirit, I mean people will come
alive, and people become different. [. . .] So the root cause is a spiritual
problem which, I believe, might have come in after the world war. The
opening was there, it came in, it made people hopeless, which the war
nity among the Ewe in Ghana, Trenton (NJ): Africa World Press 1999; and Charis-
matic Christianity and ‘Modernity’ in Ghana, Journal of African History, 46 no. 2, 2005,
pp. 372–374.
47 See Birgit Meyer, “Praise the Lord”: Popular cinema and pentecostalite style in
Ghana’s new public sphere, American Ethnologist, Vol. 31 No. 1 (2004), pp. 92–110.
48 “It is a fact that dark powers are responsible for most problems of the black
man.” D.K. Olukoya, Violent Prayers to Disgrace Stubborn Problems, Lagos: Battle
Cry Ministries 1999, p. 28.
268 chapter five
usually does, but then everything then was rebuilt and made okay. But
the spirits had gained ownership, and they stayed, and no one is chasing
them—I mean they just stay there. So, yeah, that’s how I see the spiritual
climate from this perspective.
We have said above that in the West-African Pentecostal / charismatic

discourse, ideas of a spiritual root cause to political and social prob-
lems abound. Such thinking is actually not limited to West Africa, but
also circulates worldwide in neo-pentecostal circles. In particular, US
American neo-pentecostals have popularized a concept called ‘spiri-
tual mapping:’49 This is a somewhat technocratic approach developed
within the framework of ‘spiritual warfare’ theology and is understood
as a spiritual, diagnostic tool which “combines research, divine revela-
tion, and confirmatory evidence in order to provide complete and exact
data concerning the identity, strategies and methods employed by spir-
itual forces of darkness to influence the people and the churches in a
given region.”50
Even without using the term, the speaker quoted above engages in
just such a process of spiritual mapping. He tries to establish a spiri-
tual diagnosis of the situation in his host country, so that his missionary
efforts can be most effective by addressing the root cause of Germany’s
problems. This root cause is interpreted to be a “dominating” or “con-
trolling” spirit—“spirit” is here not used as a metaphor to describe a
pervasive climate, but understood as a living, acting entity outside of
human thinking and feeling. According to this interlocutor, such “spir-
its” just wait for a chance to enter a country, exploiting certain human
actions to do so. In the case of Germany and the “spirit of hopeless-
ness,” the Second World War and the reversal of gender roles it ini-
tiated might have been this opening. Now, the spirit does control the
49 This concept was first developed by John Dawson in his book “Taking Our Cities
for God,” Lake Mary, FL: Creation House, 1989, and later taken up by C. Peter Wag-
ner and others. See C. Peter Wagner, Breaking strongholds in your city: how to use
spiritual mapping to make your prayers more strategic, effective, and targeted, Ventura,
CA.: Regal Books, 1993, and the website of the “United States Global Apostolic Prayer
Network” aka “Battle Axe Brigade” which Wagner now heads as “Senior Apostle,”
www.battleaxe.org/spn.html. Concept and strategy are heavily debated within pente-
costal / charismatic and evangelical circles. A Google search on “spiritual mapping” on
14 December 2006 elicited 21,200 hits, with websites either praising the concept as an
effective tool for evangelism, or rejecting it strongly as un-Biblical, ‘magic,’ or ‘techno-
cratic’ in trying to ‘manage God and the devil.’
50 Quote taken from the introduction to spiritual mapping on www.ausprayernet.org
.au/spiritual_mapping.php, accessed 14 December 2006.

country, but it is bound to its borders: The same people who are so
hopeless in Germany will change once they move to another country—
then they are free of this ‘territorial’ spirit.
To change this situation in Germany, spiritual warfare51 is required—
and this is where the migrant churches come in. Due to their history,
Germans do not like the idea of warfare, but migrants, especially those
from West Africa, are experienced in such an approach. They can do
what the Germans are unable to, and serve as a “back-up” to get a
spiritual process going:
In the sense that when the atmosphere, when the spiritual climate is
resolved, the Germans themselves will rise up [. . .] And then we that
come from outside, we would just be in the background, a backup.
5.4.5. Summary notes: Imagining Germany and Europe

We have said in the introduction to this chapter that the symbolic map
of the missionary requires the mission field to be drawn in dark colors
so that the mission can be projected as something positive. In the state-
ments analyzed above, we can see how migrant missionaries engage
in this mapping process. They have to deal with the fact that the old
missionary map would have placed them in the dark areas, while their
‘mission field,’ Europe and America were the areas drawn in bright col-
ors. Therefore, to justify their mission, it could be expected that the old
map would be redrawn. But this does not quite happen. The old map
still seems persistently dominant; it is only characterized as currently
inaccurate. The ideal German church-state is projected into the past.
Consequently, the present church in Germany is perceived to be asleep,
blind or in ruins. Empty churches in particular are markers that allow
such conclusions.
Similar mapping processes can be observed among pentecostal /
charismatic migrants all over Europe and the Northern America. In
France, migrant churches compare the situation of the indigenous
church with the valley of bones envisioned in Ezechiel 37, and have
reacted by starting a missionary program under the label “The vision of
the valley.”52 In the Netherlands, African migrant pastors have formed
51 An analysis of the concept of spiritual warfare will follow in chapter 5.5.

52 “De nombreux africains relisent la situation de nos pays à travers la vision des
ossements d’Ézéchiel: ‘La puissance du Seigneur me saisit; son Esprit m’emmena et
me déposa dans une large vallée dont le sol était couvert d’ossements. Le Seigneur
270 chapter five
GATE, “Gospel from Africa to Europe” to re-evangelize a continent

which they see in need of revival.53
The missionary effort of the migrant churches therefore does not
challenge the old symbolic map as such, but rather serves to restore its
reality. Germany should be the leader of world evangelism; it should
be a Christian country. Migrant missionaries have been divinely sent
to help Germany to become what it should be. They are assistants,
backups, background workers. Once Germany has been restored to
its proper place in the divine economy of salvation, they can stand
back. In the end, it is the ‘white’ North that remains superior, and the
‘colored’ South can return to its inferior status.
But this sense of ‘colored inferiority’ was not shared by all intervie-
wees. One of the Asian interlocutors explicitly rejected such views as
a hindrance for the missionary task of the migrants. Talking about the
internationalization of his originally entirely Indonesian congregation,
he said what made it difficult:
Our mentality. Because Indonesians, Indonesia was a colony under Hol-
land for 350 years, and therefore, our mentality was from this back-
ground, always, yes, sitting in the back, and then, yes, and we see that the
Europeans are always more, superior or whatever, and then, this inferi-
ority complex is in us, yes. Then we are ‘Yes, I am small—what can I do
here?’ This kind of mentality.
This speaker insists that a perception of Indonesian inferiority against
the Europeans must be overcome if the mission of his church is to suc-
ceed. Migrants should not just sit in the back, do back-up or back-
ground work. Europeans are not superior, and, one could conclude,
Europe does not have a special place in the economy of salvation!
Indonesians have been called to be missionaries just as the Euro-
peans were, and colonial history does not establish any kind of divinely
ordained European dominance.
me fit circuler tout autour d’eux, dans cette vallée: ils étaient très nombreux et
complètement desséchés 11.’ Des étrangers vivants en Europe trouvent une ressem-
blance frappante entre la vision du prophète et l’état du christianisme dans notre
pays. Ils considèrent que l’Europe occidentale a été transformé en désert spirituel par
le processus de sécularisation et qu’elle est devenue une vallée remplie d’ossements
desséchés, privés de chair et d’esprit. Dans certaines Églises, cette image a été
transformée en programme missionnaire sous le nom de ‘La vision de la vallée’.”
http://www.protestants.org/textes/eglises_immigration/perspectives_theologiques
.htm, accessed 20 August 2008.
53 Personal communication from GATE chairman Moses Alagbe, October 2005.
See also www.aeafrica.org/projects/tgae, accessed 2 October 2008.

It can be assumed that not only Asians think in this way. In a

short exhortation at a meeting of the (Anglophone African) Council
of Pentecost Ministers, one pastor had this to say:
We shall occupy. Right now, we are still existing. But we need to occupy,
we need to take control. We need to be the New Jerusalem. This country
is on the verge of revival. [. . .] We need to compact together, so that we
can reign. We will see our names, our churches’ names, in the Zeitung
[newspaper]. We are in a paradigm shift.54
Migrants will no longer be marginalized; migrant churches will no
longer be overlooked as they are now. Here, an African clearly does
not see African churches in a subservient or assisting role. The lan-
guage employed is extraordinarily strong: “Occupy”—“take control”—
“reign.” Clearly, the idea is that just as the white colonizers took control
of Africa, so African Christians will occupy and control Europe, bring-
ing revival to a dead continent. Such ideas do indeed circulate at least
in Nigeria, as the following quote from a pentecostal magazine shows:
“Why should a man [Reinhard Bonnke who had just done a major
crusade in Lagos] from a country that toils behind Nigeria in spiri-
tual adherence bring the Gospel here? The Adeboyes, the Abiaras, the
Olukoyas, the Odeyepos etc. should be the ones to invade Germany
and the rest of Europe and America with such crusades.”55
5.5. Conceptualizing evangelism in the global

pentecostal / charismatic network: The spiritual warfare paradigm
So far, we have analyzed what migrant pastors said about evangelism

in the long interviews, i.e. statements made in a context of intercultural
communication. As we noted above, the questions put to the intervie-
wees came from a German Protestant theological paradigm, and the
answers must be understood as part of a process of negotiation of the
roles of migrant pastors within the German Christian scene. What we
have seen, therefore, are interculturally or, better, interdenomination-
ally communicated conceptualizations of evangelism.
But the discourse on evangelism also takes place within and among
migrant churches, i.e. as a process of internal communication. It is
expressed in sermons and Bible studies, in printed and electronic
54 Meeting of the CPM, 20 May 2005. Quote taken from field notes.
55 W. Olarinde, Bonnke Isn’t All, in: Christian Benefits 6/2000, Lagos.
272 chapter five
media, and, particularly, in pastors’ meetings which regularly take

place within different networks shaped by language, ethnic or cultural
background.56 This discourse is not limited to certain migrant sub-
sets, but it is rather bound into international and transnational net-
works of exchange and discourse which make up the global pente-
costal / charismatic movement,57 and it is therefore by and in itself also
intercultural.
The language barrier made it impossible for me to observe any
of the Asian networks, and my efforts to participate in francophone
African pastors’ meetings were largely frustrated as these pastors felt
they could not trust me sufficiently to allow me to witness internal
meetings. Therefore, in the following chapter, we will attempt an exem-
plary analysis of the conceptualization of evangelism within a ‘spiritual
warfare’ paradigm in an anglophone West African context.
5.5.1. Evangelism in the framework of spiritual warfare: The anglophone West

African Example
5.5.1.1. Initial observations

We have just said that meetings of pastors within migrant church
networks are one of the loci of the internal discourse on evangelism.
One such network is the Council of Pentecostal Ministers (CPM) in
whose meetings I could participate fairly regularly over about six years.
The Council is made up mostly of Ghanaians, many of whom share
a Baptist and Scripture Union background,58 but also includes some
Nigerians and at least one Liberian and one Cameroonian. Pastors’
meetings, which take place two to four times per year, are attended by
20–50 persons, with an average number of about 30. A few woman
pastors are present at the meetings, but rarely if ever speak. Each
meeting begins with a worship and prayer time that can last well
56 In the region of the UEM program, three Congolese, two Korean and two Tamil
networks could be identified in addition to a large Anglophone West African network,

the Council of Pentecostal Ministers.
57 See chapter 2.6, and also Afe Adogame, The Quest for Space in the Global
Spiritual Marketplace, in: International Review of Mission, Vol. LXXXIX No. 354, July
2000, pp. 400–409.
58 On the role of the Scripture Union in the Ghanaian charismatic revival, see
K.J. Asamoah-Gyadu, African Charismatics: Current Developments Within Indepen-

dent Indigenous Pentecostalism in Ghana, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2004.
over two hours, and sometimes, but not always, includes a sermon
or exhortation. Then follow a meal and a business meeting in which
information is shared and joint programs like retreats, crusades, revivals
and all night prayers are planned. Evangelism is a major topic at
each meeting. Discussions of the relationship (and often competition!)
between different anglophone African churches also play a major role,
while topics of integration are discussed only occasionally. Deliberations
about evangelism and, in particular, prayer meetings displayed a strong
sense of being involved in a spiritual battle. I do not recall a single
debate about evangelistic methods; instead, a strong sense prevailed
that only joint and extended prayer was going to yield a revival in
Germany. Therefore, prayers took precedence over business matters at
each CPM meeting, and joint programs organized by the Council also
concentrated on prayer.
Whether in public gatherings or in closed pastors’ meetings, the
prayers at the CPM had a specific ‘warfare’ character. For example,
at the CPM pastors’ meeting on 25 March 2007, the pastor leading the
introductory prayers asked those assembled to pray, first of all, “against
obstacles.”59 His language was that of a battle: “We come against60 any
power, any spirit of the enemy . . .”—“We break every stronghold of
the enemy . . .”—“We bind all powers of the enemy in the name of
Jesus”—“We declare the power of Jesus . . .” etc. The “enemy” was
never named, but clearly understood as a power set to destroy what
the pastors were trying to achieve. After this, the pastors prayed “for
souls” (i.e. successful evangelism), for people to come to church, for the
church in Germany, “against rebellion in the churches,” and finally for
the finances of their churches.
This ‘battle awareness’ may not only be observed at CPM meetings,
but also in almost every anglophone African migrant pentecostal or
charismatic worship service.61 How it informs these churches’ under-
standing of evangelism is demonstrated in an exemplary way by a
Sunday school worksheet of Christ-for-All Evangelistic Ministries, an
African-majority church in Dortmund. It was obviously part of an
59 Quotes taken from field notes.

60 This phrasing is taken from 2. Chronicles 14:11 and very common in anglophone
African public prayers.
61 It could also be found in francophone African and particularly some Tamil
services.
274 chapter five
established lesson plan, carrying the headline “Lessons 17–19: Evange-

lism.” It is particularly the third part of the lesson which concerns our
analysis here: Under the headline “Preparing for evangelism,” three
sub-themes are given:
Prayer for Oneself before evangelism [. . .]
Prayer for the person and place to be evangelized [. . .]
Team work in evangelism
Especially the first two sub-themes are instructive about the con-
ceptualization of evangelism that is common in West African pen-
tecostal / charismatic migrant churches. Concretizing the “prayer for
oneself before evangelism,” the material lists several aspects:
– Confess your inadequacies before going out (Psalm 139:23,24)
– Ask God to remove all blindness (Matthew 15:14)
– Pray for the Holy Spirit’s power and anointing from above before
taking this step—House to House (HtH) and Mass Evangelism (ME)
(Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8)
– Ask for wisdom to speak and to control yourself (James 1:5–8)
Evangelism is clearly seen as a spiritual undertaking which needs spir-
itual preparation. First of all, it is a venture that no human being can
simply undertake. The Psalm verse that is given points out that one’s
motivation needs to be purified. To be able to evangelize, the evange-
lizer needs to be free from sin, evil thoughts and deeds. Secondly, the
analysis of the situation is not something accomplished by intellect, but
rather a miracle given by God. As he removes blindness, the evange-
lizers will be able to see the situation as it really is, i.e. according to
its spiritual basis. It can be concluded that gathering information about
a certain context is less important than prayers for a spiritual insight
about it. Thirdly, evangelism is a difficult task. One should not just
simply engage in it, but should be properly prepared. Evangelism can
only be effective if it is ‘powerful’ and ‘anointed,’ with both power and
anointing understood as divine gifts. This power is clearly more impor-
tant than the “wisdom to speak” named as the fourth point, but both
are understood as a divine endowment rather than a fruit of (commu-
nication) training.
But evangelists, according to this material, do not only need to pray
for themselves. The second point in the preparation list concerns itself
with “prayer for the person and place to be evangelized:”
– “Bind all forces of darkness that will oppose you in the work (Mark
3:27; Luke 10:19,20)
– Ask for souls—(HtH) or (ME) (in Jerusalem—Acts 1:8)

– Ask God to open the heart of your audience so that they may not
resist you (Acts 16:10–14)”
Here, we observe the same approach: Evangelism is a spiritual venture

and can only be done if someone is invested with spiritual power. Now,
the prayer concentrates on the person or place which is the target of
evangelism. The language is one of conflict or battle: Opposing forces
need to be bound, and hearts need to be opened so that resistance will
be overcome and souls won.
To summarize, both the prayers and deliberations at the Council
of Pentecostal Ministers and this work sheet frame evangelism within
a paradigm of spiritual battle rather than one of communicating a
message. In this, they tie into a globalized pentecostal / charismatic dis-
course on ‘spiritual warfare’ that has been informing the understanding
of evangelism from the Anglican Communion62 to West African inde-
pendent charismatic churches. In the following chapter, we will look at
the anglophone West African appropriation of this discourse.
5.5.1.2. ‘Spiritual warfare’ and West African cosmology63

Spiritual warfare is an important and hotly debated topic in both pen-
tecostal / charismatic, and increasingly, in evangelical circles. This is
underlined by the fact that the term deserves not only a 5-page arti-
cle in the New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic
Movements,64 but also features prominently in the English language
Wikipedia.65 On the worldwide web, one can learn about the practice
on websites like “Spiritual Warfare Ministries Online”66 or “Spiritual
62 See the introduction to the research of Graham R. Smith, www.glopent.net/
members / grsmith / research-project-the-church-militant / ?searchterm = spiritual%20

warfare, accessed 28 June 2007.
63 On the relationship between globally homogenized and locally distinct cultures
in Pentecostalism, see the very instructive article by Joel Robbins, The Globalization of
Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity, in: Annual Review of Anthropology, 2004, pp. 117–
134.
64 Charles H. Kraft, Spiritual Warfare: A Neocharismatic Perspective. NIDPCM,
pp. 1091–1096.
65 www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_warfare, accessed 14 December 2006. The
German equivalent, “geistliche Kriegführung” or “geistliche Kampfführung” do not

warrant an article in the German Wikipedia, though.
66 www.sw-mins.org, accessed 14 December 2006.
276 chapter five
Warfare Net”67 Looking at these sources, one could easily be led to

believe that spiritual warfare is an American concept which started to
gain ground in the 1980s, having been popularized by John Wimber,
C. Peter Wagner, Derek Prince and Charles Kraft68 and then having
been exported worldwide via crusades, books, websites, and satellite
TV. But this assumption would be far too simplistic. Visitors to Chris-
tian bookstores in Ghana and Nigeria are faced with a huge choice
of locally produced books, manuals, videos and DVDs on “aggressive
prayer,” “deliverance,” “achieving breakthrough” and other spiritual
warfare topics,69 which, even if they occasionally quote American neo-
Pentecostals, deal with such African problems as witchcraft, “water spir-
its,”70 or “spirit marriage”71 which do not play any role in any North
Atlantic spiritual warfare theology.
As the Nigerian theologian Ogbu Kalu insists, neither “globalism”
as the dominance of a media-driven Northern perspective, nor “glocal-
ization” as the adaptation of a global outlook to a local perspective are
appropriate terms to describe the development of African Pentecostal-
ism. Instead, he suggests the term “globecalisation” to “explore the inte-
rior dynamics and process of culture contacts in contexts of asymmetrical power
relations. [ . . .] Local conditions and cultural patterns do still filter global
flows.”72 Kalu states that traditional African worldviews do not distin-
67 www.spiritual-warfare.net, accessed 14 December 2006.

68 For a literature list which would underscore this, see the article “Spiritual Warfare:
A Neocharismatic Perspective” cited above, note 64.
69 G.F. Oyor, Who Needs Deliverance? Revised and enlarged edition (With 500 Pow-
erful Breakthrough Prayer Points), 3rd edition, Ibadan: Freedom Press 2000, bought at
the Catholic bookstore in Kumasi, Ghana, is a typical example of using spiritual war-
fare to overcome individual problems.
70 Water spirits are revered in traditional African religions as givers of wealth and
fertility. See Kofi A. Opoku, West African Traditional Religion, Accra et al.: FEP Inter-
national Private Ltd., 1978, pp. 60–65. In Pentecostal / charismatic Christianity, water
spirits are seen as particularly dangerous: They enslave people with false promises. See,
e.g., D.K. Olukoya, Violent Prayers to Disgrace Stubborn Problems, Lagos: Battle Cry
Ministries 1999, pp. 123 ff.; G.F. Oyor, Who Needs Deliverance? Revised and enlarged
edition (With 500 Powerful Breakthrough Prayer Points), 3rd edition, Ibadan: Freedom
Press 2000, pp. 139 ff.
71 Many West African Pentecostals and charismatics blame the inability to find a
marriage partner on conscious or unconscious, but “legally binding” marriages to a

spirit. If such marriages are revoked during a deliverance session, the person will be
free to marry a human being. See, e.g., D.K. Olukoya, Violent Prayers to Disgrace
Stubborn Problems, Lagos: Battle Cry Ministries 1999, pp. 104 ff.
72 Ogbu Kalu, The Pentecostal Model in Africa, in: Cox, James L. and ter Haar,
Gerrie (eds.), Uniquely African? African Christian Identità from Cultural and Historical Perspec-
tives, Trenton (NJ) / Asmara (Eritrea): Africa World Press 2003, p. 220.
guish between the sacred and the profane, claiming that each space
is populated by spiritual powers reaching from the Supreme Being to
other deities to ancestral spirits. Kalu calls the African worldview “reli-
gious” and continues to say: “Going through life is like a spiritual warfare
[emphasis mine] and religious ardour may appear very materialistic as
people strive to preserve their material sustenance in the midst of the
machinations of pervasive evil forces. Behind it is a strong sense of the
moral and spiritual moorings of life. It is an organic worldview in which
the three dimensions of space are bound together; the visible and the
invisible worlds interweave. Nothing happens in the visible world which
has not been predetermined in the invisible realm. [ . . .] The power
question is ultimate.”73
Birgit Meyer74 has shown in great detail how European pietistic mis-
sionaries impacted this worldview, and how African believers, rather
than being marionettes and victims of a colonializing message, cre-
atively appropriated and developed Christian theology. She explains
that while mainline Protestant theology dismissed all beliefs in spir-
its and witchcraft as superstition, and, as people remained afraid of
such powers, forced them to lead a double life, attending both churches
and fetish ceremonies, Pentecostal / charismatic churches were able to
dialectically integrate such beliefs by providing discursive and ritual
possibilities to deal with them. West African Pentecostals / charismatics
do not doubt the power of the spirit world, but fight this power “in the
name of Jesus” through prophecy and deliverance.
In his introduction to the concept of spiritual warfare,75 Charles
Kraft states that it is based on the idea of a “human life lived in a con-
text of continual warfare between the kingdom of God and the king-
dom of Satan.” The parallels to the African worldview as described by
Kalu are obvious. Kalu finds the same worldview in the New Testa-
ment and its contemporary Jewish literature and claims that “African
Pentecostals have appropriated the resonance of this factor in the two
traditions to domesticate the new and construct tools of hope with sym-
bols of transcendence.”76 By doing this, Kalu insists, they provided a
strong impact on American “Third Wave Theology” (i.e. the theology
73 Ibd., p. 230.
74 Translating the Devil: Religion and modernity among the Ewe in Ghana, Trenton
(NJ): Africa World Press 1999.
75 See above note 64.
76 Kalu, ibd., p. 233.
278 chapter five
of spiritual warfare).77 This assumption is, to some extent, borne out

by the debate on spiritual warfare in the United States, where crit-
ics accuse spiritual warfare theology of being influenced by encounters
with “animism” in Third World countries.78 Paul Gifford, on the other
hand, points out that deliverance thinking and practices only gained
ground in Africa after they had been endorsed by Americans like Derek
Prince.79 Traditional African cosmologies could be re-appropriated only
after having been Americanized: “Things are truer if un-African, so we
quote Americans. It is traditional, but projected in modern dress. The
more foreign, the more serious, true, powerful it is.”80
5.5.1.3. Fighting a battle with words: Spiritual warfare, Holy Spirit

power and prayer
It is clear that spiritual warfare thinking among West African migrants
in Germany must be understood as a bricolage in which elements taken
from traditional African thinking, Pietistic missionary theology, classical
Pentecostal theology, international ‘Third Wave’ preaching and inter-
cultural and interdenominational insights are made up into a creative,
new theology. In the following paragraphs, we will try to draw an out-
line of this theology, knowing full well that this can be no more than
a rough sketch which disregards individual variations. It will become
obvious that the theology sketched in this chapter does, in some aspects,
contradict what has been said in chapter 5.3.2. This is not surpris-
ing as we are not dealing with a systematized theology, but with a
discourse still in the making—pentecostal / charismatic theology, due
to its strong oral character, is dynamic and constantly evolving and
77 This view is backed up, with regards to Britain, by Stephen Hunt, The ‘Health
and Wealth’ Gospel in the UK: variations on a theme, in: Culture and religion: an
interdisciplinary journal, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 89–104.
78 See, for example Scott Moreau, Religious Borrowing as a Two-Way Street: An
introduction to animistic tendencies in the Euro-North American context, in: Rommen,

Edward and Netland, Harold (eds.) Christianity and the Religions, Pasadena: William
Carey Library, 1995, pp. 166–183, and Robert J. Priest et al., Missiological Syncretism:
The New Animistic Paradigm, in: Rommen, Edward (ed.) Spiritual Power and Missions,
Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1995, pp. 143–168.
79 Paul Gifford, The Complex Provenance of Some Elements of African Pentecostal
Theology, in: Corten, André and Marshall-Fratani, Ruth (eds.), Between Babel and Pente-
cost. Transnational Pentecostalism in Africa and Latin America. Bloomington: Indiana Univer-
sity Press 2001, pp. 62–79.
80 Paul Gifford quoting Max Assimeng, ibd., p. 69.
developing. Therefore, this sketch can be no more than just a snap-

shot.
The Biblical passage usually quoted as the scriptural basis of spiritual
warfare is Ephesians 6:12. It is used to emphasize the fact that manifest
and unseen realities are connected, and that problems in the mani-
fest world are caused by unseen spirits. Other Biblical passages81 that
describe an antagonistic relationship between God and Satan or God
and demons also serve as proof that the concept has a firm Biblical
basis. Human life is understood as fragile and precarious, lived under
constant threat from evil powers. While Jesus Christ came to earth to
give every believer a life in fullness,82 early death, illness, poverty, mis-
fortune, infertility and many other problems show that Satan, demons,
evil spirits or witchcraft are still active in this realm. Within this spir-
itualized cosmology, problems are only understood properly if their
‘spiritual dimension’ has been analyzed. Demonic possession or oppres-
sion is suspected when problems of any kind persist, and a real fear of
witchcraft83 suffuses relationships among West African migrants84 and
their extended families at home. Several pastors told me how they had
to take strong protective measures against witchcraft before traveling to
visit their families in their country of origin. Such measures can, e.g.,
consist of a time of prayer and fasting before the trip, and intensive
prayer times while traveling. Demon affliction is believed as concern-
ing individuals as well as groups, families, locations or even nations.
Demons and witchcraft are not limited to Africa; West African pente-
costals / charismatics tend to insist that “there are as many demons in
Europe as there are in Africa, only you don’t want to realize it.” Several
pastors have stated that they perceive racism as a “territorial demon”
which oppresses Germany.
81 E.g. Gen 3, Job 1, Dan. 10:13, Lk. 4:1–13, Acts 16:16–18 and 19:11–20, 1. Cor.
10:18–21, 2. Cor. 10:4–5, 1. Pet. 5:8, 1. Jn. 3:8, Rev. 2–3.

82 John 10:10.
83 See, among others, Peter Geschiere, The Modernity of Witchcraft. Politics and
the Occult in Postcolonial Africa, Charlottesville (VA): University Press of Virginia,

1997, or the very new collection of essays edited by Gerrie ter Haar, Imagining
Evil: Witchcraft Beliefs and Accusations in Contemporary Africa, Trenton (NJ): Africa
World Press 2007.
84 For an account of witchcraft accusations within a migrant church, see Sabine
Jaggi, “Yesu azali awa.” Untersuchung einer afrikanischen, frankophonen MigrantIn-

nenkirche in Bern. Lizentiatsarbeit der philosophisch-historischen Fakultät der Univer-
sität Bern, WS 2004/2005, available at www.refbejuso.ch/downloads/refbejuso/doc/
jaggi_yesu_liz.pdf (14 June 2007), pp. 81 ff.
280 chapter five
Though God has already won victory over Satan, demons and
witchcraft through Christ’s death and resurrection, Christians still have
a role to play in the cosmic battle between God and his enemies. They
cannot simply stand by and watch; they are warriors in the ongoing
process of spiritual warfare. In fact, the newer pentecostal / charismatic
churches in West Africa “have made evil and its removal fundamental
to their message and activities.”85 To be able to withstand evil powers,
Christians need to be commissioned and empowered, or ‘anointed by
the Holy Spirit.’
The anointing is the power of God that passes through a human vessel to
accomplish the will and purpose of God in that person’s life. It is literally
the life of God Himself passing through a man. It proceeds from the
Holy Spirit. [. . .] The anointing is the presence and power of God the
Holy Spirit.86
Like the anointing of a king in the Old Testament meant both an
investiture into power and a task to do God’s will, the anointing by
the Holy Spirit connects the believer with divine power, enabling him
or her to evangelize, preach, teach, heal and work miracles. ‘Anointing’
means that the Holy Spirit is ‘upon’ a person, working in and through
this person’s life and acts.
The concept of power is so important in this context because the evil
forces still loose in the world are perceived as extremely threatening:
We should not be kind to a destroyer who is ready to destroy a believer at
the slightest opportunity. [. . .] It is a fact that dark powers are responsi-
ble for most problems of the black man and we have a mission as Chris-
tians to identify, confront and conquer them. [. . .] Let the anointing to
destroy the works of the enemies come upon my life, in the name of
Jesus.87
Spiritual warfare is fought solely by prayer—consequently, prayer
groups in some West African pentecostal/charismatic migrant churches
85 Elom Dovlo, Witchcraft in contemporary Ghana, in: Imagining Evil: Witchcraft
Beliefs and Accusations in Contemporary Africa, Trenton (NJ): Africa World Press
2007, pp. 67–92, quote taken from p. 80.
86 Abraham Bediako, From Distress and Discouragement to Stability, Hamburg:
Winners Publications 1999, p. 123. Bediako is the founder and General Overseer of
Christian Church Outreach Mission International.
87 D.K. Olukoya, Violent Prayers to Disgrace Stubborn Problems, Lagos: Battle Cry
Ministries 1999, pp. 27–29. Olukoya is the founder and General Overseer of Moun-
tain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, a fast growing neo-Pentecostal denomination of
Nigerian origin with branches on all continents. See www.mountainoffire.org, accessed
13 December 2006.
are called “prayer warriors.” This warfare calls for a specific form
of prayer, termed “authority prayer” or “prayer of command.” Such
“authority prayer” significantly differs from supplication prayers: Rath-
er than asking God to act, the speaker commands “in the name of
Jesus.” Typical prayer sequences begin with utterances like “I / we
come against . . .,” “I / we break . . .,” “I / we bind . . .,” “I / we declare
. . ..” Prayers for healing take the same syntactic form: “I break the
power of this illness . . . I command this illness to leave . . . you are
healed in Jesus’ name.” Logically, prayers for deliverance from demonic
oppression or possession also do not address God, but command the
demon(s): “Get out, in the name of Jesus.”
In spiritual warfare, the person praying is acting in accord with
God and in God’s authority. West African pastors point to Biblical
passages like John 14:12, Acts 3:6, 9:40 or 14:10 to prove that they
follow Jesus’ commandment and apostolic precedent. The efficacy of
the prayer is ascribed to the spoken word, even if oil is occasionally
used in deliverance prayers. “Situations can be spoken into being or
out of being. Onoma is metonym where the part represents the whole
and the name of Jesus can be used to achieve effects in the physical
realm.”88 Spiritual warfare prayers are spoken aloud so that the effects
of God’s victory over all evil powers become real and visible in people’s
everyday lives, manifested, among other ways, in conversion, healing
from physical illness, the birth of a healthy child, the granting of a
residence permit, a job and financial success.
The strong sense of power ascribed to the spoken word by West
African pentecostal / charismatic migrants cannot be overestimated.
Sermons regularly expound “the power of the tongue” and exhort
believers not to bring about negative effects by speaking thoughtlessly.
In one instance,89 the preacher told the story of a woman who kept
telling her little daughter that she might be run over by a car if she
wasn’t more careful out in the street. That the girl was eventually hit
by a car was ascribed by the preacher to the fact that the woman
had, with her words, created just such a reality. In the margin of my
field notes, I wrote: “Magical90 understanding of what we can do with
88 Ogbu Kalu, The Pentecostal Model in Africa, in: Cox, James L. and ter Haar,
89 Friday evening worship service, International Gospel Church Essen, 16. May
1998.
90 We lack the space for a discussion about the differences and commonalities
282 chapter five
words.” Words, in this context, are not first and foremost conceptual-
ized as carriers of information. Rather, spoken words are understood to
be taken up either by evil spirits or by the Holy Spirit to generate new
realities.
The same is true for “authority prayer:” Here, spoken words are
meant to create a new spiritual reality which in turn will affect changes
in the visible world. They are creative words like those reported in
Genesis 1. When God speaks, or when humans speak “in Jesus name”
(i.e. with God’s authority), their words will be turned into action.91 It is
striking how West African pentecostal / charismatic migrants who, on a
social and political level, are considered among the most marginalized
and powerless groups in Germany, perceive themselves as extremely
powerful in the spiritual realm and thereby expect to effect positive
changes on the social and material level.
Whether such a theology is rather escapist92 or whether it empowers
its adherents to engage actively in changes in the political realm93 is
widely debated and has not been answered conclusively.94 My own
observations indicate that both outcomes are possible.
between magic and religion. For some background on this debate, see K.E. Rosengren,
Malinowski’s Magic: The Riddle of the Empty Cell, in: Current Anthropology, Vol. 17
No. 4, 1976, pp. 667–685. The responses to Rosengren documented at the end of the
article are of particular interest.
91 Such speech acts cannot be understood as “performative” in the sense of J.L.
Austin (How to Do Things with Words, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962). Anthropolog-
ical and ethnological research in different cultures has shown that linguistic categories
do not suffice to analyse “magic” speaking. Cf. D.S. Gardener, Performativity in Ritual:
The Mianmin Case, in: Man, New Series, Vol. 18, No. 2 (June 1983), pp. 346–360; John
McCreery, Negotiating with Demons: The Uses of Magical Language, in: American Eth-
nologist, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Feb., 1995), pp. 144–164; and Juval Harari, How to Do Things
with Words: Philosophical Theory and Magical Deeds (English summary of an arti-
cle originally in Hebrew), www.folklore.org.il/JSIJF/jsijf19–20.html, accessed 9 August
2007. See also Stephen Hunt, Dramatising the ‘Health and Wealth Gospel’: belief and
practice of a neo-Pentecostal ‘Faith’ ministry, in: Journal of beliefs & values: studies in religion
& education, vol. 21, no. 1, 2000, pp. 73–86.
92 This is Paul Gifford’s conclusion. See Ghana’s New Christianity. Pentecostalism in
a Globalizing African Economy, Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2004, pp. 161 ff.
93 This has been shown for Pentecostal and charismatic groups in Latin America, see
e.g. Pfingstbewegung und Basisgemeinden in Lateinamerika. Studienheft Weltmission

heute Nr. 39, Hamburg: Evangelisches Missionswerk in Deutschland 2000.
94 An excellent discussion of this topic can be found in Andrew Chesnut, Born Again
in Brazil. The Pentecostal Boom and the Pathogens of Poverty. New Brunswick / New
Jersey / London: Rutgers University Press 1997.
The authority of the spoken word is also strongly stressed within the
Word of Faith95 movement which originated in the United States. Pop-
ularized by Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland, this movement
claims that health, financial well-being and success are the “covenant
rights” of any believer and can be possessed by “faith and proclama-
tion,” i.e. that any believer can create positive reality by believing in it
and “confessing” it. If ill, for example, one is supposed to repeat con-
stantly the words “I am already healed” rather than reflecting on and
speaking about the illness. The spoken word stands against the visible
reality and will eventually affect and change it.96
Large Faith Movement ministries are taking active steps to influ-
ence the theology and practice of migrant churches. The Rhema Bible
School in Bonn, run by Kenneth Hagin Ministries, has trained numer-
ous migrant church leaders (among them two interviewees of this
study). Kenneth Copeland’s books and magazines circulate widely in
migrant circles. When he came to Germany for a convention in 2002,
an invitation for a special pastors’ meeting was related to me through
several of my migrant colleagues. In addition, West African migrant
Pentecostals and charismatics are exposed to Word of Faith theology
through TV and magazines. Informal conversations with pastors con-
cerning Kenneth Copeland’s TV programs suggest that West African
pentecostal / charismatic migrants perceive Word of Faith theology as
expressing more or less what they have believed and experienced all
along. Consequently, they easily appropriate Word of Faith language
which helps them to express in English what they originally learned
in Twi or Yoruba, overlooking the differences in the underlying world-
views.
95 For a short, if biased introduction, see the article on “Glaubensbewegung”

(Faith Movement) in: Reinhard Hempelmann (ed.), Handbuch der evangelistisch-
missionarischen Werke, Einrichtungen und Gemeinden: Deutschland—Österreich—
Schweiz; eine Publikation der Evangelischen Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfra-
gen—EZW, Stuttgart: Christliches Verlagshaus Stuttgart 1997, pp. 191 ff.
96 On the understanding of “positive confession” see Kenneth E. Hagin, Right and
Wrong Thinking for Christians, Tulsa OK: Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1966; Kenneth
Copeland, The Laws of Prosperity, Fort Worth TX: Kenneth Copeland Publications
1996. Critically: D.R. McConnell, A Different Gospel. A Historical and Biblical Analy-
sis of the Modern Faith Movement. Peabody (MA): Hendrickson Publishers, 1988.
284 chapter five
5.5.1.4. Evangelism as power encounter and the materiality of salvation

West African pentecostal / charismatic spiritualized cosmologies also
inform the conceptualization of evangelism. As Ogbu Kalu succinctly
states, the human-divine relationship is understood as “covenantal, and,
therefore, Christian evangelism is a power encounter in which two
covenant traditions are opposed. Salvation is imaged as the liberation
from the obligations of one covenant with freedom to be re-covenanted
to Jesus.”97 Or, in other words: Evangelism is not first and foremost the
communication of a message to be believed, not a dialogue between the
evangelizer and the evangelized, but a battle of spiritual powers with
the aim of holistic liberation: Only the Holy Spirit can break people’s
enslavement to the powers opposed to God. The first addressee of
evangelism, so to speak, is not the person to be evangelized, but the
powers that enslave him or her.
Kalu describes evangelism as “power encounter,” appropriating
American Third Wave terminology.98 With this term, he indicates that
evangelism needs to be approached as a spiritual venture: If nothing
happens in the spiritual realm, no conversion can be achieved. West
African pentecostal / charismatic migrants in Germany rarely use this
expression, but would concur with what it articulates: Without ‘anoint-
ing,’ without power from the Holy Spirit acquired through prayer,
evangelism will not be successful. Though the “power encounter” hap-
pens on a spiritual level, salvation as a result of this power encounter
is not limited to an otherworldly realm. Salvation is holistic; it has a
spiritual and a material side. The “materiality of salvation”99 is clearly
expressed in leaflets of migrant churches broadcasting “crusades:”
97 Ogu Kalu, The Pentecostal Model in Africa, in: Cox, James L. and ter Haar,
98 The concept of evangelism as “power encounter” plays an important role in
the writings of John Wimber, Charles Kraft and C. Peter Wagner, see Charles Kraft,
Spiritual Warfare: A Neocharismatic Perspective, in: The New International Dictionary
of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements. Revised and expanded edition, Grand
Rapids (MI): Zondervan 2002, pp. 1091–1096.
99 This term was coined by Miroslav Volf. See M. Volf, Materiality of Salvation: An
Investigation in the Soteriologies of Liberation and Pentecostal Theologies, Journal of

