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69

Missiological Perspectives from 
Germany: Innovation and Mission 
in Rural Areas

Michael Herbst
Professor for Practical Theology at the University of Greifswald and Director of the 
Research Institute for Evangelism and Church Development at the University of 
Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
michael.herbst@uni-greifswald.de

Patrick Todjeras
Vice Director of the Research Institute for Evangelism and Church Development at 
the University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
patrick.todjeras@uni-greifswald.de

Abstract

This article argues for innovation and mission in the Lutheran 
Churches of Germany. The authors approach this topic by drawing 
on research on innovative and missional projects in rural areas in 
Germany. The authors are looking at rural areas where few people 
would expect innovation. Presenting a study called “Landwards” 
and the evaluation of exemplary projects in rural areas in Eastern 
Germany, it is possible to review key factors for innovative and 



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missional church development. One of the most intriguing fac-
tors is that, compared to international studies on missional church 
development (like fresh expressions of church in the Church of 
England or pioneering places in the Protestant Church in the Neth-
erlands), it can be shown that lay leaders do not play the dominant 
role in starting the initiatives. However, lay people organized in 
teams do seem to be the engine of on-going innovative initiatives 
in rural areas. This raises different questions regarding the training 
of leaders, for example, or the collaboration of such initiatives with 
established churches. The “Landwards” study points out the possi-
bilities of innovation in rural areas in and adjacent to the Lutheran 
structure of being a “Volkskirche.” This is a rather original way to 
deal with the challenges of being a state-like church in Germany.

Introduction

This article takes the results of the recent study “Kirche im Um-
bruch” (EKD 2019) as a reason to look at innovation in the Lu-
theran Churches of Germany. “Kirche im Umbruch” is a study 
on the development of church membership and church taxes in 
the Lutheran Churches of Germany. Principal investigator Bernd 
Raffelhüschen and his team came to the conclusion that Lutheran 
Churches in Germany will lose more than 50 percent of their 
members by the year 2060 due to demographic reasons, such as 
birth, deaths, and relocation (24 percent), and due to the lack of 
commitment of the members to their church (28 percent) (EKD 
2019). The church’s membership situation is based upon the be-
havior of the baptized, the members who have abandoned their 
membership, and the people who are attracted to become new 
members of the church. This will have a major impact on the re-
ligious landscape inasmuch as the church tax system in Germany 
grants financial stability to Lutheran Churches.



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Regional Development of Members (EKD 2019, 8)

Th e authors do not off er any programmatic solutions to their 
disturbing fi ndings, which are not necessarily surprising outcomes, 
although they’ve received signifi cant media attention in Germany. 
Yet it is evident that new and innovative ways for being Church 



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have to be sought. Instead, the authors conclude their report by 
describing four different innovative and missional projects which 
could be exemplary for arresting the decline of membership and 
commitment (EKD 2019, 20–26). 

The report is proof that ongoing dialogue on mission is rel-
evant. On the one hand, the increasing use of the term mission 
appears to be a hopeful sign in the midst of a crisis as churches 
are once more encountering their mission and their rootedness 
in the missio Dei. On the other hand, discourse about the term 
mission and its implications are in danger of leaving central topics 
and inherent issues behind or unclear. Could this be an unhealthy 
development if mission is degraded to a program for slowing 
or even stopping membership and church tax decline? Mission 
would then become merely an instrument for maintenance. This 
can be seen, for example, in the recent structural discussions and 
new church laws. A recent decision caused controversy in the 
“Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Norddeutschland” (a Luther-
an Church in the north of Germany). Their Synod declared that, 
although there are major upheavals in church membership and 
the structural maintenance of the local churches, the structure of 
parochial entities should remain the same and is non-negotiable. 
The “Personalplanungsförderungsgesetz” (the personnel planning 
promotion law for full-time workers, mainly pastors) cements the 
parochial paradigm. 

It is no new phenomenon to think about missional church 
development in Germany as a brief survey of the decades of de-
bates about mission in the Lutheran churches show (EKD 2006; 
Karle 2011). Although there has been increased attention to mis-
sion since Eberhard Jüngel’s proposal of a missional church at the 
1999 EKD Synod (Jüngel 2000), the concept of mission is rarely 
addressed in German church theory and practical theology. 

