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Fr. Gossner and his Diaconic Thrust:  The holistic understanding in his Missionary approach.  Defining the concept of Diaconal Ministry in the context of adverse impacts of globalization today.
By Dr. Ulrich Schoentube

....and covered me with kisses...,, Johann Hinrich Wichern (1808-1881) visiting Johannes Evangelista Gossner in Berlin a contribution for the GEL Church Seminary.

A mild summer evening... The young man's heart was beating, when he opened the garden door of Elisabeth Hospital in Berlin, Potsdamer Strasse.  Flowers were blooming in front of the summer-house.  Silence around.  The young man approaching the house was Johann Hinrich Wichern, 33 years old.  As Wichern used to report everything which happened to him in Berlin to his wife Amanda back in Hamburg, he did so also after his visit to Gossner's.  He had met Gossner on July 1st, 1841, Wichern writes:

..In the evening I went to see Gossner.  I entered his house with great joy.  I have liked his Mission activities ever since, more than anything else.  He lives in a friendly summer-house, with many flowers blooming in front.  This is where we sat down."

This year 2008 is a jubilee year for either of them, Wichern and Gossner.  It is the 200th year of birth of Johann Hinrich Wichern, ,,father,, of the Inner Mission (i.e. the Church social service to the needy in the Church's home country or home context, otherwise called 'Diakonie'= (Deaconate), and it is the 150th year of death of Johannes Evangelista Gossner-Wichern has become meaningful for the development of the Evangelical Church and the Christian Deaconate in Germany.  His historical importance has produced quite a number of literatures, none of which has dealt; it is true, with his links to Gossner, though both have met more often in Berlin.  This present essay tries to close this gap, when we look to the historical conditions of their time and to the approach of the two theologians.

1)  The two men and their time

The social question had become urgent in Germany.  In the beginning of the 19th century 'Leibeigenschaft' (rural serfdom) had been abolished by Prussian minister Stein's reform work.  Many men and women moved away from countryside trying to settle in the cities.  Which in the same time were seized by industrialisation.  Factories grew up; handicraft could not withstand mass production.  People lived in 'Mietskasernen' (tenement houses) with their greater families in too small appartments.  In most cases just one family member was able to earn money.  So greater parts of the population lived in poverty.  Both Wichern and Gossner have reacted to this social situation in similar ways.

When they met in Gossner's summer-house in 1841, Wichern could already look back on a remarkable success.  In his age of only 25 years, having finished his theological university studies, he had founded a childrens rescue institute in the so called "Rauhes Haus" in his home city Hamburg, and this without any state or communal subsidy.  The house became an establishment for the care of children who were described as difficult to educate and uncared for.  Here such children could grow up in small family-like groups.

Also Gossner's manifold activities had some years earlier in Berlin resulted in the foundation of an institute.  In the beginning it was a rather limited action.  An acquainted of Gossner's, a servant from Russia, was fallen ill.  Gossner tried to help him and asked some friends to assist.  This became the starting effect for a ,,Manner-Krankenverein,, (men's health association), a visiting service for the care of the sick.  A preacher's appeal later helped to create a parallel women's health service..  Here a certain Countess Reeden became so active that finally an appartment had to be rented in Hirschelstrasse, Berlin, where sick persons could be accepted for stationary medical care.  But very soon a real estate had to be bought outside the inner city. The King of Prussia and several Berlin citizens helped financially to create the Elisabeth Hospital.  Obviously, for Gossner's understanding Mission and Diaconate belonged together.

2)  The Meeting

One could think, the issue of the two men's dialogue at their first meeting in 1841 would have been the conceptions of Evangelical diaconate.  But the meeting turned quite different.  Wichern reports:

,,Few minutes later we had a lively debate.  My question had been:  How do you prepare your missengers to the healthen people for their Missionary service? -He, unwillingly: Why do you ask so?  The reason for his displeasure is to explain because he meant to see in me one of those who were criticizing his practice in the Missionary service.  He then talked about the many annoyances which he had to stand therefrom.  This was unknown to me, but he had thought I knew about it.  Then he spoke with great displeasure against any kind of preparatory training for missionaries practised in the Mission centres.  To discuss this issue with Gossner was important to me because he is sending out people to America, and he knows that I am concerned with the same kind of tasks.  Finally he declared his full agreement with what he heard from me in this respect, and he obviously liked my report.,,

Indeed Gossner had gone in distance to the actual practice of the Mission societies.  Initially in 1831 he had become member of the Committee of the Berlin Mission society, but five years later he renounced any cooperation with the Berlin Mission.  This dispute echoed in his dialogue with Wichern.  In Gossner's opinion missionaries who were no theologians should be equipped with a faithful heart and good Bible knowledge.  As missionaries in far away countries they should, like St. Paul the apostle, earn their living while working with their hands.  This was in opposition to the principles of the Berlin Mission society which insisted to send only fully trained and studied theologians.

This conflict had developed earlier.  Already in 1833 when Gossner was honoured to preach on a missionary seconding workship service in the Dreifaltigkeitskirche (Trinity Church) from the pulpit of the famous Prof. Friederich Schleiermacher, he had declared the spreading of the Gospel to be a prime task for every Christian, not only for the professionally trained one.  In words of his sermon:

,,I say: Evangelical mission or preaching the Gospel among all nations at all times in order to bring about propagation and dissemination of Christian faith, blessing for all people, our fellow-men, our saved-with-us brethren- this is the most indispensible, in the same time most blessed and most welcome activity, founded in the very nature of Christianity, it is the most sacred and most important task which every Christian and the whole Church have to make their own".

