Evangelical Old-Reformed Church in Lower Saxony
Such a large organization with such diverse members and we, the Evangelical Old-Reformed Church, in the middle of it all! It was a wise decision made in 1976 when our synod officially requested membership in the EMW. For a church which at that time was still part of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (GKN), this meant a conscious opening towards church life in Germany. When in 2004 the two large reformed churches in the Netherlands merged with the Lutheran church there to form the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), this was a new challenge for our small free church (about 6,500 members spread over twelve congregations in northern Germany), also on an organizational level. The contacts to Germany and especially to the EMW have therefore become even more important for us.
For our missionary work this means that we cooperate with “Kerk in Actie” (the mission organization of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands) on the Dutch side and with the EMW on the German side. Contacts with the United Evangelical Mission (VEM) are new. Thanks to the cooperation with “Kerk in Actie” we can keep alive the partnership with the Protestant Church on Sumba (Indonesia), which has existed for many decades.
As the language gap between our church and the Netherlands widens, we are increasingly dependent on German-language publications to keep the topic of mission alive in our congregations in the future. Here the EMW is a great help with their publications. Therefore, we would like to especially mention the booklets that were published in connection with the campaign “Mission.de for the sake of God — for the sake of the world” between 2008 and 2011.
The annual reports also help us to think through our missionary responsibility as a church. Contact with the various mission agencies, associations and other churches found under the umbrella of the EMW broadens our view of the importance of mission.
Evangelical Old-Reformed Church in Lower Saxony
Fritz Baarlink
Mauerstiege 1
48455 Bad Bentheim