Urtan Kollonata

Kontaktmission

From the Kontaktmission USA web page:

Kontaktmission (just say Contact Mission – it’s easier that way!) began in the Forest Quarter of Austria in 1979, with just a couple of missionaries doing the specific work they felt called of God to do. But their vision soon grew to encompass other lands, was passed on to other hands, and continues to expand and evolve. Kontaktmission – a truly European missions team – has its headquarters in Wüstenrot, Germany.Kontaktmission now has missionaries in Albania, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Georgia, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Mongolia, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain and Ukraine These are all countries desperately in need of evangelism, where as little as 1% of the population is churched. The need is for rapid establishment of viable Christian congregations, and Kontaktmission is one of the fastest-growing European church-planting organizations, using flexible and effective methods of new church evangelism while staying true to the Lord of the Great Commission.

Kontaktmission USA, based in Tennessee, represents the works of both European and American missionaries, giving them a means of contact in the US. Many of our workers are genuine “indigenous missionaries,” in other words, men and women who have been raised up by Kontaktmission from existing works in order to continue working in their own countries, and they are supported by churches and individuals here through KMUSA. This kind of international management and representation makes for efficient, cost-effective church planting and rapid expansion.

Visit Kontaktmission USA on the web

Our connection to Kontaktmission.

Before we even married we felt that God was calling us to share our faith and lives with Europe. We married in 2009 and began to pursue fulfilling the call on our lives. The fall after we married we visited the National Missionary Convention where we first met KMUSA. We had wandered the exhibition hall talking with various organizations and Kontaktmission stuck out to us amongst them all. It was focused solely on Europe and it was founded in Europe.We attended a retreat weekend in January of 2010 where we were able to hear the heart and purpose of the organization.

The main work is church planting. The leadership shared with us a central concept in church planting:  the goal is to work ourselves out of a job. This means training and discipling members of the Church to become the leadership of a Church so it can grow and thrive without becoming dependent on missionaries. Then we, as church planters, can reproduce that effort again and again and again. Send. Plant. Multiply.

The nature of the organization is not to favor or prefer a specific denomination. The goal is to plant Christ-centered and culturally relevant churches, partnering with local believers. God has been moving in Albania for centuries, we are simply joining the Spirit at work.

Kontaktmission is an international organization with missionaries from several countries. Diversity is a strength, and though there are challenges working on an international team, in the end the team is stronger for it.

In July and August 2010 we traveled to Ukraine, Albania and Romania on a trip set up through Kontaktmission. We visited missionaries working with Kontaktmission, listened to their experiences and learned about Eastern Europe firsthand. We saw how God was working in and through the Church and in these countries.

In April of 2011, we had the opportunity to attend the Kontaktmission annual meeting. It has a German name that is too complicated for us to even say, but it is attended by almost all of the missionaries working with Kontaktmission. We connected with several people and caught up with the friends we met on our trip the previous summer. We heard more stories and reports of the work in Europe as well as the great need for more missions and specifically strong local churches.

We wholeheartedly agree with the vision of Kontaktmission for the local church and it is a blessing to be connected with so many people who share our heart for Europe.