In this article, we want to present a study on missional entre-
preneurial initiatives in rural areas in Germany which highlight 
possible criteria for innovative and missional pathways for the 
church. These initiatives are part of a new and promising real-
ity. We plead for the case that churches in the West are entering 



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an unknown situation. This implies that Lutheran and Catholic 
Churches in Germany face a major transformational process. The 
self-understanding of what it means to be a “Volkskirche,”1 Church 
for all people, needs to be reformulated and adapted. The cultural 
and religious dominance of state-like churches are being pushed 
back. The Church has entered a post-Christendom society. In a 
way, the churches in Eastern Germany have more experience in 
dealing with this phenomenon due to their experience during the 
former German Democratic Republic (GDR) (Herbst 2014a). On 
the one hand, these challenges might lead to renewal and reorien-
tation of the Church’s mission. On the other hand, such changes 
may result in holding on more firmly to yesterday’s answers and 
generating resistance.

It is evident that the Lutheran Churches need to rethink their 
identity and options as a “Volkskirche.” The missional dimension 
of Church as “Volkskirche” has been recently stressed by the sys-
tematic theologian Ulrich Körtner, who said, “Being a Volkskirche 
means to be a Church in society and for society. .  .  . The calling 
of the Church—its mission—is the calling of the disciples into 
the world that God loves. In this way, the Volkskirche is a mis-
sional Church which lives by communicating the gospel” (Kört-
ner 2018, 592). 

The frequent use of and referral to the concept of missio Dei 
is a signal for these discourses happening in Germany (Pompe 
et al. 2016) and includes questions about new places, practices, 
time schedules and new forms of the Christian faith. These issues 
are associated with new requirements for pastoral ministry and 
arouse questions on how to establish a mixed economy church—a 
blended economy of different types and forms of churches which 
still holds on to the prescribed unity of the Christian Church. 

1. The term “Volkskirche” is a German term to describe a form of church 
which is partly linked with the state, e.g., by church taxes. The majority of Ger-
man society still belongs to the Lutheran or the Catholic Church. 



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Preliminary Remarks—Understanding the 
Situation of the Lutheran Mainline Churches 
in Germany

We would like to make a brief theoretical introduction to the situa-
tion of the Lutheran Church in Germany in order to provide a bet-
ter understanding of German mainline churches. As theologians, 
we have a pretty solid theological concept of what the Church 
is—creatura verbi, fruit of the missio Dei. On the one hand, we are 
certain that the Church is headed towards the kingdom of God. 
On the other hand, it seems to be rather difficult to grasp how 
these theological concepts can be translated into everyday life. 
What is the Church that we live in and work for? How do we ex-
plore the empirical side of Church that we experience? Putting this 
into relation to the ecclesia of our creed is the goal of recent dis-
cussions of “church-theory.” The point is: Our Church—the way it 
behaves, its dominant ways of thinking and organizing itself—has 
been described in German literature as “hybrid”—a “hybrid” of 
three different rationales (Kunz-Herzog 1997; Hauschildt 2007). 
Church consists of the people of God, people who trust in God 
and live their life accordingly both as individuals and in groups. 
The Church, however, is also an organization that has to deal with 
finances, buildings, manage its staff and funds, recruit and train 
personnel and so on—quite similar to many non-profit organiza-
tions. However, this has shaped the German Church as a former 
state-like church, it operates very similar to a public institution. 
The Church used to have its independent department right next to 
the department of health. In many ways, the Church in Germany 
is used to behaving, thinking and feeling as if it was a subdivision 
of public government—less people-oriented and more concerned 
with formal aspects of Church, e.g., compliance to rules and pat-
terns, public integration, church law and the ministry as a public 
office. It has great difficulty implementing a “mixed economy.” 
Cross-parochial activities, church plants, fresh expressions of 
church and lay leadership and pioneering are very challenging 
to the inherited, institutional way of “doing church.” Recently, 



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churches have started to question their strategies. Due to decreas-
ing membership resulting in less funds and a lack of young min-
isters, churches are increasingly open to discussing alternatives. 
In many areas of Germany, especially in rural areas, the parochial 
system has reached its limit, and the focus seems to have shifted to 
developing church regions, networks of several parishes working 
together and cooperating.

