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Facts about Liebenzell Mission in English
On this page we compiled some information about the work of Liebenzell Mission in English. Just click through the FAQs. We are grateful, as an international organization, together with co-workers and friends from all over the world, to be committed to God. If you want you can support the work of the Liebenzeller Mission financially.

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Liebenzell Mission is an evangelical mission organization. It operates as a independent institution worldwide in non-denominational partnerships. It’s approximately 230 employees are deployed in 22 countries around the world. They establish Christian churches, provide training, are involved in medical and social projects and help in acute emergencies. As a non-profit organization, Liebenzell Mission is financed primarily by donations.
In 1899 the organization was founded in Hamburg by the German pastor Heinrich Coerper, at the request of the already well-known China missionary James Hudson Taylor. After moving to the Black Forest, the missionary organization took the name of it‘s new home in 1906 and became “Liebenzeller Mission”.
According to the motto “Serving People With God’s Love” Liebenzell missionaries pass on that the faith in Jesus Christ makes a meaningful, promising and eternal life possible. This includes humanitarian aid, which is urgently needed by many people, but also goes beyond that. Therefore, the main focus of the work is the establishment and growth of Christian congregations abroad. The aim is always that the congregations become independent on a long-term basis and that aid measures are integrated into local church and congregation projects. The missionaries are also available to advise the congregations even when a project has been placed in local hands.
Liebenzell Mission cooperates with about 60 partner churches and organizations worldwide and always begins new areas of work abroad upon their invitation. Congregations are established in partnership. Projects are being developed and implemented together with the local partners.
As Christian faith and practical help go hand in hand, Liebenzell Mission supports medical, technical and social projects – for example, among AIDS affected or disadvantaged children – both in terms of personnel and finances. Therefore, the team of missionaries worldwide includes not only theologians but also social workers, technically trained staff and medical personnel.
Liebenzell Mission consciously focuses on the sustainable development of it’s projects. As a reliable Christian partner, it’s employees have in the past always remained involved on scene, in the event of disasters, shortages or civil war situations.
Liebenzell Mission works on all continents. The focus is on Africa ( incl. Zambia, Malawi, Burundi), Europe (incl. Germany, France, Spain) and Asia (incl. Japan, Bangladesh).
Apart from it‘s work abroad, Liebenzell Mission is also active at home. In Eastern Germany employees are involved in missionary congregational work, in Southern Germany among migrants and refugees. In addition, Liebenzell Mission offers a variety of programs with congresses and seminars in it‘s multi-functional building in Bad Liebenzell as well as travel opportunities to more than 40 countries. Closely connected to Liebenzell Mission is the theological education. About 250 young people are currently studying at the Internationale Hochschule Liebenzell (IHL) and the Interkulturelle Theologische Akademie (ITA).
We believe in God, the Father.
We believe that God created and sustains the world and humanity through his Word and has ordained and enabled us for fellowship with him and our fellow humans.
God has created every human being in his image (Genesis 1:26) and given them a dignity that can neither be lost nor damaged. This includes the unborn, weak, poor, displaced, disenfranchised, sick, disabled, old, dying.
We as human beings come to find and know ourselves in the encounter with our Creator. We cannot create ourselves, nor give ourselves meaning and purpose. God has created human beings as men and women (Genesis 1:27) and intended us for creative mutual care in life-long marriage in the relational polarity of male and female (Matthew 19:3–9). God can also call to a life of singleness (Matthew 19:10–12; 1 Corinthians 7).
God has created the world in a very good way, and has purposed us to cultivate and care for it in responsibility before God (Genesis 2:15). Since the Fall creation waits for its redemption on the Day of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:18–25), when God will create a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21).We believe in God, the Son.
We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, whom the Father has sent into the world. In him he loved the world so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).
Every human being has been betrayed, deceived, and bound by the power of sin in its manifold expressions (Romans 3:9–18). Sin shows itself as culpable deed and tragic doom (Romans 5:12–21) in the lost relationship with God and the corrupted relations to other human beings, creation and oneself (Genesis 4:1–11; Romans 1:18–32). Human efforts for education and enablement as well as the renewal of societal structures cannot free human beings from their alienation and bondage to sin (Mark 8:36). This occurs only through redemption in Jesus Christ, our Lord. From this redemption follows the mandate to educate, to capacitate, and to assume societal, social, ecological and political responsibility (Jeremiah 29:7; Romans 13:1–7; 1 Peter 2:13–17).Jesus Christ, truly God and truly human being, is alone the salvation of the world for all human beings (Acts 4:12). He reconciled us with God through his substitutional atoning death on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:18f), forgives our sin, sends us into the world (John 17:18; 20:21), and liberates us to live a life according to our divine calling. He is risen bodily from the dead and will call all people to resurrection on his Day, some to eternal life, others to judgement (Daniel 12:2; Revelation 20:11–15). Through Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead God gives us, already now, a living hope in the life of God’s kingdom (1 Peter 1:3).
