Feature by Jen Blazis "They want to be noticed so that they can spread the news of Jesus."

Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Features | Send mail to The Voice European Christians freak out for Jesus Jesus Freaks want to command attention. They believe that forcing their post-Christian culture to pay attention to their message is the mos effective way to evangalize. -Annika Ryan, photo. MANNHEIM, Germany-- A group of men carrying a coffin slowly led a line of black-clad mourners through town to the main marketplace. Gothic music and a haze created by a smoke machine filled the air. Baffled by the sight, curious townspeople joined the mourners surrounding the coffin. Suddenly, the coffin lid flew off and a young woman jumped out of it, screaming, "I don't want to die!" The townspeople listened, captivated, as she wailed and agonized over death, and then told the story of Jesus Christ, the only one who could save her from it. She wore gothic clothes, and piercings adorned her face. Her mourners had piercings, tattoos, dreadlocks, mohawks and other fashions associated with freaks, punks, goths and even hippies. They belonged to a group known as the Jesus Freaks. This group started in Hamburg, Germany, a harbor town known for prostitution and drugs. One Friday night in 1991, several Christian men and women who had been saved out of drug addictions and the punk scene gathered to pray for their city. They decided to dedicate Friday nights to Jesus through prayer and worship, and they invited Christian friends to join them. As word about the group spread, street kids came, too, and many believed in Christ. Soon more than 30 people were meeting in a living room. The people of Hamburg dubbed the group "Jesus Freaks." "The neighbors started complaining because they worshipped so loudly," Annika Ryan, a former Jesus Freak, said. As the group grew, Jesus Freaks started meeting in bars and night clubs and eventually rented their own bar and night club. "Both places were surrounded by strip clubs and whore houses," Ryan said. Their influence spread quickly throughout Germany, with copy-cat groups springing up and spilling into neighboring countries. Now more than 150 groups in Germany, Norway, Poland, Switzerland and Austria meet regularly and form convoys that travel throughout Europe to evangelize. Ryan, who is now a junior at Multnomah Bible College, said she was "freaked out" the first time she attended a Jesus Freaks event. "I grew up in a conservative church in Germany, and I wasn't sure if people with mohawks and tattoos were really Christians," she said. "But the thing that fascinated me was their passion for Christ and love for one another." In a post-Christian culture where Christ is taken no more seriously than Santa Claus, the Jesus Freaks saw a need to force the population's attention back on Christ. "One of their points is to be attention-grabbing and loud," Ryan said. "To wake people up through radical and provocative things. They want to be noticed so they can spread the news of Jesus." The Jesus Freaks try to stay out of the Christian subculture, which they call "the Christian ghetto." "They don't want to have a church life -- they want to take Jesus Christ out onto the streets," Ryan said. "They want to go to lost sheep places rather than bringing the lost sheep into the church. They want to speak their language, not church lingo. They want to be a bridge to the people who don't know Christ yet, not a Christian church culture that is a barrier." The group's evangelistic outreaches have attracted national news coverage. Ryan said acts such as "The Coffin" keep people talking for weeks. But Jesus Freaks have not attracted the support of churches in Germany, "mostly because of the way they look and dress," Ryan said. "As a result, they end up with leaders in their 20s who are aware that it would be better to have someone older and wiser to lead them, but no one is willing." The movement also lacks good Bible teaching. "They just don't know how to study their Bibles," Ryan said. "They've grown up with an existential view of the Bible and just skim it for encouragement verses." Despite criticism, the Jesus Freaks have seen many put their faith in Christ. A large portion of converts has been from the fringes of society. "One of my best friends prayed with an escaped fighter from Kosovo who had initiated some of the massacres," Ryan said. "He had killed hundreds, raped and murdered. He ran into Jesus Freaks, aware of his guilt. The hardest thing for him was to accept that God could forgive him. But [eventually] he did and accepted Jesus. When my friend told us that story, we all knew that he really understood what grace is, and it was good for us to learn that no one is beyond Jesus' forgiveness." 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