The IGN is an evangelical free church, i.e. an independent church which was established by Ekkehard and Iris Höfig in December 1987 from an independent house group.

The term free church means that anyone who has made a personal decision of faith in Jesus Christ and is prepared to take on responsibility in the kingdom of God can join our church of his own accord. Any time that is invested, any work or any financial support takes place on a voluntary basis. The IGN is a non-profit-making organization. No membership fees are charged and the church receives no church taxes.

We call ourselves evangelical (from the Greek: evangelion = good news) because the gospel, the good news of the Bible, is at the heart of our faith and forms the basis of our church life. Together with other protestant churches we share in the inheritance of the Reformation, particularly in the key sentence: "By grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone!"

The word Immanuel means "God with us".

We are a modern church with an international flavour. Our focus is the gospel of Jesus Christ and we are open for the work of the Holy Spirit. We also consider it important to communicate that God is a loving Father who loves every single person. Apart from the preaching of the word, we also very much enjoy praising and worshipping God with the newest songs.

We have no particular target group but want to be a home for people of all colours, racial backgrounds and nationalities. There is also no special age target group. People from 0 – 80 years of age come to us. Our "honorary member" Miriam has just had her 94th birthday. Our main age range is between 25 and 50, so we have a real diversity! Everybody is warmly welcomed – you included!

We are very glad about all the different groups in our church, but there is no strict boundary between them (with the exception of special events such as "Ladies' Weekend" or "Men's Evening" :).

or anyone who is not so familiar with the Immanuel church and would like to find out more without being committed we would recommend our Services with a special theme or the Open House Group, or the "English Cell" for English speakers. Here we will be glad to help you further.

We are not exaggerating when we say that we have something to offer for every member of the family:

Toddlers and babies can visit the mother and baby group or play in the crèche during the service. For older children Sunday school is offered during the Sunday sermon.

Young adventurers can have great fun at our Mattress Camp, and there are exciting outdoor activities at the Royal Rangers. Our teenagers take part in a year-long Believers' Course (similar to confirmation classes) to prepare them for life as adults. The young people and young adults meet in u!turn.

And finally for adults there are talks and conferences, weekend seminars, courses and meetings. In addition to this there are special Men's and Ladies' Events, where particular topics are gone into in more detail.

We of course place particular emphasis on the spiritual well-being of all church members, but we also have some offers for "physical fitness"!

Steffi's Workout is for all sports fans amongst the ladies; the men meet up (no specific dates) for "Men's Football". These activities are augmented by hikes and outings for the whole church.

At present people from approximately 30 nations come to our church. The majority of our church members are German. But our Austrian, Spanish, French, American, Russian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Bosnian, Czech, Slovakian, Swedish, Turkish, Armenian, Iranian, Nigerian, Ghanaian, Ethiopian, Congolese, Finnish, Brazilian and Argentinean members are loved just as much, as well as those from Burkina Fasa, Santa Lucia and El Salvador.

Almost all of our meetings are open to guests. But if you just want to "have a look" without being committed, the "Main Service" – which is always a celebration – or the Open House Group would probably be best for you.

On several Sundays in the year we hold services with a special theme instead of our normal service. These are particularly suitable for guests. You will find the exact dates in the Calendar!

Our members are not born into our church through infant baptism but join after a personal decision of faith in Jesus Christ. Children and young people are part of their own family and part of the church family. However, they are not automatically taken on as members, but make an independent decision for membership at the age of 18.

As in traditional churches, we stand on the Holy Scriptures and the Apostles' Creed. We believe in the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We emphasise, however, a personal turning to and decision of faith in Jesus Christ.

Where we differ is in our practice of baptism. Instead of "infant baptism", which we do not view as scripturally correct, babies in our church are dedicated in an "infants' service of blessing" after their birth (according to Luke 2:21-24, Matth. 19:13-15 etc.). We baptise believing Christians after their voluntary decision to follow Jesus and become baptised. We call this "believer's baptism". This requires a personal maturity that a small child normally does not yet have. Until they reach a responsible age, according to1 Cor. 7:14 children are "sanctified" through the faith of their parents. For this reason there is no need to fear that children are not saved if they have not been baptised as infants. Whilst the practice of believer's baptism is not so widespread in Germany, more than 600 million people worldwide alone in the Pentecostal-Charismatic Movement practise this, as well as those in evangelical churches.