In Jesus, Israel’s Messiah, God has established the promised New Covenant with Israel, in which the Church, called from among the nations, is included (Jeremiah 31:31; 1 Corinthians 11:25). The election of the Church of Jews and non-Jews does not replace the permanent election of Israel (Romans 11:17f). God himself will let his people Israel see the consummation of salvation in Christ (cp. Romans 11:25ff).
At the end of time Jesus Christ will return and rule with his church for all eternity (Romans 5:17; 2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 22:5).We believe in God, the Holy Spirit.
We believe that the Holy Spirit was sent to us through the Father and the Son, that he makes us God’s children by faith in Jesus Christ (Rom 8:14f), leads us into knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4), and sends us into the world to bear witness to this truth in word and deed.God speaks to us through the Holy Scriptures and in them has revealed to us his character, his will and his salvific deeds in history. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are, as a “living sermon of the Holy Spirit” (Confessio Virtembergica, art. 27), God’s true, inspired, reliable and trustworthy Word (Psalm 93:5; Isaiah 45:19; John 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:16). They are the only standard for the faith, life, activity, and salvation of the church of Jesus and of every single person. In them God’s Word and human word is indivisibly bound together. The unity and diversity of their testimony find their centre in Jesus Christ. This Word possesses the power to create, orient, correct, and renew (John 1:1; Hebrews 4:12; 11:3; James 1:18; Matthew 8:8; Psalms 119:105).
The Church of Jesus Christ is the fellowship of those called forth by God within a yet unredeemed world (1 Peter 2:9). She is sent to live according to God’s will as salt of the earth and light of the world (Matthew 5:13–16) and to praise and worship the triune God unitedly in cultural, ethnic, and national diversity (Romans 15:5f; Ephesians 1:12; Revelation 7:9f). The Holy Spirit calls each member of His Church to serve and enables every member with various gifts for the edification of the Church (1 Corinthians 12).
The Holy Spirit also equips the Church in times of persecution and great distress with the strength to endure, persevere and cling to the confession of hope (Hebrews 10:23). The gates of hell will not overcome her (Matthew 16:18). He leads the Church to intercede and helps her in prayer.The Holy Spirit makes the Church a participant in God’s mission. In this sending, the gospel is God’s power to save all who believe in Jesus Christ (Romans 1:16). The Holy Spirit enables us to confess Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 12:3), to give account for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15), and to go into all the world as his witnesses, in order to make people his disciples (Matthew 28:18–20).
Through the Holy Spirit Jesus calls his worldwide Church to unity in collaborative service and complementary partnership. He guides her on her way through time to the consummation of history in God’s new creation.Ratified by the General Assemby of the Liebenzell Mission on December 8, 2017.
Where do you set the focus of your work? What motivates you? These are questions we keep hearing. And with justification.
There are countless areas of operation for missionaries worldwide. Working professionally requires a concentration on key areas and focusing of the work.
Strategic Initiative 1: Planting Congregations
We plant congregations! For, young and old, rich and poor, locals and foreigners should meet God in diversity and contribute to integration and reconciliation as blessed persons.
Strategic Initiative 2: Serving people
For many people, each day is a struggle for survival. Local congregations become relevant to their environment by meeting the needs of the people. This is how Christian faith becomes visible.
Strategic Initiative 3: Living the Partnership
We coöperate closely with over 60 partners abroad. Because mission at eye level is important to us – influenced by common aims and mutual learning! Even in crisis, disaster, bottlenecks or civil wars we remain reliable partners.
Strategic Initiative 4: Encouraging mission
We enable people of different cultures to act missionary in their country and all over the world! In a time when many people have lost all perspective, mission is more necessary than ever. Because mission means salvation, hope and multiplication.
Theological education and world mission have always been closely connected in Bad Liebenzell. About 100 years ago Hilda von Diest donated a large area of land to Liebenzell mission, on the condition that “mission trainees” be educated as long as the mission exists. This meant students of theology, who would later work as missionaries all over the world. This principle still holds true today.
In recent years, the number of our students has increased rapidly. Young people are the decision makers of tomorrow. That’s why we rely on them. The Internationale Hochschule Liebenzell and the Interkulturelle Theologische Akademie train young adults – for mission, congregation and social services all over the world. The study and living community encourages the character and spiritual development as well as the social and practical competence of the students.
The Black Forest town of Bad Liebenzell has been our home for around 120 years. From small beginnings a lot has developed. Many people have received impulses for their lives during the many missionary festivals. Every year about 40,000 children, young people, adults and seniors are our guests. We are a institution for all generations! Our Sisterhood lives only a few steps away from the students. They are all at home on the Missionsberg – just like our employees and trainees. They are committed to ensuring that our missionaries around the world can concentrate on their actual work.