Ecumenical Studies, Vol. 26, No. 3, 1989, pp. 447–467.
Grand crusade of evangelism, miracles and healings

Come in your numbers; bring the sick, the blind, the paralytics etc. . . .
because our God still acts!100
Liberation hour and Inauguration Service

Theme:
The Road War to Revival.
Bring the Sick, Afflicted, Cripple, the Blind, the Deaf. God will be
glorified in Healing, Miracles, Deliverance, Breaking of curses, fruit of
the womb and breakthroughs in all areas. Come for a change of story in
your life; come for a time of refreshing in God’s presence.101
The spiritual warfare paradigm is based on a holistic understanding of
salvation: God’s power protects people from evil influences and allows
them to live a life in fullness. In this context, evangelism means speak-
ing God’s power into people’s lives so that the power encounter in the
spiritual realm results not only in conversion, but also in physical heal-
ing and the solution of concrete material problems (“breakthroughs in
all areas” can include finding work or a promotion at work, acquiring
a residence permit, being able to pay of debts etc.). This understanding
was concretized in the statement by a Congolese interviewee:
It’s [evangelism] not easy! The devil, the adversary, he is also against us.
He shows us how difficult this is, but we cannot step back, we always
need to continue to move forward. Therefore, with God’s help, I believe
it is successful.
CWO: How can you recognize that your mission is successful?
Oh, I recognize that by signs. Like we see in Mark 16:18—Jesus says
that ‘to those who will believe I will give signs.’ I see many signs in our
church, through our faith.
Evangelism is here described as a dangerous battle with Satan which
can only be won with divine assistance. Despite all difficulties, there are
“signs” of victory, i.e. miracles like the ones promised in Mark 16:18.
This speaker knows that his mission is ‘successful’ because he sees such
miracles in his church. In the interview, he talked about the case of
an asylum seeker expecting to be deported, whom he told that he had
“just one more chance: God’s grace. We must pray.” After relating that
the church had “prayed much,” he recounted that the man was given
a residence permit. “That was a great miracle for me! The man, he
100 Flyer, originally in French, of the Assemblée de Dieu Rocher Düren, 2000.
101 Flyer in German and English, of the Liberty Christian Center Mönchengladbach
2005.
286 chapter five
said: ‘God is God!’ ” For this speaker, prayer resulted in a miraculous

happening by which God proved himself as God, as powerful and
trustworthy. ‘Successful’ evangelism means that spiritual actions result
in material solutions.
To sum up: In this section, we have limited our analysis to the dis-
course on spiritual warfare among anglophone West African migrants.
We did this, first of all, because due to language reasons, we had the
most material from this area. Furthermore, this limitation allowed us to
show how the “globecalization” of concepts work in the transnational
pentecostal / charismatic discourse. But as we will see in chapter 5.5.2,
the conceptualization of evangelism within a paradigm of spiritual war-
fare is common to pentecostal / charismatic migrants from different cul-
tural and national backgrounds. In general, all of them would probably
agree with the following summary of their theology. The spiritual and
the material realms are not separate from each other, but are closely
connected. Events in the spiritual realm have material outcomes, and
actions in the material realm can influence the spiritual world. Conse-
quently, evangelism, while happening in the material world, is a spiri-
tual undertaking that needs to be prepared and empowered by prayer.
Only the power of the Holy Spirit enables an evangelist to speak, to
heal and to free people from demonic powers. Evangelism is ‘power
evangelism,’ a battle for the liberation of human lives on a spiritual
plane which results in materially changed lives, and not so much an
encounter between two human beings, an ‘I’ and a ‘you.’ The commu-
nication aspect of evangelism is, at best, secondary.
Considering this, it seems logical that pentecostal / charismatic mi-
grant churches expend little energy in schooling their members in com-
municative methods for evangelism. Rather, they concentrate on prayer
to “prepare the spiritual atmosphere,” and then spread their evangelis-
tic message as quickly and as widely as possible. Tracts, street preach-
ing, “miracle crusades,” radio, TV and internet ministries promise the
broadest effect and are therefore preferred.
5.5.2. Evangelism in the context of ‘spiritual warfare:’ Concretizations

We have already stated that the questions about evangelism in the long
interviews were framed in a paradigm of communication rather than
in one of spiritual warfare. Nevertheless, they elicited some concrete
reflections which will be analyzed below. In addition, we will look at
the sermon at a revival meeting and at an intercultural encounter, both
of which can be understood as concretizations of evangelism within a

spiritual warfare paradigm.
5.5.2.1. Affecting the spiritual atmosphere

Several interviewees described their churches’ prayer activities as pre-
paring the spiritual atmosphere around them for evangelism:
We are also doing a prayer for the city, always on the 8th of every month,
24 hours, and we also try to mobilize other churches for this. And then
we have this pastors’ prayer meeting, every Friday [. . .] that helps to—
how do you say?—warm up the spiritual atmosphere.
We prayed and we fasted for 40 days, prayed for revival, and prayed for
the Holy Ghost to move again in Germany.
Clearly, both speakers (one Asian, the other African) believe that the
more believers pray, and the longer and more intensively they pray, the
more the “spiritual atmosphere” will be affected, i.e. the easier people
will convert. Prayer for revival in Germany plays a major role in almost
all migrant churches observed, both during Sunday worship services
and in weekly as well as specialized prayer meetings. During one of
such specialized meetings, the Germans present were singled out as
“points of contact,” the idea being that through laying hands on them
prayers for Germany would become even more efficacious.102
Another interviewee spoke in some detail about how he understands
the role of migrant churches in affecting the spiritual atmosphere of
Germany:
The reason I’m here, in Germany is to affect the spiritual atmosphere
[. . .] I see myself as praying and taking control of the spiritual atmo-
sphere of Germany. [. . .] Yeah, to a non-Pentecostal person, let me
explain it: We believe there is the spiritual level and the physical level.
[. . .] I am a spirit, I have a soul, I live in a body. [. . .] So, we believe
in the same way, a, a nation has a spirit that controls, that governs it. It
has a soul which is expressed in the culture of the people that live there,
and it has a body which is expressed in the actual people that you come
to see, that you talk to. Now, if you’re going to take a nation [. . .] if you
try to directly take the body, it is impossible, because the body is con-
trolled by the spirit. [. . .] So, if I came into a land, and I say, you know,
‘Germany needs revival. Revival in Germany!’ and I stand in a Bahnhof
102 Observed at the Council of Pentecostal Ministers All-Night Prayer on 16/17
January 2004.
288 chapter five
[railway station] and I do everything that is right, shout with a micro-

phone and tell everybody that hell is real and they will die and—nobody
. . . you wouldn’t bother anybody. Because you can’t, you can’t change a
nation [. . .] by just the physical contact. And you would be mistaken to
try that. [. . .] So, the only way to change a city is to start off with the
spirit. So when you can change the influence, the influence in the spirit,
it will affect the people [. . .] My function is to affect the atmosphere.
So how do we affect the atmosphere? I believe that when we pray, we
contact God. I believe that nothing can be done without God. But also
God cannot do anything without man, because he gave man the abso-
lute authority on earth. So, if God is going to do anything in Germany,
somebody or some people must be telling him what to do, which is my
. . . which might shake theology, but that is how it is.
This statement is unusual in its detailed theological explanations. What
seems, at first, like an expression of pure American Third Wave the-
ology,103 under careful analysis reveals itself to be much more com-
plex. The speaker, a Yoruba from Nigeria, sets out with the pente-
costal / charismatic understanding of the interconnectedness between
the physical and the spiritual level, which, as we have seen, closely
resembles traditional West African cosmologies. Clearly influenced by
the spiritual warfare method of ‘spiritual mapping,’ he imagines cities
and nations as defined entities that can metaphorically be constructed
like a human being or person. But in using the ‘person’ metaphor, the
speaker thinks in categories established by traditional Yoruba anthro-
pology:104 Like a human being, a nation consists of a body, a soul and
a spirit, with the spirit governing the other two. The spirit connects the
person to God who has breathed it into the human body. Spirit and
soul are closely connected, with the soul seen as the essence of a per-
son and also belonging to the spiritual realm. The body belongs to the
physical realm and disintegrates at death. As a missionary, this speaker
sees his role as influencing the spirit rather than the physical body of
Germany, i.e. he needs to pray rather than to go out and preach. In
this way,
103 Third Wave theology influences can be detected in the militaristic language
(“taking control”), and the sentence that God cannot act on earth because he gave
man absolute authority. Cf. C. Peter Wagner, Confronting the powers: How the new
testament church experienced the power of strategic-level spiritual warfare, Ventura
(CA): Regal Books 1996, and Praying with power: how to pray effectively and hear
clearly from God, Ventura (CA): Regal Books 1997.
104 On West African and particularly Yoruba anthropology, see Kofi Asare Opoku,
West African Traditional Religion, Accra et al.: FEP International Private Ltd., 1978,
pp. 91 ff.
I see myself as praying and taking control of the spiritual atmosphere of

Germany. [. . .] Really, I see the influence, my influence as a missionary
pastor is not to go to the Germans and say ‘this is what you have to do,
this is how it has to be done, this is going to hell, you don’t pray, you’re
dead in sin, you’re this . . .’ This isn’t my duty. I see my duty as being
back-up, praying . . .
Within such a worldview and theology, encounter, communication, and

understanding on a person-to-person level could easily fall by the way-
side. Why would there be any need to learn the German language,
read German newspapers, meet Germans as friends, if one has already
a fixed diagnosis about the spiritual state of the country and knows
how to deal with that spiritual state? The idea of a nation spirit to
be influenced solely by spiritual means could easily allow its adher-
ents to combine a global evangelistic claim with practices that fall
into a diasporal pattern: One could reject dialogue and integration
because the spiritual atmosphere in Germany was influenced by evil
powers, as could be seen by homosexuality, prostitution, consumerism
and so on, while defining one’s own way of life as ‘Christian’ or ‘spir-
itual.’ In such a way, the expectation would simply be that by prayer,
Germany would change in such a way that it corresponded to one’s
own culture which was defined as ‘Biblical’ rather than by an ethnic
label.
But obviously, a theology of spiritual warfare is not necessarily anti-
integration: It is striking that this interviewee with the strongest, most
elaborate theology of spiritual warfare is also the most integrated and
inculturated person in our sample. He speaks fluent and almost accent-
free German, and works in a responsible position in a German com-
pany. Among his fellow migrants, he is a vocal advocate for integration.
For example, in a seminar during the Convention of the Redeemed
Christian Church of God Germany in 2002, he spoke about “Strategies
for Breakthrough in Germany.” He began by describing four levels of
integration, namely “lineage”—an attitude that “I belong to this coun-
try and will stay here”—, culture, economy and politics—in this last
realm he encouraged his listeners to join either the Social Democratic
or the Green Party, a labor union or other organizations and get active
especially in local politics! In a second part, this pastor talked about
“three steps towards integration” which encompassed “focused prayer”
which needed to be based on good information about the country—
“Read a German newspaper!”—, “structuring one’s life for success”,
i.e. hard work and discipline, and “enjoyment of life:” People should go
290 chapter five
out to eat, to dance, to see a movie—they should let themselves be seen

and not remain in a ghetto.105
Possibly, it is too simplistic to think that the idea of spiritual warfare
would necessarily lead its adherents to combine a global evangelistic
outlook with a diasporal attitude in which one can simply pray together
with one’s own people without having to actually engage one’s environ-
ment. This would also not be the intention of the original representa-
tives of the concept of spiritual mapping: If properly done, such map-
ping includes a thorough historical and sociological research effort.106
Therefore, educational background and personality structure may play
a much stronger role in how migrants integrate than their theology.
5.5.2.2. “Possessing the land”

A number of leaflets from different African-led churches show a con-
cept of spiritual warfare which carries an underlying notion of conquest
that could also be understood as the capture of whole by immigrants:
105 Seminar of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Bonn, 29 June 2002, held in
English. Summary and quotes from field notes.

106 A list of key questions put together by John Dawson in his book cited above reads
as follows:
“1. What place does your city have in your nation’s history?
2. Was there ever the imposition of a new culture or language through conquest?
3. What were the religious practices of ancient peoples on the site?
4. Was there a time when a new religion emerged?
5. Under what circumstances did the gospel first enter the city?
6. Has the national or city government ever disintegrated?
7. What has been the leadership style of past governments?
8. Have there ever been wars that affected this city?
9. Was the city itself the site of a battle?
10. What names have been used to label the city and what are their meanings?
11. Why was the city originally settled?
12. Did the city have a founder? What was his dream?
13. As political, military and religious leaders emerged, what did they dream for
themselves and for the city?
14. What political, economic and religious institutions have dominated the life of the
city?
15. What has been the experience of immigrants to the city?
16. Have there been any traumatic experiences such as economic collapse, race riots,
or an earthquake?
17. Did the city ever experience the birth of a socially transforming technology?
18. Has there ever been a sudden opportunity to create wealth such as the discovery
of oil or a new irrigation technology?
19. Has there ever been religious conflict among competing religions or among
Christians?
20. What is the history of relationships among the races?”
Taking Charge of Nations for Christ.107

Our vision: A Pentecostal institution with the burden of fulfilling the task
of the Great Commission in NRW, Germany and abroad. Possessing
territories for the Ecclesia the Cabinet on Earth. Kingdom of God on
Earth.108
A similar notion can be observed in the “Jesus March” regularly orga-
nized by the Nigerian-led Embassy of God in Kiev, Ukraine. Accord-
ing to a church spokesman, this march is meant to have an impact
on the whole of Eastern Europe and beyond: “Through domination of
the spiritual world, [ . . .] the church will dominate the physical world
of Ukraine.” And further: “We believe that [one day] the March will
become a national Christian holiday in the Ukraine. We are taking new
territories for Jesus.”109
Here, spiritual warfare is conceptualized spatially in the physical
realm: Nations and territories must be brought under the dominion
of God expressed in the physical realm by the church. Those who once
were colonized have appropriated a colonialist paradigm and turned it
around.
Two leaflets from Lighthouse Christian Fellowship show how such
thinking developed. The theme of its “International Believers Conven-
tion 2001” was:
It’s our TIME to possess our possessions. [Emphasis in the original]
Quoted underneath was a verse from Gen. 26:22:
For now the Lord hath made room for us, in a fertile place with water
and trees in the desert and we shall be fruitful in this land.
This verse is part of a story which describes a paradigmatic conflict
between migrants and indigenous dwellers for scarce resources and
obviously speaks to the experiences of black migrants in Europe. Spiri-
tual warfare here has the dimension of conquering or at least finding a
lasting place in the country to which one has migrated, where authori-
ties and large parts of the populace are bent on pushing one out again.
107 Heading of an undated flyer of Victory Christian Ministries Oberhausen.

108 Undated flyer of the International Baptist Fellowship Center Essen.
109 Quoted in J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, An African Pentecostal on Mission in
Eastern Europe: The Church of the “Embassy of God” in the Ukraine, in: Pneuma,
vol. 27, no. 2, Fall 2005, pp. 306 f.
292 chapter five
The rejection and racism that African Christians encounter in Europe

are seen as signs of demonic dominion over this continent.110
For the “International Believers Convention 2005,” the theme had
changed just slightly:
It’s time to possess the land for CHRIST
Underneath, the same Bible verse was quoted, but in abridged version:
For now the Lord hath made room for us and we shall be fruitful in this
land.
Clearly, the emphasis has changed. The goal of spiritual warfare is
no longer understood in terms of finding a place for migrants in the
country. Rather, the idea is now that migrants have a fruitful role to
play in conquering Germany for Jesus Christ. They no longer need
to struggle for their own place; they are part of a greater mission
movement which will change the country far more extensively.
5.5.2.3. ‘Power’ and ‘stupidity’

In another consequence of conceptualizing evangelism as an encounter
of spiritual powers, and therefore as a spiritual undertaking which
needs divine help and intervention to succeed, many pentecostal / char-
ismatic migrants state that it can be done by people with little or no
education. Such thinking can already be found at the very beginning of
the pentecostal movement: After all, during the Azusa Street Revival,
speaking in tongues was understood as xenolalia which miraculously
would make world evangelism possible within a very short time frame
as it eliminated the need to learn foreign languages.111 Two intervie-
wees with very different educational backgrounds demonstrated in their
statements what I would call a notion of ‘evangelistic stupidity’ which
comes close to the understanding displayed by the earliest pentecostal
missionaries. The first, who only had a few years of primary school,
110 See also A. Oni-Orisan, You Must Prosper in the Land. How to Succeed in a
Foreign Land, Köln: The Redeemed Christian Church of God e.V., 2007, p. 45.
111 See Michael Bergunder, Crossing Boundaries: Issues of Representation, Identity
and Postcolonial Discourse in Pentecostal Studies. Paper for the Conference of the
European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism on ‘What is Pentecostalism?
Constructing and Representing Global Pentecostalism in Academic Discourse’, Birm-
ingham, January 19–20, 2006, and Allan Anderson, Spreading Fires. The Missionary
Nature of Early Pentecostalism, London: SCM Press 2007, particularly chapter 3.
narrated how he evangelized a German professor, in his eyes the epit-

ome of scholarship:
I met this professor on the train [. . .] Then I prayed: ‘Lord, this profes-
sor is a [unintelligible word] professor, how can I understand the language,
how can I go with him?’ But God anointed, and I realized, I am a mes-
senger [. . .] Then he said: ‘Many Germans have tried to evangelize me,
but did not manage to. But you achieved what you wanted. You have
made me think.’
Even though the professor did not convert on the spot, his final words
were clear proof to the speaker that no education was necessary if the
Holy Spirit was at work. It is not surprising that he uses the term
‘anoint’ in this context. As we have said above, this term always carries
the connotation of supernatural power. The interviewee ascribed the
efficacy of his broken, stammering witness not to anything he did
himself, but solely to the action of the Holy Spirit. In a sense, his
inadequacy served as a counterfoil against which the miracle of the
Spirit power could shine even more brightly.
The story of a female interviewee was constructed in very similar
ways:
I work with nothing. [. . .] Saturday I received one woman, very rich
woman, I was even surprised. She asked me to go there to pray! I say:
‘With my poor German! [. . .]’ I say: ‘God, give me grace!’ and I go,
very bold. [. . .] I didn’t know what to say, but the Holy Spirit guide
me in very wonderful ways. I myself, I was surprised. [. . .] Because the
power not belongs to me. The Holy Spirit can work in stupid—even this
morning I was reading 1. Corinthians, the stupid things of this world.
God has ways to work in our stupidity, in our Naivität [naïveté]. I can
speak in broken English, in broken German, I cannot express well for
them to understand, but the Holy Spirit is there to turn all these stupid
things into greater things! [. . .] If God is here with me, he’s going to
make the difference, it’s not me!
For this interviewee as well, language abilities are at issue. The person
encountered is described as “very rich,” while the speaker’s German
is “poor.” Again, a scenario is created in which the evangelist cannot
rely on her own strength as the person to be evangelized is of an
intimidating higher social standing. But the evangelist can be bold and
needs not be afraid because of God’s grace. She says it explicitly: “The
power not belongs to me. The Holy Spirit can work in stupid.”
These two short sentences could serve as a motto for many pen-
tecostal / charismatic migrant pastors. Despite their lack of education
and language abilities and despite their marginalized status in society,
294 chapter five
they see themselves as empowered by the Holy Spirit to evangelize Ger-

many. But such a self-perception can work in two ways: It can further
integration in the sense that marginalization is played down and a per-
son gains a higher sense of self-worth, but it can also take away the
incentive to study, learn and integrate. In informal conversations with
migrant pastors, one occasionally comes across a reasoning that lan-
guage learning or a knowledge about the situation in Germany are
totally unnecessary for a migrant evangelist, since the Holy Spirit can
work through stupidity as well as through wisdom and education. But
such sentiments do not remain unchallenged: For example, during the
first kikk course, a heated discussion broke out when an older Ghana-
ian pastor whose German language abilities, after more than 20 years
in the country, were still very rudimentary kept insisting that the largest
and most ‘successful’ African-led migrant churches in Germany were
run by pastors who had neither a theological education nor ever learnt
German well. While admitting that his claim was not without merit, his
fellow students insisted that refusing to learn was not a good precondi-
tion to reach Germans with the Gospel.
5.5.2.4. “Money must change hands!” An example of revival preaching

Over the years, I have been able to observe a number of crusades and
evangelistic meetings organized by African migrant churches. What has
been striking was that in all cases, the message preached was framed
entirely in a fullness-of-life paradigm. It has to be stated, though, that
the large majority of attendants at these meetings were indeed African
migrants, with very few Germans or other migrants visible.
To see how an evangelistic sermon is performed in such a context,
we will look at one example, from a week-long “International Confer-
ence” organized by the Nigerian-led Magnify Deliverance Ministries in
Düsseldorf, under the theme “Be ye revived, oh Europe.” Present that
night were about 60 adults, most of them Black, but with eight white
people and two young Arabic-looking girls among them. The preacher,
a speaker from Ghana, spoke English and was consecutively translated
into German. His topic was: “Open your heavens.”112
The preacher told his congregation that it would be dangerous to live
and work under a closed heaven. But heaven would not be open auto-
112 The quotes, summaries and comments below are taken from field notes in Ger-
man and English made during the meeting, on 12 October 2004.

matically: As could be seen from 2. Chr. 7:13, even God’s people might
live under a closed heaven. One could belong to God and still live under
a closed heaven. Dt. 28:23 showed that everybody had their own heaven.
Many people were working hard, but still had no money in the end.
‘This will change!’ [Shouting, clapping, and raised hands in the congregation] But
God would not open heaven for anyone: ‘You have to do it yourself !’
Matthew 16:19 spoke of the keys to the kingdom of heaven—in plural,
not singular. These keys were for opening heaven. ‘The keys are in your
hands. What key do you have? You have the keys to health, you have the
keys to wealth, you have the key to success, but you don’t use them. You
just shout to God for help. But God will give you such an anointing that
you can have a frontal collision with the devil and just shove him aside!’
[Much shouting and clapping] ‘You have the keys—you are not an ordinary
person!’
The preacher then continued to talk about Job as an example of a man
who lived under an open heaven. He was protected; Satan could not do
him any harm. This could be seen from Job 1:10. But the situation of his
audience was different: ‘You are in Germany, but you are suffering more
than when you were in Africa.’ [Shouts from the congregation: ‘That’s true!’] If
the heavens were closed, nothing people had would help them. Even the
prettiest girl would not be able to find a husband. God closed heaven for
Job. But not for the speaker: ‘I am walking under an open heaven. When
I fast, I become fast. If your heaven is closed, you eat and you still are
weak.’
The key to open heaven was prayer. As could be seen from Luke 3:21,
even Jesus had to pray before heaven opened for him. ‘Heaven will open
for you if you use the key of prayer.’ The preacher then pointed to 2.
Chr. 7:14:113 ‘Prayer is the key. If you pray, God will heal this land.’ [Loud
shouts of approval, clapping and raising of hands] ‘You cannot continue like
this. What belongs to us is in the hands of the unbelievers. They have
it because of Adam’s sin. But money must change hands!’ [Loud shouts of
approval, clapping and raising of hands. The next few sentences were spoken crescendo,
with ever increasing jubilation in the congregation.] ‘Money must come to the
people of God! [Shouts] We need to work under an open heaven and see
the glory of God!’ [Long drawn-out shouts of approval, clapping, laughing, raised
hands.]
Once heaven was open, miracles happened. Even the clothes of Jesus
had healing power, as well as the shadow of Peter. ‘When your heaven
is open above you, your shadow will begin to heal!’ [Loud ‘yeahs’ from the
congregation]
113 This is a favourite verse that shows up in many West African sermons and
tracts. See, for example, Anu Ojo, If my people, Lagos (Nigeria): Vineyard of Mercy
Publications, 1999.
296 chapter five
The preacher then returned to Job: ‘He had a heart of integrity, but
his heaven was closed.’ Job 2:9: showed that Job’s wife understood this.
Women knew about the spiritual lives of their husbands. Even if someone
pretended he was always praying, the wife knew that in reality, he was
asleep. Even if someone pretended he was fasting frequently, his wife
knew that in reality, he ate a lot. [Much laughter in the congregation during these
sentences.]
‘Job was leading a holy life, but still heaven was closed for him.’ Job 13:15
showed that Job thought God was killing him, but still he continued to
pray, fast and tithe. He was a faithful man. In chapter 19:25 Job made
another confession of faith, but still heaven was closed. Heaven was
closed until Job used the key of prayer (Job 42:10). ‘Heaven will open
when you begin to pray!’ [Loud shouts of approval, clapping and raising of
hands.]
‘Your life won’t be the same, because heaven will open. You don’t have
to bind the devil—he was bound before you were even born. Something
will happen—I can feel it in this room! I can feel there’ll be an explosion
in this room! Something is doing me . . .’ [The preacher jumps up and down
and runs around on the stage. Loud laughter, shouts of approval, clapping and raising
of hands.]
Christians needed this attitude: ‘I will not cease prayer until the heavens
open.’ Some people would prefer to sleep, claiming that God gave sleep
to his beloved. But one should not quote Psalm 127:2, but rather Proverbs
20:13 which clearly said that one should not love to sleep. The preacher
then proceeded to lovingly and mockingly, with much acting out, tell
the story of a man who always slept: At work, on public transport, even
during a prayer meeting. [Much laughter in the congregation.]
‘Elijah is the same human as you are. He wasn’t supernatural. But he
prayed and heavens opened. If you use that key . . . you will see your
glory. You will see a miracle. We are in for a boat-sinking blessing!’
[The last few sentences crescendo, under increasing shouts and jubilation from the
congregation.]
After the jubilation had died down the preacher asked all those who were
in need of a miracle to come forward. With a few exceptions, everyone
in the congregation came forward. It then seemed to strike the preacher
that perhaps not all of those standing in front of him were already born-
again Christians. Therefore, he told people that before he could pray
for miracles, those who wanted to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior
should come forward. Consequently, a number of people stepped back,
though most remained in front, even those who had been acting as ush-
ers and choir members during the evening. The preacher led them in
the typical, revivalist conversion prayer which included a general confes-
sion of sin and a spoken acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior. Then
followed the high point of the evening, the ‘miracle prayer’ which the
preacher first prayed for the whole group, and then with an individual
laying-on of hands. About one quarter of those who had come forward
fell when hands were laid on them—this happened with some force and
was clearly intended—but only one person—the German translator!—
seemed fall into a genuine trance, shaking for several minutes while only
the whites of his eyes were visible.
Several points need to be made when analyzing this sermon as well

as the interactions between the pastor and the congregation: First of
all, the message concerned itself solely with material blessings. Health,
wealth, success, even a spouse were all named as goods to be had under
an open heaven. Not only did the pastor not preach a ‘salvation mes-
sage,’ he even stated explicitly that salvation had no real relationship to
these blessings: “One could belong to God and still live under a closed
heaven.” Even Israel, even the faithful Job, and even Jesus Christ him-
self were under a closed heaven before they used the proper key to
open it. Secondly, the understanding of prayer “as the key” had obvi-
ous undertones of magic, something needed to be performed in the
right way to achieve certain results. “But God would not open heaven
for anyone: ‘You have to do it yourself !’ ” The blessing was not a free
gift bestowed according to God’s will, but the inevitable consequence of
correct human actions.114 Through this key, humans could force God to
act in a certain way. Using this key was not easy—prayer needed to be
sustained, and sleep could mean that heaven will not open.
Thirdly: At one point, the sermon turned to “this land:” “If you
pray, God will heal this land. [ . . .] You cannot continue like this. What
belongs to us is in the hands of the unbelievers. They have it because
of Adam’s sin. But money must change hands!” This passage is the
key to the whole sermon message and contains a number of implicit
presuppositions: a) The poverty of the (mostly migrant and Black) audi-
ence members is against God’s will, against the divine order of things.
Once God acts, money will move from the unbelievers to the believers.
Therefore, the first implication is that all listeners are already Chris-
tians who just need to move into a fuller understanding of what their
faith means. b) The unequal distribution of wealth is a consequence of
original sin. It is a spiritual, not a political problem which needs to be
dealt with spiritually, i.e. by prayer. c) The healing of “the land” consists
in money changing to the believers. For them, individual advantage and
114 On traditional West African understanding of magic, see Kofi Asare Opoku, West
African Traditional Religion, Accra et al.: FEP International Private Ltd., 1978, p. 147 f.
298 chapter five
the common good are the same. The prayer for the healing of the land
is therefore not intercessory. The perspective is purely individualistic. d)
The whole tone of this passage, while encouraging to migrants, could
sound threatening to Germans. A sense of conquest underlies every-
thing that is being said. The migrants will not just integrate themselves
quietly into a given situation; they will cause a total upheaval of the
current state of affairs.
Fourthly: The message preached was what the audience wanted to
hear. The strongly affirmative reactions made this abundantly clear.
The applause from the congregation became stronger whenever the
preacher pronounced miracles in the affirmative. This points to an
underlying understanding of both preacher and congregation that by
speaking these sentences, they already become reality. While sounding
like “positive confession” in the Word of Faith Movement sense, these
statements are more likely another expression of a West African under-
standing of the magic power of words.115 The raising of hands once
the preacher utters such affirmatives serves as a physical sign of one’s
openness to receive the very blessing pronounced at this moment.116
To sum up: The whole sermon could be interpreted as an initiation
into a certain magic practice necessary to appropriate the material
goods seen in Western society. In that sense, it was clearly intended
for marginalized West African migrants trying to survive in new and
difficult circumstances. At the same time, everything that was said also
closely tied into the Word of Faith paradigm: The understanding that
faith in God alone was not sufficient to receive the blessings, which
were one’s right, the stress to rely on prayer rather than hard work to
become rich, and the ‘positive confessions’ peppering the sermon could
also be expressions of an influence of Word of Faith teachers. Clearly,
the West African context had already been transcended.
Nevertheless: The way this sermon was preached would not have
worked as an evangelistic message aimed at internationalizing the con-
gregation and especially recruiting German members. In this sense, this
sermon contradicted the theme of the whole conference which aimed
at the revival of Europe. The sequence of interactions at the end of
the service shows that this contradiction might have occurred to the
preacher himself. When he first called forward all those who were
115 See above 5.5.1.3.

116 Oral communication from Kwabena Johnson Asamoah-Gyadu, Accra, December
2004.
in need of a miracle, he stayed within the paradigm of his sermon.

But his hasty reversal to precede his miracle prayers with a traditional
‘altar call’ hints at an awareness of the traditional revivalist understand-
ing of the ‘salvation message’ which however was not first and fore-
most on his mind. The whole exercise seemed like a duty that had
to be quickly dispensed with before the important part of the evening
started, an adherence to a ‘global’ theological correctness that needed
to be upheld. What Jesus’ lordship and salvation, sin and forgiveness
meant in relationship to the miracles that the preacher promised and
was going to pray about was never explained. While the sermon con-
textually addressed the needs and wishes of a West African audience,
the altar call and conversion prayer were de-contextualized both in
their abstract language and in their abrupt insertion into a ritualized
exchange into whose logic they did not fit. What we have, then, is
a global evangelistic claim, but a contextual, diasporal message. This
contradiction cannot easily be resolved.
5.5.2.5. Intercultural encounter: Exorcizing Feuerbach, Marx and

Freud
We have already shown above how a conceptualization of evange-
lism in the spiritual warfare paradigm could possibly lead pente-
costal / charismatic migrants to reject inculturation, dialogue and inte-
gration. An event that occurred during the first kikk course can be read
as paradigmatic for an intercultural encounter with clashing paradigms
and shall therefore be recounted and analyzed here.
In the planning process for the kikk course which was steered by
input from migrant, overwhelmingly West African pastors, an often
repeated question was: “What makes the Germans tick? We want to
understand this so that we can evangelize more effectively.” This query
was never analyzed according to its underlying paradigm. Therefore,
the Germans in the planning group heard it as a request for informa-
tion on historical, cultural and political background which was duly
incorporated into the curriculum for the first course. In hindsight, it
seems likely that the question actually aimed at a ‘spiritual’ diagnosis,
but this was not recognized at the time.
One of the highlights of the first kikk course was the weekend in
February 2002 which centered on religious criticism. The Germans in
the preparatory group felt that the course participants needed to under-
stand how the philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach had popularized an
300 chapter five
understanding of religion as human projection, and how this concept

was taken up and developed in different directions by Karl Marx and
Sigmund Freud. The teacher for the weekend was a German Protestant
pastor who was eminently able to elementarize complex philosophical
constructions, as well as to explain them from their historical and polit-
ical context, and the participants listened with rapt attention.
After the full day seminar, the participants gathered for dinner.
During the meal, they announced that they would convene a special
prayer meeting later that night. Now that they had understood what
was blocking evangelism in Germany, they were going to wage spir-
itual warfare against the spirits of Feuerbach, Marx and Freud. The
prayer meeting that night lasted almost two hours and was one of the
most intense I ever witnessed. The participants, migrant pastors from
Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Nepal, Vietnam, and Indone-
sia screamed and shouted at the top of their voices, jumped, shook their
arms and raised their fists until they were streaming with sweat. They
clearly waged a battle—their prayers were not supplications or interces-
sions, but ‘authority prayers’: “In the name of Jesus, we assert authority
over Germany! We declare that the spirits of Feuerbach, Marx and
Freud have no right to oppress this country! We totally bind the spirits
of Feuerbach, Marx and Freud and all spirits who have been follow-
ing them! We declare that they will no more mislead the Germans, in
the name of Jesus! We cleanse Germany from the spirits of Feuerbach,
Marx and Freud, in the name of Jesus!”
My field notes from this weekend reverberate with the deep shock
that I felt. I was sure that we had completely failed to make the par-
ticipants ‘understand’ the meaning of Feuerbach, Marx and Freud. My
colleague who had been teaching was more sanguine and wondered
aloud whether perhaps an exorcism of the spirit of religious criticism
might be exactly what Germany needed.
In hindsight, this event can be interpreted as an intercultural en-
counter in which two completely different paradigms collided with each
other. The course participants had very well understood the important
and influential role of the three authors whose thinking was introduced
to them during this weekend. But rather than comprehending this
influence in a historical, rational sense, they understood it spiritually:
Feuerbach, Marx and Freud were not dead authors whose works con-
tinued to shape popular philosophy, but live demonic spirits intent at
preventing conversions in Germany. The history lesson had turned into
an exercise in spiritual mapping. Not intercultural understanding was
needed to deal with these three figures, but spiritual power. Rather than
accepting the paradigm of Western history and philosophy, the partic-
ipants had appropriated what was taught into their own paradigm of
spiritual warfare. While the teacher had hoped to make them under-
stand how Germans think so as to enable them to react communica-
tively to a bias against religion or Christianity, the participants felt that
after the spiritual battle, there was no need to deal further with this
topic.
Could the reaction of the kikk course participants be termed ‘incul-
turation?’ Or should it be seen as a clear rejection of integration? The
answer to this question depends on which paradigm one follows. West-
erners would not see an exorcism of Feuerbach’s spirit as a form of inte-
gration, while pentecostal / charismatic migrants would definitely say
that in this way, they are engaging with Western culture. The question
remains open as to whether a dialogue is possible in spite of the deep
chasm between these two paradigms.
5.6. Conclusion: Evangelism, inculturation and clashing paradigms
On 17 September 2000, an African migrant church in the small town

of Viersen, Kingdom Exploiters’ Ministries, held a ‘Gospel Service’
which was widely publicized throughout town.117 The large Protestant
church in the main city square was well-filled with many Germans
who clapped and swayed along with the music provided, but kept quiet
during the sermon, while a minority of Africans from different churches
cheered the preacher along.
After the sermon in which the preacher (speaking in English and
translated into very ‘pentecostal’ German by a German lady) told his
listeners that they had to make a decision between blessing and curse,
he called forward all those “who want to give their life to Christ.”
There was some murmuring in the first row where I sat with two local
German Protestant pastors and several church elders, and a number
of Germans sitting further back started to get up and leave. Six or
seven people came forward, most of them Germans who had been
conspicuous during the service by their ‘pentecostal’ behavior: They
117 The following is based on my field notes from the day, notes about subsequent
phone conversations with the different actors, and my colleague’s field notes about a
conversation with the preacher a few weeks later.
302 chapter five
had raised their hands while dancing to the music, and shouted loud
‘Hallelujahs’ during the preaching. The preacher led them in a prayer
of conversion. Then, he asked all those to come forward who needed
prayers for healing. The murmuring in the front row grew louder, and
more Germans got up and left. The newly converted remained in front,
while several Africans joined them. The preacher anointed each person
with oil, laid hands on them and prayed for them while the Gospel
group sang quietly in the background.
Then, suddenly, an African woman who was being prayed for fell
stiffly backwards, almost taking down the German woman standing
next to her, and hitting her head hard on the floor right in front
of the German pastor. Pandemonium broke out. The pastor started
shouting for the custodian, one of the elders raced to the back of the
church, shouting for someone to call an ambulance and the police.
Most Germans still present now left the church in a hurry. I tried to
explain to the people sitting next to me that there was no need to worry
as the woman had probably just fallen into a trance and not fainted.
In the meantime, the preacher continued his prayers, and two more
people also fell down. Within a minute or two, all three had gotten up
again and seemed perfectly alright.
The preacher then quickly ended the service, facing an almost empty
church. The people who were left congregated in two groups: On the
one side of the church, the German pastors and church elders were
expressing their shock and indignation. One lady said that to witness
‘this spectacle’ had made her feel nauseous. The pastor said angrily
that he would never have allowed the Africans to use his church if he
had known what would happen.
On the other side of the church, the preacher, his wife, and some
elders of Kingdom Exploiters’ Ministries stood together. When I joined
them, they told me that they could not understand the reaction of
the German pastors and elders. They had been elated to see that the
Spirit moved much more strongly than they had anticipated. I tried to
explain how the Germans felt and added that it would have been good
to explain first what the pastor was doing, so that people would have
known what to expect. The preacher’s wife reacted angrily and said
if people did not understand what was going on they clearly were not
filled by the Holy Spirit. The preacher added that he was not afraid of
conflict: This was normal when the Holy Spirit was at work. After the
outpouring of the Spirit on this day, the church would surely be filled to
the rafters for the next Gospel service. There was no reason for him to
try and accommodate German Protestant sensibilities; after all, he had

just done what he was called to do.
Less than two months later, the church council of the Evangelical
Church in Viersen unanimously decided to terminate the contract
which allowed Kingdom Exploiters’ Ministries to use their venues for
worship. As news of the ‘scandal’ at the Gospel service spread, the
migrant church was unable to find another place for worship, and
finally had to move to a neighboring town.
This event seems, in many respects, paradigmatic for what can go
wrong with pentecostal / charismatic migrant evangelism in Germany.
When paradigms simply clash, the result is not revival, but embarrass-
ment and anger. In the case just described above, neither side was will-
ing to at least try to consider the viewpoint of the other side.
Having analyzed the pentecostal / charismatic migrant discourse on
evangelism, the Viersen incident does not seem surprising anymore, but
almost inevitable. It is rather surprising that such episodes do not occur
more often. It is likely that many migrant pastors, when engaging with
a German context, do indeed tone down their message and manage
without rituals that they know would be alienating. There is more
pragmatism in the practice than is admitted to in the discourse.
chapter six
CONSEQUENCES
6.1. The current situation
This study was begun as an attempt better to understand pente-

costal / charismatic migrant churches and their agenda, with the aim to
help deepen the cooperation between indigenous Protestant churches
in Europe and pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches here. It was
intended as a basis and motivating force for a theological and missio-
logical dialogue that has hardly begun, not least because both sides do
not really know each other.
After more than nine years of the UEM Program for Cooperation
between German and Foreign Language Churches, the situation in
Germany is still described by most actors as difficult. There are such
few examples of functioning, satisfying relationships between a migrant
pentecostal / charismatic and a German Protestant congregation that
these cases have to be treated as exceptions to a rule. The same is
true for Scandinavia, and a similar assessment has recently being made
for the Netherlands: “Despite good intentions on both sides, relations
between the established Durch churches and immigrant churches often
seem to be complex and problematic. [ . . .] Perhaps the model of
thinking in terms of ‘the established’ and ‘the outsiders’ prevents any
kind of true collaboration.”1
In other European countries, though, there seems to be a some-
what more optimistic outlook. While the Projet Mosaïc in France was
only started in 2006, its main actors, the Federation of Protestant
Churches, DEFAP, the development agency of the Protestant churches,
and CEVAA, a large mission community, have recently decided to
extend the program for five years. Antoine Schluchter, who was respon-
sible for the project until summer 2008, reports that interest in cooper-
1 Hijme Stoffels, A Coat of Many Colours, in: Mechteld Jansen and Hijme Stoffels
(eds.), A Moving God. Immigrant Churches in the Netherlands, Zürich / Berlin: LIT-Verlag
2008, p. 25.
306 chapter six
ation between migrant and indigenous churches is growing.2 In Britain,

Anglicans, Baptists and the United Reformed Church have been work-
ing hard at establishing and strengthening multicultural congregations,3
though they seem to have rather little contact with pentecostal and
charismatic migrant churches. On the other hand, Churches Together
in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) has a number of member churches from
the older, more established black majority churches,4 and has recently
started a “Migration Enquiry” which includes issues of migration and
evangelization.5 In Italy, the Waldensian Church has been able, at least
in big city congregations, to integrate large numbers of mostly black
African charismatic immigrants. Waldensian pastors, though, privately
speak about the difficulties and tensions still remaining, and observe
that a growing number of migrants now prefer to worship in congrega-
tions with an exclusively migrant membership.
What makes cooperation between pentecostal / charismatic migrants
and Protestant indigenous churches so difficult? The current situation
in Europe is a complicated one, with several identifiable layers of
conflict.
A first layer is made up of annoying practical difficulties. Pente-
costal / charismatic migrants complain that it is so hard for them to
find places of worship that are affordable, conveniently located and
that allow them some flexibility in their activities. On the other hand,
indigenous Protestant congregations that have rented their church
buildings to migrant churches are frustrated that their requests for
reduced noise levels, reliable time frames, and careful use of rooms are
constantly disregarded.
A second layer consists of disappointed notions about cooperation:
While pentecostal / charismatic migrants came to Europe expecting
to join European indigenous churches in prayer meetings and street
evangelism, European congregations are often not interested in closer
2 Personal communication, October 2008.

