Who are we?

The church started in 2015 with a vision to reach Frankfurt, and Germany with the gospel of Jesus.  What began as a small group of friends on mission, has grown into a church. Hafenkirche is made up of people from across the globe who love Jesus and who desire to see others know Him. From the start we have focused on building authentic relationships with each other, and sought to encourage one another in our faith. Our members are scattered across Frankfurt, Offenbach and beyond and we see ourselves as a welcoming Hafen (harbour) for all.

 

A family of churches

We are pleased to be part of the Relational Mission family of churches, joined by common values and beliefs, shared mission and genuine relationships.
Relational Mission is one of the groups that makes up Newfrontiers.

We also seek to build strong relationships with the local churches in Frankfurt and firmly believe that this is an important expression of the gospel.

 

What kind of Church?

We may be informal in our approach, but we are very serious about Jesus! As with many other churches across the world, our desire is to resemble the communities of believers that we read about in the New Testament – people devoted to God and to each other, living lives full of the wonder and power of the Holy Spirit, and committed to the teaching and application of God’s word.

Leadership@Hafenkirche

Hafenkirche is led by a team of 4 elders who were appointed by the Apostolic team from Relational Mission (the family of churches we belong to). The bible teaches that elders are called by God to govern the local church and model Christ-like character. 

The current eldership team consists of:

Jason Coss – is married to Alison and they have 3 young boys. Jason loves all things Stars Wars and is an avid movie fan.

Simon Tarry – is married to Natalie and also have 3 boys! Simon loves pottering in the garden and SUP boarding on the Main river

Ben Coleman – is married to Sarah and together they have 1 young daughter. Ben loves trying all kinds of new foods and exploring the sights and sounds of Frankfurt.

Dave White – is married to Tabea with one adorable little boy. He works for a marketing agency and loves all things music, from songwriting to collecting jazz records at the flea market.

Why “Hafenkirche”?

Hafenkirche means ‘Harbour Church’ in English. We love this name because it captures some of the characteristics of God that we read about in the bible: God as a place of safety, refuge and strength. We also like the image of a ‘Hafen’ because we associate it with a place of welcoming, equipping and sending out – which is part of our vision… 

Our Vision

When God first spoke to Simon about moving to Germany, he showed him a picture of Germany with lots of flight paths coming out of Frankfurt (like the image you see in a flight magazine). God said that what we will start in Frankfurt would be multiplied across Germany, and we were to plant a church planting church!

God also gave a picture of a map of Germany with all of the Bundesländer being filled with colour one-by-one (like a paint-by-numbers picture). This has infomed our wider vision to pray that God would use us to help plant a church in each of the 16 different Bundesländer in Germany.

How We Started

In the spring of 2014 the Tarry family felt God speaking to them about moving from the UK to Germany to plant a new church.

Having prayed with their church leaders in London, they started making plans to move to Frankfurt (where Natalie was originally from). Things progressed very quickly and by the winter they had found a lovely new home. Simon, Natalie and their three young boys all moved to start 2015 in Germany.

In Autumn 2015, they began meeting with a small team in the home to pray, read the bible and eat together. Over the coming year they gathered more people (German and English speaking), and in October 2016 “Hafenkirche” started meeting monthly in the Historische Museum in the beautiful Altstadt of Frankfurt. In September 2017, we transitioned into meeting weekly.