English Language Church Service

In August 2008 the first English Language Church Service took place in Petruskirche Gerlingen. In the meantime there were more services (reviews see below).

 
For 2012 are scheduled:
 
Sunday, March 25, 3p.m. (in Ev.-Meth. Christuskirche)
Sunday, June 10, 3p.m. (in Ev. Lukaskirche)
Sunday, September 16, 3p.m. (in Ev. Matthäuskirche)
December (in Petruskirche)
 
Rev. Gerrit-Willem Oberman (Ev. Auferstehungsgemeinde Kirchheim/Teck) leads through the church service. Children of all ages are very welcome. Everyone is invited for coffee/tea and interesting conversation afterwards.
 
 
Reviews:

12th English Church Service: "Farewell"

November 13, 2011
 
The church service at the end of the church year had the headline "Farewell". Rev. Oberman stated in his sermon that the Bible does not tell us about "farewell forever". In fact the Bible focuses on heaven and eternal life. Grief and taking leave of someone have to be taken seriously but the view on Christian hope must be kept in mind clearly.

11th English Church Service: Harvest Time - Food for every-body!?

September 25, 2011
In this church service Vietnamese words were also audible because the Vietnamese Tin Lanh parish Stuttgart, which celebrates every Sunday afternoon their church service in the Lukaskirche Gerlingen, was interested in the sermon subject, too.
 
Rev. Gerrit-Willem Oberman (Ev. Auferstehungskirche Kirchheim/Teck) stated in his English language sermon which was translated into Vietnamese by Mrs. Fleckner:
 
  • The Human being can hear and implement God’s word only then when he is no more hungry.
  • When we are no more hungry, then we can look after others and their welfare.
  • In Gerlingen, our neighbours may not suffer from hunger but we can relieve their distress by e.g. offer babysitter services, help shopping or spend time for other duties.
  • In the church service, the believers‘ hunger for God’s word and God’s closeness gets satisfied. The experience of Chrisian community in the Lord’s Supper makes us able to afterwards share what we can or have.
  • This way we experience God’s word in the church service and discuss it over a cup of coffee afterwards – an important part of the experience “God serves us!” –  and implement together what we have experienced and discussed.
  • This Sunday, it was performed in the common celebration of the Holy Communion which connects us as Christians, over all language borders.


10th English Church Service: Inner Peace

June 26, 2011
 
Rev. Oberman preached on
Our Lord's Peace!
 
  1. Inner Peace is caused by God's Peace with us, we can not "make" it ourselves.
  2. God declares His Peace with us.
    3. See for example the Old Testament scripture reading Isaiah 55:8-13.
  3. God invites us enjoy this: His Peace with us, even in great danger. God gives Inner Peace. See for example the 23rd Psalm.
  4. The gifts we are allowed to enjoy in God's Peace with us are:
    5. - we can not fall away, eventhough we try to, - God's Peace comes with great joy for us,- we are even invited into His presence. The blessing at the end of the Letter of Jude names these three gifts of God. For this reason, we give all glory to the Lord our God!
  5. Jesus Christ, who is God, gives us Himself: "My Peace". Gospel according to John 14:27
  6. God's Peace causes my Inner Peace, when we live with a congregation, the body of Christ. And though our common living-in-God's-Peace the world is touched.
  7. And thus the Word is changed. We Christians, living God's Peace, are part of God saving the World!
  8. We enjoy His Peace, causing our Inner Peace, then we share His Peace and we finally attract others to our enjoyment of His Peace.

Peace be with you!

9th English Church Service: Lent - Joy for Sinners?

March 13, 2011
 
Of course! We all are sinners - but loved by God. In his sermon, Rev. Oberman described God's grace which gives us Christians a reason to be happy, to live in joy. Thanks be to God!

8th English Church Service: X-mas is different?


December 5, 2010
 
In his sermon Rev. Oberman explained that "X-mas" is not an advertisement for a XXL-Shopping-Event Christmas but X stands for the Greek letter Chi which was used in early Christian times as abbreviation for the word Christos. Members of the English Bible Study Group and the Good Shepherd Lutheran Parish from Böblingen formulated together in their prayers the wish for a return in thoughts and activities on the incarnation of God in the birth of Jesus, on Christian values and thankfulness to our creator.


