Photo By Jefferson Wolfe | Christian Führer, left, a volunteer at Daenner Chapel, shakes hands with Staff Sgt....... read more read more
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DAENNER KASERNE, Kaiserslautern, Germany – One of the volunteers at Daenner Chapel drives 100 miles every week to attend church services.
Christian Führer, a German national who is a member of the Ministry Advisory Council for Danner Chapel’s Chapel Next, greets the congregation every week as they come in the doors.
“Christian is the first person you see when you arrive at the chapel,” said Army Reserve Chaplain Lt. Col. Brian Harki, the 7th Civil Support Command chaplain who conducts services every Sunday. “You would never guess that he lives the furthest away. Most people don’t know Christian very well because he is always more interested in caring for others than talking about himself.”
Daenner Chapel is the third American Church Führer has attended, starting in the mid-1980s.
Back then, all the American institutions in Germany were wide open, and the Germans could enter and join the Americans during worship services, Führer said.
He first became interested in American culture when, as a teenager in Manheim, he rode his bicycle onto the American base. He followed cars into Benjamin Franklin Village, where he found, “a wonderful American microcosm.”
The base was open, and he was able to explore and learn about the United States and its people.
“There cannot be many people like Christian who has served American Chapels as a foreign national as long as he has,” Harki said.
As he got older, in the mid-1980s, he started volunteering at the local USO. One of the other volunteers was the wife of an American chaplain. She invited him to come to the American church.
“It became a hobby, a passion and a calling,” Führer said. “Once I got attached to that church, I never let go.”
He started attending services in Manheim, which had about 400 people attending protestant services. On an average Sunday, the church had five services between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
At first, Führer stayed in the back, because he didn’t know English well. After a while, however, he joined the chorus and rang bells during services. He also became a chaperone for the youth group and then an usher and greeter.
Führer continued attending services at the church in Manheim until it closed May 6, 2012. About 40 people attended the last service – most of the American military
retirees.
“It was a heartbreaker for me,” he said.
For many years, new Soldiers would arrive every August and September to replace others who had moved on. The base and the church, however, stopped getting new Soldiers in 2009. The existing congregation slowly moved away.
“After 2009, in church we had nothing but farewells,” Führer said.
When the Manheim church closed, he volunteered and attended services in Heidelberg for a year, but that base closed Aug. 18, 2013.
It was after that he started making the 85 kilometer trip to Kaiserslautern from his home in Neulussheim every week. He became involved as an usher and greeter and a member of the Ministry Advisory Council.
When is isn’t volunteering for the church, Führer is a college professor, the head of the Services Marketing Department at the School of Business at Duale-Hochschule Bäden-Württemburg in Manheim.
“I see Christian as the bridge that touches both countries the U.S. and Germany, with church as the common place in the middle,” Harki said. “Christian is truly valued and appreciated.”
Why does Führer keep coming to American churches despite the closures and the long drives?
“After all these years, my God speaks English,” he said.
American churches, especially in the military are very authentic, he added. Especially after the deployments in the 1990s and 2000s, the Soldiers and their chaplains have come through some very tough experiences.
“Army chaplains are very authentic people,” Führer said.
In addition, he sees himself as a continuous factor in a congregation that changes, providing a minimum amount of continuity from which newcomers can draw.
“If I can help out and fill that gap, for me it’s a privilege and a blessing,” he said.
| Date Taken: | 04.19.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 04.19.2015 09:56 |
| Story ID: | 160456 |
| Location: | KAISERSLAUTERN, RP, DE |
| Web Views: | 83 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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