Kassel – Churches in Germany enjoy special legal rights. This stems from the fact that the state has granted the provincial Lutheran, United and Catholic churches as well as many free churches the status of a public, non-profit corporation. This ruling gives churches the right to organise their own affairs independent of the usual government legislation. Germany’s Federation of Evangelical-Free Churches, 90% of which are Baptist, has enjoyed these rights since 1930. But it has until now lacked the organisational structures necessary to reflect those rights. This Federation’s annual assembly, which recently convened in Kassel, has now clarified this matter and even installed its own internal jurisdiction. Discussions on these issues were controversial. The strongest criticism came from congregations already recognised as public corporations in their own right. Their rights will now be secondary to those of the Federation. Delegates also lamented that the Federation will tend to define itself more in terms of its organisational structures and less in terms of a missionary movement.

During the next five years, the German Federation hopes to be inspired by the example of the Baptist Union of Malawi in southern Africa. That can be seen in a partnership agreement signed during the Kassel conference. The German General-Secretary Regina Claas (Elstal near Berlin) assured there were many things that the Baptists of Germany could learn from their Malawian sisters and brothers. One matter would be on how best to plant a church. Malawians are planting new churches on nearly a daily basis. The Baptist Union there has 200.000 members in 1.500 congregations. The church’s General-Secretary, Vincent Chirwa (Blantyre), called on Germans in Kassel to testify of Christ in everyday life and not feel hampered by the general opinion that one should not speak publically about matters of personal faith.

Claas expressed her longing for a new mission awakening. All members are called on to utilise their talents and expertise ‘in order to win others for Christ’. She expressed her concern based on the fact that membership in Germany’s largest non-state church has been shrinking slowly for years. What is to be done? According to the Federation’s President, Hartmut Riemenschneider (Marl), congregations need to open their hearts to new people. The claim that we are already doing so is in many instances only a hollow phrase, for congregations are often not concerned about the desires of their visitors. Yet he rejected the claim that the Federation was becoming too ‘churchy’. Calling the Federation a ‘church’ is helpful to many outside observers: ‘That serves to clarify matters.’ Riemenschneider was confirmed as President for an additional two years, receiving 97,5% of the vote.

The Federation lost 621 members (-0,75%) during the past year; membership is presently 82.664. Membership hovered at 88.000 15 years ago. The number of congregations is also dwindling, dropping from 823 to 814 (-1,1%). A total of 1.753 persons were baptised – 152 less than in the previous year. The Federation had hit an all-time low for the number of congregations in 2009 – but 2010 was even lower. Five new congregations were accepted during 2010: two Baptist and three Brethren ones.