Southwestern partnership with Bibelseminar Bonn continues to impact German churches

When the Iron Curtain fell in 1991, the idea that an evangelical seminary would begin and continue to impact churches across Germany almost 30 years after its 1993 founding was unthinkable. However, through a joint program with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Bibelseminar Bonn, has trained almost 50 percent of the nation’s pastors of German descent who returned to the European nation from Russia following the fall of the Soviet Union, said Heinrich Derksen, rector of the German school.

The covenant that articulates the partnership between Southwestern Seminary and Bibelseminar Bonn was recently renewed and approved by the German government. The partnership, which began in 2005, allows Biebleseminar Bonn students to earn a Master of Arts in theology as they are taught by Southwestern Seminary professors while on campus in Germany. The program is led by Friedhelm Jung, a professor of systematic theology at Southwestern Seminary. 

“Southwestern Seminary is honored to partner with fellow evangelicals in Germany to help deliver biblically sound theological education to advance the Kingdom,” said David S. Dockery, interim president of Southwestern Seminary. “Our partnership with Bibelseminar Bonn is just one evidence of our seminary’s continued commitment to global theological education to help students around the world live their calling.”

Derksen, who has served at Bibelseminar Bonn since 1999 and as rector of the school since 2005, said the partnership with Southwestern Seminary is valuable to his institution as the “liberal theology in Germany and Europe, and worldwide, has more and more influence.” He explained when officials from the German institution visited Southwestern in 2000, “and saw the school and the strong theology here, we knew this should be the right partnership for us.”

Joined by a delegation of students in his program, Derksen visited the seminary’s Fort Worth campus in September to finalize plans to extend the partnership with Southwestern.

The value Bibelseminar Bonn receives from the partnership with Southwestern, Derksen added, is that the students “get good, solid theology that is biblically based” and that “nothing else is more important than this understanding that we have a mutual understanding of the Bible.” He said in Germany it can be “lonely because the evangelical movement is small” and the partnership is “encouraging” for “Bible-believing evangelicals” in the country. The partnership also has the “benefit” of giving the Bibelseminar Bonn students a “cross-cultural experience” as the professors from the United States have “a different view on things we usually see.”

Derksen, who has a German heritage but was born in Russia, relocated to Germany as a six-year-old. He said after the fall of the Iron Curtain, 2.5 million Germans who were living in Russia returned to Germany and some began to establish their own churches. Today, Derksen said, there are 1,200 churches in Germany with this background and are “all strong Bible-believing churches.” He recalls when the churches were initially started most of the pastors did not have theological training because they came from a country where they were persecuted. Since Bibelseminar Bonn was founded in 1993, the school has trained “the next generation of pastors, preachers, and ministers” and today about 50 percent of the current pastors among the same churches received training at Bibelseminar Bonn, Derksen added. 

“More and more people in our churches, pastors and preachers got training through this partnership, and it has for sure influenced our churches,” Derksen said, noting there are now “better and stronger preachers” in the churches.

“We have solid theology today,” Derksen explained. He added that previously the churches “didn’t have a written theology” as they were “not allowed to write in Russia,” but now the pastors can write and publish books which “has changed a lot in our churches.”

“When you come to Germany and visit our churches, you will see the blessing that we received through this partnership with Southwestern,” Derksen concluded.