We do not meet in a historical building but in a modern church centre with all modern technical facilities. Instead of an organ we have a good band and instead of traditional hymns we sing modern Christian songs from all over the world in German and sometimes in English. Sometimes we sing chorales. ;-)

The main parts of our service are actually similar: songs of praise in chorales and liturgy are replaced by what we call "praise and worship". We also have times of prayer and intercession. The main focus of the service is the sermon and at the end of the service a blessing is spoken. Then there are also parts which are not found in traditional churches. We give opportunity for people in the service to report on personal experiences with God and pass on any "spiritual impressions". In addition to this we have family-oriented parts such as celebrating members' birthdays.

Once a month we celebrate Holy Communion in our service. However, we also encourage the celebration of communion in the house groups and other church groups. As we believe in the priesthood of all believers (see 1 Peter 2:9), not only ordained ministers can administer communion but every believer. Those who partake of communion, however, should have personally surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ.

We respect the traditional churches particularly as bearers of the Gospel over the centuries. We build on the same church history and see ourselves simply as a branch of the worldwide body of Christ. In this respect we also feel part of it. On the one hand we want to make old and new discoveries in the Bible as the Word of God and on the other hand to be a church of the 21st century, working with the tools of the 21st century and giving answers to the questions of the 21st century. Our focus is not on "where others may be wrong" but on passing on the "Good News", and we gladly join hands with all those who want to do the same.

The Immanuel church is a fellowship of people who are serious about following Jesus Christ. It is registered as a non-profit making association, the Immanuel-Gemeinde Nürnberg (Evang. Freikirche) e.V.

Spiritual members do not necessarily have to be members of the association. The spiritual leadership is not the same as the association leadership in every position.

The IGN is run by our church leadership team. Read the next question to learn more!

The church leadership team consists of a group of "elders" which is made up of the pastor and his wife, Ekkehard and Iris Höfig, and at present four further elders.

A further body is the "leadership team" which comprises the group of elders, the house group leaders, deacons and the heads of the various departments.

Each house group has one or more "house group leader". The various groups also have a respective leadership team.

The Immanuel church is in the Höfen area of Nuremberg, on the border between Nuremberg and Fürth. We can be reached easily by public transport. More details in Contact.

We have no membership fees but are financed through collections and voluntary donations. Here we orient ourselves on the scriptural "tithe", but this is a completely voluntary matter.

No. We have a very relaxed attitude towards membership. Guest are welcome to stay with us for a longer period of time. Many of our current members were themselves officially "just visitors" for several years. But in the end nearly all of them decided to become active members.

However, we encourage everybody to become members of a church, for a church is a spiritual family and a spiritual home that every Christian needs. We are of course very pleased when someone becomes a member and in this way says: "What you are doing is good and I want to be part of it!" ;-)

We also allow double membership in a traditional church, for we do not see ourselves as exclusive or the only true church, but as a fellowship of those who love the triune God.

Anyone can become a member after a mutual "time of examination" lasting at least six months. This has proved to be a good length of time. But as mentioned above, you are welcome to take more time than this.

Most of the highlights are announced 3 months beforehand in the IGNnews. You will also find the calendar here on the home page.

In addition to this you can subscribe to the IGN newsletter or look for new highlights in the Events category.

In addition to the dates for the coming week, the newsletter also contains family news information about anything new in the IGN.

If you are interested in these things you can subscribe here.

A new copy of the IGNnews is produced every 3 months. The new edition is usually available at church on the last Sunday in the quarter.

The IGNnews is free of charge and available to everyone. We unfortunately cannot send it to you by post, but you can download the current issue and all previous issues as a PDF at ignnews.de!

Unfortunately not at the moment.
Should you feel called, a helping hand is always welcome! (:

If you have any questions or problems you can

• call the IGN-office during our office hours,
• send us a message using the contact form or
• write us an e-mail directly.