“And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere.”(Mark 16:20)

Every Christian is always and everywhere a missionary. Spreading the gospel can’t be limited to certain persons, places or times. The greatest treasure God has given us urges us to share it with those who don’t know it yet. The testimony of Christ, and the hope which fills our life, permeates every aspect of our life. That’s why we want to be ready to talk about faith in any situation.

Especially when evangelising we experience how dependent we are on God. He who knows the heart of all people can lead us in the most diverse situations to meet people who are open for his word, whether in an every day situation, at school or at work, walking down the street, or at various meetings where people gather to think and talk about faith.

So Mr. Kluge’s criticism refers only to one part of our evangelistic activities. We got to know a good number of our brothers and sisters in places other than religious meetings. Long before Mr. Kluge concluded that “missionary activities among atheists are not known” we regularly engaged actively in discussions with atheists. Some of our brothers were atheists before they became Christians.

It is not and never has been our aim to lure anybody away from a Christian community. This would mean destroying the body of Christ and to bringing condemnation upon ourselves.

1 Corinthians 3:17 “If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.”

But as already elaborated above (III.F) the organisations are not community but the “world” (even according to their own understanding for they accept people who are visibly unbelievers among their ranks). Even the religious world is the “world”, where there are many unbelievers. So as we have received a commission from our Lord we will not exclude the people in the religious world from our missionary activities.

The reason Paul visited the synagogue first, in order to speak to the sons of Israel whenever he entered a new town was that he could expect there to be a greater number of responsive people. We, too, hope to find in these various religious groups people who maybe are already Christians or have at least already made certain steps in the right direction.