Kirche in Aktion (Church in Action) in Mainz, Germany, is a group of Christians living out Christ's love to the city.
Located on the Rhine River, Mainz is home to almost 200,000 people.
KiA Mainz activities often center on meals together, which provides space for building relationships that can lead to discussion about Christ and faith.
After fellowship and meals at KiA Mainz, the group sings together and listens to a sermon.
KiA Mainz community members spent hours decorating "school cones," for children of refugees. The cones were filled with candy and school supplies for the first day of school.
The children were excited to get their hand-made school cones, which are a German tradition. The service project was just one of many ways KiA Mainz reaches out.
The motto of our global church is to make Christ-like disciples of all the nations. What does it mean to be Christ-like?
Whole books are written about this topic; so I only want to talk about one aspect of it. I think this one aspect has been forgotten in many different traditions, but it is vital if we want to be a Christ-like disciple and in fact, it is in this aspect where the whole story of Jesus begins.
God himself became part of our story and moved into our neighborhood. God parked his trailer in our garage. It is the miracle of the incarnation. And for 30 years, Jesus lived with us before he ever preached his first sermon or healed his first person.
If we want to model Christ, we need to be incarnated into a place. We need to live with the people who don’t know him. We need to move into the neighborhood and just be the presence of Christ to people who might never go to church.
Our attempt the way Jesus lived is seen in the hallways of our home, called the KiA House. The KiA house is a small, old hotel where we work and live. Very intentionally, we invite non-Christians to live with us. We normally try to have 50% Christians and 50% non-Christians in the house living with us. This becomes messy, but it is beautiful at the same time.
Over the weeks and months, people naturally want to hear about the hope that is within us, and we can share the good news. But I think we need the people more than they need us. At least I need them because I want to follow Christ all the way—even the way of the incarnation.
I am not saying everyone has to be part of a community like ours. What I am saying is that there is something beautiful about living with people. Too often we have understood holiness as getting out of the mess of this world. But maybe holiness is much more about getting into the mess.
Now don’t go out and try to befriend some non-Christians or move into a different place alone. Together, we are the Body of Christ. Maybe you have 3-4 Christian friends and together you start missional living. Join a chess club. Become part of a basketball team. Take a pottery class. I don’t know what it means for you, but if we want to follow Christ all the way, we need to be incarnated into this world. The world needs our presence more than it needs our sermons.
-- Philip Zimmerman leads the Kirche in Aktion (Church in Action) church plant in Mainz, Germany.