Federation of Free Church Pentecostal Congregations

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The Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden ( Free Church Pentecostal Churches ) (abbreviation: BFP) is an association of German Evangelical-Pentecostal Free Churches , mostly appearing as free Christian communities and as such part of the worldwide Pentecostal movement . He has the rights of a religious community as a corporation under public law (KdöR).

Basic data
Logo:
Cross with a stylized dove and the lettering BFP - Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden KdöR
Official name: Bund Freikirchlicher
Pfingstgemeinden (BFP) KdöR
Spiritual direction: The Presidium is responsible for
: Johannes Justus
Membership: Forum of Free Church Pentecostal Congregations (FFP)
Association of Evangelical Free Churches (VEF)
Pentecostal European Fellowship (PEF)

World Pentecostal Fellowship (WPF)
Working Group of Christian
Churches in Germany (ACK) (guest member)

Regional
state associations:		 13 regional associations, 2 municipal associations
Local communities: 835
Parishioners: 63,200 As of January 1, 2020
Source: BFP website
Address: Industriestrasse 6-8
64390 Erzhausen
Training facility: Erzhausen Theological Seminary
Official Website: http://www.bfp.de/
Flag of the BFP in front of the Beröa Theological Seminary in Erzhausen

history

Beginnings

The origins lie in the years 1906 to 1908. During this time the first congregations of today's Pentecostal movement came into being in Germany. The oldest parishes in the federal government are in St. Ingbert , Berlin and Velbert .

From 1922, under the direction of Heinrich Vietheer , an evangelist who worked intensively in the Berlin tent mission , many Elim parishes came into being . In the course of time, other congregations have joined this association.

In the years from 1928 a far-reaching missionary activity arose, which was supported by the Assemblies of God and the Bible School from Gdansk . As a result, the Pentecostal movement spread among Germans, Poles and Russians in Eastern Europe, which led to the emergence of the first Free Christian Congregations. Karl Fix worked in Berlin from 1934 and then in Württemberg. Together with Paula Gassner and Karl Keck , the people's mission congregations came into being through their service.

Together with other communities of different origins, these form today's community of communities.

During the National Socialism

Since 1936 the "Free Pentecost Mission" was banned by the Gestapo . In 1938 the Elim congregations merged with Baptist and Brethren congregations to form the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches (BEFG). As a result of the Second World War (1939-1945), the communities in the East were dissolved and many came to West Germany. Numerous communities were destroyed in the war. The believers from the east and southeast were the ones who planted the first churches after the war.

post war period

The landscape of the Pentecostal churches in post-war Germany was fragmented into numerous camps. On the one hand, this was the Mülheimer Verband , on the other hand, various free Pentecostal churches, which also included many expellees from the East, which in turn formed an independent faction around their spokesman Erwin Lorenz .

The international Pentecostal Conferences in Zurich (May 1947), Paris (May 1949) and London (June 1952) aimed at the worldwide unity of the Pentecostal movement. This impulse also had an impact on Germany. The BFP sees its origin in the "Extended Brothers Conference" in Stuttgart in May 1947. However, this meeting took place without the Mülheim Association, and no resolutions were passed in this direction. However, they agreed to work together to bring the Gospel to Germany in need.

From August 10th to 13th, 1948, a unification conference took place in Stuttgart, at which a total of 19 men and one woman took part as representatives of the following Pentecostal groups:

In order to bridge differences in teaching, the conference was chaired by the neutral representatives of the Swiss Pentecostal Mission (SPM) , Karl Schneider and Leonhard Steiner. There were also guests from the Assemblies of God and the International Pentecostal Churches . Those present at this conference wrote a Stuttgart declaration . In it they expressed regret and shame for the neglected fraternal contact in the past and wanted to make every possible effort that could lead to the unity of the German Pentecostal movement.