3 See, for example, the report on “Multicultural United Reformed Churches” of the
URC 2005 Synod, www.urc.org.uk/assembly/assembly2005/multicultural_urc.html,
accessed 3 October 2008; or the report on the Baptist Union of Britain in Peter Pen-
ner, Ethnic Churches in Europe—A Baptist Response, Schwarzenfeld: Neufeld Ver-
lag, Oktober 2006. For information on the Church of England, see http://www.cofe
.anglican.org/info/cmeac, accessed 3 October 2008.
4 See www.ctbi.org.uk/24, accessed 3 October 2008.
5 See www.churches-together.net / Groups / 69721 / Churches_Together_in / Our_
work /Public_Affairs /Migration /Migration_Enquiry/Migration_and_Evangelisation

.aspx, accessed 3 October 2008.
consequences 307
contacts with migrant churches even if they have rented their build-
ings to them, or only show themselves interested in cooperation which
‘exotifies’ the migrants. African choirs are invited to sing, drum and
dance at special worship services, while Korean or Tamil churches
are always welcome to cook something for the parish festival. For
example, Dutch researchers Martha Frederiks and Nienke Pruiksma
have recently pointed out that while the leadership of the Protes-
tant Church in the Netherlands has been encouraging contacts with
migrant churches, few Dutch Protestant local congregations show any
interest in a cooperation that goes further than “inviting maybe the
occasional exotic gospel choir to grace a service.”6 Theological dia-
logue is relatively rare, and fraught with difficulties. In one instance
in Germany, where an Evangelical Church district tried to install a reg-
ular get-together of German and migrant pastors to discuss theological
issues on a local basis, the migrant churches involved felt examined and
controlled and quickly refused further meetings.
A third layer is made up of conflicting ideas about integration. In the
short interviews, the interlocutors were asked what they expected from
the German Protestant churches to improve their integration. Almost
in unison, they answered that they wished for more openness, accep-
tance, real dialogue (“There is too much damnation of things that are
different.”) and financial and organizational support. In the German
Protestant churches, integration is usually understood as a willingness
to engage with the existing structures without seeking immediate mate-
rial benefits. Migrant churches should join the Association of Chris-
tian Churches or one of the German free church networks, migrant
pastors should seek theological training in an accredited institution in
Germany, and second generation migrant youth should join German
youth activities. The Association of Christian Migrant Churches7 in
the state of North Rhine-Westphalia was formed on the suggestion of
and with strong encouragement from the State Commissioner for Inte-
gration, to serve as a united voice of migrant churches both in the
political and the church arena, but has few members as most pente-
costal / charismatic churches would rather engage in evangelism than in
advocacy work. All over Europe, similar patterns can be observed: To
be able to engage with indigenous churches, migrant churches have to
6 Personal communication, August 2008.

7 Arbeitsgemeinschaft christlicher Migrationskirchen (ACMK)— the fact that this name rings
close to Arbeitsgemeinschaft christlicher Kirchen (ACK) is intended.
308 chapter six
be willing to adhere to indigenous forms of organization and communi-

cation, joining councils and associations, complying with bookkeeping
and auditing rules, and attending innumerable meetings and roundta-
bles. It is not surprising that SKIN (Samen Kerk in Netherland / Churches
together in the Netherlands), the organization of migrant churches in the
Netherlands, was established and is kept alive through financial and
organizational help from the Protestant Church in the Netherlands,
and could not survive without this.
German churches’ financial support for migrant churches (where it
is given at all!) is similarly subject to adherence to German structures.
A typical example is the fund the Evangelical City Church District
in Düsseldorf has set up to support migrant churches. Churches are
eligible for (very modest) financial subsidies only if they are on the list
of recognized churches, if their members are registered as Evangelical,
and, in the case of project support, if they apply for it within a very
strict time frame which requires long-term planning.
A fourth layer of conflict has to do with notions of universality and
particularity: Pentecostal / charismatic migrants frequently talk about
their disappointed expectations that a shared ‘Biblical culture’ would
bridge all kinds of differences, and that they would be welcomed as
sisters and brothers into a church that understands itself as univer-
sal. They call their churches “international” and define themselves as
“Christian” rather than as “Korean” or “Ghanaian.” On the other
hand, particularly continental European Protestant churches that used
to be state churches insist that cultural differences create a deep divid-
ing line which cannot simply be ignored. Churches like the Evangelical
Church in Germany, the Swedish Lutheran Church, or the Protestant
Church in the Netherlands are strongly tied up with their respective
country’s ethnic and cultural identity. Consequently, Christian migrants
to these countries are expected to form their own churches as cultural
and language differences are supposed to be more important than a
common tradition: “If you cannot pray in your mother tongue, it just
doesn’t feel right,” is a sentiment frequently expressed by European
pastors or church members. It is not surprising that Protestant minority
churches like the Waldensian Church in Italy which are less nationally-
inclined have, from the beginning, been more open to integrate Chris-
tian migrants into their congregations.
Finally, the social and material basis of these conflicts must be taken
into account. While migrant church members struggle with issues of
economic survival and social marginalization, active members of Euro-
consequences 309
pean Protestant churches tend to be middle class and fairly secure

both economically and socially. To ascribe certain intercultural prob-
lems to “cultural differences” ignores the huge dichotomy between the
life worlds of migrants and indigenous Protestants. Just for example,
a migrant pastor may skip a meeting with his indigenous colleagues
because he does not have the money for a bus ticket to travel there,
or because his boss has ordered him to work some extra hours with-
out prior notice, or because he has to act as interpreter for a mother
from his church who does not know enough German or Dutch to com-
municate with the doctor treating her seriously sick child. The migrant
pastor’s failure to show up is then easily misinterpreted as either disin-
terest and unwillingness to cooperate, or a “typically African disregard
for timed appointments.”
Most migrant churches are economically shaky; never sure from one
month to the next whether donations will be sufficient for the run-
ning costs of church life. In a competitive market situation, it is only
too understandable that each church considers its own survival before
engaging in cooperation with others. Very often, migrant churches
show little interest in a theological dialogue with Protestant churches
that is not backed up by financial and organizational support. The
European ‘mainline’ Protestant churches are perceived as very wealthy,
and their claim that they are unable to assist migrant churches by
paying pastors’ salaries or turning over unused church buildings free
of charge is met with incredulity. On the other side, most European
Protestant churches are struggling with a steady decrease in member-
ship and income which forces them into thorough restructuring—a pro-
cess which absorbs enormous amounts of time and energy which then
lack when it comes to partnership with migrant churches. Having to
cut back their own church activities due to financial problems, there is
little willingness to donate money to migrant churches.
In dealing with this situation of economic and political inequality, a
certain pattern could be observed in Germany that also exists in other
European contexts. There seems to be an underlying understanding
on the German Protestant side that ‘lowly material motives’ should
not interfere with theological exchange and that questions of money
should not ‘desecrate’ partnership. Whenever migrant and German
Protestant church representatives meet, the migrants are clearly told
that while some exchange and dialogue may be desirable, they should
not expect much material assistance. This message has been constantly
broadcast since the late 1990s, at meetings on all levels. While the
310 chapter six
migrants are seeking a holistic relationship, German Protestants erect

a division between spiritual and material exchange. Consequently, Ger-
mans interested in dialogue and partnership with migrant churches get
frustrated when migrants insist that their material problems have to be
solved first: “We want to have a theological dialogue, and all they talk
about is rooms for worship.”8
Clearly, the current situation is not conducive to theological dialogue
between indigenous and migrant churches. The different conflict layers
just sketched make any attempt at such dialogue difficult. But in addi-
tion to this, chapters 3–5 of this study have shown that in terms of min-
isterial authority, the understanding of (im)migration, and evangelism,
the migrant interlocutors have displayed conceptions, ideas, worldviews
and theological theses which are deeply ‘foreign’ to a European main-
line Protestant outlook.
In the following, we will contrast the results of our research with the
European Protestant discourse on these topics to describe theological
fields in which dialogue is urgently needed. We will do this by sketching
simple typologies9 of theological reasoning and relating them to each
other. This makes sense as the migrants’ notions were developed in
contact with and demarcation from the Protestant discourse. The basic
assumption underlying this typology is that the types are not mutually
exclusive, but rather complementary. Both sides can indeed learn from
each other and be changed in the encounter.
After this descriptive part, we will take a closer look at a question that
is transversal to the dialogue fields, but implicitly or explicitly informs
any attempt at dialogue on both sides. Whose religion is Christianity in
Europe? And who has the right to define what Protestantism in Europe
means? Finally, we will shortly consider two further questions which
are closely connected. Does a missionary outlook further or hinder the
migrants’ integration? And, finally; are European churches ready to be
evangelized?
8 This complaint was voiced by a local Protestant pastor who, for years, had tried
to engage indigenous Protestant and migrant churches in joint programs, projects, and
dialogue, with a rather low degree of success.
9 On typological construction in religious research, see K.E. Rosengren, Mali-
nowski’s Magic: The Riddle of the Empty Cell, in: Current Anthropology, Vol. 17 No. 4,
1976, pp. 667–685.
consequences 311
6.2. Dialogue fields: A description
6.2.1. Ministerial authority

As we could see in chapter 3, pentecostal / charismatic migrant pastors
describe themselves as shepherds of their congregations, mediators of
divine power, and spiritual leaders. They portray themselves as persons
with a divine call to ministry, legitimized by miracles, prophecies, and
gifts. In short, they claim an enormous authority and legitimize this
authority within a paradigm that stresses spiritual competence over
everything else.
In a European Protestant paradigm, ministerial authority is based on
academic theological training and proper ordination procedures, and
questions of calling and spiritual practice are hardly ever discussed. As
a case in point, the much-publicized 2006 EKD paper on the future of
the Protestant Church in Germany talks about ministers solely in cat-
egories of professional quality, including what is called ‘spiritual com-
petence,’ a term that is not defined any further.10 When it comes to
the understanding of the pastoral role in relation to the congregation,
Protestant pastors tend to see themselves first and foremost as profes-
sionals and usually reject any understanding of an elevated spiritual
role, even though such a role is often accorded to them by their congre-
gation members.11
The fact that pentecostal / charismatic migrant and European Prot-
estant pastors think, work and function in such different paradigms
makes dialogue difficult. Observation of many encounters over the past
nine years shows that each side tends to describe the other as deficient.
European Protestant pastors who come into contact with pente-
costal / charismatic migrant pastors see people who often have rather
weak language skills that quickly lead them to assume that the migrants
cannot be well-educated. This perception is reinforced by the fact that
if migrant pastors work in a profession to make a living, they tend
to work in unskilled or lowly-skilled jobs as their academic qualifica-
tions are often not recognized in Europe. Among the migrant pastors
listed in the UEM data base are, e.g., a former high-school teacher
10 Kirche der Freiheit. Ein Impulspapier des Rates der EKD, 2006.
11 See, for example, the EKD study on the role of the vicarage (“Pfarrhaus”), Rat
und Kirchenkonferenz der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland (eds.), Empfehlung zu
Fragen des Pfarrhauses, 2002.
312 chapter six
working as a mailman, a former business executive working as a janitor,

three engineers working on factory assembly lines, a journalist cleaning
houses, and two university graduates who have opened small shops.
Conversely, only two migrant pastors are known to work in positions
consistent with their training and experiences. Similar observations can
be made in most European countries, with some exceptions in Britain
where at least anglophone African and South Asian migrants do not
have language problems.
In addition, European Protestant pastors, in their evaluation of their
migrant counterparts, tend to concentrate on their lack of formal theo-
logical training, drawing the conclusion that they cannot really function
as partners in a theological dialogue. Migrant pastors don’t improve
this situation when, having understood the importance of academic cre-
dentials and proper ordination procedures in the European Protestant
context, they proceed to present certificates from unaccredited Bible
Schools or ministerial associations not related to any major denomi-
national church. Seeing that many migrant pastors have congregations
of only a few dozen members further diminishes their standing in the
eyes of Protestant ‘mainline’ pastors who often serve congregations of
about 2,000 members or more, even though only a small percentage
of these members are actually active in church. In this constellation,
it is easy to dismiss the self-image of pentecostal / charismatic migrant
pastors as ludicrously inflated and not to be taken seriously. In formal
and informal conversations over the years, European pastors have often
expressed just such a sentiment. Migrant pastors, confronted with such
attitudes, react with feelings of offense and injury.
Conversely, migrant pastors look at what they describe as the lack
of spiritual praxis of European Protestant pastors and feel validated:
European Protestant pastors may have superior academic training, but
spiritually, they have little to show. They do not know how to pray
properly, they write sermons which are academic treatises rather than
revelations from the Holy Spirit, they have no spiritual power to work
changes in the lives of people, and they cannot heal or drive out
demons. Such statements are voiced fairly regularly both in informal
conversations and in more public meetings between European Protes-
tant and migrant pentecostal / charismatic pastors, inciting feelings of
offense and injury on the European side.
In short, on the level of local contacts between migrant pente-
costal / charismatic and European Protestant pastors, we find a con-
stellation that makes it easy to engage in the mutual disqualification of
consequences 313
each other’s ministerial credentials and to belittle each other. In such

a situation, dialogue becomes very difficult. On both sides, it needs a
willingness to accept, at least for the moment, the validity of the other’s
paradigm without feeling personally diminished and hurt if one’s per-
ception of one’s own authority and status is not shared by the other
side. It could be expected that this would be easier for the Europeans
who, after all, have a much more secure social and economic position
than the socially and economically marginalized migrants. Interestingly,
that does not always seem to be the case. Anecdotal evidence from such
encounters suggests that European Protestant pastors who are some-
what unsure about their own spirituality have a hard time dealing with
migrant counterparts who openly challenge them about this.
As professional self-understanding is very closely tied to how one sees
oneself as a person, constructive dialogue between pastors about what
it means to be a pastor needs a basis of trust that must have been
established beforehand, copious amounts of time, and a willingness to
open up on a very personal level. Then, it might be possible to realize
that both paradigms have their rights and their limitations, that they
are complementary and need to be balanced in each person’s life as
well as in church policies on ministerial development.
6.2.2. Immigration
Looking at the expatriation narratives as well at what the interviewees
say about their evangelistic calling, it is obvious that these migrant
pentecostal / charismatic pastors see themselves as living in Germany
due to divine calling and guidance, and not because the German
authorities have allowed them to stay. Implicitly, they negate the right
of the German government to decide who can come to Germany and
who cannot, or even the right of the German population whether
to allow immigration or not. Their right to stay is a divine right
that overrides any human policy or interest. They are not here on
sufferance, not even on the benevolence of pro-immigration activists.
Like Israel in Canaan, they see this land as theirs, a place that God
has given them. Germany does not only belong to the indigenous
Germans, but also to them. Pentecostal / charismatic migrant pastors in
other European countries as well as in Northern America would likely
tell similar stories.
This understanding is easily on a collision course not only with the
strong anti-immigration sentiment in Europe, but also with more wel-
314 chapter six
coming attitudes in the broader society. A reporter from the certainly

pro-immigration German weekly DIE ZEIT, after interviewing a num-
ber of pentecostal / charismatic migrant pastors, asked me: “Do we
need to fear these people? They sound like they want to conquer us!”
Clearly, in the understanding and interpretation of migration, different
paradigms apply.
European Protestant churches tend to describe migration first and
foremost as a problem. This becomes very clear when looking at
the website of the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe12
and perusing the large number of documents published by this com-
mission. Documents by individual European churches underscore this
impression. To take just one example,13 the language of the “Gemein-
sames Wort der Kirchen zu den Herausforderungen von Migration
und Flucht” (Joint Communiqué of Churches on the Challenges of
Migration and Flight),14 jointly issued by the Evangelical Churches
in Germany, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, and the Association
of Christian Churches is definitely telling. Immigration causes “severe
problems;”15 world migration, in a headline, is labeled as the “prob-
lem of world migration,”16 and migration is analyzed through the lens
of refugee problems (war refugees, environmental refugees, economic
refugees). When it comes to a reflection on how Christians are to
respond to this problem, migrants are described as people worthy of
protection,17 i.e. as those who depend on our benevolence. The paper
does admit that in a globalizing world the common good cannot only
12 www.ccme.be, accessed 3 October 2008.

13 Others are the letters of the Presidents of the Evangelical Churches in the
Rhineland, of Westphalia, and in Lippe calling all congregations to get involved in the
Intercultural Week 2007, www.ekir.de/ekir/dokumente/ekir2007-08-14brief-praesides-
interkulturellewoche.pdf (accessed 4 September 2007); the “Liebfrauenberg Declara-
tion” on the challenges of migration and asylum of the Conference of Rhine Churches
and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe / Leuenberg Church Fellowship
2004; and a declaration of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, Durchgangs-
land oder Bleibegesellschaft? Plädoyer der Evangelischen Kirche im Rheinland für eine
zielorientierte Zuwanderungs- und Integrationspolitik, 2001.
14 Kirchenamt der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland und Sekretariat der
Deutschen Bischofskonferenz in Zusammenarbeit mit der Arbeitsgemeinschaft christ-

licher Kirchen in Deutschland (eds.), “ . . . und der Fremdling, der in deinen Toren ist.”
Gemeinsames Wort der Kirchen zu den Herausforderungen von Migration und Flucht,
Gemeinsame Texte Nr. 12, Bonn / Frankfurt am Main / Hannover 1997.
15 Schwerwiegende Probleme, No. 62, p. 31.
16 Dimensionen des Weltmigrationsproblems, 3.1, p. 32.
17 No. 98, p. 45.
consequences 315
be defined within the borders of a nation state, and therefore states:

“Generally, it must be allowed—if just cause [sic]18 advises this—to
immigrate to another country and to apply for reception there.”19 But
this right is not unlimited, as governments have to take care that social
structures are not overtaxed by too many immigrants. “Therefore, there
is a right to emigration, but not to immigration.”20 The document
then looks at “perspectives for the future.” The first paragraph, again
tellingly, centers on “international cooperation to fight the causes for
flight.”21
It must not be forgotten that the Communiqué was written as
response to a dominant discourse not only in Germany, but in all of
Europe in which migration is seen as a threat by bringing more com-
petition for scarce jobs and cheap housing, by exploiting already under-
funded social security networks, by undermining valued cultural tradi-
tions, and by driving up the crime rate. In response, the Communiqué
constructs migrants as victims who need understanding and help, there-
fore turning them into clients and objects of church and social benevo-
lence. The threat is eliminated by removing agency.22
Such problematic reasoning is the consequence of a theology which
does not question basic political assumptions. The picture being drawn
is one of a world torn by conflicts, a dichotomy between rich and
poor countries, and ecological disasters. Migration as a South-North
movement in response to these problems is seen as only the second-
best solution; preferably, the problems causing it should be taken care
of so that everybody could stay in his or her own home and remain
‘rooted’ in a territorially and ethnically defined culture. If world prob-
lems were solved, migration would no longer be necessary. Incidentally,
expatriation is never considered in European Protestant church doc-
uments on migration, but would likely be assessed differently. South-
North migration, though, cannot be constructed as positive and enrich-
ing. “Sedentarist metaphysics”23 are solely applied to those who are
18 This language implies that migration for any other reason than fleeing insuffer-
able circumstances is ethically not admissible.

19 No. 138, p. 57.
20 No. 139, ibd.
21 Chapter 5.2, p. 61 ff.
22 The same operation can be observed in the CCME documents.
23 See L. Malkki, National Geographic: The Rooting of Peoples and the Territori-
alization of National Identity among Scholars and Refugees, in: Cultural Anthropology,
Vol. 7, No. 1, Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference (Feb. 1992), pp. 24–44.
316 chapter six
poor and darker-skinned and move to the areas where wealthier and
lighter-skinned people live. The theological challenge of the German
Communiqué as well as the CCME documents takes place within this
unquestioned framework: As uprooted victims, the migrants are more
worthy of protection than dominant discourse would have it.
From a Biblical-theological perspective, though, there is another way
of looking at migrants than from a sedentary viewpoint in which the
church is called to protect the stranger. The Bible, both in the Old and
the New Testament, abounds with ‘migrant theology:’ “At the begin-
ning of the history of the People of God stands the call to migration.
[ . . .] This [i.e. Abraham’s] emigration is not just an accidental event
at the beginning of the story of Israel. It is the characterization of the
People of God in Old and New Testament. They are people who have
been called out of this world (ekklesia!) and are traveling to a new land.
They are migrants who have not found it in this world and who per-
sist in their search for a new homeland.”24 From Abraham who left his
home in faith to become a nomad to Israel moving out of slavery in
Egypt, and later into exile and back, from Jesus who had “nowhere
to lay his head”25 to the travels of Paul, faith is understood as setting
people in motion and making them homeless in the sense that they no
longer simply belong to the place and the culture around them: “For
here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come.”26—
“A believer is a migrant. Numerous are the allusions to this truth in the
New Testament and in the early church. But when the church became
established this emphasis disappeared. The fate of millions of people
today [i.e. migrants] should rouse the church to rediscover this essential
characteristic of her being.”27
If such theology was at the basis of a church statement on migration,
different consequences would have to be drawn. If even the indigenous
Christians saw themselves as essentially ‘homeless’ and ‘expatriate,’
their relationship to actual migrants would be one of equality rather
than of benevolent largesse. “There is only one way in which the
church can be of real help to the migrant. It is by becoming the Body
24 P. de Jong, Migration in Biblical Perspective, in: In A Strange Land. A Report of a
World Conference on Problems of International Migration and the Responsibility of the Churches,
Held at Leysin, Switzerland, June 11–16, 1961, Division of Inter-Church Aid and Service to
Refugees, WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, p. 24.
25 Matthew 8:20.
26 Hebrews 13:14.
27 Ibd. p. 25.
consequences 317
of Christ; by identifying herself with the strangers as our Lord identifies

himself with them. The church must become solidary with the migrant.
She can only do this by learning from him what her essential role is
in this world. [ . . .] The motivation for helping the migrant is different
in the church from anywhere else. Where outside the church the main
purpose is to make him forget that he is a stranger in the world, the
church does not want him to forget it but rather joins him in his
‘migration.’ Needless to say that this in many instances requires a total
change in the attitude of the church herself which has lost this character
because of her identification with the world.”28 These strong words by
the Dutch theologian Pieter de Jong were spoken at a WCC conference
on the challenges of migration in 1961 (!), but they seem to have gone
largely unheard.
Looking at migrants from the viewpoint of a ‘migrant theology’
does not mean, of course, that wars, the dichotomy between rich and
poor, and ecological problems do not need to be resolved. But if the
whole Biblical tradition of migration as an act of faith in the living
God is disregarded, and migration is understood solely within a frame-
work of global problems, migrants can only be constructed as victims
and clients of diaconal and advocacy work of the churches, not as
active, free subjects who in faith have chosen a certain path. In such
a paradigm, it becomes nearly impossible to expect migrants to enrich
our country, its culture and its churches, and it seems preposterous to
describe the arrival in Germany of missionaries from the South and
East as divinely ordained, a movement caused by the Holy Spirit.
The migrant interviewees, on the other hand, did just that. By inter-
preting their migration spiritually rather than politically, they retain a
strong sense of agency: They are not victims, but people whom God
called to achieve his aim of world evangelism. They are not migrants
seeking a better life in a different place; they are expatriates who have
been sent to fulfill a certain task. While many of them told narratives
which stressed that coming to Germany was not their own idea, none of
them intimated that it would have been better for them to stay home.
Even if it was war or persecution that drove them away from their
home countries, such political realities are only seen as ‘outside’ factors:
The real reason for their migration was that God made them move. “If
God had a message to spread to all people and races [ . . .] how would
28 Ibd. p. 25.
318 chapter six
He get people to move around the globe from culture to culture and
from location to location? I guess, He would originate push factors so
that people would leave the comfort zone of their tribes and culture,
and migrate to other places carrying the message [ . . .] with them.”29
In the narratives, the fact of migration is a given, not something to be
avoided. The trouble with this approach is, of course, that the all-too-
real problems of social, political and economic inequalities tend to be
disregarded in favor of a spiritualizing interpretation of the situation.
Somewhat simplistically, we could state that we find “sedentarist
metaphysics” in the interpretation of migration on the European Prot-
estant church side, and “expatriate” or internationalist metaphysics
on the migrant pentecostal / charismatic side. A dialogue is necessary
about both approaches. While the European churches need to be chal-
lenged to see migrants as actors rather than solely as victims, the
migrant interlocutors need to be challenged not to disregard politics
for the sake of individualist spiritual interpretations. Biblical tradition
gives us models that show how this could happen. The story of Joseph,30
for example, binds together a narrative of oppression and victimization
with a spiritual interpretation that insists that human evil can be used
for ultimate good by divine intervention.
6.2.3. Mission and evangelism

I just returned from the US. I ministered in some churches of African-
Americans in Mississippi, came to Atlanta and ministered in a Baptist
church where the pastor is from Ghana. I will be going back by the end
of the month to do a spiritual warfare program in Virginia.31
We have seen that the interviewees described their understanding

of evangelism within revivalist paradigms: Their evangelistic work,
whether in Germany, in other European countries, or even the US
is aimed at winning new members for the churches they have set
up, and / or “revival” within the existing indigenous churches. “Salva-
tion” is understood as concerning both the spiritual and the material
realm: Conversion means both eternal life in the future and a bet-
ter life now. In their conceptualization of evangelism, the interviewees
29 A. Oni-Orisan, You Must Prosper in the Land. How to Succeed in a Foreign
Land, Köln: The Redeemed Christian church of God e.V., 2007, p. 8.

30 Gen. 37–50.
31 E-mail from S.O. to the author, dated 4 September 2008.
consequences 319
use a paradigm of spiritual warfare: Evangelism is not about dialogue,

encounter and mutual development, but rather about confrontation,
battle and victory. Furthermore, the pentecostal / charismatic migrant
pastors have their own agenda when it comes to the future of the
Protestant churches: When they talk about “bringing revival” to them,
they mean a process of charismatization and evangelicalization which
will wash away the currently existing bureaucratic structures, rules and
regulations.
There is a definite chutzpah in this attitude. Here are small, margin-
alized immigrant groups which believe they have been commissioned
to fundamentally change large, indigenous churches with a long tra-
dition and history, as well as the society in which these churches find
themselves. But pentecostal / charismatic migrants do not look at what
might seem humanly possible: They expect God’s miraculous powers to
work through them; consequently, their dreams and visions can never
be grand enough.
On the European and North American side, we find a number of
different responses to the migrant claims to re-evangelize these con-
tinents: Pentecostal and evangelical groups have cautiously started to
welcome migrant ‘reverse mission churches’ into their fold as they share
their diagnosis of a need for revival and hope to benefit from the spir-
itual strength of the newcomers.32 The Baptist Federation in Europe,
in 2006, held a conference on “Ethnic Churches in Europe” which
looked into the effects of migration on the evangelism work of Bap-
tist churches on the continent.33 In Germany, the Federation of free
Pentecostal Churches (BfP), has been admitting a growing number of
migrant churches into their fold. The Coalition for Evangelism, the
German branch of the Lausanne Movement for World Evangelism, has
been actively reaching out to recruit migrant churches and migrant
church leaders since 2005, though with rather limited success so far.
32 See, for example, the July 2008 issue of Lausanne World Pulse, an interna-
tional, evangelical online magazine on world evangelism, with its themed articles
on “The Effects of Migration and the Growing Diaspora on Evangelism Efforts”,
www.lausanneworldpulse.com/07–2008, accessed 4 October 2008. Much older, but
quite typical is the article by Jeff Fountain of Youth with a Mission, “Look who is com-
ing to Europe,” www.ywam.eu/weeklyword/look-whos-coming-to-europe, accessed 4
October 2008. For a recent German publication, see Charisma 146, 4. Quartal 2008,
under the title: “The Blessing is coming back” (Der Segen kommt zurück).
33 See Peter Penner, Ethnic Churches in Europe—A Baptist Response, Schwarzen-
feld: Neufeld Verlag, Oktober 2006.

320 chapter six
A number of smaller evangelical groups, like Apoyo e.V.,34 also try to

involve migrant missionaries into their projects. Furthermore, migrant
churches are usually welcomed into local pentecostal / charismatic or
evangelical evangelistic projects like “Jesus March,” “Together for
Berlin,”35 “Halleluja Ruhrgebiet”36 (staged during the Soccer World
Championship 2006) or “Prayer for the City.” But up to now, all of
these projects have been dominated by Germans. At the same time,
the migrants’ great visions and claims are taken with more than just a
grain of salt. There is a strong sense that for them to become successful
as missionaries in Europe, migrants have to be properly trained37 and
effectively networked into European organizational structures.
The Protestant churches in Europe, so far, have not reacted officially
to the missionary claims of migrant churches and their leaders. In fact,
such claims have rarely even been perceived, and where they have been
observed, they are usually dismissed as sectarian and unimportant.38
The only exception to this rule seems to be the Migration Enquiry
process of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.39 At the moment,
the New Mission Churches are simply too small and marginal to be
taken seriously.
In Germany, contacts with migrant churches and a perception of
their evangelistic aims and visions are mostly limited to the mission
agencies of the Protestant churches. The United Evangelical Mission
was the first organization to arrange a workshop on “reverse mission,”
in the year 2000, though its papers and results were never published,
and the impact of this workshop was therefore fairly limited. The
34 www.apoyo.info, accessed 29 August 2007.

35 www.gfberlin.de/english/index.html, accessed 29 August 2007.
36 www.halleluja-ruhrgebiet.de accessed 29 August 2007.
37 The Federation of free Pentecostal Churches (BfP), for example, does not rec-
ognize migrant pastors unless they have a degree from one of the BfP-recognized
Bible schools or seminaries. Similarly, the website of the “Welcome Project” sponsored,
among others, by the Evangelical Alliance in Europe, stresses the importance of train-
ing of migrant missionaries. Cf. www.welcomeproject.net/training, accessed 10 January
2007. (This website is currently dysfunctional but can be accessed through the Google
cache under www.google.com/search?q=cache:3fNvTCAytg4J:www.welcomeproject
.net/training+%22welcome+project%22+training&hl=de&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=de
accessed 29 August 2007.)
38 As there are no official statements, this observation is based on personal discus-
sions with pastors and church leaders from different Evangelical Churches in Germany
as well as with colleagues involved in work with migrant churches in other European
countries.
39 See above note 5.
consequences 321
Bavarian Mission Agency, in cooperation with the theological seminary

in Neuendettelsau has, since 2005, been running a training course for
migrant church leaders titled “Mission from South to North.” Though
the project distributes a newsletter, publicity has been relatively sparse.
Locally, attempts by migrant churches to recruit German members
actively have occasionally led to tensions with German host congre-
gations and even, in some cases, resulted in the migrant church being
asked to vacate the premises. As far as information is available, there
have been no joint evangelistic projects of migrant and Protestant con-
gregations. Conversely, several migrant churches which were looking
for German partner congregations to engage in such projects were
completely frustrated in their search.
An important reason for this disinterest and the resulting tensions
can be found in differing understandings of mission and evangelism.
While within the pluralistic setup of the Protestant churches in Europe,
different conceptualizations of mission and evangelism co-exist, it can
be stated broadly that none of these perceptions are informed by a
paradigm of spiritual warfare.40 Basically, within the Protestant (and
also the evangelical) churches, mission is understood as being part
of the “missio Dei,” God’s mission to the world which is lived out
holistically in evangelism as well as in social and political action.41 In
this context, evangelism is defined first and foremost as communication of
the Gospel. While theologically, Protestant and evangelical Christians
would agree that successful communication of the Gospel needs the
Holy Spirit to open people’s hearts and is therefore always more than
a merely human effort, preparation for evangelism is overwhelmingly
by training, particularly communication training,42 while prayer plays a
rather marginal role.
For European Protestants, communication of the Gospel is not pos-
sible without an attitude of openness, dialogue and encounter. The
40 The exception to this case may be the charismatic revival movement within
the Church of England, see www.glopent.net/Members/grsmith/research-project-the-

church-militant, accessed 4 October 2008.
41 See, for example, World Council of Churches (ed.), You Are the Light of the
World. Statements on Mission by the World Council of Churches 1980–2005, Geneva:

WCC Publications 2005. For a recent German Protestant example, see the communi-
qué of the EKD Synod 1999, “Reden von Gott in der Welt—Der missionarische auf-
trag der Kirche an der Schwelle zum 3. Jahrtausend,” accessible online under www.ekd
.de/EKD-Texte/evangelium_kundgebung_2001.html, accessed 29 August 2007.
42 A German keyword here is “im Glauben sprachfähig werden”—to develop the ability
to speak one’s faith.