In this quotation we find summarized the essential marks of the idea of Mission in the thinking of our Mission father Gossner.  We find first the already mentioned feature, the spreading out of Christianity not to be bound to the profession of theologian or pastor.  Every Christian is a missionary.  On the other hand we find here already Gossner's integrating concept of Mission: The spreading of Christianity is a "blessing for all people", and they are "our fellow-men".  So mission is not only directed to the far, but also to the near people.  Outside and inside cannot be separated.  Gossner's and Wichern's positions are near to each other in the first point, but fundamentally different in the second.  This will be outlined in the following paragraphs.

a) Everyone is a missionary

Wichern sees the social distress as an expression for missing faith among the people.  In his "Denkschrift" (memorandum) with which the work of Inner Mission in Germany was founded, he explains that from the beginning of Christianity the lasting issue has been and still is the spreading and accomplishing of God's Kingdom in all areas of life, namely in state and community, in art and science, and in social life.  The whole nation shall grow up to a nation of vivid Christians, with constitutions and orders according to the Kingdom of God.  But in the areas of family, property and labour, "the spirit of unbelief - and consequently moral decadence - is spreading out".  In the beginning of Christianity Love was conceivable only inside the closed circle of disciples" as is demonstrated in the ,,valedictory addresses,, in St. John's gospel (John 13-17).  But Wichern thinks this Love would only come to its universal destination when all people now standing outside the Christian community will be overcome by the power of Love.  With this going beyond them Love they will keep the Saviour in their midst, because in their living together and loving each other "His life and His love will be manifest".  With this flood of live ,, the community of the Lord .. will be a blessing community of priests, a kingly people of God in which everyone, having received the Lord's witness, will himself bear witness of His life, proclaiming out of inner necessity the goodness of Him who has called him from the darkness into His marvellous light.  The priesthood of all believers is equivalent to their consecration to the service of Mission, the Inner Mission included."

With this Wichern seems to come very near towards Gossner' notion of the Mission service to be every Christian's obligation.  Wichern's assumption is the presence of Christ in the flood of love.  Gossner, too, develops his notion of Mission from a christologian background.  But with a more individualistic personal one.  His concern is the personal association with Christ in ones heart..  This he shows for instance in his Herzbuchlein,, (Heart booklet), edited some years before.  Following this thought, all negative movements of the heart as envy, greed etc. will leave a person as soon as Christ comes, with his redeeming Love, moving into his heart.  What happens in the heart is a substantial change.  So personal communion with Christ is the aim of missionary activity, of both Inner and Foreign Missions.  Therefore a missionary does not need any studies, but needs this communion with Christ in his heart.  A missionary is any one who has got this ,,Herzensbildung,, (heart education) from Christ.  A missionary has Christ in his heart.  Gossner is more concerned about the revival of the individual heart, whereas Wichern sees in foreground the human social community thoroughly remade by the Love of Christ.  But both agree that Mission is every Christian's vocation.

b) Inward - Outward

Both Gossner and Wichern are theologians on the background of the Revival movement, to be recognized by the Christological nucleus of their concepts of Mission, though combined with different accents.  The greatest difference between both is obvious in the direction of Mission.

In 1848 representants of all regional Evangelical churches in Germany met in the city of Wittenberg.  They discussed what answer the Church would have to give to the revolution of 1848.  An Evangelical union of Churches was founded.  Wichern was taking part at that congress.  When the point of order was the social question, Wichern rose to speak.  As he later reported to his wife, he ,,delivered a speech of five quarters of an hour, produced spontaneously in the very same minute.,,  His thesis was: Social need and demoralisation both are caused by missing faith, so the people had to be guided,, back to the divine Word and Spirit.".  Upon this the entire assembly declared the matter of Inner Mission to be a particular and special task of the Church.  From this on till today the Deaconate is a prime field of work in the Church, often as a counterpart to congregation and local church. - Also Gossner had seen the necessity to witness Christian faith in the own home country.  But for him, - I think this is the promising orientation - is there merely one indivisible Mission of God, in which men and women can participate as his witnesses.  Mission abroad, which is the sending out of missionaries, and inner Mission, which is the witness of faith in the own environment through word and deed, belong together as twin sisters.  This finds its symbolic expression in his activities, when in the same year 1836 the Elisabeth hospital has been founded, and on the other side six missionaries for abroad are accepted by Gossner and they starts their education by him.  Beyond this an aspect of Gossner' far sight to combine foreign and inner Missions with each other is the idea of integration of both.  This is being expressed in a cheerful item.  Gossner has called his first information paper ..The bee on the Mission field".  He means that this animal, having collected honey in far-away fields, will bring honey from there - so to speak for the revival of Christians at home!  This image expresses the chances given with the common understanding of both fields.  Both can fertilize each other,.  And we can apply this to our partnership between GELC and Gossner Mission.  So let us be such bees and look for what we can have and do in common.

Despite the differences between them, during his whole life Wichern was full of deep respect towards Gossner.  When they first met their differences concerning the question of Mission was not obvious because at the time Wichern himself had in his mind to send out missionaries, as he revealed in his letter.  In their efforts to lead humans to Christ both of them felt like theologians of the Revivalist Movement and very much bound to each other.  That's why it comes to the following scene of deep felt friendship in which Wichern certainly not without pride could report to his wife:

"Soon we were called to tea.  Afterwards I left.  But he tried to be alone with me, hugged me and covered me with kisses... and asked me to visit him again."

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