The representatives of the free Pentecostal congregations agreed at the unification conference in Stuttgart on the establishment of a loose union from which the “Working Group of Christian Congregations in Germany” (ACD) emerged. The following persons were elected to the steering committee at this meeting:

  • Arthur Bergholz (Free Christian Communities), Osterholz-Scharmbeck
  • Karl Keck (People's Mission of Resident Christians), Stuttgart
  • Oskar Lardon (Elim parish), Hamburg-Altona
  • Heinrich Lavier (Christian Community Velbert)
  • Rudolf Lehmann (Free Pentecostal Church Berlin)
  • Erwin Lorenz (Free Christian Community Frankfurt am Main)
  • Kurt Rollin (Elim Community), Leipzig

The efforts of the Free Pentecostal Churches to unite with the Mülheimer Verband remained unsuccessful over the years. Further unification conferences took place (May 1949, September 1949, June 1950), but they did not contribute to the unity of the two Pentecostal camps in post-war Germany. The Mülheim school was convinced that there could also be a baptism of the spirit without speaking in tongues .

In the following years the working group of the Christian communities in Germany was formed from an initially loose working group in March 1954 to a registered association. According to the statutes, this association should be an association of independent congregations that send delegates to a conference at which a board is elected. Pastors are personal members of the ACD; In 1954, about fifty pastors were serving in the ACD churches. The common working areas of the ACD at that time were:

  • Head of the Beröa Bible School
  • External mission under the sponsorship of the community in Velbert - Velbert Mission
  • Domestic mission

In the following years other so-called federal works were created. So z. B. 1956 the Leuchter-Verlag or the Neulandmission.

Until 1980 the ACD e. V. four larger growth spurts through groups and individual congregations - through the free Christian congregations (for the most part formed by believers from Eastern Europe), Elim congregations in the west, church planting and many individual congregations.

New legal status

On March 29, 1974, the ACD e. V. awarded the status of a corporation under public law (KdöR) for the state of Hesse by the state's minister of culture. The renaming of the “Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden KdöR” was decided at the 70th Federal Conference in May 1982 in Velbert. The accession of the “People's Mission of Resolute Christians”, which was initially probably part of the ACD e. V. belonged, but decided to resign at the end of the 1950s, took place in May 1988. In May 1991, 13 Elim communities from East Germany joined the BFP, most of which had found their way into the BEFG-East since 1938. 30 Ecclesia parishes then joined the BFP in May 2000 as the "Ecclesia Working Group of Parishes and Work Areas (ECCA)". In addition, many communities with a different culture and language, as well as other individual communities, joined the federal government.

organization

In Germany, the Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden consists of 836 congregations, of which around 38.9 percent (325 congregations) are made up of people with a migration background. The affiliated congregations have around 62,872 members / 22,906 children and young people reached / 95,477 visitors to the congregation (including members, children, guests, cared for) / 181,255 members. The members of the individual communities are not actually considered personal members of the BFP, but are recorded by the communities.

The structure is synodal - congregational .

Federal Conference

The supreme body of the Federation is the Federal Conference, the leadership is led by the Presidium, which consists of the Executive Board, which consists of eight people, and the sixteen regional leaders. It is elected every four years.

At the federal conference, all personal members (i.e. the ordained employees) of the BFP are entitled to vote: "The spiritual office holders of the Federation are personal members of the corporation and voting members of the decision-making federal conference ." The delegates of the communities and plants receive the same voting rights that they do - in contrast to the personal members - only from their delegation. The size of the individual congregation determines the number of delegates with voting rights.

At the federal level there are various mission and social organizations and the Beröa theological seminar .

President of the Federation

The President of the Federation of Free Church Pentecostal Congregations is elected in the federal conference:

Regions

The boundaries of the individual regions are usually geographically identical to those of the federal states. The municipal associations that have joined work in their function like regions, but are geographically present nationwide.

Regions:

  • Baden-Württemberg (BWT)
  • Bavaria-North (BAN)
  • Bavaria-South (BAS)
  • Berlin-Brandenburg (BBR)
  • Hesse (HES)
  • Hamburg-Nordheide (HHN) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (MVO)
  • Lower Saxony East (NSO)
  • North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)
  • Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland (RPS)
  • Saxony (SAC)
  • Saxony-Anhalt (SAA)
  • Schleswig-Holstein (SHO)
  • Thuringia (THU)
  • Weser-Ems (WHO)

Municipal associations:

financing

The Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden is financed by voluntary donations from its members. Although the BFP is a corporation under public law (KdöR) and is therefore allowed to collect church taxes , this option is deliberately not used. The individual communities are therefore also financed through donations.

Groups and communities

People's Mission e. C.