322 chapter six
“other,” the person to be evangelized, is not to be seen as an object

of evangelistic attempts which make him or her “like me,” but rather as
a person who is, like me, searching for God, meaning in life, religious
fulfillment. Evangelism always changes both the evangelized and the
evangelizer.43 Such dialogical conceptualization of evangelism essen-
tially excludes any understanding of spiritual warfare. Furthermore,
due to European history, European Christians in particular are gen-
erally wary of any kind of warfare metaphors when expressing their
faith. The migrant interviewees are aware of this fact, but feel that
they cannot humor the Europeans when it comes to spiritual reali-
ties:
Spiritual warfare is warfare! And Germans are told not to fight wars,
that wars are bad. Wars—you don’t even want to hear the word war.
Which, in the physical . . . which is understandable. But then the spiritual
warfare is required (laughs), too, to fight spirits.
A reason for the particularly German Protestant disregard of the mis-
sionary self-understanding of pentecostal / charismatic migrant church-
es can be found in the concept of “Volkskirche.”44 This untranslatable
term carries both the notion of ‘folk church’ and ‘people’s church,’ and
basically means that a church is more or less identical with a certain
ethnic / cultural group. This notion, in several aspects, makes it diffi-
cult to accept “missionaries” from abroad. First of all, there is a strong
understanding that even though Germany can no longer be considered
a Christian country, it is still shaped by Christian tradition (which, by
the way, has to be upheld against Muslim immigrants!). This tradition
may need to be revived and modernized, but this can best be done by
Germans themselves, not by immigrants. Secondly, within a Volkskirche,
membership is not defined by certain behaviors or attendance, but sim-
ply by being registered. This means that “distanced membership” is a
valid option—as long as somebody is registered as Evangelical, he or
she has to be considered as Christian and therefore does not need to
43 For German examples, see Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland (ed.), Vom offe-
nen Himmel erzählen. Unterwegs zu einer missionarischen Volkskirche. Arbeitshilfe,

August 2006, particularly pp. 11–16. This model of evangelism is also nicely developed
in Walter Hollenweger, Der Klapperstorch und die Theologie, Kindhausen: Metanoia-
Verlag 2003.
44 Cf. Wolfgang Huber, Henning Schröer, Volkskirche I. Systematisch-theologisch II.
Praktisch-theologisch. In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie 35 (2003), pp. 249–262.

consequences 323
be evangelized.45 A migrant outreach to what they would term “nomi-

nal Christians” is rejected as proselytism and “sheep stealing.” Thirdly,
a Volkskirche is defined by geographical parishes which cover all of the
country—consequently, there is no need for new congregations to be
planted. New congregations only make sense if they serve a foreign
‘diaspora.’ Finally, the missionary claims of migrant pentecostals and
charismatics are often rejected by the Protestant churches in Germany
as they imply that the latter are deficient and need help from the out-
side. Whenever the imaginations of the German church analyzed in
chapter 5.4.1 are introduced to German Protestant pastors, they are
angrily dismissed. An element of racism can be detected in such rejec-
tions (“We don’t need uneducated Blacks to tell us what to do!”), an
unwillingness to explore different world views (“I am not willing to go
back behind the enlightenment to a magical world view!”), and finally
a sense that the migrants do not understand the German church situa-
tion very well (“They only look at empty Sunday services but don’t see
what we are doing during the week.”).
As far as can be ascertained, a real dialogue about the missionary
self-understanding of the pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches
and what it means for the churches in Europe has not taken place
anywhere. But such a dialogue is urgently needed: Topics will have
to include the definition of “Christian,” ecclesiology, the relationship
between a spiritual warfare and a communication paradigm, and the
understanding of salvation and its consequences in the material realm.
6.3. Ecclesiology and the politics of difference:

Who defines Christianity in Europe?
In the section above, we have described three fields in which we

see theological dialogue between migrant pentecostals / charismatics
and European Protestants as overdue. But even to attempt such a
dialogue one needs to be aware that the encounter between pente-
costal / charismatic migrant and Protestant indigenous churches does
not happen on an equal basis. Particularly in northern and western
Europe, there is a strong discursive imbalance between the two sides.
45 This notion is, of course, strongly contested by the “missionary” wing within the
Evangelical Church which aims at motivating distanced members to become involved

members.
324 chapter six
The Protestant churches must be considered as the ‘church of the

elites.’ They have access to discursive instruments and can still strongly
influence public discourse. Pentecostal / charismatic migrants do not
have such discursive power. They do not publish communiqués and
discussion papers. They have no access to politicians or the mainstream
media.46 They simply tell their stories in personal encounters. Clearly,
their viewpoint has remained ‘subaltern.’47
In their encounter with migrant churches, particularly northern and
western European Protestant churches project themselves, by limiting
their outlook to Europe, as so much larger in terms of membership,
so much stronger in terms of funding and organization, and so much
more interwoven into the fabric of society that the migrant discourse
can simply be dismissed as irrelevant. The migrant churches, on the
other side, challenge this superiority by assuming a globalizing attitude.
By defining themselves as international in character, and as part of a
transnational, fast-growing network that spans the globe, the European
Protestant churches are made to look small, provincial and backward
while the migrant churches are seen as the embodiment of modernity
or even post-modernity. The challenge of the migrant churches is an
ecclesiological one, and it has political implications. The underlying
provocation is nicely summed up in a question: “Whose religion is
Christianity in Europe?”48
Since its inception, European Protestant ecclesiology has conceptual-
ized the “real existing” church as a national and / or ethnic unit, while
relegating the concept of a worldwide church to the abstract realm of
the “believed church” and to the practice of “ecumenical relations.”
Not surprisingly, migrant churches are usually imagined as mono-
ethnic / mono-cultural churches, even though research shows that a
46 For the situation in the Netherlands, see Marten van der Meulen, Being Illegal is
like Fishing without a Permit, in: Mechteld Jansen and Hijme Stoffels (eds.), A Moving
God. Immigrant Churches in the Netherlands, Zürich / Berlin: LIT-Verlag 2008, pp. 49–59.
47 On the definition of subaltern, see Gayatri Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial
Reason. Toward a History of the Vanishing Present, Cambridge (MA) / London: Cam-
bridge University Press 1999; and Edward Said, Foreword, in: Guha, Ranajit and Spi-
vak, Gayatri C. (eds.), Selected Subaltern Studies, New York / Oxford: Oxford University
Press 1988.
48 Afe Adogame, Whose religion is Christianity? African Christian communities and
the negotiation of German religious landscapes, paper delivered at a conference of

EKD and ACK on cooperation between German and migrant churches, Wuppertal,
January 2007.
consequences 325
majority of migrant churches is multi-ethnic.49 Christian identity is

closely linked to one’s mother tongue, culture, and home, and an “inter-
national Protestant Church” is somehow unthinkable. Rather, Protes-
tant churches proudly bear national labels: Evangelical Church in Ger-
many, Protestant Church in the Netherlands, Church of Sweden, Evan-
gelical Lutheran Church of Finland and so on. In Germany, for exam-
ple, “evangelisch in Deutschland”50 (Evangelical / Protestant in Germany),
is a slogan strongly promoted by the Evangelical Church in Germany,
and basically means a German Protestant identity constructed as white
and imagined as a kind of ‘cultural Protestantism’ shaped by Martin
Luther’s theology, Paul Gerhard’s hymns and J.S. Bach’s cantatas, the
Frauenkirche in Dresden and so on.51 In short, Protestantism in Germany
belongs to the Evangelical Church which basically has no members of
color.
Within such an ecclesiology, migrant churches automatically remain
‘foreign’ and ‘other’ since, due to their members’ ethnicity, they do not
share the cultural roots of the Europeans, and therefore have different
liturgies, church life and theologies. An indicator of such thinking is the
unease that, for example, many German pastors show when confronted
with choirs from Korean churches in Germany which sing German
classical church music at a level far surpassing that of most German
church choirs. “Why don’t they sing their own music?” is a question
frequently asked, clearly implying that German music belongs to the
Germans. It is not surprising that the EKD brochure on “Churches
and congregations of other language or origin”52 lists migrant churches
according to their national background, regardless of whether they are
Protestant, Orthodox, and African Independent or—in one case only—
49 See chapter 2.4.

50 See Koppe, Rolf / Hahn, Udo / Helbich, Peter (eds.), Evangelisch in Deutschland
—protestantisch und weltoffen, Breklum: Breklumer Buchhandlung und Verlag 2002.
The EKD document “Kirche der Freiheit” uses the term “evangelisch in Deutschland”
(Evangelical in Germany) as its catchphrase. Cf. the critique by Christoph Anders, Hin-
term eigenen Horizont geht’s weiter. Rückfragen an das Impulspapier des Rates der
EKD “Kirche der Freiheit—Perspektiven für die Evangelische Kirche im 21. Jahrhun-
dert”. Stellungnahme aus dem Evangelischen Missionswerk in Deutschland (EMW),
2006.
51 This impression comes across strongly when one regularly reads the leading
German Protestant magazine Zeitzeichen. Kommentare zu Religion und Gesellschaft.

52 Kirchenamt der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland (ed.), Kirchen und Ge-
meinden anderer Sprache und Herkunft, Frankfurt am Main: Gemeinschaftswerk der

evangelischen Publizistik 1997.
326 chapter six
pentecostal. National differences, defined as cultural, are conceptual-

ized as stronger than confessional or denominational unity.
But if the church universal is concretized solely in terms of ‘ecu-
menical cooperation’ between different ethnic and / or denominational
incarnations of this church, the relationship between indigenous and
migrant churches in any given country remains asymmetrical, with
the indigenous churches holding a position of power, and the migrant
churches more or less marginalized. Where migrant churches are
defined as “other,” they are excluded politically and socially, and denied
any legitimate claim on local resources.53 They are here on sufferance
only; they have a right to be protected as aliens, but they can never be
full members of our society and church.
“They have their culture, and we have ours” is a sentiment often
voiced by European Protestants when commenting on practices in
migrant churches which they find strange but do not want to engage
with any further. While the presence of migrant churches may have
pluralized the church landscape in Europe, their Christianity is not
(and cannot easily become) “European,” as culture is understood in
a static way, and ‘cultural change’ associated with ‘losing one’s iden-
tity.’54 The recent statement of the outgoing Secretary General of the
Protestant Church in the Netherlands, Bas Plaisier, that his church is
“far too white”55 and no longer representing world-Christianity as it is
present in the multi-cultural composition of Dutch society, is not likely
to be taken up any time soon by other continental European Protestant
church leaders. As European Protestant churches have so far negoti-
ated their identities in relation to their respective national contexts, a
real opening-up towards migrant Christians would mean a process of
radical re-definition of their own heritages and identities. This seems to
be somewhat easier for small minority Protestants like the Waldensian
Church in Italy, while Protestant churches in northwestern Europe, so
53 Cf. also Gerrie ter Haar, Who defines African Identity? A Concluding Analysis,
in: Cox, James L. and ter Haar, Gerrie (eds.), Uniquely African? African Christian Identity
from Cultural and Historical Perspectives, Trenton (NJ) / Asmara (Eritrea): Africa World Press
2003, p. 272.
54 For a discussion of static and dynamic images of culture and their influence
on the understanding of ‘religious identity,’ see Michael Bergunder, Pfingstbewegung,

Globalität und Migration, in: Bergunder, Michael und Haustein, Jörg (Hg.), Migration
und Identität. Pfingstlich-charismatische Migrationsgemeinden in Deutschland. Beiheft
der Zeitschrift für Mission 8. Frankfurt am Main: Otto Lembeck, 2006, pp. 153–169.
55 D. Visser, ‘Ds. Bas Plaisier: “Onze Kerk is Veel Te Wit,” ’ Kerkinformatie, no. 160
(2008), p. 4.
consequences 327
far, have seen the presence of migrant Christians not as challenge to

their essence, but at most a challenge to their ethical (i.e. diaconal)
behavior. The presence of migrant churches does not mean that the
Protestant churches have to internationalize; they can remain the eth-
nic / monocultural communities they were and simply engage in ecu-
menical and diaconal relations with migrant churches.
What we have just described could be defined as strands of a ‘cul-
turalist ecclesiology.’ Within such reasoning, migrants are left with a
simple choice: Either, they could choose to assimilate into the exist-
ing structures of organization and theological thinking, or they have to
remain the ‘exotic other.’ The first choice is sometimes demanded, but
where migrants indeed try to join European Protestant churches, they
frequently experience rejection. Some migrants ascribe this to their skin
color: Particularly black Christian migrants can tell harrowing stories of
white Protestants recoiling and moving away when they sat down next
to them in a church pew, or even having been denied the common cup
at communion as others would not want to drink from it after a Black
had done so. In other cases, they are told that unfortunately, nobody
can translate for them, and that they should therefore move to another,
“more suitable” [i.e. migrant] church. The implicit racism behind such
rejections is often clothed in the argument that one does not want to
force the migrants to give up their cultural identity by assimilating into
a European church; a sentiment that is frequently expressed in dis-
cussions among European pastors and church leaders when it comes
to the question of integrating migrant Christians. Consequently, the
only way out for the migrants is indeed to remain the ‘exotic other’
with which European churches occasionally engage to show their ecu-
menical and multicultural openness. The European Protestant cultural-
ist outlook denies any right of migrant Christians to define “European
Christianity.”
It has to be noted, though, that the politics of difference do not
only play in the realm of culture, but also in the realm of theology—
here they are encapsulated in denominationalism. While many migrant
churches try to escape such politics by defining themselves as ‘non-
denominational,’ another process of ‘othering’ can be detected when
such churches are labeled as ‘charismatic’ or ‘pentecostal’ in a denom-
inational sense. Where differences between Protestant European and
migrant Christianity are described as theological, even deeper separa-
tions might be generated. In the words of a German pastor, reporting
back to the new coordinator of the UEM program:
328 chapter six
In our talks [with the migrant church using our building] we did not
find any way to bring our different theologies, (!)—and not irritations
caused by culture or communication disturbances—together. Therefore
we asked the [migrant church] to find another host church.
As there is little dialogue even between Protestant and European
pentecostal / charismatic churches and organizations, with pentecostal
and charismatic churches remaining on the ‘watch lists’ of Protes-
tant churches’ officers for questions of sects and worldview,56 Euro-
pean church representatives have been asking why they even need to
talk to migrant pentecostals and charismatics. In general, the pen-
tecostal and charismatic movement is not defined as part of Protes-
tantism in Europe, but rather as a movement against which Protes-
tantism needs to draw a clear dividing line. Consequently, a double
exclusion mechanism works against pentecostal / charismatic migrant
churches: They are neither European nor Protestant; therefore again,
they cannot claim a right to co-define what “Protestant in Europe”
means. The migrants, of course, challenge this exclusion. If they have
been divinely sent to Europe to bring revival to this continent and its
churches, they are no longer just guests—rather, they are part and par-
cel of God’s mission to the whole world which includes the European
churches. We will come back to this point in chapter 6.5.
It is quite striking that the European Protestant churches which are
so aware of the processes of economic globalization and have had so
much to say to this57 find it so difficult to accept that the deterritori-
alized transnationalism of migrant churches is a form of ecclesial post-
modernity that challenges their territorial identities. If they could recog-
nize this, rather than considering the international identities of migrant
churches as a lack of integration, they could understand them as mod-
els for the future from which they as white, indigenous churches could
learn.58
56 See, e.g., the website of the Protestant Information Office on Religions, Sects, and
Worldviews, www.relinfo.ch/index/charismatik.html, accessed 30 October 2008.

57 See, for example, the ample list of documents on www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/
jpc/globalization.html, accessed on 7 October 2008.

58 See also Hijme Stoffels, A Coat of Many Colours, in: Mechteld Jansen and Hijme
Stoffels (eds.), A Moving God. Immigrant Churches in the Netherlands, Zürich / Berlin: LIT-
Verlag 2008, p. 26.
consequences 329
6.4. The functional question: Does a missionary

self-image further or hinder integration?
We cannot finish this study without asking a functional question: What

bearing does a missionary self-image have on the integration of pente-
costal / charismatic migrants? This question needs to be considered in
two different aspects: How does a missionary self-understanding influ-
ence the willingness of migrants to integrate, and how do European
society and European churches react when confronted with migrant
missionaries?
Looking at the migrants first, a mixed picture emerges.
First of all, we have seen that the interviewees in Germany consider
themselves divinely sent to the country where they are now residing. It
is not just a place where they have fled to because no other option was
available, and where they wait out their exile. It is a place where God
wants to act and to use them. They live with a strong sense of purpose:
They are here because they are meant to be here. Jeffrey Swanson’s
study of American missionaries shows that those who have a clear call
narrative show a high frustration tolerance;59 they are able to overcome
difficulties and disappointments. We can observe the same pattern
among pentecostal / charismatic migrants in Europe: They interpret
the hostility and rejection they often face as less important than the
divine call that brought them here. Since these migrants see themselves
as sent to this continent to engender change here, they are unlikely to
develop a diaspora or even ghetto mentality. It is not at all surprising
that the churches they plant are explicitly meant to be international
and open for indigenous people. As Danielle Koning in her study of the
“new mission” of migrant churches in Holland60 notes, ghettoization
and evangelistic crusades are opposite responses to the same experience
of being a minority. Faced with the secularization of Dutch society,
migrant churches clearly choose the latter response, though so far, their
evangelistic success has been limited mostly to minority ethnic groups.
Indeed, observations both in Europe and in North America show
that pentecostal / charismatic migrant churches are not very successful
Missionaries in Ecuador, New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995.

60 Danielle Koning, Brining the Gospel back to Europe, in: Mechteld Jansen and
Hijme Stoffels (eds.), A Moving God. Immigrant Churches in the Netherlands, Zürich / Berlin:
LIT-Verlag 2008, pp. 103–114.
330 chapter six
when it comes to winning members from the indigenous population.61

Jehu Hanciles observation seems apt: “A good proportion of immigrant
congregations are veritable ethnic enclaves given to self-maintenance
and insulated from the wider society by non-English [or German or
Dutch etc.] usage in their worship and fellowship.”62 No migrant-led
church I have ever visited in Germany, even those that have a very
international membership, has had more than 25 % German members,
and most have less than 5 %. In some larger churches which could
be observed over several years, Germans were seen to join, be very
active for a while, and then leave again. Conversations with some
such Germans elicited a deep sense of frustration that in the end,
the migrant-led church did not become “home” but remained too
foreign in both worship and leadership style. On the other hand, some
conversations with migrant members in congregations whose pastors
actively strive to internationalize point to a sense of resentment if too
much accommodation is given to Germans. It may be too early to
judge the situation since most migrant churches are still very young,
but it could very well be that the international outlook of the pastors
is not shared by a majority of migrant church members who have a
much stronger need for a “home away from home” than their pastors
would like to admit. Anecdotal evidence points to exactly such tensions,
though much more research would be needed to bear this out.
The spectacular exception—a migrant-founded and led church
which is not only huge, but also has mostly indigenous members—is
the Blessed Embassy of the Kingdom of God to All Nations (God’s
Embassy) in Kiev, arguably Europe’s largest Christian congregation.
Founded in 1994 by Nigerian-born Sunday Adelaja who in the early
1990s was observed preaching to small gaggles of listeners in subway
stations63 it failed to attract many followers at the beginning, being
mostly attended by a small number of former drug addicts. Even-
tually, though, the church began to grow, and today has members
61 See Danielle Koning’s study quoted above; and Stephen Hunt, ‘Neither Here nor
There’: The Construction of Identities and Boundary Maintenance of West African

Pentecostals, in: Sociology, vol. 36 (I) 2002, pp. 147–169.
p. 8.
63 See Catherine Wanner, Communities of the Converted. Ukrainians and Global
Evangelism, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press 2007.

consequences 331
from all walks of Ukrainian society, including the mayor of Kiev. Very
few of the church’s members are migrants. Catherine Wanner64 and
J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu65 who both have researched this church
come to different conclusions when trying to explain its phenomenal
success. While Asamoah-Gyadu sees the church as an expression of
what a missionary movement of Africans from the South to the North
can achieve, Wanner describes it as “a distinctly Ukrainian church
constituting a local response to immediate postsocialist circumstances,”
playing down the role of its African leader. As God’s Embassy is a sin-
gular phenomenon—as far as could be ascertained, no other large new
missionary church in Europe with a majority European membership is
led by a pastor from the global South—, it is too early to describe it as
paradigmatic for the new South-North missionary movement. Clearly,
though, with Sunday Adelaja one migrant charismatic church founder
has shown how a missionary outlook can lead to successful integration.
In 20 or 30 years it will be known whether he remained the exception,
or set a trend.
As an alternative to planting their own churches, pentecostal / char-
ismatic migrant missionaries might consider working in a European
Protestant of evangelical church. Outside of the UK and perhaps Italy,
very few migrants have chosen this option. A likely reason for this is
that such an employment is usually only granted after longer periods
of full-time training in a European institution for which most migrants
lack the financial resources. Except for some pentecostal theological
seminaries which have been increasing their intake of migrant students
in recent years, most European Bible schools and theological seminar-
ies have not been able to attract many migrants, and have usually
not even attempted to do so. Furthermore, employment opportuni-
ties for migrant pastors, even those with a European education, are
scarce, as European congregations, both Protestant and evangelical,
prefer indigenous pastors. As far as can be observed in Germany, no
immigrant pastor from the South has been called to serve a German-
majority church as its sole pastor,66 and only a few immigrant pastors
64 Ibd.
65 J. Kwabena Asamoah Gyadu, An African Pentecostal on Mission in Eastern
Europe: The Church of the “Embassy of God” in the Ukraine, in: Pneuma, vol. 27,
no. 2, Fall 2005, pp. 297–321; and African Initiated Christianity in Eastern Europe:
Church of the “Embassy of God” in the Ukraine, in: International Bulletin of Missionary
Research, vol. 30, no. 2 (April 2006), pp. 73–75.
66 The United Evangelical Mission has been facilitating the service of exchange
332 chapter six
work as assistants to a German pastor in evangelical churches. (The

situation is different in the Catholic Church which has been import-
ing priests from Africa and Asia for some time due to a severe lack of
German candidates.)
A second question that needs to be considered here is how a spiritual
warfare paradigm might influence integration. Critics of the paradigm
charge that it thwarts dialogue, communication and inculturation in
evangelism as the culture of those to be evangelized is too easily iden-
tified with the realm of ‘darkness’ of which the missionary has to stay
free. Robert Priest, Thomas Campbell, and Bradford Mullen67 describe
how strong fears of witchcraft and demonic disturbance prevent Ameri-
can missionaries from making close personal contacts with those whom
they want to evangelize, and complicate even simple social interactions
like the receiving of gifts. They claim that such attitudes make any real
integration of the missionary into his or her host society impossible.
In addition, an understanding that evangelism relies more on power-
ful prayer than on successful communication could allow migrant pas-
tors simply to set up prayer groups of migrants without any contacts
with the indigenous German population. Such ‘missionary strategies’
can be observed within the worldwide pentecostal / charismatic move-
ment, for example in the ‘prayer walks’ regularly organized by many
‘Third Wave’ ministries, which allow short term ‘mission engagements’
without having to learn a foreign language, and without ever having
to establish a relationship with anyone outside one’s prayer group. In
short, a spiritual warfare paradigm might allow migrant churches to
combine an evangelistic self-image with practices that lead to ghettoiza-
tion rather than to integration.
As far as could be ascertained, no research has yet been attempted
on this issue. Therefore, we must rely on anecdotal evidence and occa-
sional observations. These suggest that a connection between a spiritual
warfare paradigm and an unwillingness to open up to European cul-
ture and society cannot be established. God’s Embassy in Kiev is def-
initely a church with a strong spiritual warfare approach, but this has
not hindered its Nigerian founder to draw in a majority of Ukrainian
members. Similarly, the Redeemed Christian Church of God which is
pastors from Africa and Asia in German Protestant congregations. But these pastors
remain ‘guest workers’ on a limited contract that cannot be extended beyond six years.
67 In: E. Rommen, Spiritual Power and Missions, Pasadena: William Carey Library,
1995, pp. 9 ff.
consequences 333
strongly influenced by spiritual warfare theology actively encourages

and trains its members in Germany to integrate into German soci-
ety. Through workshops68 and books,69 church members are told to
“make Germany their own,” learn the language properly, make Ger-
man friends, read German newspapers, join German clubs, political
parties and even labor unions. Actually, a well-defined spiritual warfare
theology might lead its adherents to closely engage with the culture and
history of their surroundings so as to ascertain which spirits need to be
fought. On the other hand, I could observe that especially in smaller
and struggling churches, a spiritual warfare approach served to draw
very strict boundaries between the church and the surrounding society,
rejecting almost any kind of integration. This suggests that there may
be other reasons than the presence of absence of a spiritual warfare
theology which determine whether migrant Christians do or do not
integrate. A spiritual warfare approach may, in some cases, serve as an
excuse for a lack of effort towards integration without being its cause.
Finally: By defining themselves as missionaries and expatriates, as
people with a divine task to perform in Europe, the migrants reject
the role and image that is forced upon them by the dominant dis-
course on migration. They are not victims and clients, but actors.
Joel Robbins has pointed out that pentecostal / charismatic Christians
in general tend to construe themselves “as leaping over their imme-
diate political environment,” thereby transforming “the local political
field in ways not captured by common models.”70 A similar opera-
tion could be observed in the biographical interviews. The intervie-
wees do not want to assimilate into their environment, but to change
it. Ciska Stark, who analyzed 14 sermons from two different African-
led pentecostal / charismatic churches in Amsterdam, observes: “The
theme of integration is almost absent in sermons in Christian immi-
grant churches”71 and concludes: “What follows is that these immigrant
68 E.g. RCCG German Convention 2002, “A Date with Destiny”, which included
lectures on “Strategies to breakthrough in Germany,” “The key to lasting success,”

“Renewing a battered self-image” (a lecture on how to not be defeated by racism), and
“Networking for excellence in business.”
69 A. Oni-Orisan, You Must Prosper in the Land. How to Succeed in a Foreign
Land, Köln: The Redeemed Christian church of God e.V., 2007.

70 Joel Robbins, The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity, in:
Annual Review of Anthropology, 2004, p. 136.

71 Ciska Stark, The Energizing Pulpit. “African European” Preaching on the Conti-
nent, in: Mechteld Jansen and Hijme Stoffels (eds.), A Moving God. Immigrant Churches in
the Netherlands, Zürich / Berlin: LIT-Verlag 2008, p. 192.
334 chapter six
churches are not focused primarily on integration into Dutch society.

Rather, they believe they are called to transform society worldwide
according to Christian standards.”72 She assumes that this will have
consequences: “The claim of the African European preaching style is
the ultimate transformation of the loser into the winner and of the
pagan world into the kingdom of God. The weekly proclamation of
this perspective should have an influence on one’s life.” Stark’s analysis
shows that very often in the European discussion, ‘integration’ basically
means ‘becoming like us or similar to us,’ means being assimilated into
a society without changing it. If pentecostal / charismatic missionaries
aim to transform European societies, this is seen as threatening rather
than as integrative; though such an approach clearly shows a willing-
ness to engage with these societies and to become part of them.
“We are not the problem, we are the solution” is a migrant church
slogan that expresses this attitude of wanting to change and influence
their host societies. By challenging the basic presumptions of the dis-
course on migration, pentecostal / charismatic migrants may be able,
on the long run, to influence and change it. But whether this happens
does not only depend on the migrants, but also on the churches in
Europe.
6.5. The theological question: Are

European churches ready to be evangelized?
One of the most important paradigm shifts in the mission theology of

the 20th century was the move from an understanding of mission as
the task of the (Northern Atlantic) churches to a definition of mission as
“missio Dei,” a movement in which God engages with the world and in
which the church may play a part if it is faithful to him.73 The concept
of missio Dei is important as it allows us to discern God’s Spirit as active
in the world outside and independent of the churches: Where people
are healed and liberated, where peace is made, God is seen at work
even if no church or Christian was active in the process. The mission
72 Ibd. p. 193.
73 For an overview over the recent ecumenical discussions of this concept, see
Jacques Matthey, Mission im Ökumenischen Rat der Kirchen, in: Dahling-Sander,
Christoph; Schulte, Andrea; Werner, Dietrich; Wrogemann, Henning (eds.), Leitfaden
Ökumenische Missionstheologie, Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser / Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2003,
pp. 220–244.
consequences 335
does not belong to the church, it belongs to God. Or, in the words of
the Archbishop of Canterbury: “Mission means recognizing what God
is doing and joining in.”74
If such a concept is thought through to its consequences, it would
have to include the idea that a church, may it be local, regional or
national, is not only an actor in the process of God’s mission to the
world, but also its addressee. But within European Protestant mission
theology such a conclusion has not yet been drawn: The addressees of
the missio Dei are solely seen outside of the churches.
But if, despite all of what they might find questionable about the
migrants’ theology, European Protestant Christians were to read the
blossoming of migrant churches on European ground as a movement of
the Holy Spirit, and the mission of the New Mission Churches as one
filament of the missio Dei, then the relationship between the indigenous
and the migrant churches would have to be taken out of the diaconal
helper—client realm and to be defined in missiological terms: How
does their mission relate to ours, and ours to theirs? And how does
their being in Europe shape the face of Christianity in this continent?
Such questioning does not mean that European Protestant churches
have to accept uncritically what the migrant pentecostals and charis-
matics are preaching and teaching. After all, the Holy Spirit, through-
out history, has relied on human beings with all their faults and failures.
Being part of the movement of the Spirit does not make anybody per-
fect; accepting the mission of the migrant churches as part of such a
Spirit movement does not mean that their theology and practice may
not be questioned or criticized. But a dialogue based on the recognition
that the Spirit moves in the churches of the other as it moves in my own
church leads to an attitude of respect and humility—the only attitude
that will make a dialogue successful.
But at least one difficulty can be identified: Considering how pen-
tecostal / charismatic migrants imagine European society and church,
developing an understanding of a common mission will not be easy.
Where migrant pastors, with only superficial knowledge of the Protes-
tant churches, claim to know that they are spiritually dead and what
needs to be done to revive them, they will not evangelize, but antag-
onize. A ‘conquering’ attitude on the side of the migrants would defi-
nitely undermine their mission and prevent any real dialogue.
74 Quote taken from a lecture by Bishop Graham Cray, Iserlohn, 6 September 2007.
336 chapter six
In 2000, the German mission theologian Dietrich Werner formu-

lated four “learning fields” for German Protestant churches in fac-
ing the “New Mission Churches”75 which actually are pertinent for
all of Europe: First of all, the indigenous Protestant churches have to
accept that they are no longer the only expression of Protestantism in
Europe. Secondly, in addition to their “theology of sending,” the Euro-
pean churches need a “theology of receiving.” Thirdly, the European
churches need to develop a practice of “ecumenical resource sharing.”
And fourthly, the European churches have to move from a diaconal
relationship in which migrant churches are cared for as clients who
need help and support to an ecumenical relationship in which migrant
churches are treated as equal partners.
Werner’s challenges to the European Protestant churches, although
eight years old already, are no less relevant today than they were
then. In fact, little learning seems to have taken place in all four
fields. For me, the most crucial question is indeed the question of a
theology of receiving. Do European Protestants have the humility and
the humor to accept that they need correction and assistance from
pentecostal / charismatic migrants? Are Protestant churches willing to
move from being a “giving” church to becoming a “receiving” church?
An answer to this question cannot be given by this study, but only
by the European churches themselves. But if the European Protestant
churches, in their encounters with migrant pentecostals and charismat-
ics, allow themselves to be reminded that they, too, are strangers in this
world and citizens first and foremost of the Kingdom of God, a real
dialogue and learning process may ensue.
75 Von missionarischer Abstinenz zur missionarischen Polyphonie in Deutschland.
Missionsgeschichtlicher Epochenwechsel, ökumenische Zeitenwende und missionstheo-

logische Schlüsselfragen am Beispiel der Rolle von Gemeinden anderer Sprache und
Herkunft, unpublished paper for the UEM workshop “From reverse mission to com-
mon mission,” 16–18 May 2000.
appendix
EXPATRIATION NARRATIVES
1. P.I. “I never dreamt like that before” 1
So when I gave my life to Christ, and, what happened was that the
middle of that night I was in bed sleeping. I have never dreamt like that
before. I was in dream, I dreamt, and I was in the midst of people, and
it was a very white land, white sand, just like a beach, then the—some
people came in, and I saw one man—I couldn’t see his face, he only
stretched his hand towards me with the full of tracts. Tracts, that’s for
evangelism, these tracts that you give to people. ‘There is a [unintelligible
word] to evangelize to people.’ Then I say: ‘I don’t know how to do
it.’ He said: ‘That’s what I want you to do now! Take it, go to that
[unintelligible] junction, give it to people!’ So everybody I was giving it
to, they were all white people. Then I asked him, I said: ‘The people
are here, they are not Blacks, so I know how to deal with the Black
people.’ He said: ‘No, but I call you to the, the, to give to the white
people.’ Then I said: ‘But there is no white people a lot, but we have
white people here, but they are not many enough.’ He, he said: ‘Here
. . .’ He said: ‘But this is the place where there are many.’ Then I said:
‘But there are not many here.’ He said: ‘But here.’ Then after a while,
I give it, I wake up. So I go to the church that day. I told my pastor
this what I dreamt. The pastor told me that ‘God is preparing you.’ He
said, he told me to preach the Gospel. Then I said: ‘No, I have a good
job here, I will never leave.’ Because after school, I have a good job
waiting for me. Really, I was working at the Ministry of Defense, I was
a civilian paymaster with good pay, a good money.
So, actually, and along the line, this friend of mine elsewhere
traveled—he was now in Germany. Then, in the longer period, he
called me, we spoke on telephone, and, eh, one night again I was
dreaming then, eh, I was sitting in the midst of people, he came, he
stretched his hand, and then he said: ‘Come over here.’ Then actually
1 Interviewed 2 January 2006 at his home.

338 appendix
I lifted up, I was on a podium, as I sat with him I said: ‘Yes, this is the
right place, I can now spread the Gospel.’ And he told me: ‘No, you
didn’t come here to spread Gospel, you come here as an Asyl [sic].’ And
then I said: ‘No, I am spreading Gospel.’ So I was not just evangelizing.
So I wake up and now I went to the pastor and asked him, I said: ‘What
does that one mean, Asyl?’ As I don’t know the word ‘Asyl’. I said: ‘It is
not an English word, because I checked my dictionary, I didn’t find it in
my dictionary.’ Then he told me that he doesn’t know it, the meaning.
So I begin to ask people, I never get the meaning. Because that word
‘Asyl’ I never know the meaning before. I wrote it down. So in the . . .
One day, this man of God, he was here, in Germany, to preach—that’s
about four years later. He came back home and called me and said:
‘Try to see me tomorrow then in the office.’ It was a Monday morning.
I went to his office. He said: ‘You told me a word one day, say it again.’
Then I said: ‘I don’t remember, unless I have to go home and get it
from home.’ So, promised I did, came with the word, I wrote it and
said: ‘This is the word.’ The spelling was not correct: Asyl. He said:
‘Do you know what the meaning of that word Asyl?’ I said ‘no.’ He said
he was in Germany. And he told me the meaning of the word. He said
these are people that seek political asylum. ‘Ah,’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’
He said ‘yes.’ He said: ‘That is the meaning of the word.’ I say ‘yeah.’
He said: ‘Could be you want to go to Germany?’ I said: ‘No, I don’t
have that plan.’ I said: ‘My plan now is that—I finish the Bible school,
I want to set up a ministry, and I want to preach the Gospel here.’ He
said: ‘I don’t think it will work for you. Do your best to go to that area.’
I said: ‘I don’t think so.’ So we talk about it and forget it.
Then, along the line, what—some time I was also weak, some time
I was also strong in the Christianity. Sometimes I will fall back to the
world, commit sin, you know this thing will also happen with me at that
time, particularly at this time I was not, eh, actually married, I—I also
sometimes fall into fornication, sometimes come back again: “Pastor,
this is what I did to me today.” It was okay. “You can go and repent
and God will forgive you, but don’t do it again.” Sometimes people
[unintelligible word] me and I will be very bitter, I don’t want to forgive
them. Then he was “Okay, what you need to do little forgiveness,
this is what Christ did for you.” He was very helpful to me. That is
Archbishop Idahosa,2 he is late now.
2 Benson Idahosa from Benin City, Nigeria, was a pivotal figure in the West African
neo-Pentecostal revival. His extraordinary influence reached far beyond Nigeria. See
expatriation narratives 339
So, at the, at the along the line, this thing happens. The young man
wrote me a letter and said: ‘There is a school here. If you want to
attend a German language course, then . . .’ I said: ‘There is some
here.’ He said: ‘Just for you to know Germany. You can just do it on
your holidays and go back. You can take your holidays and do it.’
I said ‘okay.’ I did, and I went to the embassy that very day. As I
got to the embassy, there were many people there, so, so we’re about
eight of us, I can still remember, at a lake in Lagos. Eight of us were
the people with the same letter of invitation to get admission to the
German language school in Germany. That was in a place in Fulda.
And I saw those ones as they show the letter to the man. He will say:
‘No, you can’t attend there. There is a German language school here
in Lagos, in Victoria Island. There is no need of going to Germany for
it. You can go to Victoria Island, and there is another one again in,
in the North, we have about six in Nigeria. Four even located in Jos,
you don’t need it, they are even up to secondary school level in Jos,
because we have a lot of Germany people there.’ So okay. So when
it got to my turn, I just move, I go back and said: ‘Let you attend to
everybody. When you finish, I will be the last one.’ So one of them
came to me and said: ‘What is your letter? [The next sentence is completely
unintelligible.] Don’t just go there, because they might not even attend
to you.’ I said ‘okay.’ I—I was now the last person. Then I walk in, I
show the letter to the man, he look at the letter—It was just very funny.
Anyway, I got there, he say: ‘Hey, young man.’ I say ‘yeah.’ I say: ‘This
is a letter, I want to go to Germany.’ He look at it and say: ‘What is
that?’ [Unintelligible sentence.] He said: ‘There are many schools here in
Nigeria, with language course, if you want to do that.’ I said ‘yes.’ He
said: ‘Do you want to go to . . .’—I said: ‘I just want to know it, that’s
all. Not really I want to go,’ and said: ‘I don’t really need the language,
I just want to go and see Germany.’ Okay. After a while, then I said: ‘If
it’s not possible, give me the letter and let me go.’ He said: ‘Just wait a
minute.’ He was talking to somebody on telephone. When he finish it:
‘Come with me.’ He took me to the upstairs. When I got there, I sat
down. He said: ‘You want to take coffee, tea?’ He took me direct to his
office. So the guy’s name is Holger. We sat down for a while, then he
Anderson, Allan, African Reformation. African Initiated Christianity in the 20th Cen-
tury, Trenton, NJ / Asmara, Eritrea: Africa World Press 2001, pp. 174 f. and 250, as well
as the rather hagiographic article in the Dictionary of African Christian Biography,
www.dacb.org/stories/nigeria/idahosa_bensona.html, accessed 11 October 2006.
340 appendix
said: ‘Okay. Drink.’ After a while, he said: ‘You fill here, you fill here,
you fill here.’ I fill, I give it to him. He said what he will do, he said: ‘Go
home, bring a police report to me, and, eh, I will give you a visa, I will
help you to get a visa.’ I said: ‘But you told the other people it is not
possible, why are you doing it?’ He say: ‘Yeah, I just want to make you
a friend.’ He said ‘you said’—because I told him I work in Ministry of
Defence and blablabla, what I do and everything. ‘Yes, I would like to
come to your place, where you work.’ I said, I said ‘okay.’ He promised,
but he never come, he never came to me anyway.
And, eh, two days later I went there again with the . . . I came with
the letter, the police report. As I got to the place, there was a man,
called—his nickname is ‘Major’, he is the security man. He said: ‘You
cannot come in.’ So I was, I was trying to enter, he told me: ‘You came
late, it’s not possible to go in.’ Then I said: ‘I want to go.’ This senior
man came. I didn’t know how he want me to walk to the gateside, he
just look at me, he say: ‘Hey. Were you not the man I asked to present
the police report?’ I say: ‘Yes, but it’s too late, I will come maybe next
week.’ He say: ‘Are you with it?’ I say ‘I’m with it but I came late.’
He said: ‘Don’t you know that you are supposed to be here at eight
o’clock?’ I say: ‘I have to report in my office before I come here.’ I say:
‘Since I am late, just forget it, I’ll come next time, when I’m on holiday.’
He say: ‘No, you come.’ He told the man to open the door. The man
opened it, I went inside. I came in to him, I filled everything. He said:
‘Give me 180 Naira. Then in three days I hope you get your visa.’ I
say: ‘But I don’t have time to come here. Can you post it to me?’ He
said: ‘Yeah, give me an address, and I’ll send it to you.’ Then I left. The
following day I got the letter at home. The same day, he finish it and
post it on me. The following day I got it and the visa was in.
Well, I was not even willing to come. Really, what was in my mind
was that I wanted to sell the visa to somebody else to go, because: I
don’t want to lose my job, my job was a good job, I was getting a good
pay. The government give me house and everything. I was enjoying life,
it was good. So later, when I got it, I came. I said: ‘Let me just go there
and see what is happening.’ Then I left Nigeria, that was on the 21st
of Dec . . ., of November, 1991. So I arrived here—on the 20th I left,
on the 21st I was here in Germany. As I arrived, I wrestled the way to
the school, I couldn’t get anyone to understand me, I went to dial my
friend, he invited me down, so we chat for a while, then I told him . . .
oh, I saw where he is living, and he is living this Asyl . . . this Asylheim.
Ahh! I say: ‘This is the way you live?’ He say ‘yes.’ I can’t do it, I say:
‘Take me to a hotel!’ So I check myself into a hotel, because I came

with enough money. I was with about 6,000 dollars in my pocket. So I
just said: ‘Let me stay in a hotel.’ I was taking care of everything.
So, along the line, when the time came to leave, I say: ‘I have to
go back to, I will go back to Nigeria.’ I call my office, that when the
holiday over, I will be back, but I would like to spend two weeks extra.
That’s one month and two weeks. So in the process, I just to go outside
and say: ‘Let me tell people about Jesus Christ, I love to do that.’ I go
out and say that. So a month, during the one month over, so I was
preparing to go, this my friend says . . . one day he engages with me
with his talk and say that ‘you are here, and I don’t want you to go
back to Nigeria.’ I say: ‘Do you worry when I go back to Nigeria I will
tell them that you live in an Asylheim?’ He said ‘yes.’ I said: ‘That’s too
bad of you; your brother is a prominent man in Nigeria and you come
and live in an Asylheim.’ I said: ‘It is not good for you.’ He said ‘no.’
So . . . before the month runs out, this guy took my passport and my
ticket, he sold it. So at the day I want to travel, he told me everything
is okay, I can come to the airport here in Düsseldorf. We got here,
there was nothing for me to fly. My passport—because it was with
him, he said when we get to the airport, I can fly, though there was
nothing for me to fly. So I had a very serious problem with him. He
told me: ‘okay, this so, that . . .’ He said: ‘I don’t want you to go back,
because you won’t tell them what I did.’ So I was very annoyed, upset,
I walk out. I just ‘you can go. I can find, I can manage my way to the
embassy.’ I get my way through. I tried the embassy two times. They
turned me down. They say I have to bring them something, a proof.
So I ask them to call my office in Nigeria, they called. You know, that
time telephone was very difficult. They will not get my office through
[rest of the sentence unintelligible] time. So I have to wait for another two
weeks. I will run out of money. There was noting for me to move [rest
of the sentence unintelligible]. Then later, police controlled me in the streets,
because I have nothing to identify. Then I told them all my story. They
say the only thing you have to do is to take Asyl. That’s the only way we
can identify you, you can’t be living in the streets and everything. They
took me to police, fingerprinted me and everything before they believe
me. They took me to a place to stay. It was a terrible place.
So two days later, I was seriously sick. I was also in the hospital. I
was having a depression. A terrible depression. It was very hard. The
doctor said the best thing I can do to recover is for me to, first of all,
forget about the past, and consign here for a while, then you can go
342 appendix
back to where you come from. So I just have to manage a way out.
So, cut a long story short, that is how I started life here in Germany.
Then I stay on Asyl. So I was not able to fly myself back because I
wouldn’t have money. So in time I raise a little money to go back, I
call the office and they say I am already, be . . . my appointment is
terminated because I spend more [the rest of the sentence is unintelligible].
Do if I come out I look for job. So my Chef say there is no way he
can help me. That was the time I called the president, because he was
directly in charge of our office. Babangida was the president at that
time. I called his office and they later related me to somebody to talk
because he knows me very well at that time. He used to call me ‘small
boy’, so he told me it’s not possible again ‘because your job is in the
hand of your secretary general, it’s not me. So if the secretary general
sacks somebody I have nothing to restore. So what you need to is talk
to the man.’ I spoke to the man, he said ‘no. You have gone on leave
for two weeks, two months, it’s not possible. So what you need to do,
when you come back, when we have vacancy again, we can reconsider
you, but now: no way!’ Then I said what, anything to pay me, he said
they cannot pay me anything because I am the one that left. So they
have the right to even sue for damage, but they will leave it. So there
was no way to run back to. So I stayed.
So later along the line, they told me: ‘Okay, what you need to do,
you have to look for a woman, then you get a paper here.’ Then I said:
‘I can’t do it, because I’m a Christian.’
So along the line, I was able to find a church, in [ . . .] I started [ . . .],
I just stay one week, the second Sunday I was there, Pastor [ . . .] called
me and said: ‘I sense that you are a man of God.’ I say: ‘I don’t know,
why?’ He said: ‘I can see it in you.’
2. D.A.: “Nepalis don’t need a visa for Germany” 3
I wanted to evangelize all of Nepal, but regrettably, due to the persecu-

tion I could not stay, and for protection and also financial support—
I did not want to stay in prison because of my family—I came to
Bahrain. There I worked, I earned money and sent it to Nepal, for
my two kids and my wife. Sadly, six months I was in Bahrain, my wife
3 Interviewed 17 November 2005 at his home.

