About us
About us
An evangelical free churchintroduces itself:
What is a free church?
We are often asked what a "free church" is and what distinguishes it from traditional communities. For many fellow citizens this term is not very common.
Let us try to give you a short answer to these questions.
Protestant basis
We call ourselves evangelical because our roots are in the Protestant creed. We believe, as Luther taught, that we all have been saved by grace.
Free Church
The term free church means that we are independent of the state. We bless children and teach them to make a voluntary decision of faith. We only baptize according to a personal decision of faith. Our finances are regulated on a voluntary basis, that means through donations of members and friends.
Pentecostal Church
The church Lebenshaus belongs to the Confederation of Free Church Pentecostal Churches (BFP) and is a public corporation (KdöR).
We are connected to these communities because we have had experience with the power of the Holy Spirit and continue to reckon with its impact on our lives and worship today. Pentecost is the feast of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Hence the name "Pentecostal Church".
"KdöR"
The abbreviation KdöR refers to the meaning "public corporation". The BFP is a public corporation and is our umbrella organization to which we belong in Germany. In our rights and duties we are thus completely equal to the other churches of our country. As a community, however, we are locally independent and completely responsible for our finances and other concerns.
Theologically and organizationally, we belong to the Confederation of Free Church Pentecostals KdöR (BFP). The BFP is the second largest free church within the Association of Protestant Free Churches (VEF) in Germany and has experienced a gratifying growth in recent years. The BFP now has around 46,000 members in 780 municipalities. 273 of them (35%) are international communities. Including the children, adolescents and regular guests, about 138,000 people belong to the BFP.