The “Landwards” Study

Research Questions and Definitions

In 2014, the Institute for Evangelism and Church Development 
finished “Landwards,” a study on mission in peripheral rural 
churches published in 2016 (Schlegel et al. 2016). This study 
was preceded by a conference in 2013 called “Mittendrin” at the 
Alfried-Krupp-Wissenschaftskolleg in Greifswald and was em-
bedded in an academic research consortium called “Think Rural” 
on rural areas at the University of Greifswald. Thus, there is an 
interdisciplinary history of research on rural areas and mission 
in rural areas at the University of Greifswald (see Schlegel 2012; 
2013a; 2013b; Schlegel and Alex 2012; Alex et al. 2013; Alex and 
Schlegel 2014; Dünkel et al. 2014; Herbst 2014a; 2014b; Herbst et 
al. 2016). 

The starting point of the study was to observe the challenges 
of the context, shrinking rural areas and the parallel shrinking of 
church life in peripheral regions. An interesting observation was 
discovered. Various concepts and innovative approaches emerged 
in rural areas which caused a growing engagement with and at-
traction of de-churched and non-churched people. This led to the 
research question: Why did the new concepts work? How did they 
start? Do peripheral zones have a special potential for innovations?

The authors of the study defined three key perspectives: rural 
areas, their understanding of mission, and their understanding of 
innovation. A peripheral rural area is an area which lies at least a 
twenty-minute driving distance to a regional metropolis and has 



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little population density (less than one hundred and fifty residents 
per square kilometer). Regarding the term mission, the authors 
refer to a multidimensional concept of mission as discussed in 
an exemplary way in the Anglican Church as the five marks of 
mission. The five marks of mission defined by the Anglican Lam-
beth Conference 1998 are (Church of England 1999, 38; Walls 
and Ross 2008): 

	To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom

	To teach, baptize, and nurture new believers

	To respond to human need by loving service

	To seek to transform unjust structures of society

	To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain 
and renew the earth2

For a definition of innovation the authors refer to the theory of so-
cial innovation (Moulaert et al. 2007; Moulaert 2010; Butkevičienė 
2009). The social innovation theory emphasizes three key dimen-
sions to social innovation: First, innovations are usually new com-
binations or hybrids of existing elements rather than something 
wholly new. This refers to the contextuality of innovation. Second, 
their practice involves crossing organizational or disciplinary 
boundaries. Third, they leave behind compelling new relation-
ships between previously separate individuals and groups. The 
main conviction in social innovation is that innovation helps to 
solve certain problems better than previous approaches and meth-
ods did. Moulaert observes, “What counts for social innovation is 
‘good practice’—i.e., a practice that has shown some contribution 
to social innovation in other similar contexts, or ‘good formulae’ 
that could contribute to social innovation in the future” (Moulaert 
et al. 2005, 1978).

2. For an exposition and critique of the five marks of mission, see Ross 
2012.



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Method and Assessment

Through guided interviews with volunteers in peripheral rural 
areas and the analysis of different documents of church-related 
projects as well as the data according to Philipp Mayring, the au-
thors assessed a compilation of one hundred and twelve intriguing 
samples.3 After the evaluation, they focused on seventy-nine proj-
ects which could be assessed. First, these were clustered according 
to their similarity. Second, twelve projects (one of each cluster) 
were evaluated in more detail. Two distinctive features could be 
noted beforehand. First, it was notable that sixty-seven projects 
were located in East Germany. Second, it was obvious that there 
was a significance in recurrent ideas. 

