Wera Forum is a rapidly growing Christian church in Duisburg, a city of half a million people in the far west of Germany near the Dutch border.
It is the largest church in the city with more than 1,000 attendees across four satellite churches.
It is also the most persecuted with local media and other churches regularly portraying it as a cult and city authorities and businesses constantly imposing restrictions on its operations.
Last year, hundreds of police officers were involved in a violent raid by a SWAT squad armed with machine guns on the church and the pastor’s home, breaking his nose, and putting his wife in hospital.
HOW THE CHURCH HAS BEEN PERSECUTED
Wera Forum is led by Pastor Alexander Epp, an ethnic German truck mechanic who returned from Soviet Russia in the 1980s and founded the church after feeling called to minister to the Russian-German community.
When authorities refused to grant permission to build a church and banks denied it loans, the congregation re-registered as a non-profit religious organisation and constructed the building themselves.
A business that claimed to be an expert soil assessor declared the church’s land to be toxic and contaminated, requiring a huge investment to make the property habitable.
That assessment, whether malicious or not, was incorrect.
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN CONGREGATION PRAYED FOR THE LAND
Pastor Epp told CBN News the church decided to pray instead of giving up.
“We stood together with the whole congregation. We held each other’s hands and prayed together:‘God, heal the soil.’”
“And then we called in another company. They did an assessment and said the soil is clean. No toxins, nothing.”
VIOLENT POLICE RAID ON CHURCH AND PASTOR’S HOME
Last July’s SWAT raid on the church and Pastor Epp’s home followed an allegation that he possessed an illegal firearm.
It was retracted before the raid went ahead, involving scores of heavily armed officers and twice as many in support roles.
Alexander Epp recalled: “I was asleep and got up after I heard a bang when they blew the door open.”
Pastor’s front door blown off
Eighty to 100 masked officers surrounded the property, pointing machine guns at him and his wife.
“I thought they were criminals. When I was beaten and thrown to the ground, I thought they were robbers trying to rob my house. I never thought they were the police.”
WHAT POLICE OFFICER SAID AFTER PASTOR CRIED OUT TO JESUS
Because he thought they were criminals, the pastor tried to defend himself, and that’s when a police officer punched him in the face, breaking his nose and leaving his right eye with internal bleeding.
He was forcibly thrown to floor, bloody and injured, while the SWAT team ransacked his home.
“I just shouted, ‘Jesus, help me!’”
Pastor Epp revealed one of the policemen answered: “Jesus is not going to help you.”
Scores of SWAT police raid church
PASTOR’S WIFE SO TRAUMATISED SHE NEEDED HOSPITAL TREATMENT
After machine guns were pointed at his wife Irina, she had to be taken to a hospital for medical complications.
Pastor Epp was then handcuffed and driven to the church, where the SWAT team entered with machine guns drawn, busting down doors, and ransacking offices and classrooms.
Police claimed they seized two air rifles, a blank-firing pistol, a taser, and a nunchaku used in Japanese martial arts.
Officers took all the churches’ computers.
They apparently found nothing and returned them.
The pastor was charged with resisting the police, but nothing else.
NO APOLOGY OR COMPENSATION FROM GERMAN POLICE
Pastor Epp claims the SWAT operation was launched even though the man who said the pastor had a gun, admitted to a police officer before the raid that he had lied.
The Duisburg police have not apologised for his injuries or the damage to his home and car and church and he’s not been compensated for the damage and his medical expenses.
Police smash open church door
German authorities did not reply to CBN News’ request for an explanation.
Pastor Epp calls it the worst persecution he’s ever experienced, saying he never faced this kind of persecution from the KGB when he lived in Russia.
CHURCH ATTENDANCE INCREASES AFTER POLICE RAID
Despite this ordeal, church attendance increased after the raid.
Wera means belief.
Alexander Epp told CBN News: We always say, come to our building, touch it and listen to the story of how it was built. Then you’ll believe.”
Church services are in Russian and German.
Sundays are an all-day event, with church members staying to eat a meal together, and enjoy fellowship.
WHY THE CLAIMS THAT THE CHURCH IS A CULT?
CBN News reports: “Since only 5% of Germans attend church, a successful church here can raise suspicions that it is a cult — using psychological pressure to force people to attend.”
Many such claims emanate from other churches, especially Protestant ones.
Wera Forum’s media department even produced a video explaining to Germans the church is not a “sect” or cult.
Their website states the church leadership is transparent and accountable, with no one being forced to attend.
“A BIG PROJECT TO INTIMIDATE US”
But there are some elements in Duisburg who refuse to believe that.
The pastor’s son Walter said: “It seems now like a big project just to intimidate us because we are the maybe the biggest church here in this city and the fastest growing, to take us down to make bad publicity for our church.”
God has used the opposition and violence against the church for good.
News of the police raid has caused even more people to discover Wera Forum and start attending.
PERSECUTION HAS INCREASED CHURCH’S FAITH
Pastor Epp says overcoming all the trouble and obstacles has only increased the church’s faith.
“We always had problems, and I kept asking myself: ‘God why?’”
“But I think it was all part of God’s plan, that we’d be under pressure and that we wouldn’t rely on ourselves, but on Him.”
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