The People's Mission was founded in 1934 by the journalist Karl Fix in Berlin . From 1945 onwards, new parishes emerged, especially in southern Germany. The association has around 50 communities in Baden-Württemberg , Bavaria and Berlin with around 4,300 members. The highest decision-making body is the assembly of delegates, which meets three times a year.

The people's mission continues to see its task as conveying the Gospel to people of all walks of life and of all ages, planting churches and promoting existing ones. She also maintains several social institutions. Since 1956 she has also been active in foreign missions.

The People's Mission of Resolved Christians (VMeC) was regularly represented at the first meetings in the post-war period . It is controversial when the VMeC of the ACD e. V. no longer belonged. The book Free Church Pentecostal Movement in Germany shows that the VMeC had already left the working group in 1952. Unfortunately, the declaration of resignation (letter dated September 18, 2009) has not yet been submitted. However, the VMeC already existed before the ACD e. V. 1954 in southern Germany as an independent registered association.

The problem arises from a remark made at the ACD conference in May 1960:

“The people's mission of determined Christians in Stuttgart formally declared their withdrawal from the working group in a letter. The Brotherhood took note of this with regret. "

The fact that the management of the ACD made no distinction between a free working group and one with legal status, while the VMeC most likely did not equate this can clarify something. There is evidence for this thesis, but no clear evidence that can confirm it. It can therefore be assumed that she only had guest status, which was dissolved by the People's Mission in 1960.

At the 82nd Federal Conference in Gifhorn (May 2 to 5, 1982) the people's mission of resolute Christians became a member of the BFP as a community movement. The ratification by the VMeC then took place on May 14, 1988. At that time it was a novelty that an entire self-contained, independent movement joined the BFP completely with its individual communities.

The People's Mission e. C. provides three members in the presidium. The chairman of the VMeC acts as one of the deputies of the president.

The Elim Churches

The Elim communities see their emergence as a result of the work of Heinrich Vietheer with his “Zeltmission Berlin-Lichterfelde e. V. "

From 1948, with a few exceptions, the Elim congregations in the FRG broke away from the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches (BEFG) and gradually joined the Working Group of Christian Congregations in Germany (ACD). Today the Elim Christian community in Hamburg is the largest federal community.

In the GDR, the Elim communities remained attached to the BEFG-OST. Two years after the fall of the Berlin Wall , most of them left after the BEFG-Ost and BEFG-West merged to form a common federation and joined the BFP. 13 municipalities joined the federal government, while four remained in the BEFG.

The Free Elim congregations have also joined the Bund Freikirchlicher Pentecostal congregations. These did not belong to the BEFG-Ost at any time. They see their origins in the Free Pentecostal Church in Stralsund, which was banned by the National Socialists in 1936 and which was re-established after the war. The parallels to the existing Elim communities in BEFG-Ost, which were not only present in terms of the similarity of names, were intentional.

In contrast to the VMeC and the ECCA, the Elim communities did not join the BFP as an association or community association, but directly as individual communities. This step allowed them corporate rights, which the Free State of Saxony granted them in April 2000.

Church of the Christians Ecclesia

Church building of the ECC community in Rödinghausen

The accession processes of the Church of the Christians Ecclesia (ECC) form in their way a special feature in the union of free church Pentecostal congregations. During the 104th Federal Conference (May 9, 2000 in Kirchheim / Hessen), 30 Ecclesia parishes joined the BFP as a working group. The problem in the situation, however, was that not all municipalities wanted to belong to the BFP at the time. However, partial admission as an association in a corporation brings legal obstacles with it. Only in 2008, on September 23 at the 113th Federal Conference, did the remaining congregations join them.

Municipalities with a migration background

There has been an increased influx of communities from other cultures and peoples since the 1990s. So it happens that a relatively high proportion (33% - as of 2009) of migrant communities are members of the BFP; this has generated the strongest growth in recent years. The BFP is doing a job here that has met with great interest in other denominations and in the major churches. However, this development was not without its problems. The municipalities and the federal government had to find a basis on which integration could be achieved to the satisfaction of both sides.