The following sample gives an insight into the first assessment 
of the findings by summing up the projects into twelve clusters 
and selecting one project of each cluster for further investigation 
(Schlegel et al. 2016, 197–204):

1. Mobile youth ministry: “Der Blaue Bus im Oderbruch” 
(Brandenburg)4

2. Church without pastor: Lay-led prayer time “Ad fontes” in 
Mönchgrün (Thuringia)

3. Village church network: Series of night-time organ concerts in 
the Tecklenburg Area (Westphalia) 

4. Innovative use of church buildings: Biker church in Wehlen 
(Saxonia) 

5. Touristic attraction: Park of labyrinths in Malchow 
(Brandenburg)

6. Village meeting place: House of inter-generational encounter 
in Globig (Thuringia)

3. The data recall was facilitated either by internet, recommendations, or 
letters (85 letters to deans and superintendents of church districts). Filtered by 
the criteria rural area, mission, and innovation, 79 projects were left.

4. “The blue bus in the Oderbruch area.”



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7. Responsibility for societal issues (right-wing radicalism): 
Youth band project in Joachimsthal (Brandenburg) 

8. Central events for the region: Soccer camp in Oese (Lutheran 
Church of Hannover)

9. Evangelism: Faith nurture course in Verchen (Western 
Pomerania)

10. Traditional “Volkskirche” (Lutheran mainline church)—mis-
sional: Geithain (Saxonia) 

11. Celebration/commemoration of local mentality and village 
history: Museum of local history in Brück (Brandenburg)

12. Unique ideas: Free ride for your mind—local television proj-
ect (Mecklenburg)

The second assessment was designed with expert interviews 
and the portrayal of twelve exemplary projects. With the help of 
the three criteria—rural area, mission, and innovation—it was 
possible to detect marks and distinctive features of innovation. 
The authors developed a fingerprint of each project with the goal 
of comparing the projects. A project would get all five points on 
the scale for “peripheral rural area” if it was located in an area with 
under fifty people per square kilometer and would need longer 
than a forty-minute drive to the next town. The spots on the scale 
of mission indicate the dominance of the focus on an aspect of 
mission as presented before. The scale of innovation was created 
with a framework on challenges for innovation in rural areas. The 
specific challenges for church life in rural areas were collected and 
described using six challenges for innovation: church structure; 
paid clergy and volunteers; demographic change; effects of periph-
eral situations; fragmentation, reduction of differentiation; and 
secularization, atheism. The darker spots represent the emphasis 
or degree of concentration regarding the specific criterion.

As an example, see the fingerprint of the project “Der Blaue 
Bus im Oderbruch”: 



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Der Blaue Bus im Oderbruch (Schlegel et al. 2016, 313) 

Th e third assessment focused on the initial emergence and 
formation of the projects. Th e authors asked under which circum-
stances there was an ideal process for innovation. Th ey found out 
that there were seven factors that occurred—even in diff erent se-
quences: a key person (“Schlüsselperson”), teams and team-build-
ing (“Team”), networks and networking (“Netzwerk”), a reason to 
innovate (“Anlass”), an idea of what to do (“Idee”), resources (“Res-
sourcen”), and resistance and challenges (“Herausforderungen”). 
Th e key factors appeared in diff erent order regarding the exem-
plary projects. Some started with a team, others with a key person.

Innovative Beispiele Missionarischer Praxis (Schlegel et al. 2016, 342) 



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Outcomes 

The in-depth qualitative evaluation of the twelve projects showed 
remarkable outcomes and conclusions regarding the criterion 
“mission.” It could be observed that about 50 percent of the proj-
ects chose their starting point in “diaconia,” a social ministry 
(“compassion and justice”). Regarding eleven of twelve samples, 
“compassion and justice” was the key aspect of their ministry 
(mark three of the criterion mission). Three of twelve samples had 
their focus on societal issues (mark four of the criterion mission). 
Nevertheless, evangelism was always included. However, evange-
lism was the starting point/main interest in only one of the twelve 
samples (mark one of the criterion mission). It was interesting to 
see that only one of twelve samples had an ecological core (mark 
five of the criterion mission) (Schlegel et al. 2016, 302–6), given 
the fact that these are rural areas and there is a growing awareness 
of ecological issues in society and in the churches in general.

