These are three of our four elders.

Walter Zagray

Dipl. Ing. (engineer), now a pensioner, married with 5 children, grown up in a family who lived according to the standards of the Bible.
As a Christian I try to realize the good message of the Bible in my life. Through personal communication and services for the church I would like to pass on God's inconceivable love to fellow Christians and also to others.
In responsibility before God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ I'm allowed to take tasks of responsibility in the church leadership and contribute to the prosperity and growth of the church.
Such a service is not easy, but I'm happy about every blessing which God grants to the church.

One can overdo it
Nowadays it is a common opinion that faith in God is a hobby. Just like others play soccer, are members of a rifle club or play music, a Christian is active in church. When somebody, like me, attends an independent church, takes the Bible serious and loves to get up on Sundays to attend service, people regard them as crazy. However, that's what I'm certainly not. As a family man with five children, in my job as a planner for road construction projects, and for dealing with young people I need my sense which God has given to me. For me God is not a fill-in or a tradition which I just want to keep.
To experience God
It has always been important to me to have an understandable faith. For a long time I wondered whether this God really existed. I learned to know Christians who showed me through their lives that I would just have to take God's Word for granted. I have done this about 25 years ago. I was allowed to pray: God, if you are really there, please change my life and forgive me my wrongdoings. Jesus Christ died on the cross for this.
A life with God
If God had not replied, I wouldn't write these lines. I have experienced in many situations that God is real. Since then He is No 1 in my life. In the Christliche Gemeinde Werne we do not want to be a new church, but live our faith with the plainness of the first Christians. They have trusted firmly in God and withstood all persecution and distress. Just as said by the high theologist of the Jews, Gamaliel, in the days of Jesus: "Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." Acts 5:38-39. On this note I invite everyone to get to know us.

Searching
Christian values played an important role for my parents. Going to church and the sacraments were part of our everyday life. However, I never understood the real sense of it. I believed that I would go to heaven by fulfilling the most important sacraments. Later in life I started doubting this theory. When I left home I slipped away from church and turned towards esoteric and humanistic ideas. With this I became increasingly unhappy, and often suffered from depression.
Liberated life
During my studies I met a Christian who made clear to me that I was on the wrong path. At first I smiled about his naive views, but then I met other Christians and found that they had something I longed for. Finally I accepted an invitation to one of their events. A lecture on the inability of humans to preserve this world with their own means had a special effect on me. I talked to the lecturer and learned that one can have a special relationship to Jesus Christ. I prayed with simple words to Jesus, Whom I had not known until then, told Him my problems and what was wrong with my life. I will never forget what happened to me then: My life changed completely. The depression, the problems, all the guilt of my life was gone. What humans, self-suggestion and the various techniques couldn't make possible, had now happened miraculously.
A life in thankfulness
My life came in order with the help of my great God Who had always proved that He stands by my decision and I am safe in His arms. Being together with other Christians is very precious to me. We have experienced similar things and talk about our experiences in Bible studies and services. The Bible is the standard for our life. A life without Jesus Christ would be impossible for me, as He had given for me the most precious He owned, His life, to liberate me from my sinful life. This is what He also did for you, so that you, too, have the possibility to get a personal relationship to God.