Our faith, our values and our focus worldwide

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).

1. 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).

2. 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).

3. 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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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
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.