Conclusions regarding the criterion “innovation” were (1) 
that nine of twelve samples were sensitive and responsive to eccle-
sial, cultural and societal challenges; (2) ten of twelve samples 
intended to counteract processes of territorial disintegration and 
fragmentation; (3) only two of twelve samples targeted the encour-
agement and promotion of volunteers; and (4) only six of twelve 
samples perceived secularization as a challenge and responded to 
this phenomenon (Schlegel et al. 2016, 309–11). 

Regarding the focal point of the study, i.e., the formation 
phase of an innovative project, all of the projects showed that, on 
the one hand, there were key players who initiated and pushed the 
project. This study called them “heroes” (also “community entre-
preneurs”). Most of them were full-time workers, mainly pastors 
or ministers (only one volunteer) who were great networkers and 
team-players.5 On the other hand, in all of the samples, the authors 
perceived the importance of team-building with volunteers with a 
strong sense of belonging and (a strong sense of personal) respon-
sibility of the team members (Schlegel et al. 2016, 317–23). Beside 

5. In four of twelve samples, “the hero” was a team of two to three people.



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these factors for innovation in rural areas, there were a couple of 
important “soft” factors such as positive and joyful atmosphere, at-
titudes like agility and perseverance and a start-up spirit (Schlegel 
et al. 2016, 323–24 ). In addition, the causes for innovation had 
manifold reasons: motivation for innovation and new practice, 
crisis (i.e., flood, right-wing attack, failure), institutional occasions 
(i.e., memorial anniversaries), pressure from outside (i.e., deadline 
for applications for support, structural reforms), etc. It could be 
observed that innovative practices were created through an ex-
ternal and inner stimulus and incentive. Heroes reported a free 
and open space, which was often a result of a crisis. It is impres-
sive to see that resources on their own did not cause innovation. 
However, there is no innovation without resources (Schlegel et al. 
2016, 325–41). Furthermore, innovative projects also suffered and 
endured resistance and opposition, harsh critique and periods of 
great problems. 

The “Landwards” study shows that innovation and mission 
have happened in rural areas of Germany (especially in East 
Germany) which have led to significant implications for innova-
tion and mission. 

Discussion and Implications

In this article, we ask, “Quo vadis, Church?—Where are you going, 
Church?” Asking this question implies different answers since the 
Church may journey in numerous directions on its way towards 
the future. One of our strongest impressions regarding the “Land-
wards” study and its implications for mission-shaped thinking 
and fieldwork in Germany concerns the people involved in these 
innovative missional initiatives. It seems to be a central question 
to ask, “Who are the pioneers, pioneering and innovating?” Be-
sides the “heroes” (key persons), it is obvious that there must have 
been different Kairos moments when the “right people” met at the 
“right place” at the “right time.” In this study in almost every case 
the “heroes” were pastors or other paid full-time workers. This 
is somewhat disillusioning given the priority shown towards lay 



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leadership in mission-shaped church processes, for example in 
the Church of England or in the Dutch Protestant Church (Lings 
2016, 61–62, 173–79; Kerk 2017, 7). A recent study of fresh expres-
sions of church in the Church of England called “The Day of Small 
Things” shows that the proportions of ordained and lay leaders 
are about equal. A study on pioneering places in the Netherlands 
shows that 18 percent of teams have no paid staff and 29 percent of 
them have staff employed two days per week or less. 

In most cases, it was pastors or other paid full-time staff in 
the “Landwards” study who generated ideas and established teams 
to move forward. Somehow, full-time staff are a stable guarantor of 
sustainability. Whether this is a specific finding due to the situation 
of the German “Volkskirche” remains unclear. In a certain sense, 
these findings contradict what alternative concepts of the future 
of pastoral ministry might look like. Others examples such as the 
concept of Catholic pastoral ministry in Poitiers, France, envisage 
a pastor whose main ministry is to train the baptized and believing 
active members of the diocese, who gather in small, vital Christian 
communities. Their survival is not dependent on full-time staff. 
And yes, church still exists without full-time staff, even without a 
trained and ordained theologian (Rouet et al. 2005; Rouet 2011; 
Müller 2012). Similar concepts have been introduced in the dis-
cussion on the future of pastoral ministry in Germany by Michael 
Herbst and Hans-Hermann Pompe, who talk about a “regio-local” 
ministry (Herbst and Pompe 2017). They drew their concept from 
the Anglican discussion of a mixed economy of the church (Herbst 
2018, 158–66). The language of a mixed economy church or a 
blended economy originates in the fresh expressions of church and 
was introduced by the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan 
Williams. The mixed economy is a plea for ecclesial diversity and 
deals with the question of how to conceive unity between fresh ex-
pressions of church and inherited forms of church. This becomes 
explicit in the foreword of the report “Mission-shaped Church”: 

