In 1968 a team of Brethren men went to Germany, the birth place of the fellowship, to explore the opportunity to plant the kind of churches our founder, Alexander Mack, had desired to see. In response to this trip, the mission commissioned Roger and Nancy Peugh to take the Word of God back to Germany. Roger had already served there on a short-term basis, and was fluent in German.
The first few years were challenging, but in 1972 the Peughs began holding Bible studies and worship services in their home, praying much for conversions. Later an evangelistic crusade was organized, providing the initial contacts for the beginning of a church in Stuttgart, which was incorporated in 1976 and began meeting in a rented facility.
The church experienced some inner tension, but the Lord brought encouragement by calling the Pappas family to Germany as co-laborers, and the church experienced a period of excitement and growth. A German, Rainer Ehmann, who had done his studies in a Bible College in Texas, soon joined the team with his wife.
During the next few years the team grew, with several new missionary couples responding to the Lord’s call to Germany. A branch church was planted in the near-by city of Leonberg, which soon grew an active congregation of seventy people, and new churches were established throughout the country.
Roger Peugh observed, speaking of new churches almost spontaneously springing up in parts of Germany, “I think we are on the verge of something great!”
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