We recently maxed out our one-month overview for our church calendar on the back of our bulletin. Fortunately, I don't think that's from simple business in the church, but a real desire for certain ministries. Developing our ministry to singles has been an area for growth in recent years, and now having film evenings, and returning to home groups is offering places for singles to connect with each other.

In our home group, we are wrapping up a six-week study of the book of Ephesians. Having taught the home group a few times, I think we can rejoice better after this study in brings all things - life, church, family, jobs, and every realm of authority in subjection under Christ. Christ in all things and all things for Christ has been our resounding theme.

Kai and I continue our expositions on Romans and Samuel respectively, I aim to finish the book of Samuel after 3 years on July 12th.

Kai and I both went to the main conference of Evangelium21 (Gospel for the 21st Century) this year. It was a special joy to fellowship with so many likeminded brothers and sisters from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Even there, however, we have to recognize that from over 1000 attendees, only about 15 came from Austria, and 6 were from our church.

Kai held a lecture on catechisms, confessions, and creeds, and we produced a series of videos for churches to instruct on the use of creeds and catechisms in Sunday worship. The videos are in German, but to see an example, look at the YouTube video below. (English speakers can set the autotranslate function from YouTube to English)

Over the past year, I have been assisting my brother Samuel in a ministry with an evangelistic book table. This is one of the ways that our church seeks to make the gospel known in our city. While encouraging hospitality is a primary means of evangelistic witness, other avenues can be powerful and are bearing fruit. Workplace friendships have also brought a handful of non-believers to our church, and we also try to keep our online presence up to date.

Evangelistic book tables are a way for us to reach people whom we would otherwise never come into contact with. These are mostly folks who would never seek out a church, no algorithm would lead them to us, and we don't share much in the way of affiliations. Some have responded with vitriol and hatred. Occasionally, we run across devout catholics who despise what we are doing, but mostly we encounter apathy. However, every time we have done this book table, we have at least one encouraging conversation, and sometimes as many as 5 where we are able to clearly articulate the gospel, and invite someone to visit our church. At the moment, we also have a middle-aged gentleman named Micah who is undergoing some introduction into the christian faith (Fundamentals of the Faith) as a direct result of this street evangelism.