We believe…

• that God has called us to Berlin to promote a church planting movement. Therefore we support the national church in the fulfillment of its calling to “make disciples of all nations.”
• that “Gospel ministry” is for the glory of God and about people. Therefore we seek to continually grow in our love for the people of Berlin.
• that the only hope for Berlin is the Father’s grace, poured out on this city through Jesus Christ. Therefore, in order to be instruments of that grace we seek constant personal renewal through the Holy Spirit.
• that God accomplishes his purposes through the prayers of the saints. Therefore we strive to make prayer our dominant “strategy” and actively promote the growing prayer movement in the city.
• that “making disciples of all nations” cannot be accomplished in isolation. Therefore we seek out partnerships with nationals and other expatriate groups with whom we share a common vision.
• that dynamic reformed distinctives have much to offer the evangelical church in Germany. Therefore we seek to humbly represent those dinstictives in our lives and in our teaching.
• that we are made in the image of the Creator. Therefore we strive to be as creative as possible in our efforts to share the good news of the kingdom of God. We will celebrate the success that God grants through our risk taking and we will value the learning experience that comes in having risked and failed.
  

Team Berlin came into being in the spring of 1993, when Ken & Tammie Matlack of Mission to the World (PCA) arrived in eastern Berlin, followed a couple months later by James Hering of World Witness (ARP). A short time later, Ken and James met Hans-Peter Pache, pastor of Berlin’s Luke Church, who had a vision to plant churches throughout the city, but needed resources and a strategy in order to begin the work. In the spring of 1994, Team Berlin entered a partnership with the Luke Church to facilitate church planting especially in the former East, with a long-term goal of seeing a church planting multiplication movement.

Over the last decade, Team Berlin has grown significantly as we have partnered with other reformed mission agencies such as World Witness and World Outreach, as well as with Operation Mobilization and Antioch Ministries International. We now have over 20 career and short-term personnel working in several districts of the city. One church has already been planted and returned to the oversight of Luke Church, with plans to become a particular church in the fall of 2004. Three other works are in progress, including one project geared specifically toward youth. In the fall of 2003, we opened a branch of the Martin Bucer Seminary, a Reformed German alternative education seminary based in Bonn, to assist in the training of national pastors and workers.

Mercy ministries intended to function as bridges into the community include a family center, an English as a Foreign Language ministry, a music ministry, as well as having assisted in the start-up of a midwifery practice.