left my children and me. It was too much for her, and it was difficult for
her, because I was the first Christian in the village we lived in. That’s
why she decided to marry another man and go back to another vil-
lage. But my sister and my mother brought up my children. I worked
in Bahrain for two years, then I was sent to Egypt. When I was in
Bahrain, I have many—I was a worker, but my wish and my task was
to make Jesus known to people who live without him, and many came
to faith. I was a testimony there, and that succeeded while I was there. I
baptized many people. After the year in Egypt I came back to Bahrain.
Then Saddam Hussein started the war with Iraq and Kuwait. Bahrain
is a neighboring country of Kuwait, and the Bahrain government says:
‘All foreigners, all guest workers must go back to their country,’ and
companies, they were closed. All bought masks—I could not stay. All
guest workers went back or flew back to their countries, I mustn’t go to
Nepal . . . Then I asked: ‘Lord, where shall I go?’ My aim was really
not to go to Germany, my aim was somehow to go to America and
study theology; that was my aim. But in such a short time I could not
decide. Because we asked, could somebody be my sponsor, but nobody
was there. Then we got information that Nepalis don’t need a visa for
Germany. Then I came, 1990, December 1, to Germany . . .
Then, I landed in Frankfurt. Then in Frankfurt, I was looking for a
taxi, I had so many [unintelligible word] in my life. I somehow got out of
the airport, I looked for a taxi, a man took me with him, I wanted
to go to a hotel. He said ‘I’m a good taxi driver,’ but somewhere,
on the highway, he said to me: ‘My car, my taxi is broken, could
you push, please?’ I said ‘No problem.’ But some things he took with
him, because he simply drove away, because he knew exactly I had
money, and some things he took away. On the highway, he left me
alone. Then I remembered Psalm 23, ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I
shall not want.’ It rained, there was a lot of snow, I had a thin jacket
because nobody had told me that Germany is so cold, but I had skimpy
shoes, but never mind. I went forward, I walked and walked along
the highway, veeery far forward I saw a small light, that was a gas
station. I came to the gas station, I looked for help, whether I could
find someone from Nepal. The workers at the gas station said ‘No,
we don’t know anybody from Nepal,’ but two Americans asked me,
they spoke English, then some Americans said ‘Yes, we can help you,
we will take you to Kaiserslautern, in Kaiserslautern, there are some
Nepalese, we know exactly where they live,’ and so they took me to
Kaiserslautern at 1 a.m. in the night. The Nepalese were surprised:
344 appendix
2 a.m. at night, ‘How did you get here without an address?’ Then I
said that the Americans brought me. They said, ‘We don’t know any
Americans here,’ but I didn’t care. Then I stayed there for a night, then
I called my friends in Bahrain, ‘I will come back to Bahrain,’ but they
said: ‘Stay in Germany, stay in Germany, Deutschland!’ And I said I did
not want to stay because something had happened. But they said ‘That
is so. We cannot . . . I will leave now, too, what will you do in Bahrain?’
So I stayed in Germany.
Then I came to [ . . .], through an acquaintance, a Pakistani man
who had met me in Frankfurt, then he asked [ . . .] . . . then I met some
people from Nepal, they said that I had to urgently apply for asylum.
And I did not know what that meant: ‘asylum application.’ When they
heard my story, they said: ‘We can help you, but you must not say a
word!’ They took me to a pastor, he was [ . . .] he said I should not
speak English, we would get everything in order. Then the friends from
Nepal told the whole story. After some years I got a letter from the
[asylum] office, that wasn’t me, that was totally wrong. Then I realized
I needed to put that right. So I put it right and told the true story. After
some years, Christians were in prison, we came out in ’95, then the
German regulations said that I have to go back to Nepal. It is not bad
in Nepal, we can go back to Nepal. Then I said: ‘Okay, I will go.’ But
the people in [ . . .], the Christians, said: ‘You have started a big work
in [ . . .], we need you here. Regardless of the consequences, we want to
keep you here. We cannot do this work ourselves. Yes, you speak several
languages . . .’ So they applied to the Interior Ministry for a pastor visa,
and they said ‘yes.’
I went to several church congregations, I hope I may say, I was . . .
first of all in the Evangelical church, there were 20 people, 50, only
the older ones were there. There was no praise, then I was used to
do praise in a different way, and yes, also the service, I was used to
a different one, here it wasn’t so. But after an hour, the service was
over, that was a bit new. Then I realized: Where are the young people?
Where are the people who speak about God? Then I started to think
and said: ‘The soil is very, very hard here.’ But I went to a free church
congregation, because I urgently needed a community. I went to a
Pentecostal church, they asked me whether I was pentecostal. I said:
‘I don’t know what that means, pentecostal, I am a Christian.’ They
didn’t want to accept me because I wasn’t a pentecostal. Then I went
to a Baptist Church, they also asked me whether I was a Baptist. Said I:
‘No, I’m not a Baptist, I’m a Christian.’ They didn’t want to accept me.
Then I went to a Methodist Church, they also asked me whether I was

Methodist. I said ‘I don’t know Methodist, I am just a Christian.’ And
so on and so forth. I went to a charismatic church, and a [unintelligible]
church, I was searching. All rejected me. It was a bit . . . yes, they
hurt me, to be honest. Then I called my pastor in Nepal and asked:
‘Tell me, what kind of Christian am I? Here in Germany you need
a family name. I have no idea. At that time in Nepal, we only heard
that we are Protestant, and there is Protestant4 and Catholic, and so
many family names I had not heard, you know.’ Then the pastor said:
‘You are a Protestant, simply say Protestant.’ Okay. I have remained a
Protestant. But afterwards, the Lord gave me a heart for the people,
the brothers and sisters, to go back to the congregation and to forgive.
Said the Lord: ‘Go there and forgive them.’ I did so, and pastor and
the congregation, different congregations, they cried, and said ‘Yes, we
are very sorry.’
Eventually, I was searching again, even though I was already a pastor
in the American church, but I wanted to serve Germany. And also get
to know German people, German mentality. I was still searching. I was
with the American congregation, but that was not my aim, I wanted
to get to know the German mentality. But I was still searching, and
then I went to the Evangelical City Mission. I was still afraid that they
do something, perhaps they ask something that I don’t know anything
about, but they asked me whether I was a Christian. Then I said ‘Yes,
I’m a Christian.’ They said: ‘Welcome, you are at home.’ They said
[the rest of the sentence is unintelligible.] They gave me love, they were very,
very interested in my life, they just showed love, and then I stayed in
the Evangelical City Mission in [ . . .]. Then I moved, into the mission
house, on the ground floor was the church room, upstairs I could live,
because I had terribly many visitors and they realized: D.A. needs a big
flat.
I was serving almost 24 hours a day, I had so many people—I could
reach them, tell them about the Gospel. That is my aim, too, my wish,
that is my gift, yes, to simply tell about the Gospel. Many people have
come to faith, we have baptized many people in the congregation, and
I have also visited different churches where I had been before, and I
forgave them, that’s okay. But my aim still is: How can we motivate
youngsters? How can we support the Evangelical church, those big
4 Until the mid-1990s, denominational churches were not allowed in Nepal. There
was only a non-denominational Protestant and a Catholic church.

346 appendix
church buildings? Yes, I still have the wish to fill these big church
buildings, but I have not succeeded. I am still praying and asking the
Lord, regardless of where I go. [ . . .] The Germans have supported me
financially, and they also have prayed somehow. The Lord simply . . .
I still know how I packed my suitcase in 96 because I really didn’t
want to stay here, then a preacher said on TV (I had an American
TV program): ‘Hey you, please don’t go! The revival will start with
you! What you are looking for, you will not get. You must change.
You must have a heart!’ Then I realized that I really am . . . I have
criticized the German Christians. Then God said: ‘I still love Germany,
I still do. You must change!’ Then I went down on my knees: ‘Lord,
forgive me! I really want to be [unintelligible word], use me, Lord!’ Then,
because I really didn’t know the German mentality and background
. . . afterwards, I realized that Germany needed me. Some time later
then I met Claudia Währisch-Oblau, she offered us the kikk course,
then I participated, then I understood what the background is, why
the soil is so hard. They have taught us well, they were pastors from
different countries, they really were our good teachers. Now I know
how to deal with Germans, I can explain well because I understand
the background, I understand the mentality, yes. [ . . .] was rather small
for me, because I lived there for 12 1/2 years, and what I wanted to do,
I achieved. The congregation there could not support me financially.
And at a conference, [ . . .], the pastor of the City Mission in [ . . .]
said—we met at a conference. He said: ‘What you are doing in [ . . .],
they could also do with German Christians. What they cannot do is
your task: In all of Europe, there are several thousand Nepalis, even in
Germany there are several thousand Nepalis, about thousand of them
just in the Ruhr area. Please, think about it, that is your task, we’ll see
each other.’ Then they talked to their congregation about me. Then
I told my boss, the director of the Kontaktmission, he said: ‘We need
to pray first. Don’t just go, we don’t allow that.’ But afterwards, when
I came here [the Ruhr area where he now lives] and suddenly some
people became Christians, they said: ‘It is not enough if you come only
once a month, we want to read the word of God every day!’ Then
they said that as a church, they had prayed for two years, their building
was empty, where their pastor had lived before, he moved away, he
moved out, and they prayed ‘we need a missionary family here for us,’
and then suddenly, the church said suddenly: We should come to the
Ruhr area, because there are so many Nepalis here, we should start
a church with Nepalis, and at the same time, I should be spiritual
counselor in this church and also do evangelism with this church. [ . . .]

So we support the [City Mission] congregation here, in [ . . .], and at
the same time, I am visiting Nepalis, I bring them the Good News.
I don’t just work in the Ruhr area, but I have also started in Holland,
and now I have received the news that 6,500 people in Belgium are also
waiting for me. London alone has 30,000 Nepalis! And all of Germany,
yes, that is my task. Long ago, 22 years ago, the Lord gave me the
vision to evangelize all of Nepal, but the political situation in Nepal
is not so good, therefore many young people have left the country. 13
million Nepalis [sic] live outside of Nepal! Many of these Nepalis are
in Europe. These people I want to reach, that is my aim, that is what I
concentrate on, to start churches with Nepalis . . . God had time.
3. P.W.: “God was saying: ‘Leave that place!’ ” 5
I did not start in Germany, I started in Nigeria, that is in 1990, when I

was an evangelist, and then I went to Bible School, and then I was later
ordained. And then I went back to Cameroon, I was working there
with other churches, and then I came to Germany to continue the job,
you know. It’s just the call of God, it’s nothing else but the call of God.
You know when God call you, just like Paul, to come out of darkness
into his marvellous light, then you have to obey the call. You have to
obey the call because [unintelligible passage] and sacrifice. And God needs
people to preach his word, it’s very, very important.
CWO: Were you an evangelist in Cameroon? (Yeah.) In which church were you
working?
I was working as a free evangelist. I was an evangelist then in Nige-
ria, you know, I was working with Lamb of God Ministry, also with
Foursquare Bible Church, and then I was also preaching on the street,
helping in crusades, and when I went to Cameroon, I applied to the
Deeper Life Bible Church in Ilimbe. They did not take me serious,
because at that time I was still young, just 22 years old. So told me I
was just a small girl, you know, and before they knew it, I left for Ger-
many. When I came to Germany, and then I saw that things were not
going well—I had to do worshipping in on Roman Catholic Church in
5 Interviewed 26 October 2005 at her home.

348 appendix
Marburg, that is in Hessen, and then I left there, I also went to a Freie
Evangelische Kirche, and I was worshipping there just like an ordinary
member. Until when I came to [ . . .], then I also started with several
pastors. I was with, in [ . . .] I started with Assemblies of God Church,
that was under Pastor D. then God gave me a word that I have to leave
there. So when I left, Pastor D.—by then he was also with Pastor H.—
so I told him I was going. You know, he just was like I was crazy bit.
God said something that I should leave, but I did not know where I was
going. That was a call now for the music, so when I went I met Pastor
A., and Pastor A. took me out, and we were going to sing and preach,
you know. That was . . . with P.M., playing the keyboard at the church,
and I asked him and he helped me, and then all of a sudden, the first
musical, they said I was out. You know, that was when I understood
that God was saying: ‘Leave that place, you have a call somewhere else.’
You know, so I left the church and went into that evangelistic ministry,
and later, I’m also now [unintelligible word] in the church.
CWO: How did you get a call to Germany?

I think the call to Germany was the very call to the Bible School in
Nigeria.
CWO: Can you say something about how you came to Germany?
I think my coming to Germany was just a miracle, because after that
time, I had no vision for Germany, you know, I had no vision for
Germany, even though my sister was studying here in the University of
Marburg. Then I stayed there in Germany, I preferred to go to America
in case I’m leaving Africa. It’s easy to preach there, and you can preach
at any time. But I think when she was calling me to Germany, that I
have to come to Germany, I was very, very reluctant. And the problem
now is, I was in Cameroon, I was already back in Cameroon. And I
said: ‘Come to Germany? No. I’m going back to Nigeria. Because I
have left churches there that I’ve been working with, they have already
people that I’m working with. So coming to Germany will just be like
running away from the call!’ But I did not know that you can leave one
place and also continue your call some place else. Until when I came, I
entered Germany, and then I saw the way things are going, and I said:
‘God, have mercy, God, have mercy!’ until I stayed one year, two year,
and then they were still calling me to come to America, you know, they
were telling me to come to America, it would be easier, but I said no,
I’m remaining in Germany. I think God wants me to stay in Germany.
I went to America to visit, but I think there is a call here, and there is
something here for me to do, than going to America. But I said I did
not understood that coming to Germany, okay, there is a purpose for
the Gospel, yeah.
CWO: So what is the purpose of your being here?

Yeah, I think . . . the purpose of me coming to Germany is really to
preach the Word. To preach the Word, because at times, when we
come like this, we get involved in a lot of things. We get involved
in working, you know, and involved in looking for money—it’s also
important, helping the family back home, and then we forget our call.
And once you forget our call, to get back into the call, it’s going to take
some years, some years for you to recover what you have had before.
So I think my coming to Germany is for specific purpose by God.
4. S.O.: “There was this stirring on me that I need to really move out” 6
I like to really say that I am a son of, eh, a policeman—an ex-

policeman, of course, my father is now on retirement—and we had the
opportunity of really traveling across the country, eh, that’s Ghana. And
during my childhood, I came to . . . I, eh, I went to secondary school
in [unintelligible] the middle belt of Ghana, in a place called [ . . .] Sec-
ondary School, and there I got to know a friend; one of my classmates
called [ . . .]—right now he is a medical doctor—and his lifestyle really
challenged me. So I wanted to know what was the secret behind this
lifestyle. So, when he belonged to the SU, the Scripture Union at the
secondary school, and so he encouraged me to be part, actually, he led
me to Christ by his lifestyle, but initially, I withdrew, because on vaca-
tions, I traveled to where my father was, and that place, there were not
such facilities of maybe meeting other Christians to continue. But later
on, when I came back, I got myself rooted, and since then, I’ve been a
Christian to this day. [ . . .] So it was there that really, I had a calling, I
had a stirring in my heart, a heart really for souls that were lost. And
to put it this way, when I talk about souls that are lost, referring to peo-
ple that have not known Jesus Christ, and have not had any personal
6 Interviewed 2 March 2005 in my home.

350 appendix
relationship and a continuous relationship with him. So I had this

stirring in my heart for such people that, look, they need to come
and know Jesus. So that’s really how the whole thing began. Then,
apart from this, I’ve also been in, let’s say, various organization or
Christian fellowship setups, because, when you grow up in the SU
setup, wherever you go, you try to also look for other organizations
like that. And in areas where there were no such organizations, really, I
went into also, let’s initiate some of these non-denominational, inter-
denominational fellowships. I went to my own home village, that’s
where my mother comes from fellowship. I went to my own home
village, that’s where my mother comes from, and that place, there
was no such organization, we had a Roman Catholic church, we had
a Methodist church, we had a Presbyterian church, and there was
nothing like, maybe, an inter-Christian fellowship, so I went there,
and we initiated that. And also with my father, in [ . . .], too, I made
sure I belong to the fellowship. So almost everywhere I go, where
there is no such, this thing, we initiate such a move. Good. And then
where there is no Baptist church, I made sure I fellowshipped with
the Assemblies of God church, so that was how really I grow up.
Good. I really don’t know whether this really fits in. Now coming
back to my this thing . . . so now, I went to the university in Ghana
as eh, and I really studied Chemical Engineering. So there, at the
university we had, I attend two major fellowships, one belonging to
the Baptist Union, and then one also, we call it Inter-Hall Christian
Fellowship, Inter-Hall, yeah, Inter-Hall Christian Fellowship, but now
they’ve changed it to GAFES, GAFES, eh, UST. GAFES is Ghana
Association of Evangelical Students, yeah, so that was, let’s say, the, the
body and of which we had this Inter-Hall Christian Fellowship. So I
belonged to that groups also with the Baptist Student Union and also
with the Ghana Evangelical Students Association, so there to have the
opportunity of also learning much about God and also growing in my
relationship with God. So by that time too, I was also, let’s say, working
in the village ministry and outreach program whereby we’ll go to the
villages and then preach and help in organization of church services. So
we just like, in my student days, the stirring was there, and it kept on,
so later on, when I completed my first degree program, then I worked
at [ . . .]. That’s . . . I went there for my National Service. So from there,
I went, came to Europe, to pursue my Diplom course also in Chemical
Engineering at [ . . .] University. So like, when we came here, too, we
saw that . . . okay, like the first attempt is as a Christian, you’ll just
like to go where you see a church building. And having an evangelical

background, in fact, I saw this Evangelical signboard over there, and
so I went in there, as a Christian. And when I went in there, service
was conducted. It was conducted in German. In fact, there were no
people . . . how, I compare to maybe how such a service are conducted
in Ghana compared to this place, there were no people in the church!
Some few old people that were there, in fact, after the church service,
no one even spoke to me, so I came out and I went home. So then, the
idea came up: Can I get in touch with other people, maybe where—
at that time I could not speak German like I can now—and, I was
just looking at: Is that a possibility of meeting other people, maybe,
whereby, maybe, we’ll have an English Association or wherever. So that
was which we led me in touch with other Africans. And we saw that
there was no any international community church around, but this is
the, eh, around September 1991. Pauses and looks at me.
CWO: And how did it continue?

Great. So when I came here, really, like, I met a good friend of mine
who is now in Belgium—he is now also . . . he has completed his
second Masters Program in Theology, in, well, [ . . .], and you may
know him. So really, when I came here, I looked for him . . . so by that
time he was studying in [ . . .]. So I asked . . . so okay, first I had to do
my language course, so then I asked: Where can I really do this course?
So they said: Well, I can do it at [ . . .], because [ . . .] University also
gave me an offer to do that, an Ausländische Institut here, but the cost was
expensive. So then we compared, and they told me that, okay, when I
go to [ . . .], the money I will pay here for, let’s say, six weeks of a course,
I’ll pay that same amount and do maybe two levels in [ . . .]. So then I
then asked them to really help me get a place of accommodation so that
I will move over there. So when I went there he was also fellowship with
the Free Evangelical church over there, so really we started, we were
having, let’s say, we go to church, but when we come back, among the
students, we have a form of fellowship, as we used to have in Ghana.
Good. So from there, I came back here, then, when I came to [ . . .]
after completing where, what we call PNDS, the Prüfung whereby, so
that I can stay at the university. I came to [ . . .], I joined . . . there
was an, a man who had also stayed in Ghana, worked with Reinhard
Bonnke, called [ . . .]. He had an international, or let’s say, a church,
and he had this kind of charismatic background, so, really, there was a
interest to go in the [unintelligible word]. Along the line, it did not work
352 appendix
out. So we had to find where we Ghanaians, or, let’s say, where we

Africans can have a place of meeting. So then myself, eh, one brother,
he is now in America, called [ . . .], and then Pastor [ . . .] who is in
England, together with [ . . .] who is also now in America, [ . . .] who is
also now in [ . . .] and some other people . . . we started this Christian
Fellowship, like the SU type that we had back in Ghana, called [ . . .].
So that was how really the [ . . .] Church really was started. So I was
the chairman, and then the husband called [ . . .] was the vice, and then
we really initiated this fellowship. So it was a fellowship of whereby
people from different backgrounds come together to fellowship. So that
least we can still keep up with our Christian faith that we brought from
Africa! And so initially we were meeting in various houses, then we
approached one man—I think now he is in Ghana—he called [ . . .]—
he was then a student at [ . . .] University, and he said, he made a
contact with the AstA7 over there, and then to get us a meeting place. So
that really worked out, and there we got a meeting place at AstA. So
when we initiated this thing, we also made, eh, information available
to the African community, and especially the Ghanaians, so they know
that at least there is a place where they can really come, and then have
fellowship, so that the faith that they had back in Africa will not really
die away. So it was from there that really I moved out to start [ . . .]
Ministries, cause there was this stirring on me that I need to really move
out to do something that will not only be in a local place, but whereby
the international community will equally, what, benefit from it. So I
quite remember in the year 1997, this stirring was very strong in me, so
I called the Reverend [ . . .] who happens to really be my pastor back in
[ . . .], so I spoke with him—he was then formally in Canada—I asked
him to come over—he could not come until he flew down to Ghana, so
then I made an arrangement with him to come over. So when he came
here, he studied the situation. So he was of the view that, okay like, he
didn’t want me to really come out of maybe, [ . . .] Fellowship to really
start a church, but he wanted me to be there to put in my, the resources
and the calling in there. But it so happened it did not work the way
he really advise, because the fact was that there was no leader in the
group, and there was a form of a leadership chaos. So now, where do
you really serve, where do you really work? So that was where, after
7 Allgemeiner Studentenausschuss—the self-administration of students.

much prayer, and advice from other men of God, I moved out to start
[ . . .] Ministries. So I told many people about it, these intentions, this
vision that God is laying on my heart, this passion for souls, having an
international Christian community church, and at the same time also
reach out to people that are lost, because this passion has been there
way back in Ghana. How’d we get it done? So some people got up
with the idea . . . they said: Look, it’s good. We’ll leave with you. And
so, we took off. Then I went down to the Evangelical Church, because,
because before even I left [ . . .] to go to [ . . .], we had even secured a
building with the Evangelical church where [ . . .] Fellowship was then
meeting. But then, at the point in time, we did not want it just to be a
fellowship, so we changed the fellowship status, because the fellowship
was like . . . people are coming from different places, it is not a church,
so you can come in and then go, so we changed it to an Evangelistic
Ministry, so that it will not be a fellowship kind of this thing, but at
least it move a step further. So it was from that stage that I moved out
to really start the church issue, because it was not a church, so I had
to move out and then start a church. Good. So, I talked with Pastor
[ . . .] and some other evangelical pastors in [ . . .] of a need for a place
of meeting. And they gave it to me! So we met . . . first of all, eh, we
had a building in [ . . .], and then we had a building also in [ . . .]. We
then made a meeting to decide which one to take. So they said, okay,
since [ . . .] is nearer the city, why not take that one. So, we went into
the building in [ . . .]. We have been there . . . the [ . . .] church has been
there up to today. Yes.
CWO: How did it happen that, as a chemical engineer, you ended up a pastor?
It’s a very good question! Now let’s me put it this way that it’s been a
stirring, a conviction upon the heart. Now, I think that I read chemical
engineering based on maybe interest in that field as well, maybe to end
up being an engineer, a processing engineer, whatever. But then I had
this conviction and this stirring in me for souls that are lost, and also for
keeping up the flock of God. So then it then came to a point whereby
I had to make a decision, because the burden was on me to choose.
Then I also saw that there was a need also for a sacrifice, so I had to
call my wife, sit her down, and then to discuss this issue with her, that,
look, this is what is happening within me. And at least, you also, you
do see it. And prior to that I had also written some books, one was on
the teachings of Jehova’s Witnesses, because like—maybe I’m going a
little bit back, but forgive me—Like the stirring that I used to have, so it
354 appendix
drove me out to really reach out to people, talk about Christ to people.
And in that work I also met the Jehova’s Witnesses also active in this
area. So then there was . . . then sometimes we’ll go out and there to
look and see we’ll be having some form of debate, over some topics in
the Bible. So then that gave me . . ., it is good for me to make a lot
of research into their background, into their teachings, what they are
in for, and the differences between their teaching and the evangelical
theology. So that . . . and so I did not really end up only studying
the Jehova’s Witnesses, but in short maybe going into the realm of the
cults, eh, the Mormon Church, eh, there was the Christian Society, a
whole lot of this thing, I ended up really reading a lot and making a
lot of research into the background of these groups as the differences
between their teachings and then the evangelical theology. So I ended
up really doing that. So I quite remember—this was way back in,
at the university back in Ghana. When some of the Baptist ministers
heard about what I was doing they were really surprised, because they
were considered—they themselves even as theologians were not really
prepared to get themselves into these issues of trying to resolve control
versus here and there—they were not! So, that also, I would say, gave
me an opening into the Baptist churches, to preach on many platforms,
how to really come and counter some of these religious groups that are
. . . we may see them as Christians, but in reality, if we compare their
teachings with the evangelical faith, there is much difference, how to
really meet them and how to really also share your faith with them.
So I, I had the opportunity to of preaching this in some of the Baptist
churches, in [ . . .] specifically. So this stirring was there. So now, when
I came over here, and I saw that the stirring was there, one had to
also consider the consequences. Are you prepared to sacrifice? Now the
fact is that, you have not been a formal theological school, whereby,
maybe, a mainline denomination will accept me and then put me on
their ministerial roll. I’ve not been to a formal theological school. But
then the stirring and the conviction is there. The basis is also there.
So for us, maybe, Biblical theology is concerned. So now what do you
do? So that was where I had to sit down with my wife to really say:
Look; that is a sacrificial work. Let’s go into it! And if the Lord is
with us, a way will be laid through. So the fact is that we also need
to sacrifice. Which she consented too, and that, okay, she is going to
work to support. So now if the Lord gives it a blessing, then at least,
we can move on. But if the Lord has not given the blessing—or not
necessarily a blessing but an, if, let’s say financially we come . . . then
we need to maybe re-devise the means of really . . . so making sure

that we are able to move on with this development. So after prayer and
after seeking advice here and there I decided to put off, to hang my
engineering career, and then to go into full-time ministry. And to this
I’ll say I am grateful to a lot of people. Upon sharing this idea with
some of them, especially a person like, [ . . .] . . . he was someone who
told me that, look, I’ll be there for you, and not only . . . okay, in fact,
in fact a lot of people who had also, let me say, had seen my character,
because they, they just can see the pastor and someone will just say
he’ll follow you. But it depends on maybe a consistent type of lifestyle
that you have led and they also seeing something in you that confirms
that actually God is calling you to do something, and of which when
they are a part, it will be a blessing to them so far as their Christian
life is concerned. We have someone like maybe [ . . .] and a whole lot
of people who really said: We will get committed to this program, and
they gave themselves up. And so from there, we were able to really
launch out. So like, if you ask . . . you may, might have read this in my,
eh, seventh anniversary brochure, the first meeting that we held was on
1st of February 1998, and we held it in the house of a man called [ . . .],
that time he was staying at [ . . .], near the city, in the city center, so that
was where we held our first meeting. And then from there, we launched
out to the Evangelical church, and then from there, we’ve been there,
up till today. So I will say that . . . actually it’s a stirring or a calling or
an inner conviction that made me put aside my career for this.
CWO: Thank you.—Let me phrase it this way: For a German audience, where not
many people are used to thinking in a framework of calling or inner conviction or
stirring—for someone who is actually not thinking within this framework, could you
explain how God put that stirring into your heart? How you became quite clear in
your mind that this was your call?
Actually [laughs] I don’t know really how to explain it. I’ll still be using
the same jargon, the same terminology. But to make it a little bit
simpler for a layman, I think that we all have a form of conviction,
something that you are convinced about, and sometimes you are not
even able to explain. It can come through a dream, through a form
of—something that is just there, that drops into your mind; you just
know that this thing is supposed to be a base. But when someone asks
you to explain, you may not be able to really do it. So that is what I’m
trying to say, that is a conviction, something that just dropped in there.
Maybe I’ll still explain that it is something that is in there, but when
356 appendix
someone is asking me to explain it, I’ll not be able to really explain,

but I sense and have that feeling that this is where, this feeling that
I’m having is leading me to. That’s maybe how I can explain. I’m not
sure that I was able to answer your question, but it’s an inner feeling,
something that is really driving you in, in a particular direction, where
someone asks you to explain, maybe the tangible reasons for—maybe
you will not be able to say ‘I’m doing this based on this advantage or
that advantage or that advantage,’ but then you realize that your whole
system is convinced that this what must be done. Someone, someone
may think that, maybe, you are not reasonable, because, maybe, not
clear, because you cannot really explain everything in detail, but the
fact is that, having known God, and having known the way God also
speaks, like little Samuel according to the book of 1. Samuel chapter 1,
little did he know—that’s chapter 1 up to chapter 3—little did Samuel
know how God really speaks. At the time, when he heard the voice, he
went to Eli, then Eli, after 3 times, Eli perceived: This is God, God. So
he instructed Samuel: When you go, maybe you hear this voice again,
this is what is happening. So, that’s what I’m trying to say, that there
was this inner [unintelligible word], I sensed it, I had a conviction about
it, and it was then that I was convinced that God is asking me to leave
what I am doing to do this.
CWO: Was it like you had a vision, or heard a voice, like that?
I will say that I had many of them. I had many of them. Seeing myself
standing in front of congregations, talking to them. Seeing myself mov-
ing out to isolated areas, presenting Christ to people. I had a lot of such
dreams and visions. But the conviction actually came from my heart,
not based on this.
CWO: Hm. And from what I have been hearing, you have also said it was
confirmed by talking to other people. (Yes.) Would you say that this is important?
Yes, I would say that even I did not go out and talk to people, but
when people saw me, they said it. I quite remember, not very long ago,
it’s about one or two years ago, some of our church members traveled
to Ghana. It was our organist, together with our financial committee
leader. They went to Ghana, and they went to see my mother. So
when they went, they had some conversation with my mom. So they
told my mom ‘Your son is doing a very good work. Our lives have
been transformed in church, so your son is doing a very good work.’
Then my mother told them: ‘As for S., I knew it, from his childhood.
You could see that he was always talking about Christ, Christ, Christ,
Christ, Christ . . . and when he came to our village, a group that was
not there, he initiated it.’ So when she later on heard that I am now in
full-time ministry, she was not surprised because she saw it in me while
I was even very young and back at home. . . . What was the question
again?
CWO: You’ve just answered it. The question was: Is it important that other people
confirmed your call?
My mother for one saw it in me, so I had the conviction and it was
there. When I was at the University in [ . . .], our then leader, who is
now a Reverend Pastor called [ . . .] used to say this in the fellowship
that ‘look, you people are here, you are trying to get a bachelor degree
in whatever course, but in addition, know that you have what we call
the BA degree which is the born again degree.’ And that place, I would
say that it was more like a, Bible school of a kind, because we used on
Friday and Saturday, fellowshipping, and the speakers really helped us.
And some of them were also people that were also in ministry. So there
were some of the things that you sometimes come to talk about, the
call of God, and then they would explain to us, like, if you have a call
of God, some of the things you need to know, and some of the things
you need to do. Not maybe going to a church, and you know that God
has called you, and all of a sudden fighting over the pulpit with the
pastor who is there—you don’t do that. You need to have time to learn,
understand. There is some of this like Elijah and Elisha were brought—
so you know that when you have a call, you also need to have a time of
what—learning! Whereby you acquire certain skills, because there are
certain things—preaching alone does not make ministry. I think there
is more towards it. And with my little bit experience now I know what
those men of God told us was very rich. We needed to know a lot. So
now, some of the pastors just see what I was doing, and then they will
tell me, and say ‘look, there is a call of God upon your life.’ Some of
them will even prophecy over my life and say ‘look, that is what we are
seeing God to do with your life.’ But it is not that they are saying it that
influences me, no, I had the conviction already, but I saw that the time
was not right. I needed to really learn more. And then coupled also
with the fact that I came over here with a mission. So, one also had
to wait and to look at the timing as well. You may receive the call, but
maybe you don’t take time, you move out early [unintelligible sentence]. So
one also has to really consider that. So people really confirmed it, but it
358 appendix
was something I knew already. So whether confirmation came or not, I

knew a time will come, I will move and do it.”
5. A.K.: “God wants us to be an international church” 8
I was a Christian even when I was in Indonesia, and then I came to

Germany to study. That’s what I did, I studied electrical engineering
at the university in [ . . .]. But as I came here, then I experience my
renewal in my, my—how do you say?—spiritual growth, as back then I
was such a traditional Christian, and I did not know what this living
relationship with God means, yes, I was simply someone going to
church. And as I arrived here, my friend told me about the, about
the Bible, and then about the Holy Spirit, about the baptism in the
Spirit, and I was so curious, and I was so open, and then I experience
this, this baptism in the Spirit and so on. And then we started to gather
together with other Indonesian students. The first thought was, we are
in a foreign country, we are foreigners, why can’t we meet, then we can
talk about the Bible and pray. That was the beginning of this church.
It was just a prayer group of Indonesian students, and we had no other
relationship. It was just for survival. That was the beginning of our
congregation.
CWO: And how did it continue? Can you tell me?

