In 1998, the German region of the United Evangelical Mission asked a ministry worker to begin work with migrant Christians. At the time, there were few concrete ideas: it was only clear that Christian migrants might need fellowship and a place to worship. The project was not intended as an evangelistic effort. The evangelical churches in Germany generally understood their role toward migrants in diaconal and advocacy terms, while Evangelical Free churches had long viewed Muslim and atheist migration as an evangelistic opportunity. The initial plan was to establish one or more international congregations, bringing together migrants from different cultural and possibly denominational backgrounds.
Instead of encountering individual migrant Christians in need of pastoral care and community, the project encountered organized churches. Within two years, more than six hundred such churches were identified in North Rhine-Westphalia alone. They included Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and Pentecostal congregations. Many described themselves as non-denominational while remaining clearly charismatic in character.
Orthodox Christians tended to come from Eastern Europe, the Near East, and Ethiopia. Catholics came from many parts of the world, with Eastern and Southern Europeans especially prominent. Protestants were commonly European or East Asian, while Pentecostal and non-denominational charismatic groups were overwhelmingly African, alongside Asian and Latin American churches. In major cities such as Düsseldorf and Cologne, the article observed that migrant church attendance on a given Sunday may have rivaled attendance in German churches.
It soon became clear that ministry with migrants should not focus on starting new congregations. Instead, it should support existing churches and encourage closer cooperation between indigenous and migrant Christian communities.
Reverse mission movement
Over time, new Pentecostal and charismatic migrant churches continued to form. Some emerged through divisions in existing churches, while others were consciously planted as missionary endeavors. Although many participants had outwardly arrived in Germany as refugees or economic migrants, they understood themselves as missionaries brought there by the Holy Spirit.
Some spoke of a missionary call received before arriving; many recognized that calling only afterward. Confronted with a country full of church buildings but sparsely attended Sunday services, they came to see themselves as charged with bringing revival to a declining church and bringing Germany back to Christ.
These churches understood themselves not simply as displaced communities protecting an identity, but as participants in a reverse mission movement.
To reach German audiences, many missionary migrant churches practiced street evangelism. Some moved toward bilingual or fully German-language Sunday worship. Pastors learned to preach in German or used interpreters, and some gospel choirs began singing in German.
At the time of publication, these efforts appeared to have produced limited results. Even large international churches had relatively few German members. Some Germans who were evangelized and baptized in migrant churches later joined German-majority congregations because they did not feel at home in a migrant-majority setting. The article nevertheless described migrant mission to Germany as a young movement whose long-term effects were still unclear.
The response to reverse mission
German churches were initially slow to recognize what was happening. Most missionary migrant churches operated outside German church networks and therefore received little notice, even when they rented worship space from German Protestant congregations. German Protestants often viewed all churches established by migrants as diaspora communities concerned only with migrants’ spiritual needs. As awareness grew, German churches and Christian groups began to recognize a need for engagement.
Evangelicals were generally more welcoming to migrant missionaries than mainline Protestants. A national evangelism network made a conscious effort to inform members about migrant missionaries and to invite migrant church leaders into leadership. This was less effective than hoped, partly because migrant churches often showed more interest in practical projects than organizational structures.
Evangelical and charismatic projects, including a large open-air rally held during the 2006 football championship, had greater success integrating missionary migrant churches. Evangelical Free churches also became more welcoming. Baptist congregations worked to integrate migrant groups into existing churches and sometimes offered a second worship service in another language.
Because many missionary migrant churches were Pentecostal or charismatic, the Federation of Free Pentecostal Churches in Germany was particularly open to the new church plants. The article reported that, over the preceding decade, it had accepted more than 120 migrant congregations, which then represented roughly one fifth of its base.
Protestant churches also began offering practical assistance. In Hamburg, Wuppertal, Frankfurt, and Neuendettelsau, churches and mission agencies devised courses to prepare migrant church leaders for missionary work in Germany. Subjects included intercultural hermeneutics, intercultural communication, German theology, history, sociology, and practical exercises such as preaching in a German congregation.
Facing obstacles
Work between Protestant and missionary migrant churches faced social and political obstacles. Migrant churches were often structurally and financially weak and hoped for support in establishing their own structures. German churches, dealing with reduced resources, were reluctant to provide that assistance. At the same time, they expected migrant churches to participate in international worship and multicultural events. Migrant Christians sometimes felt exploited—especially when invited to provide music and food, but rarely the sermon.
Differences between the lives of marginalized migrants and generally middle-class indigenous Christians also made cooperation difficult. A German church organizing a Saturday seminar might have little understanding when an invited migrant speaker had to cancel because an employer required unexpected overtime.
The article also identified several theological and cultural barriers:
- Different concepts of mission and evangelism.
- The prominence of spiritual-warfare theology in many missionary migrant churches, which could repel German Protestants and evangelicals.
- Different interpretations of migration.
- A tendency among Germans to see migrants only as economic or political refugees whose presence was provisional.
- Different definitions of pastoral ministry, with many migrant church leaders emphasizing spiritual calling and charismatic giftedness rather than formal theological training.
Next steps
Dialogue was overdue on all these issues. At the time, one mission body had begun a theological conversation about reverse mission between German Protestant and missionary migrant churches and planned consultations on spiritual warfare.
Such dialogue was needed to prevent missionary migrant churches from becoming more isolated from the wider German church context. Both sides needed a willingness to make real contact despite deep theological and social differences. German churches had to recognize the need to receive missionaries from abroad, even when they had not invited them. Migrant churches had to learn that effective evangelism required contextualizing both their message and their church life.
There was also a political question: who was allowed to define Christianity in Germany? German Protestant churches received media attention and held financial, political, and social influence. Public discussion of migration and religion focused heavily on Islam, while the scale of Christian migration remained less visible.
Finally, the article raised an ecclesiological question: are churches defined by denomination, nationality, or both? When national and denominational identity are rigidly upheld, migrants remain “the other.” Migrant-majority churches are treated as foreign churches with which established congregations have an ecumenical relationship, rather than as part of a shared community. True integration, the article concluded, would require German churches to reconsider what it means to belong to the multinational Body of Christ.