7th English Church Service: The ABC of Praying

September 19, 2010
 
Reverend Oberman explaind in his sermon that there are no "rules" for prayers but that the diversity of prayers could be formulated in an ABC. He listed exemplary:
    • All Humans are God's children which means toddlers, not teenies.
    • Be yourself and talk like in everydays conversation. (The church visiters do not want their 3 year old toddler to kneel down or behave in a special way when needing help.)
    • Camouflage makes no sense: God knows everything and is always there! In our prayers we never tell him something new, never can hide topics.
    • Do have a conversation with God - talk to him and listen to him.
    • Equal if you speak own words or words from Psalms or other prayers - all prayers help.
    • For us God himself prepared a prayer example - in "The Lord's Prayer" (Matthew 6:5-13).
    • Go or stay - you can pray everywhere. Prayers can be spoken in a church, at home or on the street, alone or in together - thankful, jubilantly or disapointed and angry with God. The Psalms include all kind of prayers (e.g. Psalm 88).
    • Hearing bad and disgusting wishes is no problem for God - it helps the praying person and God needs not to fulfill all wishes (e.g. Psalm 137.9).
    • I pray when I address my words to God, not when I talk to someone about him.
    • Join God whatever is your heart's content - you can speak freely and honestly to him.


6th English Church Service: 'Marriage?'

June 20, 2010
 
Rev. Oberman pointed out in his sermon that God's love is the centrally fundament for our lives and for living together. In the Old and the New Testament, God's relationship to us humans is compared to a matrimony. His bond is like the bond of matrimony.

5th English Church Service: St. Nicholas for everyone: Why God was born in Bethlehem

Rev. Sabine Goller-Braun and Rev. Gerrit-Willem Oberman

Rev. Sabine Goller-Braun and Rev. Gerrit-Willem Oberman


2009, December 6
 
In the English service on St. Nicholas day, Rev. Oberman preached according to John 20:24-29: Jesus Christ is addressed explicitly as the Lord our God by his disciple Thomas - and Jesus accepts this without protest. Jesus is God and God is Jesus. So God was born in Bethlehem. God was born as a human being. And at the end he died our death - in the most terrible way which is possible. God lived our live from the beginning to the end, so he knows from own experience what our life is all about.
 
Rev. Oberman explained that the Nicene Creed, the one Creed of all Christians, explicitly affirms the doctrine of the Trinity. The Nicene Creed was adopted in 325 at the First Council of Nicaea. Nicholas of Myra, a Bishop of Myra (part of modern-day Turkey), was a member of the First Council of Nicaea, St. Nicholas is his common name.


4th English Church Service: Love! - How?!

2009, August 16
 
Rev. Gerrit-Willem Oberman preached according to John 15:9-17: God loves us and Christians have to love each other. But the word 'Love' is misunderstood often. To love each other in a Christian way means to care for others - even when we do not like the others.
 
Two who like each other got married in this church service. The 'intercontinental wedding' brought people from different continents together.

3rd English Church Service: Jesus, pay attention to MY problem


2009, March 23
 
Rev. Gerrit-Willem Oberman preached Matthew 15: 21-28. God who knows all our thoughts and feelings - and experienced them himself as Jesus - has sympathy for us and is willing to learn. He doesn't ask us to be "nice" to him but honest, especially with bitter, angry, embarrassing thoughts. A honest personal conversation with God in which we can formulate our despair and our anger makes us able to love each other.


2nd English Church Service: The Mystery of the Beginning

2008, December 14
 
Rev. Gerrit-Willem Oberman preached John 1:1. He explained the mystery of the Trinity: God Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He wished that the participants may be able to recognize all the unbelievable things in their every days life. When something is so unbelievable fantastic like the Holy Spirit, then it is a reason that the church service must not end at the church door and the participants go home alone with their thoughts. It is a reason to stay together after the worship.

1st English Church Service: Everyone is a Foreigner, Everywhere

2008, August 24
 
More than 70 participants attended the first English language church service in Gerlingen's Petruskirche. In the 2-hour long but very diverting service not only adults got inspired.
  
Rev. Oberman preached in the sermon about this for him well-known topic: As a child he went with his Dutch parents to the USA and to England. Where ever he went he was a foreigner. But as a Christian he learned: Where God is - which means in community with other Christians - everyone is at home!