It is our aim to transform the Missionsberg into an international, spiritual centre, where people of different cultures and nations experience God and fellowship. Rooted in the Black Forest, at home in the world.
God wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1Tim 2,4).
Therefore we want to spread his saving love into a broken world, so that people can find a living hope and eternal life in faith in Jesus Christ.
- We want to plant, build and develop congregations in a globalised world, promote missionary and social services close to the congregation and work in partnership with other organizations and churches.
- We want to enable people to serve and provide them with the best possible education with a global horizon.
- We want to develop our Missionsberg into an international, spiritual centre where people from different cultures and nations experience God, fellowship and are sent out into the world.
As Liebenzell Mission, these values are important to us:
- Trusting God
We live in trust in God. From him we receive cause and gifts for our mission. In everything we do, we ask for His guidance and provision and we count on His intervention and the power of His Spirit. - Loyalty to the Word of God
We rely on the Bible as God’s true, inspired, reliable and trustworthy Word. The Holy Bible is the sole standard for faith, life and action. - Serving attitude
We work as followers of Jesus Christ in a servant attitude towards God and our neighbor. We are not afraid to make sacrifices. We want to respect the other person more highly than ourselves and do our service to and with one another. - Appreciation
We want to think and talk well of each other and acknowledge and value each other in our differences. At the same time we help each other with open, honest and constructive criticism. - Quality
We want to do our job properly. To do so, we proceed in a planned and consistent manner. We continuously review and improve our actions. We want to attract competent employees, deploy them in a gift-oriented manner and develop them further. - Competence
We want to enable people and churches to serve and promote the growth of spiritual personalities so that they take responsibility and give orientation. - Future orientation
We ask about the relevance of our work for the future of the congregation and this world and take necessary steps courageously in faith. We do this in the hope of God’s coming kingdom.
In all our thoughts and actions we are aware that God’s blessing is everything.
A start in Hamburg, a missionary pioneer with a major task, a persevering praying sister and a pastor with vision and heart. These are the “ingredients” for the story about the beginning of the Liebenzell Mission.
Heinrich Coerper
A founder who shaped his mission organization.
Without him, Liebenzell Mission would not have come into being like this: Pastor Heinrich Coerper (1863–1936). The founder of the English China Inland Mission (CIM), James Hudson Taylor, approached Heinrich Coerper with a request: A German branch of the English mission organization should be established. Heinrich Coerper agreed and on November 13th, 1899 the new organization was founded in Hamburg. After the organization lost it‘s home in Hamburg in 1902, Heinrich Coerper moved to Bad Liebenzell. There, for years, the deaconess Lina Stahl had asked for the Schlossberg to become a “fire-breathing mountain” from which the Gospel would spread into the whole world. In 1906 the young mission officially took the name of it‘s new home: The German branch of the China Inland Mission became “Liebenzeller Mission”. Heinrich Coerper had a significant influence on Liebenzell Mission and stood at the head of the work until shortly before his death. Today the Missionsberg is the headquarters for missionary work all over the world.
Lina Stahl
Eleven years of prayer by a deaconess have far-reaching consequences
A “fire-breathing mountain” in the middle of the Black Forest: Deaconess Lina Stahl has been praying for it for eleven years since 1891. From the Schlossberg in Bad Liebenzell the gospel is to be spread all over the world. The daughter of a Swabian pastor took care of the sisters there, who were in poor health. She begins to pray for this mountain to “be totally there for the Saviour” and become a place from which faith spreads like wildfire around the world. And in 1902, God heard her prayer: After the German branch of the China Inland Mission, founded in 1899, lost it‘s home in Hamburg, the Sister invited Pastor Heinrich Coerper, to move to the small town in the Black Forest. And so the Schlossberg became a “fire-breathing mountain”, as requested by Sister Lina Stahl. Without her, the Liebenzell Mission would not be imaginable.
The headquarter of Liebenzell Mission is in Germany. But there are also independent branches of Liebenzell Mission in several countries worldwide. They are part of the network “Liebenzell Mission International”. Many of these branches send missionaries themselves, who then often work in international teams.
The network Liebenzell Mission International includes:
LM USA
LM Canada
LM Switzerland + Lichtenstein
LM Austria
LM Hungary
LM Japan
It is wonderful to be an “international family”, working for the people worldwide.
Each week our current prayer requests are sent by e‑mail. If you would like to be on the mailing list, please contact mission@liebenzell.org.
If you wish to support us financially, please transfer your donations to the following account or use www.liebenzell.org/spenden.
Recipient: Liebenzell Mission
Bank: Sparkasse Pforzheim Calw
IBAN Code: DE27 6665 0085 0003 3002 34
BIC Code: PZHSDE66XXX
Please specify the purpose of your donation.
Thank you very much.