A leaflet has been published since 2000 that aims to promote integration:

  • Integration relational (getting to know each other - especially in the area of ​​the region / association)
  • Teaching integration (learning to understand the BFP as a spiritual home - participation in integration courses)
  • Structural integration (learning to live and serve with one another in the federal government - participation in issues relating to works and in campaigns, assuming responsibility, adapting statutes and working methods)

In order to offer additional help with integration according to language and origin, the AIG ( Working Group of International Communities ; until 2006 AAG - Working Group of Foreigner Communities ) was set up for the leaders of the communities .

Others

The BFP is affiliated with the Forum Free Church Pentecostal Churches (FFP), the Association of Evangelical Free Churches (VEF), the Pentecostal European Fellowship (PEF) and the World Pentecostal Fellowship (WPF).

Branches of work

The branches of work of the Federation of Free Church Pentecostal Congregations are divided into federal works, federal institutions and standing committees.

Federal Works

Surname founding year comment
Action Committee for Persecuted Christians (AVC) 1972 The AVC is a global association of the Federation of Free Church Pentecostal congregations based in Nidda in Hesse, which works in close cooperation with the Christian Aid Service Nehemia (CHD) and is primarily active in Eastern Europe, the CIS states, China and Africa.
Velbert Mission 1954 Velbert Mission is the mission organization of the BFP based in Velbert .
Forum Theology & Congregation The FThG is an institution of the Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden and has set itself the task of promoting New Testament church building in accordance with Christ's teaching command by issuing publications.
Berea Theological Seminary 1951 Initially the “Beröa Bible School”, today's theological seminary is the training center of the BFP.
Church planting company Provides hands-on support for church planters and mother churches in setting up new churches.
Federal youth organization of the BFP The federal youth work is divided into the individual state youth work. It is a recognized provider of free youth welfare and includes the following services: Kids Alive (child labor), Youth Alive (youth work) and Royal Rangers (Christian scouting).
Women with vision 1982 The work of women of the Federation of Free Church Pentecostal Churches KdöR also includes the associations of Volksmission e. C. and the Church of Christians Ecclesia.
Federal Association of Social Services for Free Church Pentecostal Congregations (BSFP) 1996 The BSFP is the umbrella organization for all social institutions in the BFP. It has its origins in the “Sozialwerk der ACD e. V. ”in 1969. It organizes over 50 social institutions in Germany in the areas of senior citizens, child, youth and educational work, psychiatric activities, addiction rehabilitation and aid organizations with social services.

Federal institutions

BFP site with various federal institutions in Erzhausen
  • Community counseling (GB)
  • Light in the dark (LiD)

Working groups

  • Working Group of International Communities (AIG)
  • Working Group for World Mission (AfW)
  • Pastoral care in the BFP

Standing committees

  • Training Committee (AA)
  • Theological Committee (TA)

Periodicals

Until the end of 2018, the Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden, in cooperation with the People's Mission of Resident Christians, published the monthly magazine GEISTbewegt , which commented on various topics and contained mission reports .

For 30 years the magazine was called Wort und Geist (last with the addition WuG ). Due to the identity of the new religious denomination word and spirit , the name was changed to GEISTbewegt on October 15, 2009 . The magazine has no connection in terms of content or organization to the “Word and Spirit” faith community, which was founded in 1999 and from which it distances itself on its website.

  • 1972-2009-10: Word and Spirit ; ISSN  1612-0744 (incorporated therein: Appell (1969–1972); Der Leuchter (1950–1972)).
  • 2009-11 to 2018-12: Spirit moves! News from the BFP ; ISSN  1869-5663 .

Belief and teaching

The BFP represents the doctrine of the Trinity of the one eternal God of the Bible, the Creator of heaven and earth, who reveals himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God the Father is the origin of all fatherhood, who gave his Son to save the world. Jesus Christ is the incarnate Word of God, in which God revealed himself to man for salvation and achieved this through death on the cross. The Holy Spirit creates new eternal life through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and through the rebirth of believers. This is brought to completion through the resurrection from the dead.

All believers are to be qualified for missionary service through the baptism of the Holy Spirit . Filling with the Holy Spirit means, in the understanding of the believers, the arming of Christians with divine sovereignty in various ministries, gifts and effects for the service of one's neighbor. As part of the community, the believers see themselves as a called out community through which God (in) the world proclaims his salvation. The Bible as Holy Scripture is considered to be inspired by the Spirit of God and as such an infallible guide in the life of the believer.