But the existing parochial system alone is no longer 
able fully to deliver its underlying mission purpose. We 
need to recognize that a variety of integrated missionary 



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approaches is required. A mixed economy of parish 
churches and network churches will be necessary, in an 
active partnership across a wider area, perhaps a dean-
ery. (Mission and Public Affairs Council 2004, x) 

Michael Moynagh has promoted the term and the concept of 
a mixed economy church. He says, “The phrase ‘mixed economy’ 
.  .  . refers to fresh expressions and ‘inherited’ churches existing 
alongside each other, within the same denomination, in relation-
ships of mutual respect and support” (Moynagh 2008, 177). The 
mixed economy of church can be discussed in different ways, for 
example in terms of theological and spiritual accountability and 
responsibility in a region or in terms of the collaboration of new 
and inherited forms of churches (see Nelstrop 2008; Nelstrop and 
Percy 2008; Moynagh 2012; 2017; Croft 2016; Müller 2019). Re-
garding the outcome of the “Landwards” study, particularly the 
role of pastors and lay leaders, a mixed economy approach could 
mean the change of roles and responsibilities in missional church 
development. For example, instead of being the only catalysator 
of innovation in local contexts, pastors would focus on training 
disciples for their ministry in the world, being a kind of regional 
“episkopos.” The episkopos would mainly be responsible for leader-
ship, doctrine and teaching, which corresponds quite closely with 
the role of the episkopos in the Early Church. Christians will be 
seen and serve as “religious experts” in their daily networks—as 
the membership study of the Lutheran Churches in Germany 
already shows for its members (Hermelink and Weyel 2015, 435–
37). As much as we count on attractive events and appreciate the 
structures of the Church that invite people to come to the events 
and meetings, we have to open our eyes to the fact that lay people 
are often the first and usually the only chance for de-churched and 
non-churched people to get in touch with Christian faith and the 
Church. Other studies (see Lings 2016, 96–97; Kerk 2017, 8) as well 
as the “Landward” study demonstrate the importance of the spirit 
of participation and of being part of something relevant for the 
community. For this task, lay people will have to be supported by 
the pastors and their congregations. Support could mean opening 



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up innovative spaces for them to try fresh expressions of being and 
doing church in or beside established parochial structures. It also 
means equipping lay people to be able to talk about their Christian 
faith and engage with others in doing so. Furthermore, lay people 
need to be trained in becoming vital and mature Christians. David 
Heywood calls this “kingdom learning” and proposes focusing on 
discipleship in this process, which means “the whole-life response 
of Christians to Jesus Christ” (Heywood 2017, 7). This inward 
process is connected to the outward process. “The relationship is 
integral: the disciple’s gradual change of inward character and its 
outward expression in a godly life that reflects the character of Je-
sus and her participation in the mission of God are part of a single 
process of gradual formation and reorientation of life” (Heywood 
2017, 15). Discipleship obviously plays a rather minor role in the 
projects evaluated by the “Landwards” study. The study highlights 
the important role of pastors for innovation but also points to its 
possible danger. When pastors neglect to disciple people, empower 
their team and raise up other leaders, then they not only fail to be 
“heroes” but instead actually become the “stumbling block” of sus-
tainable, innovative, missional church development. They will not 
create and sustain a releasing culture, but a culture of dependence 
on the full-time worker. In the future, mission-shaped church, 
Christian communities will have to redefine the role of full-time 
staff and break the dependency and focus on the pastor who takes 
care of the flock. As David Heywood says, ministry is not what 
only the clergy does (Heywood 2017, 9). Summing up, the role of 
pastors and full-time staff of the Christian churches in Germany 
will have to be diverse in the future. 

