United Bible Study Groups

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United Bible Study Groups
logo
legal form society
founding 1949
founder Hans Ferdinand Bürki
Seat Zurich , SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland 
main emphasis Network of Christians in school, college and academic professions
Website www.vbg.net

The United Bible Study Groups in School, University and Work (VBG) is an interdenominational Christian association in Switzerland that wants to live and promote a holistic Christianity that encompasses all areas of life. The association focuses on student Bible groups , student university associations and specialist groups in academic professions (including architecture, IT, law, social work and pedagogy). He also offers courses, seminars, conferences and retreats.

history

The seminarist Hans Ferdinand Bürki (1925–2002) founded the first Bible study in German-speaking Switzerland in 1944 at the Küsnacht teachers' seminar near Zurich. The United Bible Groups then emerged in the forties and fifties of the last century as offshoots of the student Bible groups at the universities of French-speaking Switzerland , which were derived from Intervarsity. The VBG association was founded in 1949. Analogous to the student mission in Germany and the Austrian student mission , the VBG and its French-speaking partner organization Groupes Bibliques des Ecoles et Universités de Suisse Romande (GBEU) form the Swiss organization of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). The VBG networks the individual groups and helps set up structures. The first general secretary was Hans Ferdinand Bürki, who was also the head of Casa Moscia for many years.

Today the association is represented at all universities in German-speaking Switzerland, at various technical colleges , in many middle schools, in around 200 companies with prayer groups and in the Federal Palace. In the field of education, the association is committed to the transparent communication of religious knowledge and values, because neutrality and freedom from values ​​are a myth and an illusion. In addition to their own magazine, Baussteine , in 2014 they published the booklets justified believing and the Bible as a place of encounter , which aim to stimulate debate, discussion and encounter with God.

organization

The association is run by a seven-person honorary board. There are around thirty permanent employees in the field of youth and adult work and permanent employees for the guest houses. 6 employees, so-called regional managers, maintain contact with 154 groups at secondary schools, where around 700 students are part of a VBG group. 7 employed managers support and accompany VBG groups at 26 universities and technical colleges in German-speaking Switzerland. 6 part-time employees coordinate regional specialist meetings and events for over 1,800 professionals in order to promote networking and provide impetus. All employees work for a wage that is based on needs and living conditions. Both guest houses offer opportunities for social diaconal missions with personal and spiritual support.

The VBG are financed through donations. They have the seal of approval “Code of Honor of the Swiss Alliance”. Casa Moscia and Campo Rasa generate income from the overnight stays of guests, with Casa Moscia being largely self-supporting (93 percent in 2017) and Campo Rasa being co-financed by the association and its circle of friends (23 percent in 2017).

Faith and Themes

Theologically, the association is based on the apostolic creed and the creed of Nicaea and Constantinople and the creed of the IFES. In doing so, they deliberately avoid a denominational orientation and around the year 2000 established their theological priorities in six different historical and contemporary Christian traditions:

The following focal points have been formulated since 2015:

  • Believe well-founded: pursue questions and formulate your own positions
  • Meeting place for the Bible: Reading and discovering the Holy Scriptures together
  • Shaping faith: reflecting on and developing your own spirituality
  • Everyday life and faith: Linking professional and social issues with faith

Casa Moscia

The VBG has owned the Hotel Casa Moscia on Lake Langensee ( Lake Maggiore ) since 1957 . In 1946, the former Blue Cross employee Lisel Moser founded a home in a former pasta and pastry factory Bolongari-Pisani and sold it to VBG in 1957. Today the house has 140 beds and in 2007 recorded over 27,000 overnight stays. 15% were generated by VBG's own camps and courses. The remaining overnight stays came from school classes, confirmation camps, youth meetings, parish weeks, seminar events and numerous individual guests.

Campo Rasa

In 1962, the association bought three dilapidated houses from an emigrating Ticino family in Rasa , a remote, at that time almost abandoned village in the Ticino Centovalli , which were renovated in years of volunteer work. A holiday center for courses and retreats, an organic farm and sustainable forestry were created. More houses have been renovated, and today a significant portion of the resurrected village's income comes from United Bible Study Projects. Since 1981 Rasa has been one of the protected sites of national importance . The solar energy concept installed in 2001 has been recognized by the Federal Office of Energy as a pilot and demonstration object and has therefore been supported with public funds. The center is used for its own course weeks and retreats and rents rooms to seminar groups and individual guests. With 5,600 overnight stays in 2011, the occupancy rate was 60%.

literature

  • Art. United Bible Groups in School, University, Work (VBG). In: Reinhard Hempelmann (Hrsg.): Handbook of evangelistic missionary works, institutions and communities. Germany, Austria, Switzerland. Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3767577631 , p. 326f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.vbg.net/ueber-uns/ueber-uns/geschichte.html
  2. ↑ http://www.vbg.net/ueber-uns/ueber-uns/geschichte.html
  3. ↑ Heinrich Burckhardt:  BÜRKI, Hans Ferdinand. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 27, Bautz, Nordhausen 2007, ISBN 978-3-88309-393-2 , Sp. 203-205.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  4. ↑ Lobbying the Divine Kind Article in the NZZ of December 14, 2002
  5. ↑ Christof Bauernfeind: Education can never be value-neutral , Evangelical news agency idea , Liestal April 18, 2018, pp. 8-11
  6. ↑ believe well founded. VBG, Zurich 2014. No ISBN
  7. ↑ Meeting place Bible. VBG, Zurich 2014. No ISBN
  8. ↑ VBG: The VBG is supported by donations (PDF; 84 kB).
  9. ↑ Swiss Evangelical Alliance: Code of Honor
  10. ↑ Swiss Evangelical Alliance: Signatory of the code of honor
  11. ↑ Heiner Schubert, Christoph Egeler and Doris Liechti: Annual Report of the VBG 2017 , Zurich May 2018
  12. ↑ What We Believe
  13. ↑ The six spiritual traditions of the VBG
  14. ↑ https://www.vbg.net/ueber-uns/ueber-uns.html
  15. ↑ Lisel Moser: Call - do not fear. My life story. Blaukreuz Bern 2005. ISBN 3-85580-439-7
  16. ↑ Ordinance on the federal inventory of places worth protecting in Switzerland (PDF; 147 kB)
  17. ↑ Federal Office of Energy: Research, development and demonstration in the field of energy in Switzerland. List of projects 2000/2001