Pentecostal congregations are usually evangelical . They emphasize the need for salvation to make one's own faith decision , which is connected with the knowledge of sin , repentance and the conscious acceptance of Jesus Christ as the "personal Lord" ("surrender of life"). Like that of " Pentecost derived" name " Pentecostal " suggests an emphasis on the belief in the power effects of the Holy Spirit , as described in the New Testament. The Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden is strongly oriented towards mission and the founding of new churches.

The prerequisite for membership in a Pentecostal church is the personal confession of faith in Jesus Christ and baptism through immersion - in contrast to the popular churches, where membership through baptism is usually obtained as an infant.

Ordination of women

The ordination of women is allowed in the Federation of Free Church Pentecostal Congregations. The BFP teaches the priesthood of all believers - according to the Reformation profession. A woman was ordained for the first time in 1956.

sexuality

A statement by the BFP Presidium on questions of sexual ethics deals with the subject of "church marriage", that is, church marriage without a civil marriage. The BFP Presidium comes to a negative attitude towards this type of marriage and sees "civil marriage as the achievement that best guarantees the biblical concern of the special protection of marriage and family."

In an orientation aid for BFP congregations and pastors on the subject of homosexuality from 2013 entitled Statement of the BFP Presidium on Homosexuality in the Bible, Congregation and Society , the biblical model of marriage between man and woman and the family is emphasized and stated, that the Bible does not know homosexual identity and judges homosexual activity negatively. On this basis, the blessing of homosexual relationships is out of the question.

Self-image of the BFP

The self-image of the BFP is divided into two main areas.

Self-image as a Pentecostal association

The Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden sees itself as an umbrella organization for the various theological manifestations of the Pentecostal movement in the Federal Republic of Germany and its local congregations. Together with the associated communities, it sees itself as a service community for mutual help and advice and for the implementation of a community vision.

Self-image as a community association

The BFP does not represent any denominational doctrine of redemption. This shapes his attitude towards and the cooperation with other charismatic associations , free churches and many congregations within the Evangelical Alliance . Membership in a Pentecostal church is usually acquired through the personal profession of faith in Jesus Christ and through baptism in water according to Acts 2:41 EU and Rom 6,3–4 EU . The BFP is a community of local, independent congregations and their spiritual leaders, whose life and service should be determined by the work of the Holy Spirit. According to the understanding of the church in the Acts of the Apostles, independence is not understood as independence, but as a binding brotherhood based on biblical teaching, in which supra-church services are shared.

church service

The divine services in the parishes of the BFP do not follow a uniform, formal liturgy.
Three basic segments essentially determine the worship service: sermon , praise / worship and congregation information; The length of time of the individual parts can vary greatly and thus also affect the overall duration. Although there is no formal Sunday commandment , attention is paid to regular attendance at church services. This is mainly due to the fact that in a free church one does not automatically become a member through child baptism , but applies for membership personally. Most members see membership as a personal commitment to attend church services or other events. Furthermore, only those who have made a conscious decision to believe in Jesus Christ in their youth or adulthood can become a member. The service is generally the central event of the individual congregation.

sermon

The sermon is essentially the central element of a worship service. The BFP has no prescribed or recommended pericope or reading regulations . Every community in the federal government has the greatest possible degree of personal responsibility in this regard. The individual congregation determines who has the right to preach . Depending on the orientation of the congregation and / or the intention of the preacher, sermons can take on an evangelistic, missionary, teaching etc. style.

Praise / worship

The time of worship is strongly shaped by free prayer, several songs, testimonies and prophetic words. Outwardly she has a very spontaneous character. The music ranges - depending on the congregation - from classical songs (e.g. from the songbook Whitsun Jubilation) to modern, current Christian songs. There are also strong differences from the cultural background and the age structure in the respective community. Frequently used instruments are string, keyboard and rhythm instruments. The prayer can be formulated freely and aloud, but this is not mandatory. The intensity of prayer in tongues or singing in tongues (a sung prayer in tongues) is different and depends on the acceptance , which is then formulated like a choir by several visitors. It happens that during the time of worship there is increased prayer for special concerns.

