Berlin, a post-Christian city known for partying and sex clubs, is a difficult place to follow Jesus. The spiritual atmosphere of the city is heavy, like living in a world where you’re always walking through jello. And yet, Jesus is on the move. Whether it’s through believers discovering how to “be the church” outside church walls or a stripper-turned-bouncer sharing the gospel in clubs no one else can access, the light of Christ is breaking through in surprising ways. And Novo staff Johnny and Rachel Bruder feel incredibly privileged to be a part of it.
Germany has a rich Christian heritage, but it’s been largely forgotten. Wittenburg, the “home of the Reformation” is only a two hour drive from Berlin, but today the city of Berlin is less than 2% Christian. While there are about 700 churches in the city, most have only 10-40 members, and only about 10 of them are stable, not struggling to stay afloat.
In contrast to those struggling churches, the clubs and brothels are thriving. Berlin is a “Red Light City,” meaning there is no part of the city where prostitution is illegal. There are 500 brothels and strip clubs with an estimated 6-8,000 sex workers, both men and women. This part of Berlin’s culture is not only widely accepted, but celebrated, with Berlin’s clubs recently being made a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Berlin hosting the largest yearly sex and porn convention in the world.
A Door of Hope
As Johnny and Rachel have identified three big strongholds in the city—lust, loneliness, and anger. They intentionally come against those strongholds through strategic prayer, hospitality and friendship with neighbors who didn’t know Christ, and mentoring and equipping believers.
There are just a handful of groups trying to engage with sex workers in Berlin in different ways—from outreach and friendship in the brothels and clubs to aftercare for those who have left the industry. Johnny and Rachel have volunteered with most of them. They witnessed fruit from these efforts, but it didn’t take long for them to realize there was no way for these small teams of believers to adequately address all the anti-trafficking needs on their own. The largest organization only had about five staff, and people were getting burned out with the immensity of the problem. They needed to raise up more workers, and mobilize the church to get involved.
While churches are small and struggling, there are still 700 of them—stacked against 500 brothels. “If you look at the math,” Rachel said, “if the churches stood up and started taking responsibility for their city and saying, ‘Hey, we're not okay with this happening in our city, and we're not okay with these men and women being hurt in these ways,’ this thing can be taken care of by the churches. And so our heart is to train the churches of Berlin.” In 2024, Rachel, Johnny, and a couple other believers formed a new anti-trafficking organization focused on equipping believers called Tür der Hoffnung, Door of Hope.
The training explores God’s heart for those caught in sex work, how the church can become a safe place for sex workers to go, and how to engage in effective outreach and prayer. Door of Hope aims to mobilize volunteers for the various anti-trafficking organizations and to empower each church to be able to do these things on their own.
One of the women who helped start Door of Hope had a beautiful vision from Jesus of the Lord changing brothels into places of light, and Johnny and Rachel are seeing the first glimpses of that taking place. After one young man who was a cross-dresser in a strip club chose to follow Jesus, he stopped stripping and became a bouncer outside of another strip club. While it seems like a strange position to take on as a Christian, Johnny and Rachel realized he now has access to a club where their anti-trafficking organizations have not been allowed. He is building relationships with the people who work there, and prays with the women before their shift begins. Through this man, the gospel is being shared in a place no one else can go.
Mobilizing the Church
Freeing people caught in the sex trade is primarily a spiritual battle, and it’s connected to the greater spiritual need in the city. While it’s a unique context, it’s not so different from Johnny and Rachel’s overarching mission to fill Berlin with the light of Christ, spark gospel movements, and raise up other believers to do the same. In both cases, empowering the church and equipping “workers” for ministry has been an important answer.
“Living in Berlin,” Rachel shared, “the spiritual climate is so heavy. Everything has this added resistance. And because of that, it’s hard for believers here.” Christians in Berlin tend to see the church as a life raft, a community they cling to in the midst of a culture that doesn’t have the hope of Christ. The majority of Christians are just “surviving” and don’t have the energy or vision for outreach.
“The church doesn’t know how to be the church outside of the church walls,” someone told Johnny and Rachel years ago. They’ve found that to be true. “Most believers here in Berlin have no concept of what it means to be a light in their community,” Johnny said. Partly, they’re just exhausted. And partly, no one has painted the picture for them of what that might look like. Johnny and Rachel realized believers in Berlin needed a “playbook,” something to give them ideas of how to share the light of Christ in their neighborhoods and relationships.
Novo’s Activating Prayer and Disciple-Making Cohorts have become that playbook for believers in Johnny and Rachel’s network, and those who’ve come to the trainings are eager to apply what they’ve learned right away. For example, one woman in the Activating Prayer Cohort used blessing prayer in the brothels the same night she learned about it. A guy who just finished the Disciple-Making Cohort is excited to bring the training to people at his church, and Johnny is going to equip him to lead it. Through these tools, believers are moving from exhausted to empowered, and from a defensive posture (clinging to the church as a life raft) to offensive (taking back what the enemy has stolen).
Despite Berlin being a spiritually dark place, often described as “hard soil” for the gospel to take root, there is evidence of great spiritual hunger. Johnny and Rachel have a lot of hope for the light of Christ to break in. “There is movement in the city toward Christ,” Rachel shared excitedly. There are examples of a spiritual shift beginning to take place coming from ministries and missionaries across the city of Berlin. Last year during a big evangelism push in the city 700 people gave their lives to Jesus. “The fact that 700 people were hungry enough that someone randomly walked up to them on the street and they were willing to stop and talk and pray… that is a huge thing in Berlin!” Rachel shared. “I have a lot of excitement and hope for this city.” And the more believers lean into their calling as light-bearers and disciple-makers, the more spiritual breakthrough we may see.
What About You?
As you hear about the steps Johnny and Rachel have taken to shine the light of Christ and raise up more workers in a place with great spiritual darkness, what gets stirred up for you? How would you describe the spiritual climate of the place you live? Here are a few prompts for deeper reflection:
Do you know what the strongholds are in your city? If not, what would it look like to start asking Jesus to reveal them to you so you can pray more strategically?
Do you resonate with the “church as a life raft” image? What do you think keeps people in your area stuck inside church walls, and what would encourage more people to go out and shine the light of Christ?
What might be the next step for you in showing the light of Christ in the places you live, work, and play? If you’re not sure, why not ask Jesus for some ideas!
Go Deeper in Prayer
One way to strategically engage in your own corner of the world and bring the light of Christ is through prayer-walking. This video on prayer-walking and accompanying prayer-walking guide are a great way to get started.
Go Deeper in Relational Ministry
One of the questions Rachel gets a lot about anti-trafficking work is, “What comes first? Getting [sex workers] out, or them coming to Jesus?” And she’ll always respond, “That's on Jesus and them to decide. That's not for us to decide. Jesus doesn't expect us to come to him already fixed. So we're not going to expect that from these men and women either.”
“If they're ready to hear about Jesus, but not ready to leave, great! Let’s talk about Jesus,” Rachel says. “If they're ready to leave and not to hear about Jesus, great! Let's get them out of there. They spend their whole day being told what they can and can't do, being manipulated. I am not about to go in and do the same. And so what they are ready for, is what we will give them. If what they're ready for is to spend an hour talking about their cat, we're going to sit there and talk about their pet.”
Rachel’s “rules of engagement” for brothel ministry have broader application to other people who are far from God as well. Relational evangelism isn’t about forcing people to hear things they’re not ready to hear. Rather, it’s about loving the person, getting to know them, and offering invitations to go deeper.
Novo has a great resource on effectively sharing the good news with people, including helpful advice on what to share and when. It’s an eBook called Sharing Good News, and it’s available as a free download. You can request it here.
ABOUT THIS STORY
Johnny and Rachel Bruder began their journey together in cross-cultural ministry in 2015 in China. They moved to Germany in 2017 and joined Novo staff two years later. In addition to their ministries in anti-trafficking and equipping believers for gospel movement, Johnny and Rachel find great joy in hosting German friends in their home for special gatherings and game nights, and are always ready to give Jesus their “yes” when opportunities for deeper relationship or mentoring emerge. They have two young children, William and Adelaide, who enjoy being part of local German schools and friend groups.