Germany-Church Planting among Turks and Kurds
The Church Planter will serve, evangelize, and disciple an unreached people group (Turks and Kurds) in one of the bigger cities of Germany (e.g., Berlin, Essen, Heilbronn). This role’s mission is to reach out to non-believers (e.g., with Al Massira courses, book tables on the street, deeds of love and practical help) and to disciple new believers toward Christian maturity, faithfully teaching the Bible in their native language. In the process, the Church Planter will identify and equip leaders from among the discipled believers and will assist them as they lead their own people in churches they will establish within their individual or mono-multicultural communities.
The Church Planter will work to create and maintain gospel-driven relationships with the people they serve by living in their neighborhood and learning their language and culture in addition to German and German culture. This will lead to opportunities to evangelize, disciple new believers, and train church leaders. The Turks and Kurds are largely unreached people groups. Ministry among these groups will require perseverance and commitment. There are about 3 million Turks and Kurds together in Germany. Most of them are born in Germany and well established in their subculture community, but there is a growing number of just recently immigrated Turks (more than 60,000 in 2023, primarily for political reasons) who are less attracted by the conservative Turkish communities and more open to the gospel.
This position requires a vibrant and dedicated spiritual life characterized by consistent practice of spiritual disciplines. The Church Planter will need to have a solid understanding of the Scriptures, the main doctrine of (Turkish) Islam, Turkish / Kurdish history and the current political situation. They will need to be able to teach and clearly communicate how the entire Bible, including the Old Testament, points to the person and work of Jesus Christ. Patience and dedication are necessary, as the Church Planter must learn to communicate with the assigned unreached people group faithfully and accurately in their language.
The ideal candidate will have:
- A Biblical Studies BA or equivalent experience
- Five (5) years of church leadership experience (preferred)
- Experience with evangelism and discipleship
- Willingness to commit at least ten (10) years to the project
- A solid commitment to the spiritual disciplines (i.e., Bible reading, prayer, etc.)
- Proficiency in the assigned unreached people group’s language and in German
The Church Planter will be seconded and employed by the DMG for legal reasons. They will be led through an established one to two-year program of language and culture learning. During this process, the Church Planter will get to know various projects and teams to choose for their ministry.
They will collaborate with a team to prepare Indigenous servant-leaders to establish and lead healthy, self-sustaining churches. They will:
- Live in the neighborhood of Turks and Kurds, learning their language and culture before beginning formal ministry
- Teach the Bible in formal and informal settings
- Evangelize and disciple the people
- Identify and equip Turkish or Kurdish leaders to evangelize their own people
- Train Indigenous church leaders to disciple believers in a life-on-life manner
- Develop current and future church leaders with Biblical and practical leadership skills
- Complete other field or agency duties as assigned