  • Functional building as a church: The warehouse church of the Free Christian Community of Kaiserslautern

  • Shop as a church: The Free Christian Congregation in Vlotho

  • Church building taken over: Alive Church in Durlach , previously Methodist

  • Large hall of the community building of the Free Christian Community of Ravensburg

Working with other communities and alliances

The Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden sees itself in a community of faith and service with other groups of the Pentecostal movement, the charismatic movement , with free churches and many local congregations within the Evangelical Alliance . The BFP is a member of the Association of Evangelical Free Churches and, since March 2011, a guest member of the Working Group of Christian Churches in Germany (ACK), to which local and regional contacts were already in place. Internationally, there are close ties to the Swiss Pentecostal Mission and the Assemblies of God . On July 1, 1996, the so-called Kassel Declaration was agreed with the German Evangelical Alliance . It largely replaced the objections of the Berlin Declaration . With it the Lutheran churches distanced themselves from the Pentecostal congregations, especially the spiritual gifts practiced there.

In spite of recent developments and the diverse cooperation with other churches, there is no pronounced commitment to ecumenism in many Pentecostal churches.

literature

  • Association of Free Church Pentecostal Congregations: Statements on the “service of women” . Materials of the federal teaching work, special volume 2nd federal teaching work of the Federation of Free Church Pentecostal communities, Penig o. J. (2004)
  • Kurt Hutten: seers, brooders, enthusiasts - the book of traditional sects and religious denominations . Quell, Stuttgart 12 1992.
  • Ludwig David Eisenlöffel: Free Church Pentecostal Movement in Germany . v & r unipress, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-89971-275-7
  • Dieter Hampel, Richard Krüger, Gerhard Oertel: The mandate remains - The Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden on the way into the third millennium . Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden, Erzhausen 2009, ISBN 978-3-942001-00-7

Web links

Commons : Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Forum Free Church Pentecostal Churches in Germany FFP (Ed.): 90 Years of Pentecostal Churches in Germany , 1997, p. 14.
  2. ↑ a b Book review by Ludwig David Eisenlöffel: Free Church Pentecostal Movement in Germany. V&R Unipress, Göttingen 2006. In: Free Church Research. 16/2007. Publishing house of the Association for Free Church Research, Münster / Westf. 2007, ISBN 3-934109-08-X , p. 275.
  3. ↑ Compare the information in the catalog of the German National Library
  4. ^ Constitution of the Federation of Free Church Pentecostal Churches
  5. ^ Statistical survey of the BFP - prepared by the Secretary General. Status: 2019
  6. ↑ Article 4 of the BFP constitution
  7. ↑ The ideal church does not exist. Reinhold Ulonska in conversation with Heinrich Scherz and Frank Simon about the management of communities ; in: InSpirit. Journal for Spirit-filled Christianity (PDF; 1.3 MB) 2/2005; P. 4–8, here p. 4
  8. ↑ a b Detailed report on the 2008 BFP Federal Conference
  9. ↑ Election of the President at the Federal Conference 2012
  10. ↑ About us - Who we are ( Memento from February 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ^ From the report of the ACD conference in Erzhausen (May 16 - May 20, 1960), 3rd point, b)
  12. ↑ The singular is the correct name.
  13. ↑ History of BSFP ( Memento of 28 August 2011 at the Internet Archive )
  14. ↑ Spirit moves
  15. ^ Out after 68 years: Pentecostals discontinue the magazine "GEISTbewegt" , idea.de, news from November 5, 2018.
  16. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: New, but good as always@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.geistbewegt.de
  17. ↑ Critical reflection on the "Wort + Geist-Zentrum" Röhrnbach published. ( Memento from October 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Online article on the homepage www.GEISTbewegt.de
  18. ↑ Source for the entire section: Excerpt from the guidelines of the BFP - March 2003 version ( Memento of February 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  19. ↑ See guidelines of BFP 3.2.2, version of October 1, 2007
  20. ^ BFP Presidium: Statement on the subject of "Church marriage". Erzhausen 2009
  21. ^ BFP Presidium: Statement by the BFP Presidium on homosexuality in the Bible, community and society (short version). Erzhausen 2013
  22. ^ BFP accepted as a guest member of the ACK. Association of Evangelical Free Churches , March 9, 2011, accessed on February 17, 2018 .
  23. ↑ Berlin and Kassel Declaration ( Memento from August 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive )