Listening...

Listening....being kind enough and choosing to love....simply by listening and praying. Christian Fuhrer's story will always remind me to choose to listen to others.

Pastor Christian Fuhrer became the Pastor of Nikolaikirche in Leipzig in 1980 while the atheistic Communist regime was ruling in East Germany. In 1982, Pastor Christian began Monday meetings of "prayers for peace." The story he told to Carol goes something like this....

As he straightened up a few things in the parish and prepared to go home for the evening, Pastor Christian encountered a group of angry young adults who came into the building rabble-rousing. These young adults were frustrated and hopeless and had nothing to do with their ideas and energy.

Pastor Christian chose to be an outlet for them...a place for them to talk and be heard...a person to whom

they could turn and who would pray for them....and for the needs they expressed. Pastor Christian chose to LISTEN! He lit one candle, handed it to one of the young people, and told them they could stay and talk all night, as long as the only person speaking was the one who held the candle. The discussion lasted hours. Then, they did it again the next week....and the next week...and the next....

...and the group grew, and attitudes changed, and the world changed....

Following are a few excerpts from news articles, including his obituary from July 1, 2014, that explain the effects of his simple decision that night....

"Christian Führer, who has died aged 71, was pastor of the St Nicholas Church in Leipzig which, in 1989, became the focus of the demonstrations that brought down the communist regime in East Germany (GDR). "

The "prayers for peace" meetings eventually swelled into larger gatherings that became known as "Monday Demonstrations." The larger the gathering grew,

the more prepared the Stasi became for violence....

On October 9, 1989, the 40th Anniversary of the Communist rule in East Germany, there was a gathering of Communists prepared to celebrate and a gathering of Monday Demonstrators ready to peacefully pray. Here is how the obituary tells the story:

"On the evening of October 9, what began as a few hundred gatherers at the church swelled to more than 70,000 in the streets outside. At the urging of Führer and other speakers, however, the protest remained nonviolent and the crowd, clutching candles and flowers, marched through the city in a peaceful demonstration, chanting the slogan Wir sind das Volk! (“We are the people!”) as armed soldiers looked on."

"We were ready for anything, except for candles and prayer,” an East German official was quoted as saying."

Remember, this group of 70,000 people started with a man who CHOSE to LISTEN and to PRAY!

The article continues, "The following week, 120,000 people turned up for the vigil and the week after that, 320,000.

On November 9 the Berlin Wall tumbled down."

According to the story that Pastor Christian told Carol, some of those young people who marched with candles on October 9 kept walking all the way to Berlin and were there tearing down the wall on November 9.

“What I saw that evening still gives me the shivers today,” Führer said in an interview in 2009. “And if anything deserves the word 'miracle’ at all, then this was a miracle of Biblical proportions. We succeeded in bringing about a revolution which achieved Germany’s unity... It was a peaceful revolution after so much violence and so many wars that we, the Germans, so often started. I will never forget that day.”

Don't you think it is unbelievable that one man's choice to be kind enough to listen changed the world? People throughout Eastern Europe credit Fuhrer's meetings with inspiring others to do the same.
Thoughtful discussions, patient listening, peaceful demonstrations, and faithful prayers changed the world!

What can I learn? What group of people do I need to hear right now? I have a teenager...with lots of questions...and lots of opinions...that lives in my house right now. As a matter of fact, I have two teenagers and one who will be shortly. Will I listen to them? To their friends? Will I be patient and kind and loving...even when I do not understand or I disagree? Will I teach them, by example, to do the same for others? Will I at least change their world?