And then it went on with this community, this prayer group, in such
a way, that people finished their studies and then flew back home to
Indonesia, and then new people came who started to study, it was a cir-
cle. And that was from the 80s up to the 90s, up to ’95, we are always
about 20 people, people come, and finish, and go back to Indonesia.
In the year 95 we celebrated the Indonesian Independence day; it was
just 50 years, and we thought, why don’t we, too, celebrate this inde-
pendence, this 50, it’s an anniversary, and so we did this extra meet-
ing, with the thought, as Indonesians we want to celebrate our country
together. [ . . .] And this was our turning point, when we celebrated our
home country’s independence. We also had a seminar, and a worship
service, and a celebration, and then we also had exchanges, and then,
we were collecting different points, and then we developed this deter-
8 Interviewed 18 January 2006 in his church office.

mination, that we as Indonesians, we should be a blessing for the other

nations, that we as Indonesians here in Germany, we should not just
think among ourselves, but why we are here: Not just to study, and then
finish, and then, yes, nothing to do with Germany etc. But on this day,
God opened our eyes that we should have a greater relationship. And
this vision is ‘light for the nations.’ And we got it from Isaiah 49. So that
was our turning point. And then we thought: Okay, nice, we have a new
vision, that we are not just thinking as Indonesians, for Indonesians, but
also are a light for the others, but what shall we do? What is the next
step, how do we put this into practice? We didn’t know. And then we
prayed, etc., and then, as we prayed about how to put his into practice,
we received a Bible verse from the Lord, it is also in the book of Isaiah,
it is also called the house of, eh, ‘God’s temple shall be a prayer house
for all nations.’ And this key word, ‘prayer’—oh yes, we Indonesian
Christians, we like to pray, and then we thought, why don’t we just start
with this? Prayer, that we invite other churches, other German churches
in [ . . .], and then we remembered that 3 October is the day of German
unification. And then we thought: That is a good moment to invite the
other German churches and pray and fast together. Okay. Then we
started to write letters. First of all, we had to introduce ourselves, and
then we also had to tell that we wanted to organize this meeting, prayer
and fasting on 3 October, yes. But because we were so closed up back
then, they didn’t know us. And when they got our letter, many reacted
in such a way: ‘Ah, Indonesian church, or Indonesian group—does this
exist in [ . . .], is this real?’ Then we introduced ourselves, who we are
etc., and the reaction was super, and they came, yes. And this was the
first time, that we as a church, that we as a host also invited a church,
a German congregation, that we pray and fast together. It was also the
first time that we had a worship service in German, yes. In German,
but naturally, also some songs in English. That was extra difficult, yes,
and then I also preached, in Indonesian, but naturally, with translation
into German, then I preached how important it is that we [unintelligible
word] for our country, for our city etc. Yes, that was a good event, a
good start, that we, eh, have a heart also for Germany. [ . . .] Yes, that
was in October ’95, and then we thought, that’s it and ready, and then
we go back to our old ways, Indonesian etc. But somehow this vision
was not fulfilled. God said: ‘No, no, not only that you are a blessing
for Indonesians, but you must, yes, the whole church must be open so
that all nations can come, yes?’ And that isn’t easy for us, because we
are Indonesians, and we would like to stay among ourselves, with our
360 appendix
culture, our food etc. Yes, it’s not so easy for us. But because God talked
to us in this way, I told the others: ‘God wants that we are no longer
an Indonesian church, but an international one.’ And concretely, okay,
concretely this means that we don’t have Indonesian songs any more,
yes, and then no Indonesian sermon, yes, and everything now must be
in German or English. And that was, yes, a very difficult thing for us.
And then since ’96 we have started, everything we have changed, from
Indonesian to German. And now we do our praise and worship in
German and English, and I preach in German—yes, with my accent,
[laughs out loud] with my grammar—yes, and then it is also being trans-
lated into English. And now, our church is no longer Indonesian, it has
become international. About 90 people are coming, and of these 90,
these 90 adults, they are from about 20 nations. And most of us are
students, about 75 % of us.
6. B.A.: “God arranged that situation so that we can stay” 9
What happened in my life . . . That, eh, I have to go back a few years

before I ever thought of coming to Germany. First, I never thought of
becoming a pastor. It was not part of my career prospect in life, so to
say, I never saw myself as pastor at any time of my life. One, I was
shy, I didn’t like facing a crowd to make a speech, and each time I
was forced to do that, I started sweating, and my hands got clammy, so
whatever would put me in front of a crowd, I avoided it, I shunted it.
But I got born again in 1988, and from the moment I was baptized in
the Holy Ghost in 1989, I developed a thirst for prayer. Now I didn’t
know how that happened, but I, I respond to challenges, so to say, I
believe I can do what other people can’t do, and I can do it better.
Shortly after I got born again, one of my friends told me that there was
some students in the University of [ . . . ], praying for five hours a day.
And I said: ‘Five hours a day, is it possible?’ And I made up my mind
that next Sunday, the moment I got home after church, I’m going to
pray for five hours. I got home before 12 noon, and at 12 noon I was
on my knees, and I didn’t get up until 5 p.m. Then I said, ‘Yes, now
I prayed five hours like every other person.’ A few months, someone
who is now a pastor in Lagos told me there were some guys in US that,
9 Interviewed 9 April 2005 in my home.

when they start praying, Holy Ghost just comes down, and those are
people that pray 13 hours in a day. I said ‘13 hours in a day? I have to
do that.’ So I waited for a public holiday, and, eh, I divided the day
into segments. I started at 12 midnight, I prayed from 12 midnight until
4 a.m., I went to sleep, woke up by 8, prayed from 8 to 12 noon, and
went back to sleep, woke up by 4, prayed again from 4 to 8 p.m., rested,
and prayed two hours before the day finished, so I prayed a total of
about 13 1/2 hours, and that made me very happy. But what I do realize,
as I was praying, I was developing a personal relationship with God,
which usually comes with prayers. And with that personal relationship
came a thirst for the word of God. By divine providence, I was able
to get a Dick’s (?) Bible, Dick’s annotated Bible, and I started studying
the Bible, and I fell in love with the word of God. With that love came
boldness, because it was like I knew what I was talking about, and I had
so much to tell people. By the time I moved from [ . . .] to [ . . .] in 1991,
that’s in Nigeria, I was somehow ready to be used by God. I joined the
Redeemed Christian Church of God in [ . . .] in 1992, and within a few
months that I joined the church, I was given a house fellowship center
to handle. The house fellowship grew, then they opened a mission
station, and the pastor called me and told me that he would like me
to head the mission station. That was how I became a pastor. I did the
work from 1993 as a pastor till 1996. The church grew tremendously,
this parish, and because I was reading—I, I love reading, that’s another
thing I, I love reading books—and I came across some of the books by
George Banner (?) who is a Christian in the United States of America.
I have one of his books in my bag here, it is ‘Speak like Jesus’. And he
talked about vision. He wrote about mission. He wrote about having
a focus in Christianity, and that helped to shape my ministry, that
ministry is not just mounting the pulpit, shepherding people, it is first
and foremost doing the will of God. I look, I really do the will of God,
if they know the Bible of God. So I said I wanted to search what is the
mind of God, and with that came a vision to start planting church. The
parish which I was pastoring then, we had about 250 members, and
within 3 years, we planted 36 other churches. We opened 4 satellite
campuses of Bible colleges, I became the coordinator for the Bible
college, I became coordinator of what is School of Mission, I got so
busy with the work of the church, and it was conflicting with my secular
job. Having learnt and taught that Christians had to carry cross and
follow the Lord, I now challenged myself. Now, what I might be going
to do—I was, so to say, at the brink of destiny. I either go forward
362 appendix
with the Lord, or I go back. I could no longer hold a secular job,

and hold a ministry at the same time. It was becoming difficult. In
those days, I would get to the office in the morning, and I would just
fall asleep in my seat. Because we have to pray during the night, run
around for church duty, and I spent more time in the office doing
church work than the work of my office, and I felt that was unfair.
The people were not complaining, because I headed the office there.
At least I should be able to talk to myself, [unintelligible passage] So I
resigned in 1996, September 1996, to become a fulltime pastor. I was
not happy and there was nothing to look forward to in the salary that
fulltime pastors have been paid in Nigeria. Ah, at Redeemed Christian
Church of God, in those days, it was 4,000 Naira, which of course if
you compare it to Euro, it’s less than 50 Euro. So I said I would be
a full time pastor, and I’m not going to register as a fulltime minister
with the mission, which means I’m not drawing a salary. But I would
be doing the work full time, and my wife and myself, we shall live on
faith and trust God to meet our needs. It was very difficult. That was
when I learnt that very few Christians actually have the welfare of the
pastor at heart. The pastor is relevant to many Christians only when
they have problems. The moment that problem has been solved, the
pastor becomes irrelevant. So those who give me gifts in those days
are those either had given back—I would go for their baby dedication
and they’d remember ‘oh, we have to give the pastor some . . .’ It was
tough, but in the midst of it, God proved himself faithful. The call to
come to Germany, the offer was first made to me in 1996 by pastor
[ . . .] who used to be my regional coordinator in [ . . .]. He was leaving
Nigeria, and he was to come to Germany. When he got to Germany, he
had another offer to go to the US. And he said ‘Could you think of any
other person to handle the work in Germany?’, but to me, since we had
worked together in church planting, the Bible college and so on and so
forth. So he made the proposal to the headquarters of the Redeemed
Christian Church of God in Lagos, and, eh, because of some internal
arrangements, I was not part of the headquarters. I belonged to [ . . .]
arm of the church, and the people at headquarters preferred to send
somebody from headquarters. So they sent Pastor [ . . .] to Germany.
He stayed in Germany for 6 months, and then had problems with his
visa. It just was not approved, so he had to go back. I remained in
[ . . .]. After about two years working as a fulltime pastor without salary,
we ran out of money, so my family and myself, we returned to [ . . .].
When I got to [ . . .], I felt God leading me to now go and register with
the Redeemed Christian Church of God as a fulltime pastor. Now, I did

not understand what God had in mind, but I do—I had this leading. It
was a tough decision. My wife wasn’t happy with it, and I don’t blame
her. Ah, we came from an executive position, to, [laughs] I wouldn’t
say we were paupers, but we had nothing. Even in [ . . .] we could not
afford an apartment. We had to stay with my wife’s auntie, and my
wife, myself, and my son—they were the ones fitting us. You know, for
an African, it was very depressing. I got a job with a computer firm,
but I felt this strong leading, ‘don’t take that job. Go and register as a
fulltime pastor.’ And I did not want to work as a fulltime pastor because
the welfare package for a fulltime pastor isn’t enough to write home
about. But I felt I had to obey God, so I registered as a fulltime pastor.
And the moment I signed the dotted, the dotted line, they sent me back
to [ . . .] [laughs] for another two years. I was in [ . . .], at the end of the
second year, when the call came. Pastor [ . . .] came to Nigeria from US
and said ‘they are having problems with the church in Germany, and,
they needed a pastor. The pastor who was there before, that’s pastor
[ . . .], ah, has resigned. He has to go to Berlin with his wife as all the
embassies are moving, and there is no pastor there. And the church
now needs somebody who can handle it, because there haven been so
many crises.’ He would be grateful if I could think about it and take
that offer. As of that time, I was really getting tired of being a fulltime
pastor in Nigeria. With people making so much problems, and I was
beginning to ask myself: Did I make the right decision in the first place?
Anyway, everything just seemed to coincide at that period, that the only
door that seemed open was to come to Germany. Ah, when we started
processing, I remember the wife of my state pastor telling me that ‘It is
a good thing about you that you did not lobby to be sent to Germany.’
That I’d just been sitting down and waiting for them to call me. ‘We
know those who’d love to go, but you did not love it, so we take it that
God wants you to go there and . . .’ In a nutshell, that’s how we ended
up in Germany on the 19th of August 2001. That’s the journey so far.
CWO: I have a few additional questions. You said you joined RCCG later, so what
was the church that you became a Christian in?
I got born again in 1988 first time. For most, I . . . prayed in my home
and gave my life to Christ. Then, the Household of God in [ . . .], that
was, I believe, the only church that I could have gone to at that time.
Ah, as an unbeliever, I was more among the party crowd, and that
particular pastor in Household of God used to be a pop star, Pastor
364 appendix
[ . . .] and we used to dance to his music at discos and parties, and it’s
like that. So when he got born again, he was a natural attraction for the
youth, for the party crowd, we could identify with him, he was in—for
Nigeria, he was outstanding, because he was a pastor who was wearing
jerry curls. And . . .
CWO: What are jerry curls?

He was wearing jerry curls on his head, like a woman. In Nigeria, it
is only women who do jerry curls, who perm the . . . yeah. American
men, they do the same thing, but Nigeria is a conservative society when
it comes to that. So when they see a man see wearing jerry curls, it’s
outstanding. He is now even a pastor, but we could identify with him,
because people were in the discotheque together. So I started attending
the church, and he’s a good, he is a gifted teacher and very charismatic.
So I stayed there. I was worshipping in that church until 1991, when I
had to move to [ . . .]. The Household of God had no arm in [ . . .], so I
first worshipped with ah . . .. I have forgot it, either it’s Christ Church,
ah . . .
CWO: It’s not important. But then you joined Redeemed Christian Church. What
was it about this church that you joined it?
Very interesting question. It was not doctrinal consideration. I grew
up in the west, I went to university in [ . . .] and I had never heard of
the name Redeemed Christian Church of God. Never. The closest I
got to know about the RCCG, was seeing their camp, the Redeemed
Camp, where they hold the Holy Ghost Service, along the Lagos-
Ibadan express road. But the church which I was going to in [ . . .],
it’s called Christ Church or, eh, Christ Chapel, Christ Chapel, that’s
correct, that’s the name of the church. The service dragged too long. I
was used to the setup in Household of God Fellowship, we start Sunday
services at 8 a.m., but 10:30 we shared the grace. Pastor [ . . .] was time-
conscious. Second service starts by 11 and by 1:30 p.m., they shared
the grace. Now I got to this church in [ . . .], Christ Chapel, and we
would start Sunday service by 9 a.m., and by 2:30 we’re still in church.
And most people who were holding the microphone really didn’t say
anything special. And it, it became too boring for me. One sister that
I met in church, Victoria, then came to church one day and told me
that she wasn’t in church the previous Sunday, because someone invited
her to this new church, that has just started in [ . . .], that’s it an elitist
church. Could I believe that the whole place was air conditioned? And
the seats were made of velvet, and the most interesting thing was that
they ended the service by 10:30 a.m. Now that one got my attention.
The A/C I was not interested, the velvet seats did not . . . but did you
say 10:30 a.m.? She said yes. I said ‘when did they start the service?’—‘8
o’clock.’—‘Ah, and it ended by 10:30 a.m.?’ She said yes. I said ‘what’s
the address?’ So she gave me their address and wanted to see this. So
the following Sunday I went to the Redeemed Christian Church of
God in [ . . .]. Now what that pastor preached that Sunday, I didn’t
know. The songs, I didn’t know. I remember, I was only looking at one
thing, the clock. What will happen at 10:30? That was the only thing
I was interested in. By 10:30 a.m., they shared the grace, and I said:
This is my church. [Laughs loud and long.] It’s . . . that’s how I ended
up in Redeemed just at the time. It was after I now joined, but I now
started lining up by their doctrines, now learnt about the vision that
God give to the founder, they knew they have a General Overseer, his
name is Pastor Adeboye and every other thing . . . But truly there . . ..
[laughs] God uses some strange ways [laughs] . . .. That’s how I got to
it.
Question unintelligible
I was born in [ . . .]. I went to primary school in [ . . .], secondary school
in that area, high school also in the west, university in [ . . .] which is
also in the west . . .
CWO: What did you read?

Mass communications. I did not know God was preparing me to talk to
a lot of people. I thought I was going to be a broadcaster. My passion
was to produce films, that’s what I wanted to do. Direct films, write
scripts and I never did it . . .
CWO: What was your secular job?

I was working with the Manufactorers’ Association of Nigeria. I was
the branch secretary, the manufactorers in Nigeria have an association
that caters for their economical and political interests, like a pressure
group. I was handling the secretariat in [ . . .]. The Headquarters is still
in Lagos.
CWO: So a kind of public relation job?

Yeah, exactly. Public relations, administration, basically, that’s what it
is.
366 appendix
CWO: Can you say a little bit . . . you came to Germany in 2001. (Yes) Now,
things have happened, you are no longer with RCCG. You may not want to go into
details, but if you look back at it and interpret it spiritually, what happened?
[Very slowly and quietly] I believe, you know, that God works out his
purpose and his counsel for our lives. Spiritually, what happened . . .
that’s a very interesting question. I have thought about it in so many
ways, but I have not been able to say I can articulate and sum it up in
one word. I would try as best as I could to be able to explain it.
One, I would say God has a purpose for bringing us to Germany.
Before I left Nigeria, he made that clear. When it was apparent we
would be coming here, and we were going to the embassy in Lagos,
you know the preliminary, eh, application, I was praying in March—
when I definitely heard, in March of 2001, when I definitely heard the
Holy Ghost say: ‘Pray for 20, eh, fast for 28 days for your mission
in Germany, and pray seven hours each day.’ So I asked ‘when do I
start?’, and immediately I got another answer: ‘Start first of April.’ And
throughout April, I fasted. My wife agreed to join me. Now the next
challenge was to pray seven hours in a day for 28 days. So we divided
the days, ah, the hours of the day, rather. We started praying like 12
midnight till 4 a.m., and we would go and sleep. In the afternoon, we
prayed from 12 noon till 2 p.m., and then we would take a break. We
would pray the last hour 5 p.m. to 6, to be able to cover these 7 hours.
And God started showing us things that had to do with the work. And
one of the things he showed us is that we are going to have a lot of
problems when we go to Germany. And, he also told me, then, that he
will show me a place in Germany, that I should go there, that I should
enter Germany fasting, and for 7 days pray and fast and pray that place
before I started doing any other thing. I, I had a retreat, just a 7-day
retreat, as I entered Germany. So I believe, one, that spiritually God
has a purpose for sending us to Germany. And as it is usual, whatever
God initiates, the devil opposes it. So everything we’ve gone through, I
saw it as an attempt of the devil to get us out of God’s perfect way. And
God had to use a very traumatic means to make it possible for us to
stay, that is the first interpretation of it. Secondly, . . .
CWO: What was the traumatic means? Just so that I understand it . . .

Yeah, the health of my son. We gave birth to E. on 3rd September of
2002, and the following day after he was born, the doctors diagnosed
that he had a heart problem, and he was operated on his 17th day.
[Interruption as his mobile phone rings. He switches it off and continues.] As
the result of this operation his doctors say that he has to remain in
Germany for access to medical treatment, which of course we would
not have in Nigeria. And because of that, we have to stay, for how
long, I don’t know. Even when we were recalled back to Nigeria in
June of 2003, ah, it was clear that we could not go back. Because
of E.’s situation, we were allowed by the German authorities, that
Aliens’ Office, to continue to stay. And I believe that God arranged
that situation so that we can stay. That’s the only thing that will have
kept us in Germany. And it, it is twofold, looking at it. The mission that
sent us cannot recall us, and even if we do get angry, or upset, or got
unhappy with Germany, we cannot leave. So it is like God killing two
birds with one stone: Nobody can push you out, even you yourself, you
can’t push, so you sit down here. And if God does that, it’s because he
has a purpose. And one thing that God has done that has encouraged
me to continue to stay, to continue to hold on—I hope I can share
this with you (Yes). When all the problems started, and things got so
tight, I was going to get confused. December 2002, I was to travel to
Berlin, I think it was December 21, 2002. I was to travel Berlin for
a program. Usually, when I travel to Berlin, I leave very early in the
morning, so I had woken up by 12 midnight so that I could pray till
about 3, then I started getting dressed to go out and get a taxi and
go to the Bahnhof, so I will sleep inside the train for the five hours.
So while I was praying I asked God three questions: A lot of things
were going wrong, in the church, in the work, the [unintelligible word]
were making problems—we need not go into details—and I asked God
3 questions. Question number 1: Why am I here? Two: Why are all
these things taking place? And three: What am I supposed to do now?
Three questions. And within 30 minutes, God gave me the answer to
the three. It’s one of those rare moments that he speaks and you know
that he speaks definitely. And the first question, ‘why are you here?’ he
said ‘It is to be a light to the Germans.’ Question number 2, ‘why are
all these things taking place?’ he said ‘There is a treasure inside of you
that has to come out, so you have to be broken.’ And he referred me to
2. Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7: ‘Now we have a treasure in an earthly
vessel.’ And then question number 3: ‘what am I supposed to do now?’
He said ‘you begin to pray 12 midnight, every day.’ And that’s why till
today, my alarm is permanently set to a quarter to 12 at night. I try to
go to bed earlier, and even when I don’t go to bed earlier, I will still
go by 12 midnight. Of course, not every day, there are some days I get
so tired, when I get to the place of prayer, I fall asleep. That one is
368 appendix
true, but at least almost every day, almost I would say, I try that I get
to pray by 12 midnight. I could pray for one hour, for three hours, for
four hours, it depends on how alert and awake I am. But 12 midnight,
I’m at the place of prayer, every day. And that has started since 2002.
And one grace that God also gave me was the opportunity to be part
of a German prayer team, ah, Wächterruf in [ . . .], and we meet twice
in a month. And for me, I see it as an important opportunity, so I don’t
miss the prayer meetings. It gives me an opportunity to, one, be able to
pray for Germany, two, to be able to give something back to the nation,
because we received so much help and so much favor, particularly when
E. was sick. The hospital bill alone, if we had been in any other country
in the world apart from Germany, we will have lost that child. No other
nation in the world could have done what the Germans did.
7. R.A.: “God gave me a burden” 10
One time I was praying and I felt the Lord was urging me to go to
Germany. And the reason why it was very special for me was I never
thought of coming to Germany because I knew that many people who
left Ghana and they came to Germany, any time they went back to
Ghana they were unbelievers! Some were good Christians, and when
they come to Germany, and they go back to Ghana, they go back as
people who don’t even know God! And I knew I saw so many things
that were happening to them which were not so good, so I have asked
some of them: ‘Don’t you go to church in Germany?’ And they said
that, one, they couldn’t attend any German church service because it
was done in German and they didn’t understand anything that was
happening, and also sometimes they go to a German church and they
didn’t feel welcomed, so some of them prefer to stay home, and it is
really this—it has cost a lot of family break-up, so when I heard the
voice ‘Germany’, I felt that this would be my vision, this would be my
what I’ll be doing in Germany, so God opened the doors for me to
come to Germany, and when I came, I started this ministry, [ . . .].
10 Interviewed 16 February 2005 in his church office.

CWO: Can you be a little bit more detailed? How did it happen? How did God
urge you to come here?
I had a burden. I, I heard a voice, the voice ‘Germany’, and straight-
away God gave me a burden. So I went to the German embassy and
made enquiries. How does it take, what does it take to come to Ger-
many? And they said: ‘Bring your passport and bring a valid ticket.’
So the following day I bought a ticket, I took my passport, and I went
to the German Embassy. And the forms that I filled, they, they asked
‘Do you know anybody in Germany?’ I said ‘no.’—‘Where will you stay
in Germany?’ I wrote ‘hotel.’ And, I couldn’t complete so many areas
on the form, because I knew that it was God’s leading. So, I filled the
form, and they told me: ‘Say, when do you want to travel?’ And I said,
I said ‘Friday.’ That was Tuesday—I said ‘Friday I will travel.’ They
told me to come on Thursday to collect my visa. So it was no struggle
and that made me know that it was the will of God. So when I got to
Germany—it was [ . . .] Airport I came to, and as soon as I came out
from the airport, I told the taxi driver: ‘Take me to the cheapest hotel.’
Over there, I locked myself in the hotel for one week, just seeking the
face of God in prayer, and in fasting, and when I came out from the
hotel, that’s how God connected me to Pfarrer [ . . .] and we’ll be friends
to this time, and he has been helpful to us.
CWO: How did you meet Pastor [ . . . ]? How did that come about?
Pfarrer [ . . .] was then the superintendent of the Evangelical Church
in [ . . .], and they were, they were assisting and supporting some
Ethiopian Christians in the [ . . .] that couldn’t work out well, and the
help that were given to the Ethiopian Christians happened to now
follow me, because that church couldn’t—they were trying to hold a
church for the Ethiopians and the Eritreans and Christians, and it
transformed—eh every help was now transformed or transferred to,
to me, because that church couldn’t stand. And ever since we’ve been
friends and . . . yes.
CWO: Were you a pastor in Ghana before you came to Germany?

I did a lot of ministry in Ghana, and from Ghana I was sent to Liberia,
I did some missionary work in Liberia, so from Liberia God opened
doors for me to go to Spain. I did some missionary work also in Spain
with a very big ministry there. From Spain I went to Ghana, and when
I was in Ghana, I felt God was calling me to come to Germany, and
now I know why God urged me to come to Germany. [ . . .]
370 appendix
CWO: I can tell you don’t like so much to talk about your life, but I still want
to ask a few more questions, if that is alright. You said God urged you, God put
a burden on you: How did that happen? I mean, how did you get that burden?
What—concretely, how did it happen?
It, it came through prayer, and, you know after—eh like everyone
knows after praying you have to sit down and listen to, listen to yourself,
and also listen to an impression you believe the Holy Spirit is giving, so
it happened just like that. And also God opened my eyes to see how
couples came from Germany and, they—some killed each other, they,
they killed each other, eh divorce and destroying cars and selling houses
that they’ve built together, to build together, I saw a lot of devastation
here. And they told me that in Germany, they have no mentor, they
have no Christian to help them, and I discovered that the Ghanaians
live in their own communities, especially when they came to [ . . .] here,
there was a street called [ . . .], that street was—is known till today eh—
homes for the hippies, that’s where they live, and many Ghanaians lived
in that area, and they speaking Ghanaian language, they eat Ghanaian
food, everything Ghanaian Ghanaian—you smells like you are, you’re
in Ghana over there, because everything you hear is Ghana Ghana,
you smell Ghanaian food, and I discovered that the people were very
close up, they were a very closed society! And eh they, they talked in
their own language, they, they need help, they go to Ghanaian and they
had no—some of them had no contact to Germans! No one that—they
couldn’t go to church. So our church was the first in, in this city to
bring about having an African church in this city, and we were able
to reach out to all these people out of us and now we have a lot of
Ghanaian churches, and we even have reach out to Nigerians—we’re
having a lot. We are a multicultural church, and we always teach the
word of God in a very balanced way. What is the Gospel? The Gospel is
a good news from God, a good news who are so—and also a good news
to show us how to live with each other, that you treat everyone around
you with respect, with dignity, knowing that everyone is also a person,
no matter their color, everyone is a person, everyone is a human being,
everyone must be treated with respect. My wife comes from Chile,
South America, she’s white, and people have watched us from afar
and they’ve seen how our marriage has been, and it has encouraged
them especially. Some Blacks who’ve been married to Whites, some
have thought it’s a taboo to be married to a White, but they have
watched us, and we have been an inspiration to many people and I’ve
taught our people, especially those who are married to the Germans,
I have taught them how not to make a German a Ghanaian, or how

not to make a German a Nigerian, but make the German a German,
and you too, you too, you must be a Ghanaian or a Nigerian or an
Ethiopian—just respect each other’s color, learn how to accept each
other, whether—it has worked for many people. They usually say: in
our country, this how we do it. But I tell them we’re in Germany, let’s
do it the German way, having the word of God in mind, and let us
help . . .
CWO: How did you start [your church]? Can you tell the story?
Yes [ . . .] is a form in the year 1991, as in [ . . .], we used their premises,
and I made it very international in such a way that people around
me were urging me to have a Ghanaian church, have a Ghanaian
Bible, use the Ghanaian language, but I, I’ve felt that was not called
to reach out to Ghanaians only, if I’m called to reach out to Ghanaians
I will have remained in Ghana. We have a lot of Ghanaians in Ghana
today. But I discovered that I’m here for the the Gospel’s sake. And I
discover—we discover in the Bible that the Gospel is for all nations! So,
we went the international way, that’s not been easy, but God has given
us grace that I’ve always had good people, I’ve always had good people
around me to help to preach this vision, and this, this is how it has
been, and we have seen how God has blessed us and with—he is, he is
still blessing us, and we have a long way to go and we believe by the
grace of God we will get there.
CWO: But how did you start? Who were the first people who came?
Yeah, we started—I started with seven people. We were just seven in
number, and the seven grew to, we got to the twenties, I mean we got
to, we grew very steadily, I believe in steady growth, and this is how it
became . . . but it’s amazing that we started with seven and in a small
corner in [ . . .], and together with my wife, we fought on, we forged
on, to encourage others to join us in the vision that we believe God has
given to us. We believe we’ve been called for the nations, and as long
as we’re in Germany here, we love the Germans very much, because
we believe that in the past God has used them to bless us and God is
still using the Germans to bless Africa, and so we believe this is our
contribution, too, and this why I expect every African here, especially
those who are in my church, expect them to have high standards, that
people will look at their lives and they will admire African Christians.
They cannot preach—we preach here is beyond our church services.
372 appendix
Mondays are very important, the weekdays are very, very important,
that’s what I been hammering on. After a nice Sunday service, what
do you do on Monday, what do you do on Tuesday? Our neighbors
are watching us, are you friendly, are you very forgiving, are you very
tolerant? This is very, very important and this is what my people
understand, and then my people know that—people who come to our
church know that I’m a number one preacher on the love of God and
also forgiveness, and I have been learning how to respect and esteem
others better than you—apart from we loving the move of the Holy
Spirit—this practical things helps us, because practical Christianity is
what you do with your neighbor. Jesus said: Love your neighbor as
yourself. If you’re a Christian and you cannot love your neighbor as
yourself because your neighbor is having a different color or speaks a
different language than you speak, you can’t relate to him, then I think
you have serious problems, so this are the basic things that I teach and
communicate with the people, and I’ve seen results, many many results.
CWO: How big is [ . . . ] now, how many members do you have?

Usually—sometimes, we lose track of our members because then and
there we get newcomers, and sometimes some of our members also
travel. But I can say that on Sundays, at least, hm, we have, at least 200
people visiting us, at least 200, and that we can count on, at least. And
we have four church services, some come in the morning, they don’t
show up in the afternoon, a Spanish service, and a morning church
service, almost at the same time, and then Sunday afternoon church
service, and Sunday night church service, different people come. So at
the end, usually, we will have over 300 people that have visited in the
church.
8. E.S.: “I felt a call strongly to Germany” 11
I felt called to ministry, and so I had study in the Maranatha Bible

College. Three years, I got my B.A. in Theology, so then I moved
into church planting, founded a church in [ . . .] and felt a call to go to
Germany, specifically because I had a German family I was living with.
And I felt a call strongly to Germany. I cannot explain that because it
11 Interviewed 2 March 2005 in his church office.

is more of a calling from your, what you call it, from your spirit, from
your heart. And so, well, I planned to go, to go to the Institute, I teach
there, and by the time I was finished I had the opportunity to come to
Germany, because it was, it was the lady I was living with, she was a
German. Actually, we have to work out to get a missionary visa. Okay,
that worked out, and I came to Germany. I came to Germany not
having any church. Not a German church invited me, nor me knowing
which church I am going to. You know, kind of work together with. But
I just came, and as I came, I arrived here in 1988, August, and I—that
was a Friday evening, and Saturday morning I went out to look for a
place of worship. Since I was a Baptist back then, I decided to look for a
Baptist church. And obviously, I went to the tourist information center,
where they told, they told me of the Baptist Church in [ . . .]. So I just
went there Sunday morning for service. After the service, a young man
came up to me and—he just spoke ‘Hello, how are you.’ Actually, I
didn’t expect an English-speaking person there, but I happened to find
this guy who had been in England for some time, so he spoke English.
And I told him who I was as a pastor, and a church, and why I am
here in Germany as a missionary and stuff like that. And he said: ‘Well,
that’s a good idea!’ And so the next week, I think in two weeks later—I
kept going on to church—about two weeks later, I told him about my
idea about starting something with English, because I do speak English,
and so we arranged, we came into the flat . . . I was in a student flat
at that time, sharing with a student friend of mine. So right in my flat
there, we basically started a fellowship, and that was him and myself.
And so all—we started inviting people, and I basically go out and invite
everybody. So at our next meeting we were a bit—about six, and so he
said that my place would be small. So we moved to his place, and then
what happened was that I went with him in his car to the Asylheim, or
you call it the political asylum seekers’ home, and we picked some guys,
and we brought them in where we were doing it. So it’s sort of growing,
growing like that. We moved then to [ . . .], of course, that’s where we
were going to church, and they provided us a place, and we started a
work there. Actually, what was very integral to our work there was the
street work we did, actually. We go out, he plays the guitar, so he plays
the guitar, many people gather, then I preach, I preach in English, he
translates into German, and we invited people to church. That’s how
we got people to come into the church. Basically, that’s how I came
to Germany, basically. I felt the call to come here as a missionary. So
that’s how my work here started. I moved to [ . . .] for some time, I did
374 appendix
some work withthis one pastor, [ . . .]. He was there at that time [ . . .].
I worked with them for a while, and, well, at the same time I was in
[ . . .]. Actually, I didn’t leave, but helped them, and then, obviously, I
was in [ . . .], I started a church in [ . . .], I stayed in [ . . .] two and a
half years, I think, and then, I just felt God asking me to come down
to [ . . .] to start a central church and build a bigger mission. And that’s,
that’s how it happens that I moved to [ . . .] in 1996, so, I started with
only mission work in the streets. I didn’t have any church, so I was just
going on the street and preach publicly, and, distribute tracts. I traveled
to [ . . .], traveled there, just talking to people about Jesus and stuff like
that. Until I found that I desired to start a church, which would be
a base by which we would do our mission work. Initially, our heart
was more strongly on—just, you know, kind of having conferences and
seminars, inviting people, which we started that way and it was quite
fruitful, go and get about people. But we felt led by God to start a
church where people—at least that we get to bring to Christ would be,
would be able to come and worship . . . So we started in my flat over
there again, me and my wife alone. Well, we go out to speak to people,
and we got three people to join us the next meeting, and one of them
gave her life to Christ, and she was a Muslim before she gave her life to
Christ. They became our foundation members. One from Kenya, the
other one from Uganda, and then, the next meeting, we have two other
people as well. They were Ghanaian, so we had four, and then going
on six, and then we moved out of the place and then we came to [ . . .],
and the number increased . . . So that’s how it, it grew. We actually
got a lot of Germans, as well, coming in. We were able to reach a lot
of Germans. Actually, at the beginning stages, I think my church was
predominantly German, there were mostly Germans we and only had
a few, a few Africans. But well, over the years, things have changed.
What happened, actually, now, I would say, is, looking at the church in
[ . . .], we have done a lot of mission work in [ . . .]; we’ve been able to
reach other cities . . . [ . . .], we have a church there. And it’s the same
pattern. I used to start a church there. We started with one person; I
go there, I meet some person and start with him in his house, and then
it grows and then we find a place. And then in [ . . .] as well, the same
story. And in [ . . .], the same story; in [ . . .] now we have one going on
there, and then in [ . . .]. This is the pattern we use in reaching people.
Well, the church is completely self-supportive, and, basically, we believe
strongly that our missionary work here is going to grow and going to
grow, quite big.
CWO: Thank you. What put the thought of Germany in your mind? How, how did
you find out you had a call to Germany?
Okay. I guess, most of the times we would say that God puts things into
our hearts. I would say that, well, in the beginning could be so, but,
yes, it’s a call from God in my heart to go there. But however, I can
also contribute it to the fact that, well, I am living among a German
family and thereby hearing about the spiritual situation in Germany,
also as a contributing factor. Speaking from a practical perspective, I
would say that that’s also another contributing factor. However, I might
say it was strongly God’s, God’s leading. But hearing of the, what do
you call it now, of the spiritual condition in this country, I think that’s
another contributing factor that made me decide to do this. Yeah. . . .
[short interruption as a church worker brings tea]
CWO: Okay, the question I wanted to ask you: You said ‘the spiritual condition
of Germany’ (Yeah) was a factor in making you want to come here. Can you say
concretely what you mean by the spiritual condition of Germany?
Okay, the first thing I would say is that . . . we’re hearing of the
churches getting empty. We’re hearing of the fact that, eh, the number
of the people, the number of people do not go to church, not just don’t
go to church but aren’t even interested in God—well, that’s a sign of
spiritual decline, when people turning away from God. Obviously, in
the past, we know about people turning away from God, but a nation
like Germany that brought about revival, I mean reformation, which
are Martin Luther and so . . . and coming to hear in those, let’s say in
the eighties that churches, church decline is becoming a concern . . . we
were reading it in the Spiegel, because she is a, a worker in the embassy
and we get the Spiegel, and she reads that and she talks about it, and
we get magazines in English, and we read, and we see this, these issues,
and we discuss them, she discussed them with us at home then. We
actually even formed a Bible study group in the house which is made
up of diplomats, and we discuss these things. So from there, I got to
know that the church in Germany is dying, and all over Europe as
well, but Germany specifically is getting some problems in that. And
that, that’s what I mean by that: The churches getting empty, people
not being interested in God, and most especially, when I felt that I
have—there aren’t many youth! In fact, one of the things that was a bit
shocking to me was the fact that the churches are full with old people.
I didn’t get to know about it when I came here, but I knew about it in
Ghana. But that was the opposite of what we knew in Ghana: Most of
376 appendix
the churches are full with youth, and the old people really didn’t want
to go to church, because they claim that, well, they didn’t go to church
in the olden times. And so this is one of the factor that I felt, that, well,
this is a place where one can actually go for mission work. But then, as
I said, I had also this conviction in my heart that God wants me to do
it. And I say this because if, if it wasn’t that, I would have given up and
gone to England, or the, the US, because it got by easier in terms of
the language and also the mentality and the culture and so. But, with
all these challenges, knew that there was a reason why I should come
here . . .
CWO: You felt called as a missionary . . .

I felt called as a missionary, I think, I hundred percent say that. Because
I didn’t even know that Africans living in here that much. It wasn’t
something I knew, not until I came here. Actually, my big surprise I
had when I came to [ . . .] and I got to get involved with Africans a
lot. But initially I wasn’t really involved with that much Africans, my
involvement has been with Germans. For example, being in [ . . .] over
there, I just . . . were always working, I was always working with Ger-
man churches: Landeskirche, Freie Evangelische churches and everywhere
Evangelical churches.
9. R.N.: “To come to [ . . . ] was not a choice.” 12
My background is not like . . . a Christian family so strong to be as

I know now, but they were very religious, my mother, my father, my
grandmother . . . Actually, my grandmother gave a strong impartation
in my life when I was growing. And most of the things that happened,
in such a way, that every Sunday, we had to go to church. In school, I
attended a Presbyterian school, when I was growing, and on Monday
morning it is necessary, it is necessary that you show to the whole school
whether you were in church on Sunday. If you were not at church on
Sunday, you have a punishment, so people went to church. We also
went to church. I believe now I can look back at it as a foundation.
Good, and so I grew up to be like that, and then I went to High School,
and did our program in education and everything that we did. But one
12 Interviewed 16 November 2005 in his church office.

time I had an experience with the Lord, and I became born again.
Unlike before, at a crusade or in a church, it was a personal encounter,
you know, like a vision, like a . . . I was not asleep, I was awake, and I
heard this clear . . . like a voice calling me, and so this night, I made
a decision for the Lord. A friend invited me, the first time we went
for a prayer meeting. It was an all night prayer meeting, and then at
this prayer meeting, I knew that what I had also clear that the Lord
really was calling my attention to serve him. And since then I became
a Christian, a born-again Christian, and then I got myself attached to
the Assemblies of God Church, ever since I have been in an Assemblies
of God Church. It’s the place I’ve had my training. So, in ’84, I had
the opportunity to be a missionary in Togo, and I was based in [ . . .],
in a central church. It was during this time I serviced there—I was
there for five years—it was during the time I serviced there, that I had
a contact with Operation Mobilisation, OM, which the headquarters
is here, in Germany, in Morsbach. So while I did this outreach work
with OM, I got to know Germany and the outreach work Germany
did in mission, the vision and different things. I studied the whole
history, and I found out that Germans were in Ghana, especially in
the Volta Region where my wife comes from. So there was something
so rich about Germany. But to come to [ . . .], which is directly your
question, it was not a choice! It’s not like—oh, after my mission in
Togo, the next place to go, wow, we’re going to [ . . .]—no, it was not
on my calendar at all! Number one, the reason which I also told God,
‘please, don’t send me to Germany,’ when I saw that it was obvious
that I was going to Germany, I was arguing with God: ‘God, how
can you send me to Germany? Number one, I don’t speak German,
I don’t know anything about Germany, apart from the contact with
OM, I don’t know anyone. There is no link, there is no direct link
to Germany.’ Number two, my wife was studying in London, and so
when I returned from Togo and I had to go overseas, I felt U.K. was
. . .. My wife was there, okay, it was my fiancée, we were not . . . my
wedding has not come on . . . so I said: ‘God, if you’re sending me
somewhere, why not to the place where my wife-to-be is? I mean that
will be great, you know, after her studies, we have our duration.’ Every
door was closed for me to go to U.K. or anywhere else. But then I
saw myself in Germany, in 1989 in October. So when I came, I first
drove to Morsbach, I went to the OM headquarters, I asked for some
of my friends, those with whom we had worked together, but most of
them were scattered to New Guinea, Canada, you know, people were
378 appendix
far away. But there was one man who had just returned from India.
And this man, he just wants to begin some, you know, foreigners’ work
in Germany. And then, I was introduced to him, I look for him, I found
him, and . . . I went to [ . . .], I stayed for three weeks and met some
pastors there—these are all Germans, and a missionary from America.
They prayed every Tuesday, so I was with them in the prayer meeting.
For three weeks, I was there, and I was only in my spirit praying that
‘God, what do you have for me here in Germany?’ And . . . this started
to give a background of OM work, and different things that went on.
And during this time, a comprehensive report was given about [ . . .].
. . . Ostertreff for OM, Easter Convention, which happened in [ . . .], that
same ’89. They were giving a report, they were here, and different
things happened, the outreach in March in the street and all these
things. And so this was the first time I heard about [ . . .], I didn’t
know anyone there, I didn’t have any contact. And I think it became
something that sticked into my spirit, so when I was sleeping, and when
I prayed, I have something, a strong urge—I didn’t know exactly what
the impression was. So one time I called my friend, the pastor, and I
said: ‘Is there any way that we can visit [ . . .], just to look?’ Because he
took me to [ . . .], he took me to [ . . .], he took me to [ . . .], we were
traveling, I mean during my stay. So I said: ‘Can we visit [ . . .] one
day?’ and he said: ‘Yeah, why not, this weekend?’ and then we fixed
it. It was around my birthday, November, just like now. And then we
came. And we met one Baptist brother, very wonderful brother, and he
loves the Lord so much, he hosted us, we had a good time with him, in
his house, and then on Sunday, he took us to Baptist church, it was fine.
On Monday, my friend said that we should be going back. And I said:
‘No, I’m not going back with you.’ He said ‘Why?’ and I said: ‘I want
to know a little bit about [ . . .], so please, I’ll call you.’ So after service
on Sunday, in the week, this young man took me around the city [ . . .].
He took me to [ . . . ] Dom [cathedral], to the university area, and he is
ready to talk about the history, how old this is, this is a very old empire,
many kings were crowned here, the coronation, so I got . . . it was so
exciting, I really want to know more, he took me to different spots. And
I told my friend: ‘I’m not coming, I mean this place is so rich, and, I
want to be here.’ But before I forget—that same evening, before we left
[ . . .] for this place, there was a missionary, an American missionary, he
met me at the entrance, as we were going to the car, and he said ‘Ey,
young man, where are you going this evening?’ and my friend said ‘He
wants to go to see [ . . .]. He has been talking . . .. He’s got a feeling he
just has to see this place, see what the Lord has for him.’ And then the
man said: ‘Hey, [ . . .] is a very hard place to begin from.’ And I smiled,
like always, and he said ‘I’m not joking! You can smile. You can go to
Cologne, you can go to some other cities, but I know [ . . .], we have
a good history, people have tried to be there, but latest five years . . .
you cannot establish from [ . . .], you can start this from somewhere and
maybe shift . . .’ And I smiled and we left. But in the car I thought, I
didn’t have any strong message about [ . . .] in my prayer, because, you
know, in the last three weeks, I was praying and fasting, and believing
God, but this message for me, it was great! I said: ‘God, now I know,
that you want to send me to [ . . .]. Not because of comfort, but because
there is an assignment. If the place is hard, I believe, it is where you will
begin anything from.’ Then I came, and then indeed, apart from all the
beautiful historical information I got from my friend, when we began
the work here in [ . . .], I saw that what the old man had said is true.
For one thing, my decision was clear. Through that I knew that God is
faithful, right now I can say God is faithful, looking back to 16 years,
and I say: God is faithful. So I came here with that strong impression,
it came to me at night, praying, after they told me about [ . . .] Easter
Convention. That’s it, and now I am in [ . . .]. [laughs]
CWO: So how did you start [ . . . ] Fellowship?