Another quite important insight that can be drawn from 
the study is the role innovative initiatives can play for the wider 
church, including regional churches. Although the “Landwards” 
study itself does not discuss relationships with other Christian 
communities (because it was not part of the study design) it points 
to discussions which will have to be led. The “Landwards” study 
has made it evident that mission and innovation in rural areas are 
not driven by resignation. It seems that local teams have a realistic 



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view of their situation. This can be interpreted as a specific po-
tential of innovation in rural areas which would need further 
investigation. On the one hand, there is negative church growth 
and a necessary change of structure in rural areas as the examples 
in “Kirche im Umbruch” and the “Personalplanungsförderungsge-
setz” show. On the other hand, we can observe that new initiatives 
start with available resources. This leads to the question of how to 
coordinate scaling down processes with innovative processes. The 
appearance of innovative initiatives raises future questions about 
the relation between traditional and inherited churches and new 
expressions of church. Recently new attention has been devoted 
to this in German theological debates (Herbst 2017; 2018; 2020; 
Herbst and Pompe 2017; Herrmann 2020; Kunz 2020; Lings 2020; 
Müller 2020; Pohl-Patalong 2020). The mixed economy of church 
idea, as shown before, may prove to be the most fruitful and offer 
a new perspective.

In addition, we can say that rather than merely sharing 
administrative duties, we believe that regions should develop a 
mission-shaped mix of different approaches. This does not imply 
a specific strategy but a fresh perspective on these challenges. This 
fresh perspective aims to overcome inherited constraints of our 
institutionalized-church mindset and embraces the advantages of 
understanding the Church as a hybrid. The regio-local perspective 
rests on certain beliefs and values. The beliefs are, first, the ecclesia 
of the creed is not equivalent to a single congregation. That is why 
regio-local church development brings churches in a region closer 
together. Second, the missio Dei calls for diversity amidst a plural-
ist society, a variety of “biotopes” of faith. Third, strong congre-
gations need a strong region and vice versa. Fourth, a regio-local 
perspective aims to create a supportive network of different ways 
of being Church. Fifth, this can only be achieved by an ecumeni-
cal perspective. 

Likewise, the values of a regio-local perspective are, first, 
voluntary cooperation in a region (e.g., in catechumenate, youth 
groups, courses) (Herbst and Pompe 2017). Second, a clear profile 
must be developed (i.e., prioritizing what you are good at). Third, 



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86

ministry should be done in a complementary way (i.e., regional 
arrangements versus competition, envy, and fear of loss), as well 
as, fourth, in solidarity with others (e.g., taking on responsibility 
for a region, sharing, protecting the weak). 

“Where are you going, Church?” Asking this, we should recall 
that the primary question in the New Testament was, “Quo vadis, 
domine?” This is the question Peter asks the Lord, “Lord, where are 
you going?” And Jesus simply replies: “Where I am going, you can-
not follow now, but you will follow later” (John 13:36). The apoc-
ryphal acts of Peter recall this incident. Peter escapes from Rome 
and meets Jesus on his way traveling the Via Appia. Again, Peter 
asks: “Domine, quo vadis?” This time, Jesus answers: “To Rome 
to be crucified again.” Hearing this, Peter turns and goes back to 
Rome to be arrested and crucified. This legend became famous. 
Mission means to be where the Lord is. That is what counted for 
the disciples: They wanted to be where the Lord was. Being part 
of His sending means to be where the Lord is. He surely is always 
with those who are on the way with Him (Matt 28:20). This is the 
point the old legend about Peter makes: instead of, “Quo vadis, 
ecclesia?” we should be asking “Quo vadis, domine?” The Church 
wants to be where her Lord is, i.e., on the way to the people, tes-
tifying and serving. Or to agree with Lesslie Newbigin, “There is 
no other way to be with him. At the heart of mission is simply 
the desire to be with him and to give him the service of our lives” 
(Newbigin 1989, 127).

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