So how did I start [ . . .] Fellowship? From that same friend, [ . . .], when
I came, he was doing African Christian Fellowship here. And so we
traveled around, did different things, and so when I moved here, I knew
I would do something. So I came, I talked to this Baptist friend, and
he—around the same year, he and this Baptist friend were saying, ‘oh,
we want to start English house fellowship—Hauskreis.’ So when I came,
he said, ‘wow, look at it, we have just begun and we have an English
pastor!’ It was like excitement, and we were talking about, and we
laughed over it. When I came, . . . I contacted my pastors, my general
superintendants at home, and I told him, we want to begin a work here.
So they told me important was first to start to check all the foundational
work, what is necessary, get in contact with some churches. So I start to
get in contact. I knew this Baptist church, the pastor, an old man, very
spirit-filled, he was so generous, he welcomed me to the Baptist church,
so I fellowshipped there every Sunday. So I got to know one other
man in a pentecostal church [ . . .], and then gradually I got to know
one other pastor from the Evangelical Church. [ . . .] So he became a
very . . . he was like a father and mentor to me, from the Evangelical
380 appendix
church. So when I met all these people, I called them and I said: ‘I
have something to share,’ and they gave me audience. And I talked
with these three people, the Baptist pastor, the [ . . .] church, which is
a free church, and then the Evangelical church, and this is a strong
voice in the city. So they said ‘okay, young man, what is it?’, and I
told them that ‘I’m a pastor, I’ve been in mission for five years, I went
back home, and the Lord sent me here. I have come, and I want to
establish a community. And I believe, having prayed I believe that God
has sent me first of all to the African or the English community or
some people from my background. The reason why I see it is, from this
short time I have stayed, some of our people don’t have direct access
to the already established German community. Number one, language,
number two, culture, number three, I mean this family thing. So I want
to . . . I have been praying to God to first help me get these people,
and when they have a place, where they can gather themselves together
as a community, they will see the need to be [unintelligible word] and
integrated, to be in a community where they will not be lost, but they
see themselves as part of it. So this is my assignment.’ And they said
‘wow, we never thought of this!’ And then they started to share with
me. ‘Yeah, we had a student here from Kenya, he came to our church
for three months, but we don’t see him again.’ Or another person . . .
so they gave me such testimony. I said, ‘Yeah, this is what I need. I
mean, when they are alone, they don’t fit in, but when they are many,
they see themselves as a body, it’s easy to fit in.’ So they said ‘we
agree, that would be helpful, and we support.’ So the Baptist pastor,
the [ . . .] pastor, and the Evangelical pastor also agreed. Then I started
to [unintelligible passage] and to attach it to my resident permit, because
I told them that I’m a missionary sent here. So when I think, when
I came three days, I went and did my registration, Anmeldung, so they
said with my work, they will look [unintelligible passage] person. So I got
some papers from those pastors, they signed that we agree, and I sent
my letter from Africa, so I also got them to receive me, so I added it
to the Foreign Office, then my certificates, I gave them to the Baptist
church, they were so generous, they translated everything for me, and
I added it all for the Ausländeramt. I waited for the response, it took
some time, I mean the whole long process, but eventually, they agreed,
it was agreed by the church, or by the churches in the city, this foreign
work is accepted and it should be done, because they were not doing it
officially. And so we started. [ . . .] Church gave us a place of meeting,
a small place. And then we started, we started with a home fellowship,
and then it started growing, and then the [ . . .] Church moved, so we

came to the Baptist church. We don’t have a place, no problem, they
also gave us a place, we started meeting there. Then there was another
French group, which was, like, more Baptist-attached to the Baptist
church. And so we had to share the Sundays, they met two Sundays
in a month, we met two Sundays in a month, and I said, I talked to
the elders, I said ‘Two Sundays in a month is not a good idea, because
. . .. it’s a pioneer work, it needs a lot of concentration. You work, not
relax. So we are very thankful for the support, but we are looking for a
place, and when we get it, we’ll let our brothers have four weeks, and
then we’ll also have four weeks.’ I talked to Pastor [ . . .]. So he—the
first contact gave me the opportunity to relate to all these people in
this place. And I moved to the Evangelical Church in [ . . .], we had
our services there every Sunday. So we started with a small group. . . .
Ahm, I was attending Volkshochschule [adult education school], because
of the German language. So when I close from school, I take my bath.
If I meet someone, an African, I ask ‘Do you speak English?’, if he say
yes, ‘Can we share something?’ I gave tracts, I went to the bank hall, I
started visiting some Asylheims [asylum seeker homes], I invited people,
praying with people. They couldn’t come to church in the beginning.
So what I did was: I’d go there Wednesday, Friday, and I had meetings
there, in the Heims, until people would start to understand the Bible;
and those, there were some Christians, and ‘oh, you’re a pastor!’, so
they were so interested, and after some time, I started to invite them to
church. And interesting, I had to go there with my car and pick them
to church [laughs], and after church, went to the car and pick them!
This car was not mine, it is my friend who hosted me, he borrowed it
to me, so I always went and picked them, and bring them back. So we
started, just in a small family, three people, and then we grew gradually
from the Hauskreis [home fellowship], to the Baptist church and so
on. . . . Yeah, I forgot something: We started with ‘African Christian
Fellowship’, for a short time, then I realized, no, this is not African
Christians, it is international. Because, the future is that we don’t want
to be separated, the future is that we want to rather be integrated,
we want to be together. There’ll be some people, Germans who’ll be
interested or who would know Jesus Christ through our outreach, and
if we say ‘Africans’, it will put them off. So we changed the name from
‘African Christian Fellowship’, and it became ‘International Christian
Fellowship’. I have to write also to the Ordnungsamt [Municipal Office]
that the name has changed. So that is how we have started.
382 appendix
CWO: When did you move into this building?

We move into this building in the year 2002, on the fourth, that’s
when we moved in. But we have used every church building in [ . . .],
I mean, we have used every church building in [ . . .]! The reason was,
sometimes, if it was in Evangelical church, they have a special program
and they say ‘Sunday, you cannot use.’ Then immediately I’m looking
for different places, the Catholic, the Baptist, some other Evangelical
churches, so we went to different places. So we were in [ . . .] that this
vision came that we want to buy a temple. And people want to buy
a place where we can have time. That’s like we do in Africa, even in
the middle of the week, we can have services. Even during the day,
people can come for counseling, we can have a place like the club we
have there, the students can meet there, internet, they can have a place
of fellowship, they don’t feel alone. So when I gave the vision to the
church, they were excited. They said: ‘Why not? We can do it. We can
do it! And we’ll stand behind the vision.’ And then we started to put
every extra money that we had on the side—and very interesting, I
went to the bank, I told them ‘we have some money, we want to buy a
church building, and we want to put it in a special fixed deposit.’ And
they said: ‘What? You want to buy a church building?’ And they said
‘It’s a small money, but okay . . .’ so they put it into an account. And
on that day, I called the committee, and we put a code on it, and I said
‘This amount—whether I am here or whether I am not here—nobody
can withdraw from this account until it is ready to be transferred to buy
a church building. Even if we have to pay electricity and we don’t have
money, that money is not for electricity, it is not for heating, it is not for
anything but church building.’ And we saved, and we saved—I think
we saved for . . . . 96, 97 . . . we saved our own money, and the day we
wanted to transfer money to the owners of this building to buy, we went
to our account, and we had 150,000 Deutschmarks on our account. And
then the bank said ‘okay, we will give you 100 % sponsorship with your
capital.’ It’s okay because we need some money for the renovation—so
we took that money, the sponsorship, and also some sponsorship from
the BfP,13 and we moved here in 2002, and since then we have been
here. It’s a blessing. [laughs]
13 Bund freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden, Federation of Free Pentecostal Churches, of
which R.N.’s ministry is a member church.

CWO: Some questions for clarification: Did you come to Germany directly from
Ghana?
Yes, as a missionary. I was sent by the Assemblies of God. What hap-
pened was, they didn’t put so much strain, like a roadmap, to tie you—
today, as I’m talking, one of our big men, he was the Assistant General
Superintendent, he is our guest now, he came to visit our church—
they knew that some of us were on mission, they said that, okay, at the
moment we are not sending missionaries officially where they would
support—but those of us that are pioneer, who are on mission, who
want to do that, they give us our support, so I have a direct support
from Assemblies of God into this place. So they introduced me to the
equivalent of the Assemblies of God in this place, which is the BfP. And
so I have a direct support from my church.
CWO: Did you have some kind of theological training?

Yes, exactly, I was trained by the Assemblies of God, and then I went to
Togo. My training was not campus training, but it was in-the-church
training, so when we needed some program, we’d got to the Bible
school, and then we’d come back because I was so much engaged in
the practical there—I was a church planter, and so in the Assemblies
of God, in my local church, they would send us to (if it were to be
Germany) [ . . . ], a team of about 8–10 people. We go there. Our’s is
just underground work, see the necessity, meet the king, the chief, talk
with the people, tell them, and then we will prepare for a crusade,
do the crusade, and then we will stay there, train people, establish the
church, and then, when we are ready, a pastor will be called, and we
go back to the local church. So I was doing this—and I didn’t think
I would be in a full-time pastor, because I was so much happy with
the administration, organization, and church planting. So when I left
from Togo and I went to Ghana, immediately we had to start a new
work in the place I was, because I was not coming from [ . . .], I was
coming from [ . . .], so when I came to [ . . .], and then a new pastor
was there, and when he saw me, he went ‘Ah, you’re back, wow!’, so we
started a new work. We were just finished—I was doing a seminar for
training Sunday school teachers, I came home, I slept on my bed, with
my back on my bed, and I felt this strong impression that I had another
assignment, and I was going to go international, was traveling, and I
was wondering where. So, at the back of my mind I was so excited
because a) I would go to London, go to my wife, you know, my fiancée,
but everything changed, you know, everything changed. And besides
384 appendix
my training in Assemblies of God, also, I have done a one-year training

with Grace Bible College in the US, also, because I feel it is necessary
for my work.
CWO: Did you have any other kind of training?

Yes, I have three other programs. I was trained as a stenographer / sec-
retary, I mean that those days, when I finished my education, I worked
with the High Court, so I’m the one who sits there, and they are
talking and talking, and I am taking shorthand and write up all these
documents. I also trained in hotel management. After working in the
court, I wanted to do something greater, and so I trained in hotel
management. So I am the one sitting and planning the whole concept,
restaurants and such things. And I am also a trained cook, continental
[laughs]. So these are areas that I did with administration, and I did also
computer with added graphics, so I work with Corel Draw, Photoshop
and such things. So if I’m not a pastor, I could just sit over there and
open a shop, open a restaurant, or teach, and I taught in college, too.
After my training as a stenographer, I was on scholarship, and I taught
in the same college. I type more than write, you know . . .
CWO: So all of these come in handy when leading a church . . .

[laughs] Yes, yes. You know you will not know what God wants you
to do, so all you have to study or learn, it later becomes so useful. If
I should have a fulltime secretary from a pioneer work, how are you
going to pay? So I thank God that I learnt a business. [laughs]
10. J.S.: “I was posted to [ . . . ]” 14
I am a Nigerian, born in 1963 to a family of . . . there were eight

people in our family, and my father happens to be a worker in UTC
Nigeria, and married to three wives. My mother happens to be the
first wife. So we had a very nice home until were faced with challenges
of polygamous home, whereby there was fight between the wives, and
that led to so many things. You know in Africa, they go to any length to
fight. That really affected our lives at an early age. For example, at an
early age the devil almost destroyed my life, I was given, at the age of
14 Interviewed 29 March 2006 in his home.

eight, you see me just like a little child of four, or two, because I would
be playing with sand outside, and eating some of this sand. And this led
to so many things, and I thank God for my mother, although she was
a Muslim before she was converted to a Christian. It really interests
me that during these ordeal times she really, really stood by me. She
called me a nickname which is . . . ‘This child must not die.’ Because,
when I had my first year birthday, my mother gone blind, and it was
through that ordeal, while I was crawling on my first year birthday, I
had . . . there was a preparation for the birthday ceremony, and I was
crawling down to where they were boiling water, and I pour everything
over myself ! And so, it’s a great . . . I had a great, a very terrible time in
the past. Anyhow, my mother stood greatly by me, and she was a very
nice mother. Before she died, I thank God that she was converted back
to Christianity, and so . . . All these led to how God really touched my
life, because at the beginning of everything it looks as if I’m going to
die, there is no hope, but then I thank God that God helped me to be
able to pass through all these ordeals and to be able to stand, to be able
to be alive, even up to today. Because I can remember very, very well,
in those tough days, my mother being blind, taking me everywhere
where she goes, we are looking, we are going from one native doctor,
doctors, she wants to see whether she could recover her sight, I mean
regain her sight. Until one day, when a man came, he was charging
the whole family some money that we would not be able to afford. We
couldn’t afford that because the family, they have spent all that they, we
had. But this man promised that if we give him somesome amount—I
cannot remember precisely that amount of money, but then it’s a lot
of money—and pleading . . . my big sisters and my big brothers, who
were there, all pleading, and the man said no, that is his price, if they
are interested, they should come back to him. And I was reminded of
this story by my mother before she died. As the man was about to step
out the door, the one-year old child spoke, and said: ‘Babajo’—this is
translated in English: ‘Father, please!’ And this surprises the man, and
he had a change of heart. And he give the . . . he is a native doctor, and
he did everything without charging the family anything. And through
that, my mother regained her sight, and we . . . we were united again.
I have two sisters and four brothers, and the other . . . wife of my
dad, they also had their own children. Unfortunately, some of them
died in the process of trying to fight themselves. But we give glory to
God, that . . .. At the beginning of my life, I never love anything about
Christianity. Because I grew up to know, I grew up in a house where
386 appendix
all we know is just wake up and sleep and walk . . . So I never had any
interest in Christianity. But God . . . when the Lord visited a friend of
mine, who actually taught me to eat, he was encouraging me about life
after death. What will become my life if I have to die, and that really
got my attention, and I was converted in the year 1983. So during
these years, I gave my total life to God, and I begin to serve. During
my secondary school days I wasn’t a Christian, until I was converted.
And so, after my conversion, I had the zeal to serve the Lord. And so
the church . . . first I went to Baptist Church, and later I was going
to a Foursquare Church, that’s in [ . . .], and later I joined the Christ
Apostolic Church, where I started to go to their seminary school, and
we trained to become one of their pastors. And so today, by the grace of
God, I’m a pastor of Christ Apostolic Church, and I’m serving overseas
under their, the Christ Apostolic Church. So that is just a brief history
how I became a pastor. . . .
CWO: Question about how he came to Germany

As I said before, I came to Germany through Christ Apostolic Church,
and this happened when some of our fathers, they visited Germany
and discovered that some of our brothers and sisters overseas, they
don’t go to church. And some way or other they are complaining
because they don’t understand the language, they don’t . . . so the
church authority prayed, and you know, decided that they will have
foreign mission. They already had one in England which really helped
them to establish one in and around Europe. They had also in the
United States and all over. I would say this is the call that God give
to the founder to this church, Apostle Ayo Babalola, who God gave
a revelation that the church will be planted all over the world, and it
started in Africa, in Ghana, in Sierra Leone, all over in Africa, before
they started moving overseas, through some of the members of the
church who traveled overseas, and so the church began widespread
abroad through members of the church that came abroad.
CWO: So how did they pick you to go to Germany?

Yes, the issue is that most of us, when we hear of overseas, we’re excited,
and we really want to go, because we think that one will be better off,
so to say, because one way or the other, it might be more comfortable.
From our thinking . . . until you get to the field, you really have to
face the challenges there. That’s one of the things that we don’t take
into cogneisance, that living abroad has some challenges, even though
it might look very good from outside, to live and stay abroad is not as
easy as we thought from the beginning. So I would say, part of it will be
to spread the good news of God, and at the same time to see yourself
better off, so to say, you are abroad and so . . .. Until when you get
down here that you begin to face some of the challenges.
CWO: Question unintelligible

Actually, the church here was in operation before I came. So, but
they’re in need of a pastor. And so they wrote a letter to the church
in Nigeria that they require a pastor. And also they have some contact
here with people who are very familiar with me in Nigeria, so they
made the contact, and I said . . . you know, just like ‘We know some-
body and he’s okay’, and then I went to the president, and he said
‘Why, if everything will be okay for you, whatever it requires, let us go
and do it.’ And so they processed my missionary visa to travel abroad.
That was in the year 1999.
CWO: What happened then?

Directly I was in the church, trying to help them fix all the things that
are necessary to be done, and as a pastor I started evangelism, and to
bring revival to the church in [ . . .]. Because as of then we also have
some branches in [ . . .], and in [ . . .], but I was actually posted to [ . . .].
CWO: Some questions about his biography

UTC is just like an organization where they sell heavy products, you
can say, like Metro here in Germany. It’s a company.
CWO: In which church were you converted?

I was converted while I was still in the Baptist church. I was baptized
in the Baptist church, and later, I had to baptize myself again when
I got to Christ Apostolic Church, because they require baptism by
immersion. Actually, what they did was taking us to the riverside and it
was not the way . . . Christ Apostolic Church don’t accept it any way
it has been practiced, but I don’t want to go into all these details. The
Christ Apostolic Church require me to, if I want to be a minister, that I
should be baptized by them.
CWO: And what kind of training did you get? A Bible school?
Yes, this is a Bible school for Christ Apostolic Church pastors only.
If you go there, you either be a pastor of Christ Apostolic Church,
388 appendix
or a pastor-to-be of Christ Apostolic Church. That is where you are

issued with this official certificate as pastor of Christ Apostolic Church,
after you have completed your course. And this . . . I did between 1992
and 1993, that was when I was in the school. After attending, you are
ordained, and you serve. Of course, you have to serve under a pastor,
and the pastor must give a recommendation continually about . . . I
served in [ . . .] and [ . . .]. I was just being posted there. It was in [ . . .]
that I . . . The Bible School is at Ikeji, the headquarters of the church
in Nigeria.
11. A.O.: “We would go into the world” 15
I started off as a good person [laughs]. I never really stopped myself to

be bad. I started off as my father made sure that I went to church. We
were members of the Anglican Church, that is the Church of England,
which, because of the colony that we were in Nigeria at some point
of time, we took a lot of English norms and cultures, and my dad was
or is educated in the English university, the University of London, so
he also picked up a lot already in the system. He valued education
and he made sure that we all went to school, because he saw that
education helped him in his life. I have three sisters; I am the only son,
so we were four, in a small African family [laughing] because African
families are usually much bigger. I went to secondary school, I went
to university, and in university I started asking question. I wasn’t too
intelligent, but I got involved with various, I read a lot because I said
my dad valued education, he was a librarian in the university, so we
grew up in a university, actually. So in my reading I stumbled across a
lot of things, spiritual things, I asked questions, I wanted to know more,
I studied, I got more information. I had friends who were Christians,
but they couldn’t convince me because I had read a lot, I had studied
a lot, I could always win an argument. So when I left school, university,
and I was doing some program—you serve the government for one
year—I, I moved to somewhere else. I’d always been very close to
home, very close to my parents and all that, but this time I moved
to somewhere else, and I was on my own and had to start life off and
even decided to think that I have everything, but then I’m still, I still
15 Interviewed 21 December 2005 in an upmarket café close to his workplace.

feel that something’s missing. So when I got back to home after the
one-year service, I met a friend of mine who told me, ‘you know, I
know this church. They, they might—I mean people like you are there,
they might tell you what you’ve been looking for. I’ve been, I’ve gone
there, I like the place, I like the music, it’s good, the people are young,
you might meet someone or meet the answer to what you are asking
for.’ So I went to the church and I was impressed. I was impressed
because there were young people there, many churches are filled with
old people, and we saw a church that was full of old people as a church
that was dying, I mean there’s nothing new there. So when I got to
this church and there were young people my age, just finished school,
professionals, highly educated, I mean I could argue with them, they
knew where I was coming from, we could talk, so they told me: ‘Well,
we don’t have to argue with you. This is the Bible. You’ve had one since
you were five years old. Why don’t you try and read it?’ So my curiosity,
and I wanted to know, and I decided to read the Bible. And then I
convinced myself that it is true. And, and then I became a Christian
and started off, you know, the works, and then what happened was:
I—because of the initial search that I went through to know about
Christianity, everywhere I got to, either house fellowship or church, I
stood out, because I knew a lot, because I searched more than normal
people would search. So I think based on that I was always called
to take a Bible study or take the prayer or start off this or start off
that, and, and then I got married, started a family, met someone in
a church, and we both went to the Redeemed Christian Church of
God. Also because there were young people there, and friends. Some of
our friends told us: ‘You know, this church, they’re young people there,
the pastor is young, the pastor is educated, he understands what you
people are going through, starting a young family. I mean, go there and
see how things are.’ So we got there, we met a man [laughs] which we
call a ‘crazy man’ called pastor [ . . .], and he is very educated, very
learned, very intelligent man, and he could bring a group of adults,
300 professionals together—and which is a feat of its own because
professionals [laughing] are difficult to control! And put all of us, and
shared a vision with us, a vision that pastor Adeboye had, a vision of
taking the Gospel into the whole world, the vision of reaching out to
other cultures, a vision that only people like us could do, because (1) we
were young, (2) we were educated, (3) we could take up the challenge,
(4) we could go into different cultures and fit in. So, and then he kept
on showing us things that God had said, really I looked at that from a
390 appendix
far distance and said ‘this vision is good, but I don’t think I’m part of
. . . [laughs] this, because I’m staying here, I have all my roots in [ . . .],
I’ll succeed here,’ and so one day, he said: ‘You see, we have a church in
Germany that needs a pastor. Go there for three months. If you don’t
like it, come back. And about that time, I was setting up something like
a consultancy, which was always my desire, to run a firm, a consulting
firm with professionals, and . . .. So I stopped work as a banker, I was
going to set up something of my own. So he said ‘Before you set up
something of your own, just take the time off, go to Germany for three
months, see how it is. If you don’t like it, then come back and, and then
we’ll see how it goes.’, you know. So I came to Germany, and I’m still
in Germany today [smiles]. It’s been a different experience, and I think
you might have another question coming up there—oh, okay. I should
just continue? Okay. So when we’d gotten to Germany, the church was
in [ . . .], and that’s why we are in [ . . . ], because, or we live in [ . . .],
because this is where we lived since we came. When I came in, the
church had already started, it was started by the wife of the ambassador
. . . oh, the Nigerian ambassador to Germany, who, and she was in
[ . . .]. I think she started it off as a women’s group in her house, and
then it grew into a meeting, people meeting on Sundays, and then into
a church, and so they needed a pastor. Because the pastor who was
there was going back to Nigeria. So I came in for three months, and
started off with the work. My view had always been, or my vision had
always been the one pastor [ . . .] had shared with us, that is, we would
go into the world, and we would make disciples of men. So when I got
into Germany, I saw that you can’t make disciples in Germany, because
you have a barrier, you have a language barrier—that’s the biggest
barrier that I supposed I saw. If you don’t understand the language, if
you don’t understand the culture, you don’t have a thing . . . you don’t
know what’s going on. So, if you want this missionary thing, if you
want to make disciples in Germany, you have to speak the language
well. My wife is British, and when we came, we were told that she had
to register, she had to, because she is a European citizen, she had to
register with the foreign department. Well, when we got to the foreign
department, they told us: ‘Both of you have to register, because you are
married. And, what we do when you register, we give you a 3-month
stay permit, and then if you want to stay longer, you come back and
we’ll give you a 5-year stay permit, and then you can work here, you
have the—whaddayou call it—Arbeitserlaubnis [work permit], you have
the Aufenthaltsbefugnis or Erlaubnis [two kinds of residence permit] to stay
in Germany.’ So we went there to, to get the 3 months, and then we

continued. Which I still felt, well, maybe I wasn’t going to stay here for
long, maybe I was going back, so well, but I mean, have the leeway to
decide whether I’m going to stay or go back. So then things happened
that caused us to stay. One of the things was that the ambassador’s wife
was called back to Nigeria, so there was no other person that would be
in [ . . .]. Then if I left, so I was kind of, like hooked up there, being
the only one there to continue the work there. But I didn’t like the
setting [ . . .], and it was full of diplomats, and I didn’t think [laughs]
that I would be called to diplomats; to people that were focussed on
having a group of themselves. I felt, I would be called to a group of
people that live here, and not people who are posted to Germany for
two years and go back to their different countries. So, after a while I
told the General Overseer I wouldn’t stay in [ . . .], so he should get
somebody who would stay in [ . . .], but we would stay in Germany,
we would settle down in Germany and set up a parish and look at
how to reach out to people in Germany. So, he agreed to that, and sent
someone in, and we moved to [ . . .], so that’s how we ended up in [ . . .],
because then we could start off afresh. But in [ . . .] I also observed that
we had to learn the language very well, otherwise we would start off a
church and it would be in English. And when it would be attractive that
we were speaking English, and if we were an English-speaking church,
because people would be attracted to that, but I felt the first thing was
to learn German. So I invested . . . we invested a lot of money learning
the language, we needed, I did to the Oberstufe, the highest level, I did
the exam called the psh, the final level of German speakers [grins], I
got into the university because I felt I could make it better, further my
education, and also learn the language speaking to the other students
and make it better. I do a Ph.D., a doctorate in political science, which
I’m still on, I haven’t finished, and I’ve also reduced my input, but I’m
still on, I’m still registered. And so we perfected, or to the best extent
we could, the language. And then with the, speaking of the language,
we then started to have contact with the German congregations. First
we had contact—because we spoke English—with people who spoke
English, and then when the language became better, we started to focus
on the German institutions, the German environment, we started to
reach out. As I could go and talk, I could apply, I could speak right,
and so we started to reach. Now that’s where we are now, in the
same sense now. Now, we can go into a place, I can go into a place
and confidently express myself in German, maybe teach in German,
392 appendix
preach in German, pray a bit in German, so building up that contact

to the society itself. We’re looking at, in the future, doing more things in
German, and also in English, but basically moving into what we really
are, which is to be a missionary church, to reach out to the German
society and environment, and that’s where we are now. Okay.
CWO: Unintelligible question

Okay, I did civil engineering, a BSE, and a Master of Business Admin-
istration, it’s called an MBA, which is a postgraduate course.
CWO: And what was the church that you attended where you became a Christian,
was that the Redeemed Christian Church?
No, that was—it was called [ . . .]. The old, the kind of Christianity—
we’ve got three phases of Christianity coming to Nigeria. The first
phase is the organized, what we call here the government-recognized
churches like the Baptist, the Anglican, the Assemblies of God, what
was actually organized Protestant or Catholic. And that was the church
our parents went to, and they took us to. But there, not many questions
were answered in the sense that you did the normal liturgy which
included, maybe, the Gospels, and some, maybe some Bible reading,
but nothing depends really on what the Reverend wants. And then the
second phase, I based on, because I think that that was not answering
the questions many people were asking, the second phase was called the
Scripture Union. Now the Scripture Union was very kind of strict, you
don’t put on earrings, you don’t wear gold, you don’t—a lady would
have her hair short, you don’t put on jeans—I mean there were just
too many ‘you don’ts’, to make it very strict, to make sure that people
focused on being Christians, and we called it SU, Scripture Union, and
that frightened many of us [laughs] and we couldn’t imagine being put
into that kind of sect, for it was. And then the third phase is more of
the Pentecostal American Faith Movement, with the Kenneth Hagin,
and Copeland, and preached on faith, you know, and they were more,
I would say, liberal. Liberal in the sense that, really, it is your heart, it
is your heart being related to God, a relationship to God, and that
was, for us, in a way, we could understand. The second thing was
they depended, really, on the full Gospel, which is you had to read
the scriptures, you had to make the decision for yourself; it wasn’t some
pastor saying ‘this is what you do, this is what you don’t.’ It was that
you made the decision yourself, because you knew the information, you
had the facts from the Scriptures. That appealed to many of us at that
time, and [ . . .] was the first church to really break out into that and
to allow people to make up their minds and to know God themselves.
Why I guess we left [ . . .], because it was a place where people came in,
but it wasn’t really a place where people grew spiritually. That is you
would become a Christian, you would enjoy it, you would like it, you
would read the Scriptures, you would know it, but you know after that,
you didn’t have to live the Christian life, and that required you to, to
be disciplined and to put effort and to [unintelligible word] something, so
it wasn’t just the rosy ‘come in and be saved’, it was now holiness, and
the work, and what do you do, and how do you go on, and how do you
reach other people, and how to get other people Christians, and how
do you teach them when they are Christians—and that was a different
thing from what [ . . .] was about. So many of us, even [ . . .], and many
of us ended up in Redeemed, started off at [ . . .], because it was like a
transition phase there, we could gradually ease in to Christianity, to live
the life of a Christian.
CWO: When did you come to Germany?

We came to Germany first in 95, 96, it was February 96.
CWO: And how long did you stay then?

I was for a very short time in [ . . .], about one year in [ . . .], broken
in between, and some time I had to go back to Nigeria to sort things
out. Because you know when I was coming initially I didn’t think I
would stay long, so when I saw that I might stay long, we had to go
back and sort a lot of things out before we finally came to Germany.
And we understood that we were not going to be sent by some person
. . . what I mean is that our Unterkunft [lodging] was not going to be
met by the church. Because in the first experience, the first 3 months
and the things that happened after that, we saw how almost, how
expensive it would be for any church at home to send a missionary
to Germany. I mean the other way would be, will be easier, in a
sense, sending a German to Nigeria, because it’s a lot cheaper, but
sending a Nigerian to Germany [grins] costs a lot, and, and I mean
just many things, insurance and dadada, so we knew that we were not
going to have someone to take care of that, so we were going to have
to first get into the system, into the society, work out how we would
take care of ourselves, and then, after then, start off really with the
church work, with the missionary work. So it was a phase of about 3
years of just going to language school, looking for a job, I mean just
394 appendix
basically breaking into the society before actually doing church work
or evangelistic work or missionary work. I always felt, [laughs], I, I—
just happen to be here, happen to be the person, but as time went
on and as I also kept thinking about it, I saw that God must have
prepared me for this sort of thing. I looked at, first the language; I
found out that I picked it up very quickly. Not very quickly as in how
to speak it, but I kind of understood the language very quickly. And,
two, I, I could understand it because of the background that I had
educationally. I know people that have problems with the language, not
because it’s a difficult language, but because educationally, they’ve not
been developed to be able to understand . . . I hope you understand
what I mean. And thirdly, I see myself, I would say an optimist in the
sense that: I came, I saw the situation, I saw how difficult it would be,
and, but I was [unintelligible word] it could be done and that it could
happen, it could work out. I, looking back, believe God must also have
seen that, in the sense that he must have seen that these things are
available, and if this man puts himself to it, he can do it. And, so
making a tent, I think that’s what most of my friends in England would
say: ‘You’re building a tent’, because you, you use the tent to, to finance
yourself, the making of the tent to finance yourself, to put your family
and everyone—to make everyone happy [laughs], and then you, like
Apostle Paul did, also then try to evangelize and do the church work.
And also get to know the people. Actually, Apostle Paul was someone
I studied very well, he’s my mentor, he’s—and incidentally, he came
to Europe as well from Jerusalem, you know. And he was able to go
into cultures, he was able to mission, to evangelize in various cultures.
And I looked at his background—as I said, he was my mentor—
I tried to see: Do I have some of the things, the characters he has
that allowed him to do that what he did. And I found out, yes, there
was also make me know that the language was necessary, because
Apostle Paul could communicate in this language as well, citizenship
also, education as well. Also his passion to read and to understand the
principles of spiritual things, so I see myself similar to him in some
ways. In some ways I think I have to work on his determination, and
his doggedness, and his, how he could be outspoken at times—I think
I might have these qualities within me just [laughs]—I have to use them
yet.
CWO: Question unintelligible—about when the switch came to being a pastor.

As a banker, actually, I started as an engineer, a civil engineer, and I was
building roads and bridges for some time. And then I found out that,
I mean, that I, I wouldn’t get too far. I don’t love building bridges and
being on the site, I would have loved it being in a planning position,
or looking at something where, a more programming and seeing what
is going on. I also found out that many civil engineers have problems,
not because they’re not intelligent, but they don’t understand monetary
things, so they don’t have the, they’re very good technically, but they
don’t understand management. So I felt, let me take a management
course. So I took a management course and started working in a bank.
I always felt I would end up in a consultancy of my own, in this
consultancy I would be advising engineers about their—I hope I don’t
get too technical here—about their cash flow, that’s to understand their
cash flow, to plan their investments, their projects, help them, you know,
to get money from the banks and how they could get their mortgages
and see how long-term loans—many things that I found out engineers
didn’t have, because I didn’t have it as an engineer. So it was about
that time where I resigned from the bank and said: Okay, now I need
to be—to fully focus on my business which will be to build up this
consultancy, to make sure that this consultancy works, to make sure
that I have my, my cost of my base. Also, I saw it I would also be able
to have a bit more time for work as a pastor. Now, I was doing pastoral
work before, also when I was in the bank. Like, after work, I would
just drive to the church, and on Sundays I would also be there, and
then, after work, and sitting together with pastor [ . . .] like just about
telling him about dreams and visions and after a while, everyone was
motivated. I was not the only one, we had many other people that
became very motivated and said ‘this thing is possible.’ And, you know,
and he would draw charts and tell us problems and very well-placed
and very well explained so that we could believe it. So at that point,
where I said, okay, I would move into my business, I was asked to take
3 months off, and I would be paid for, that was the agreement. ‘We’ll
pay you for 3 months while you plan for your consultancy, while you
plan for your business, I mean for whatever you want to do, but then
we’ll pay you for 3 months to do that.’ So that was at a point where
I was not employed. Although I would say also that speeded up the
process of me saying okay, I would leave the bank and then start with
this consultancy. Because I felt, okay, I have 3 months paid for, I haven’t
to go to the bank, and having to do church work, I could get a feel also
396 appendix
if I would love being full-time or if I would have to, you know . . . So

that was why this could happen. It wasn’t like I was in the bank and
then someone said: Leave the bank and go to . . .. Yeah.
What we had was not a formal Bible school that would give you a
certificate. It was something called like a ‘workers’ course’, where you
had workers’ meetings and you were trained in various aspects of run-
ning a church, of theology, of [laughing] devious (?) episkopalische theories,
not too much into the details of—there wasn’t anything outside the
Bible, no theology outside the Bible, it was in line with Scripture, and
I was teaching. And as I already said, I’d been a worker in the church,
already in [ . . .] and also in Redeemed, and we had gone through so
many Bible studies which, well, not formally organized, you go some-
where and you’re a student. No, no.
CWO: Question about ordination

Yes, I was ordained as a pastor, within the Redeemed Christian Church
of God, by Pastor Adeboye, that was in 95.
CWO: Question unintelligible

When we came into Germany, I first saw the need. How did I see
the need? I saw the need for prayers. Before I came to Germany, my
pastor, [ . . .] called me and said ‘I’m going to give you a gift, that will
help you in your life forever.’ And I felt, you know, he was going to
give me money, or he was going to give me some thing that I need,
because I’m going to Germany, I’m setting up my consultancy, and I
need money, I need such things. And he said: ‘Come to me tomorrow
and I’ll give you that.’ So when I came to him the next day, he showed
me two men. He said: ‘These two men will teach you something that
will help you forever. They will teach you how to pray.’ So I felt this
. . . [laughs] you know, we-pray-enough kind of feeling. But those guys
taught me how to pray. For two months, thereabouts one and a half
month, we met every evening, at about four, after work, and we prayed
every day, for about three, four hours. And you know, they taught me
how to take a city, how to pray principalities—you know, these were
things that I had never thought about. How to understand spiritual
things, what to pray for when you get to a place, how to pray for it, how
to speak authoritatively, how to speak in the Spirit, how to command,
how to bind, how to, how to get a breakthrough. And, basically, how
to just be disciplined to pray long hours of prayer. So the first day I, I
thought it was just pray and go, and then we prayed so long, I knew
this was really hard work! And I knew it will require a discipline to do.
So when I got to Germany, I had a group of people, and we started
on this discipline, to kind of prayer, and then I saw the need, I saw
the need to pray. I, we, decided to have various, ah, various—I call
it divisions of what our prayers would do and what prayers can do if
one is determined, and one is consistent with it. I will just say, you
know, you may believe it or not [laughing], there’s only we were praying,
because all we were doing was praying, two, three hours also. Like I
finished with the guys, I decided doing this as well in Germany. And
one thing we saw, or I saw, graves being open—yeah, yeah that might
be too—but that was it, graves being opened and people coming out
of it from the floor. And I thought to myself: Ah, I mean these are
not graves as in graves being open, but this is people that are dead
being brought to life because we were praying, which means if we
stopped praying, those people wouldn’t come out of these graves, or
those things wouldn’t happen. Before I left Nigeria there was also—one
of the people I was praying with saw a gorilla, that, as we prayed, it
coughed out people, and when we stopped praying, it stopped. And
he explained that vision to me and said: ‘You know, when you pray,
this gorilla will release people. If you don’t, it will not.’ Which I took
with a bit of salt, because I wasn’t really, ah, visionary, seeing visions,
seeing prophecy, I wasn’t, you know [grinning]—most of the time I was
just calling myself a regular person. Because I’m not into dreams and
visions and seeing the future and all this kind of—things. I’m really this
basic [laughs] optimist person.
So I don’t really see myself as some spiritual spooky—you know you
get to meet some really spooky people that, I mean I just stand back
. . . I don’t get that. I don’t condemn that, but it’s just not my style.
But those were significant things in my life, that, I mean, made me see
the need in Germany. Also the fact that when, when I said I would
stay in [ . . .] until they got a pastor to come in, they didn’t get a pastor
quickly, which entailed me to staying a bit longer and, you know, the
longer you stay, the more you, you get drawn into the system, and you
have to do some things. I mean the pastor came in about 1 1/2 years
after I made this statement ‘I will stay until someone comes’, you know.
What I mean 1 1/2 years, the process with his papers and everything
just didn’t work as quick as it should, you know. And then I felt, seeing
the need going into [ . . .], start something off, seeing what God can
do, and reach out to people. Basically, I see my . . . the reason I’m
here, in Germany, is to affect the spiritual atmosphere, is to pray and to
398 appendix
affect the spiritual atmosphere. So really, I don’t see myself as building a

church, right? I see myself as praying and taking control of the spiritual
atmosphere of Germany. So that is where I see myself.
12. V.K.: “For me it was so wonderful to go to Germany” 16
What happens to me . . . I born a family of 15 children, my mother

was a Catholic, my father has no religion, he was dealing with the
spiritism that time when I born, and I grew up. My family very warm,
but I never have kind of teaching of God’s word. I never had a Bible
in my house. And my mother was a Catholic, but just for marriage,
somebody or somebody born. But she had something very special: She
pray with us children every night before we are sleeping, ‘our Father
in Heaven.’ And I learned to pray this prayer—I never is left one day
in my life without to pray. Because my mother always teach us. And
after we pray, she teach us to say: ‘With God I sleep, with the Holy
Ghost inside of me, guide me, in Jesus’ name.’ And we learn it since a
child, then it was very deeply in my heart. And I grow up, my family
was very poor, I working any kind of a job, I work in factory, I work as
a maid, domestic in houses, I take care of the kids, I do the washing,
cleaning and the cooking, I work in factory. Afterwards I was working
in the shop selling—and slowly, slowy I started to [unintelligible sentence]
As I started . . . the first time I went to [ . . .] Because we used to live
in a farm, in [ . . .], and there they used to have a panther, Ameisenbär
[pangolin], and so it was very dangerous. We could not go to school,
having no teacher, then when we come back to [ . . .]—because I born
in [ . . .]—then the first time I went to work in one house, and I ask
the woman if she allowed me to go to a school. Because that’s my time
when I work, it was like a slave type. You need allow for everything,
you need to do your homework before you leave the house. And you
should come home one time per week—I sleep there. Every Sunday,
after lunch, after about 2 o’clock, I come home, and I come back
another day 7 o’clock. Then I spoke with the woman. I find she was
very friendly, she said: “I have a daughter, she can teach you.” Then
the daughter starts to teach me, when she has feeling and when she
wants, but help me a lot. I learn to read and write. After a while
16 Interviewed 28 November 2005 in her church meeting room.

—I was already 14 years old—then the first time I went to a school.

In Brazil they call [unintelligible], that is school for people when they
are old, they go every night to school to learn, very busy! Then I
went and I spent two years—I made the four years in two years. They
find me I was very bright, very good. Then I was already 16. Then
I went to Gymnasium, 4 years I make in 2 years, and after I make
also another level, they say it’s college, it’s three years, I make in one
and a half years. Because I really, I need, and after a while, I ask for
some people, got some information, they helped because I couldn’t pay
everything Brazil, in my time it was pesos, it was nothing for free. But
some people helping me with scholarship, they give me help. Then I
went to university, I studied—here they say Germanistik—in Brazil we
say letters, Portuguese and Literature. I start, and with much struggle,
I start—then I start to teach in Brazil, in primary school, and I teach
in the morning, afternoon, and evening, because I need the money, I
was really . . . everything I got late in my life, very late! Everything! But
God was helping me a lot. But still I didn’t know Jesus Christ. And I
travel a lot, I did everything, I had a canteen, I do . . . I getting money
here, getting money . . . I sold clothes, I had very ambitions! And I like
to read, I read a lot! All the Brazilian literature, Portuguese, English,
British literature, I read a lot! Then I start to travel, from [ . . .] I used
to go every weekend to [ . . .]. I buy a lot of things in [ . . .], I start
getting money here and there, then, one time, around ’79, I came to
Germany, with 1,300 dollars in my pocket. Only my ticket was one-
way. Really crazy, but I didn’t know I was crazy! For me it was so
wonderful to go to Germany! [laughs] Many people were asking me:
Why Germany? Because I lived in [ . . .] where they have Volkswagen,
all this big company from Germany. There, I used to know a lot of
Germans, German restaurants, German people, and also, I used to
have . . . the Deutsche Schäferhund [German Shepherd]. I used to have
a little place and I used to sell dogs. I put in the newspaper, in the
German newspaper: I go to a place, I tell them, they put it in the
newspaper, in German, and all of the Germans should buy my dogs. I
used to get a very good money! That’s how I started to have feelings
for Germany. When I took my flight, one-way, only 1,300 dollars in my
pocket . . . when I arrived in Frankfurt, oh! My goodness! What have I
done! In Frankfurt, I started there, I go to the train station, and I start
to say: My mother tell me to take this train—just like that, stupid! Then
I took a train. I say I don’t know where to buy a ticket or anything, I
just sit down in the train. Then one Africa man start to speak to me. I
400 appendix
didn’t know one word in English. One word in German. Then I show
my dictionary to him, and he write what he want to say: ‘Where are
you going to? What have you come to do here? Who are you?’—Just
this kind of question. Then I told him: ‘My name is V., I come from
Brazil, I look for a place to stay, I even look for a job.’ Then he say:
‘Oh God, I live in one place very far from here, in [ . . .]. And there
I am going.’ I didn’t know where is this [ . . .], I say ‘Give me help!’,
and he say ‘Yes, I can help you.’ Then I just follow him. Came the
man to charge me, I pay, when he took me before one place, in [ . . .],
somewhere close to IKEA, in [ . . .]. Then he took me there, it was
one Asylhaus [home for asylum seekers]. But I didn’t know, in Brazil
we never heard these kind of things. I didn’t know, Asylhaus, what is
that? But when I came, there are a lot of people, then he say ‘you can
sleep here,’ and I thought how nice these people! [laughs]. My goodness!
Then I see at night, come a lot of men, want to come into my room,
and he try to protect me. I believe that God really put an angel to
me, because I never knew. Then I say ‘My goodness, what is that?’ I
couldn’t sleep the whole night, afraid! Then another day I spoke with
people. He say ‘ah, here, this room, here you see men, cannot come
women or the marriage people, when they see you, they want to . . .’
Then I say ‘I cannot stay here.’ They say ‘where do you go?’ Then
they find one place where there lived one girl, and he say ‘I be going
to look for a job for you.’ He went to IKEA. I worked at IKEA. No
paper, no nothing, but I have no idea, the meaning of a paper, visa
or so one. I had no idea! I went there, I stay there for some time,
I earn the money, I buy a ticket back after six months, and I come
back to Brazil again. Then I went—I need two more years to finish
my university—then I went back, I finish, then I say: ‘Now I have the
idea what it means go out somewhere.’ Then I prepare to have some
understanding, then to come back again, and then I go out—a friend,
a German guy, he invited me to come. I came, it didn’t work with him
at all. Then I said: ‘Okay, I am leaving.’ Then I knew some people. I
went to one girl, to live in her house, one Iranian, a woman, I know
her to today, a very close friend of me, she helped me a lot. She come
that time, her family come from Persia, the Shah of Persia. And they
need—they have Asyl here that time. Then they have everything, very
comfortable, very rich people, they helping me a lot. Then I went back
to IKEA. I started to work at IKEA again, every single day two hours.
After I got another job, and like this, I start. And I stay a long time
here, working here, working there, I had no time for nothing, just work
work work. I never went to a German school—I have the money, but
I have no time. Then I stay there. After a while, I met many people, I
knew a lot of people, then in ’84, I went to—I met a man, a director
for Goethe-Institut . . . a friend of mine, he told me: ‘If you want, I can
send you to Goethe . . .’ Of course I want! And . . . but in this little
while, I met many Africans, then it was the time for [unintelligible word]
so I got crazy for Africa. Then I went to Africa! Look at me! [laughs]
In ’84, I just went to Africa. I went to Nigeria. I lived three years in
Nigeria. Then I . . . I am the kind of person who never stop anywhere.
I went to Nigeria, I met many people, many Brazilians, they give me
a job in the embassy. Then I met many Americans, many Germans
. . . there I used to do my job very wonderful. I work for the Brazilian
embassy, I drive there, then I went to the German embassy for some
people, and also I went for the Americans, they give me a job like . . . I
can say a secret service. I work for them, I can say somehow I have a
specific job to do for them. Because I am Black, but I was not African.
And I was not American. They need somebody who fits for that job for
them. To have some kind of spy there, not really a spy, but they need
some connections; some doors need to be opened for them, that not
need to be American. It was not possible for Americans to go. And I
also for now Africans. And as a Brazilian, I fit what they was looking
for. Then I have diplomatic car. Everything was wonderful for me, all
the doors open for me. I travel the whole of Africa, 21 countries, from
Nigeria all over to Ethiopia, to Addis Ababa, all over! I know many
things, I work for them, I was very well paid, I had a diplomatic car, I
go all the parts diplomatic, I was VIP, and I have the contacts with the
Germans, Lufthansa, I travel all over the world with . . . the Lufthansa
people. They have been in Brazil, they spoke very good Portuguese,
and they gave me courtesy flights. Then I travel all over without paying
anything! Then my life was in God’s hands.
One day, about ’87, I saw a program—I have no cocktail Saturday.
I was living in [ . . .], because Monday to Sunday, they were having
cocktail parties, I was in all of them . . . [laughs] But one day, they had
no party, no cocktail [laughs]. Then I watched television, but television
in Nigeria was really nothing, then I just have some noise in my house.
Then, suddenly, a man said: ‘You, I am speaking to you! God has a
message for you!’ Then I say ‘to me?’ . . . and I really start to laugh.
And he said—and I was going here and there and I come back—and
he said again: ‘You, still God wants to speak to you!’ Then I sit down,
I say: ‘Oh really, if God wants to speak to me, I really want to see!’
402 appendix
I challenge. And he say ‘You come and see what God have for you.’
And gave the address, and went. That place, was very heavy in Nigeria,
because they had this kind of a political situation, they kill, today a
little better, but it was very hot in Nigeria. Then I learnt the place
they give the address, I learnt that place I supposed not to go to that
place. They have a lot of soldiers, and they have military all over, and
the government was leaving that area, but I didn’t know anybody who
touched that area. They used to kill. And I learned it . . . when I saw
where I was I said ‘my goodness, I cannot move now, because when I
turn my car, they are going to shot me. What can I do?’ Then I start
to say: ‘My God, help me!’ Then come, from nowhere, come one little
boy, he started to smile, then I open my door, I say ‘I am looking for
the American school, where they have Sunday service.’ And he didn’t
speak, he just show. Show me like that, and I turn, go to the next gate.
The way he show me I understood, then I turn my car, shake myself,
and I went, it was the next gate, perhaps 600 meter or one kilometer, it
was the next gate. Then I sit down in the last place, I stay there quiet. I
said ‘not me, let me just see what the people are doing.’ A lot of people!
It was an American school, the Americans used to give it for Sunday
service. In front of the lake, it was really very nice. And I stayed there,
the pastor spoke, and after they said ‘this is the last time here, we going
to move to another place in [ . . .].’ Then I went, it was one house, then
some people divided the church, I went to the group that was very
close to me, I used to live in [ . . .]. I went there, they spoke, my girl
friend accepted Christ before me. She told me. The man asked: ‘Who
want to accept Christ?’ And I stay very quiet. Then my girl friend say:
‘She wants to accept Jesus Christ.’ And she pulled me. I got a shock,
because always I spoke to her about Jesus, I really, I get very interesting
now about religion, about Jesus, I show some films, very warm. She say
‘oh, you, my goodness!’ because she saw me, Monday to Sunday, I was
on parties, cocktails up and down, she knew I have nothing to do about
God. And she was very surprised, and she told, and then I didn’t know
what to say. But anyway, the man asking me: ‘You want?’—I couldn’t
say one word, I just shaking my head. And he pray for me, and I feel
like two hands leaving my heart. And I accept Christ. On Tuesday, I
was really crazy for Jesus. Oh, how I love you, Jesus! My goodness!
Breakfast, lunch and dinner, I did everything with Christ. I have the
understanding about salvation, like he got [unintelligible word] for me,
everything about him. The first time, I have a Bible. Then I bought
my Bible. I finally read, I started to read it from Genesis to Revelation,
every time I read it, you don’t know how many times, I love the word!
Really, I’m crazy for the word! I say: “Lord, nevermore I’m going to
leave you, and I’m going to say to everybody about you. I nevermore
I go back the way I was before.” Because, of course, as I born, I have
no religion, no direction, I learnt nearly kind of religion. I went into
Buddhism, into Spiritism, reading cards, reading hands—any kind of
things. Some kind of spirituality! But when I met Christ, I understood
the difference. I know very well the difference between the salvation,
Christ, the blood of Jesus, cross of Calvary—God did it open for me.
Like all my experience, it was very useful, because I knew. Then I have
a promise between me and Jesus: I’m going to tell everybody your
words. Then I start in my house. Then I come back to Germany. It
was September, 27th of September, 1987. We come back to Germany. I
didn’t know where to go, I went to my old former girl friend from Iran.
I went to her house, I said: ‘Oh Samira, I need one apartment, where
can I find it?’ She say ‘oh, you can stay with me!’ I say ‘nonononono,
I cannot stay with you. I belong to Christ now. I need him, my life is
very much in order, with you I can’t, because you go to disco, you go
here, you go everywhere. I can’t do that anymore.’—‘But why? Please,
don’t make me laugh!’ I say: ‘But please, I can nevermore I go there,
I promised him!’—‘But to who you promised?’ Because she come from
Muslim family, she has no understanding about Christ. Then slowly I
start to tell her, she didn’t take me serious. Then she told me: ‘You see,
in my building here is one apartment, let’s speak to the man, a Jewish
man.’ I said: ‘If you are going to speak to him, he is a Jew, German, he
never will give to me, a black woman. I can’t go there.’ Then I say ‘we
will find a friend of mine, a German, and I will send him, he will speak
to this man for me. After I come, I take care of the apartment.’ She
say ‘okay, as you prefer,’ then just like, I speak to the man, everything, I
say ‘a friend of mine is coming,’ and the man accepted. When he saw
me black, he got a shock. But he was quiet. After, he didn’t know that
I was a Christian, but he saw my way of living, impressed him. I was
different from anybody he knew, I believe. Then I came in September
to Germany, in October, I met my husband. When I met my husband,
I saw my husband, I knew he is my husband! Because I had a dream,
one year before, what for me a man. When I saw him, I said: ‘Jesus,
that is my husband!’ I told [ . . .] ‘this man is my husband.’—‘How you
know?’ I say ‘I don’t know, but I saw him in a dream some time ago,
with two kids in his hands, one for each side, and the Lord told me
that’s my husband.’ Then I met my help after three months in the
404 appendix
house, we got married, it’s really true, we were very much in love, due
to they. We are on honeymoon [laughs]. But my husband come from
family, a Christian family, the grandfather was a pastor, his father was
a pastor, Apostolische Kirche [Apostolic Church], but he grew up in faith.
But in these times, because he was very disappointed with some things,
he left, he never anymore have anything to do with the church. And he
went on all kinds of wild life. And when we got married, I told him ‘I
am a Christian,’ and I told him the way of my living. He likes, but he
never follow me anywhere. And that time, we have the meeting in [ . . .].
When I came, I met Sister [ . . .], she died some time ago, I believe you
knew her, okay she died some time ago. She told me ‘oh we have a
meeting here in [ . . .].’ It was there some people from Eritrea, Ethiopia.
Then we had a meeting, a service there, and it was very nice. I love
it very much, I never miss anything! Their meeting, Sunday service, I
help! I love it, Jesus! And then after a while, come Pastor [ . . .]. Pastor
[ . . .] was a young man, his father was a pastor, he still was not a pastor,
but he knew the words very well. Then we elect him as a pastor, we
from this group. And he likes, he really loves Jesus, loves the word. He
starts to guide the others in faith and prayer through the word, and it
was very nice. And after a while, we went to Brazil, I and my husband,
not took long, we live two years in Brazil, and my daughter born in
Brazil in ’90. And after two years, we came back to Germany, but we
didn’t come to live in [ . . .], we went to live close to France, in [ . . .],
direct to the border. In ’92. Then we come back, we live in [ . . .], then
after a while, we come back here. But in [ . . .], I always attend the
American Church. Anytime I was there in [ . . .] I attend a German
church, very living, very powerful church, I love it at that church! And
in [ . . .], every Sunday I came to American church. But . . . full of the
Holy Spirit, you know how the Americans are, I love the church, my
husband like to come with me, but some time he doesn’t like to come
with me. Then I come back to [ . . .] here.
13. A.M.17
I come from Congo, and in Congo, since the eighties we’ve had a
great revival. Back then, in colonial times, we had two big churches
17 Interviewed 14 November 2005 in his home.

or two big religions, so to say, Catholic and Protestant, most grew up in

the Catholic church, me too. But in the eighties—you could say before
that time most people went to church, but they were not practicing,
they were, let’s say, Christians for the Saturday [sic]. In the eighties
there was a very big revival, as I said, there were churches almost
everywhere, and people also had this longing for God, so to say, a
personal longing. And, at the end of the eighties I also experienced
revival in my own life. From then on I started to serve God. At the
beginning of the nineties, let’s say from the end of the eighties, I also
started to work in a church. Then I worked in a church in [ . . .].
When I got here—I came here as an evangelist, and therefore I had
to, first of all—that’s normal—learn the German language. I didn’t
know what would await me here personally, await me here personally,
and therefore I had to learn the German language. I learnt German
for almost a year, at [ . . .] University, and I made contacts especially
with my country people, and I also had . . . the need was very great
to support the people spiritually. And this is why I began to talk with
people about the Bible, moving from house to house. We started in one
flat; then more and more people came, we couldn’t stay in the house.
We went to a church, and over time many people came. We had to
move from one church to the next and . . . the congregation came into
being, and therefore I had to stay, from then on until today, really I had
to stay in Germany and take care of the people with the Bible and so
on.
CWO: You said you came to Germany as an evangelist. Could you elaborate on this?
Yes. When I was converted, for example in our church, in Congo,
we had activities almost every day. For example, I went to university
in Congo, I have a university diploma that has nothing to do with
religion, that’s another university. I did my matriculation and then I did
three years at the university, and when I had to do with the Bible—
in our church we had activities every day, every day from Monday
to Monday, and then you can learn a lot in a year or two. There
are seminars, there are preachers, and there are also missionaries,
for example from Europe, especially from Sweden and France and
also from America who are coming regularly, who are doing regular
activities. We participated in these activities, and sometimes one gets
a certificate, and otherwise we did a lot of activities, that means we
preached to people in hospital, in prison, on the big market, open air
or, let’s say, in the harbor, we did it there for a few times. And those
406 appendix
who led us, for example our elders, the elders in the church, they could
ascertain that for example, this person has this gift, and another person
has another gift. And what did they do? They prayed for us, and they
sent us to these suburbs of [ . . .], and when we went there, there was no
church there, it was a . . . a small town with 10,000 people, there was
no church. And in 1989, . . . I was the one who led this delegation, and
we founded a church there, and there I showed my abilities, so to say,
and from then on they called or described me as an evangelist. From
then on I started to take more responsibility, from then on. This is how
it started.
CWO: How did you get the idea to move to Germany?

This is also a good question. God has sent us all over the world, he said:
‘You will be my witnesses, not just in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, but
everywhere, the whole world.’ I wanted to go perhaps to France, and
that would have been very easy for me, because I come from Congo,
and in Congo we speak French, or to England, because I learnt English
as a second language in school. I also had many contacts in Germany,
not just friends who studied in my university in the Congo, but also
family, relatives in [ . . .], and therefore it was perhaps easier for me to
travel to Germany.
[ . . .] When I came to Germany, but also before in the Congo, I
participated in many Bible seminars. And when I was in Germany, I
attended a correspondence school—I don’t know whether the address
still exists, but it is in Morsbach.18 I did this Bible course, and not only
this Bible course, but there was also a conference where you had to
show your abilities. And there was a big conference, and I had the
chance, to—how to say—to be one of the speakers . . . perhaps this
is not the right word, but I had to about the Bible, and sometimes I
was the main speaker in this conference, and that also helped me very
much, and that’s what I did. And we did this course, this correspon-
dence course, for almost a year. [ . . .] I, for example, am a pastor in a
church, I did my studies in the Congo, I came here, I could have done
the same as everybody else, for example, to ask for asylum and to get
money, but I didn’t do that, because I knew that I . . . I need to remains
as a pastor, and I need to . . . live from that.
18 Mudiandambo refers to the Emmaus Correspondence Bible Course which is
administered in French language by the Zentral Afrika Mission in Morsbach, Germany.

CWO: Did you come on a pastor visa?

I had to apply for asylum. First of all, I could not apply for a visa as
pastor, because back then there was no church. That’s why I got . . . as
I already said, I did a German language course at [ . . .] University, so
that means I also had a place to study there. In the beginning, I had a
visa as a student, but over time, as the church grew, I needed to work
for them all the time. Thanks be to God, during this time I met my
sisters and brothers of the church in [ . . .] and they got involved in my
situation and were very active to get my visa changed. At first, it was
thought that it would be impossible, but God helped. And there was
also support from VEM, who supported us, I really don’t know, but I
just know that I got a letter from UEM, and also one from the Bible
Center in Morsbach,19 and also from the [ . . .] church. And that is why
a visa could simply be changed from student to pastor.
19 Here, Mudiandambo refers to the Zentralafrikamission which runs Bible Cor-
respondence courses which are being taken by many migrant pastors. See also
http://www.zamonline.de/dt/emmaus.php, accessed 23 November 2006.
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SUBJECT INDEX
Agency, 136 f., 141, 150 f., 153 f., 156, Ease of travel, 148, 153, 181, 189,
182, 315, 317 217
Anointing, 61, 69, 79, 82 f., 126, Ethnic, ethnicity, 4 ff., 9, 13 f., 21, 34,
129 f., 147, 274, 280, 295 48, 51, 56, 180, 183, 214, 227 f.,
Apostle, 52, 62, 67, 77, 80, 84, 91, 237 ff., 240 ff., 260, 272, 289, 308,
96, 111, 268 315, 319, 322, 324 ff., 329 f.
Authority (pastoral), 53, 62 f., 65 ff., Evangelism, evangelize, 45, 58, 85,
83, 86, 88 f., 90, 107, 117 ff., 122 ff., 90. 95, 145 f., 152 f., 155, 157, 160,
127 ff., 145, 147, 167, 281 ff., 288, 163, 179 f., 184 f., 192, 203, 206 f.,
300, 310 225–254, 259, 263, 265 f., 270,
271–304, 306 f., 310, 317 f., 319,
Biography, 44, 83 f., 133 ff., 220 f. 322 f., 332, 334 f., 337, 342, 347,
394
Calling, 35, 45, 61, 63, 65, 69, 76, Evil forces, 277
77–115, 142 f., 150, 153, 159, 160, Expatriation, expatriate, 133–223,
162, 164, 166, 170, 173 f. 176 f., 240, 313, 315 ff., 333
184, 187, 190 f., 193, 197, 199, 208,
219 f., 238, 240, 242 f., 262 f., 266, Healing, 43, 44, 59, 61, 81, 95, 96,
311, 313, 349, 352, 355, 369, 373, 98, 112 ff., 123, 165, 233, 245, 247,
377 281, 285, 295, 297 f., 302
Church splits, 117, 121, 127 f., 167
Commissioners for Sects and World- Inculturation, 201, 222, 236 ff., 299,
views, 10 299–304, 332
Contextual, contextualization , 233, Identity, 5, 21, 38–46, 47, 86, 135 f.,
238, 244–254, 299 139, 141, 169 ff., 201, 226–228,
Conversion, 41, 44, 86, 87, 94, 103, 237 f., 268
107, 123, 145, 152, 169 f., 188, 199, Integration, 21 f., 28, 30, 139, 169,
202, 209–213, 219, 234, 281, 284 f., 171, 182 f., 185, 195 f., 198, 216,
296, 299 f. 302, 318, 386 273, 289, 294, 301, 307, 310, 328,
Cosmology, 275–278 329–334
Deliverance (from demons), 20, 24, Legitimation, 83–116, 125, 153, 163
43, 59, 110, 112–114, 246 f., 251,
276 ff., 281, 285 Migrant, 136–139
Demon, demonic, 31, 44, 73, 96, Migration, 313–318
108, 110, 112, 247, 266, 279 ff., Missio Dei, 321, 334 f.
286, 292, 300, 312, 332 Multicultural ministry 14
Dream, 37, 45, 85, 88, 90, 94, 98–
107, 110, 112 ff., 115, 144–147, 214, Network, 18, 19, 24, 33, 38, 42 f.,
220. 239, 337 f., 356, 395, 403 56–60, 79, 94, 100, 125–130, 141,
426 subject index
163, 181, 185, 188, 189 f., 191 ff., Spiritual mapping, 268, 288, 290,
195, 197 f., 209, 271 f., 307, 320, 300
324 Spiritual warfare, 31, 46, 192, 236 f.,
268, 267–269, 271–304, 318 f.,
Ordination, 24, 61 f., 77–83, 89, 104, 321–323, 332 f.
115, 119, 127–130, 216, 311 f., 396 Spirituality, 19, 24, 70, 71, 72, 122 ff.,
141, 215, 313, 403
Pastoral ministry, 61–83 Subaltern, 134, 142, 324
Power, divine, 82, 116, 130, 280, 311
Power encounter, 44, 46, 284–286 Testimony, 32, 38, 41, 43, 61, 85 f.,
Possessing, possession, 283, 290–292 95, 98, 152, 153, 209, 230, 343,
Possession (demonic), 279, 281 380
Prayer, 2, 18, 20, 24, 27, 30, 43 f., 61, Territorial spirits, 267–269
64 f., 66 f., 71, 72 ff., 83, 87, 92, 97, Training (theological), 9, 11–18, 41,
105, 108 ff. 114 f., 122 ff., 129, 130, 45, 58 f., 72, 74, 77–83, 85, 87, 94,
166, 167, 169, 170, 176, 181, 189, 97, 128, 144, 157, 163, 168, 188,
190, 192, 198, 209, 233, 251, 257, 219, 264, 307, 311 f., 321, 331, 377,
258, 267, 272–275, 276, 278, 281– 383 f., 387
283, 284, 286, 287, 289, 295–299, TV ministry / evangelism / preach-
300, 302, 306, 320, 321, 332, 353, ers, 57, 59, 95, 98, 156 f., 212 f.,
355, 358 f., 360 f., 367–370, 377 ff., 276, 283, 286, 346
389, 396, 397, 398, 404
Prophecy, prophetic, 43, 44, 61, 63, Visa, 20, 44, 49, 72, 94, 100, 119,
80, 82, 90–94, 100 f., 103, 104, 124, 148 f., 152 f., 155, 172, 175,
113 f., 157, 238 f., 277, 357, 397 180, 184 f., 189, 195, 197, 200 f.,
204, 214 f., 217, 221, 223, 234, 340,
Salvation, 45, 212, 232 f., 243 f., 246– 342, 344, 362, 369, 373, 387, 400,
253, 254, 262 f., 265, 270, 284 f., 407
297, 299, 323, 402, 403 Vision (in the literal sense), 2, 4, 37,
Spiritual atmosphere / climate, 269, 45, 72, 85, 88, 90, 91, 94, 99–104,
286, 287–289, 398 106, 146, 200, 214, 220, 240, 269,
Spiritual father / mentor, 62, 64, 356, 365, 377, 395, 397
65, 78, 99, 101, 103, 106, 110, 147, Vision (metaphorical), 120, 142,
166 f., 182, 194, 195, 207, 320, 379, 157 f., 161 f., 167, 169–171, 179,
394 188, 197, 198, 202 f., 205, 208,
Spiritual gifts / gifts (of the Spirit), 228, 241, 242, 262, 269, 291, 319,
40, 44, 46, 70, 77–83, 130, 263, 320, 347, 348, 353, 359, 361, 365,
265, 274, 311 368, 371, 382, 389 f.
INDEX OF NAMES, PLACES, AND TERMS
Anglican, 14, 202, 275, 306, 388, 392 Dhinakaran, D.G.S., 58
Baptist, 5, 8, 42, 47, 52, 94, 184 f., Evangelical Church in Germany
191–195, 244, 272, 291, 306, 318, (EKD), 3, 8, 12, 311, 321, 325
319, 344, 350, 354, 373, 378–382, Evangelical Church in the Rhine-
386, 387, 392 land, 1, 16, 178, 314
Brazil, Brazilian, 49, 57, 107–115, Evangelical Church of Westphalia,
208–215, 398–404 1, 9
Britain, U.K., British, 6, 13 f., 34, 59,
99, 110, 147, 189, 201, 204, 222, 278, Faith Movement, 247, 283, 298 392
306, 312, 320, 331, 377, 390, 399 Federation of Free Pentecostal
Churches (BfP, Germany), 52,
Cameroon, Cameroonian, 48, 49, 90, 98, 188, 320, 382, 383
105–107, 158–163, 215, 272, 347– Federation of Protestant Churches
349 in France (FPF), 6, 15, 17, 306
Catholic , 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 36, 37, 46, France, French, 15, 35, 91, 217 f., 221,
178, 209, 238, 258, 276, 314, 332, 269, 306, 404, 405, 406
245, 347, 350, 382, 392, 398, 405
Cho, Yonggi, 57, 81 Germany, German, 8–13, 47–55,
Christ Apostolic Church, 87, 198– 354–270, 305–336
207, 386–388 Ghana, Ghanaian, 2, 7, 19, 20,
Christ-for-All Evangelistic Min- 29, 48, 52, 55, 74, 84 f., 87, 98,
istries, 273–275 99, 100, 101, 103, 115, 119, 120,
Church of England, 5, 14, 306, 321, 125, 129, 130, 163, 164, 168,
388 178–185, 188 f., 200, 216, 218 f.,
Church of Pentecost, 52, 55, 80, 82, 234, 251, 256, 258, 260, 266,
219, 223, 238 f. 273, 276, 294, 300, 319, 349,
Churches Together in Britain and 351–358, 369–371, 377, 383,
Ireland (CTBI), 13, 306, 320 386 f.
Churches’ Commission for Migrants
in Europe (CCME), 5, 17, 47, 314, IFGF-GISI (International Full
315, 316 Gospel Fellowhip – Gereja Injili
City Mission, 156 f., 345 ff. Seuntu Internasional) , 260
Congo, Congolese, 49, 56, 61, 94, Indonesia, Indonesian, 7, 49, 94,
129, 130, 149, 215, 216, 219, 220, 168–171, 241, 250, 256, 259 f., 270,
250, 272, 285, 404, 405, 406 358–360
Copeland, Kenneth, 57, 213, 283 Italy, Italian, 6, 15, 16 ff., 49, 51
Council of Pentecost Ministers
(CPM), 19, 24, 56, 128, 158, 165, Kikk course, 11, 20, 58, 122, 123, 156,
258, 272, 287 294, 299–301, 346
428 index of names, places, and terms
Kingdom Exploiters’ Ministries, Redeemed Christian Church of

301–303 God, 6, 20, 172 f., 202 f., 290, 292,
Korea, Korean, 7, 11, 19, 35, 48, 49, 318, 332, 361–364, 389–391, 392 f.,
50, 56, 57, 58, 75, 81, 105, 116, 117, 396
184, 227, 250, 257 f., 273, 307, 308, Rhema / Kenneth Hagin Min-
325 istries, 39, 58, 111, 128, 209, 214,
283
Latin America, Latin American, 4,
11, 28, 49, 50, 51, 58, 210, 255 SKIN (Samen Kerk in Nederland),
Lighthouse Christian Fellowship, 31, 14, 34, 308
47, 260 f., 291 f. Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan, 49, 50, 111,
121, 217 f., 252
Magnify Deliverance Ministries,
294–297 Tamil, 48, 49, 50, 56, 58, 59, 95,
96, 97, 98, 116, 117, 120, 272, 274,
Nepal, Nepalese, 49, 94, 95, 97 f., 307
152–158, 300, 343–347
Netherlands, Dutch, 5, 14 f., 30, 34, Ukraine, Ukrainian, 6, 141, 263, 291,
49, 269, 305, 307, 308, 309, 317, 330, 331, 332
324, 325, 326, 329, 330, 334 United Evangelical Mission (UEM),
Nigeria, Nigerian, 6, 7, 20, 29, 42, 1–3, 8–12, 20, 21, 22, 33, 47, 48,
47, 57, 59, 76, 89, 98, 101, 103, 49, 50, 51, 52, 58, 104, 116, 121,
105, 126, 144, 146–153, 159, 161, 122, 129, 133, 147, 163, 209, 215,
172 ff., 188, 198–206, 211 f., 218, 217, 235, 305, 311, 320, 328, 331,
256, 266, 271, 272, 276, 280, 288, 336, 407
291, 294, 300, 330, 332, 339– United Reformed Church, 14, 306
342, 347 f., 361–368, 370, 371, USA, American, 4, 6, 7, 29, 34,
384, 387 f., 388–393, 397, 401– 35, 46, 49, 57, 63, 91, 96, 98,
403 101, 102, 139, 140, 152, 154, 155,
North America, 4, 7, 36, 37, 255, 156, 157, 161, 189, 192, 211, 212,
319, 329 214 f., 235, 250, 251, 254, 263,
North Rhine-Westphalia, 3, 18, 19, 264, 265, 266, 267, 270, 271, 276,
47, 50, 55, 193, 307 277, 278, 284, 288, 319, 329, 343,
344, 345, 346, 348, 349, 352, 361,
Projet Mosaïc, 15, 305 364, 378, 379, 392, 401, 402, 404,
Protestant church(es) – German / 405
European, 3, 9, 30, 35, 42, 45, 47,
152, 167, 180, 183, 184, 209, 215, Waldensian Church, 15–17, 306,
306, 307, 309, 311, 314, 315, 319, 308, 326
320, 321, 323–328, 335 f. Word of Faith Movement, see Faith
Protestant Church in the Nether- Movement
lands (PKN), 14, 308, 325, 326 Word of Life International Church,
117, 124

Claudia Währisch-Oblau-The Missionary Self-Perception of Pentecostal Charismatic Church Leaders From The Global South in Europe (Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies) (2009)

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The Missionary Self-Perception of Pentecostal/

Charismatic Church Leaders from the Global South

Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

printed in the netherlands

Chapter One. Methodological reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter Two. The field of study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter Three. The role of the pastor: The relationship to one’s

3.2. Defending one’s call: Biographical stories as legitimation

Chapter Four. Following the call: Expatriation narratives . . . . . . . . . . . 133

4.4.3. Spiritual interpretation instead of expatriation

Chapter Five. Being on a mission: The relationship to the outside

Chapter Six. Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

6.3. Ecclesiology and the politics of diﬀerence: Who defines

Appendix. Expatriation narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

This book is an edited version of my doctoral dissertation, “Migrants

To my husband and my two daughters: Thanks for bearing with me

When, in 1998, the United Evangelical Mission (UEM)1 started its

Landeskirchen), namely The Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, the Evangelical

– Describe experiences and problems of cooperation between mi-

man society as a whole, and speaking about wanting to bring revival

6 E.g. the Hungarian Reformed Congregation, the Finnish Lutheran Congrega-

was imperative to get to know how Pentecostal / charismatic migrant

exclusively centered on Protestant and Orthodox churches. International convents in

the northern European, overwhelmingly Protestant countries had their

11 Darrell Jackson and Alessia Passarelli, Mapping Migration. Mapping Churches’

Responses. Europe Study, Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe / World

– In Italy, almost two thirds of all Protestants are now of foreign

www.cec-kek.org/English/ciampino_languages.pdf, accessed 10 September 2008, p. 3.

proposé par le groupe de travail suscité par le conseil de la FPF, www.protestants.org/

church attendance in the UK, April 2007, downloadable from www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/

accessed 27 October 2008.

can be observed there. A recent study by the Pew Forum on Reli-

York Times, 21 August 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/national/21church.html,

The spread of Pentecostalism through migrant churches has become

1.2. The UEM Program for Cooperation between

Before looking at the UEM program itself, a short introduction to

27Cf. www.dbk.de/stichwoerter/data/01200/index.html, accessed 28 October 2008.

accessed 28 October 2008.

membership of roughly half a million members. Some of these churches

31 Claudia Währisch-Oblau, Migrationskirchen in Deutschland. Überlegungen zur

strukturierten Beschreibung eines komplexen Phänomens, in: Zeitschrift für Mission,

circulated internally both in migrant and German churches.

In response, German church representatives basically ruled out

34 The so-called “Arbeitsaufenthalteverordnung” (Decree for the Regulation of Work

35 A current list is always available at www.vemission.org/fileadmin/Dateien/

European and Latin American.

My own role, during the nine years of coordinating the program,

1.3. Other European Protestant church

In Germany, the UEM program has remained rather unique. A num-

tion des ATTiG-Pilotkurses, Hamburg: EMW 2004.

training course for migrant church leaders in southern Germany under

39 Cf. www.evpfalz.de/migration/misueno_08.pdf, accessed 28 October 2008.

christian-partnership.html, and Walter J. Hollenweger, Umgang mit Mythen. Interkul-

www.bmcdirectory.co.uk/agency_list.php, accessed 28 October 2008.

2004, downloadable from http://cte.churchinsight.com/Articles/66817/Churches

Indigenous churches in Britain have also taken up the issue of how

and ‘diaconal’ attitudes towards migrant churches to true ecumenical

Samen op Weg-Kerken, de migrantenkerken en organisaties van christelijke migran-

Ervaringen en perspectieven, Utrecht: Kerkinactie 2002.

www.protestants.org/textes/eglises_immigration/, accessed 20 August 2008.

thirds black. In several cases, small and dying congregations were

57 Personal conversations with about 10 Waldensian pastors at an international

migrant Christians and congregations. The underlying question was