Bert Ott retired from the ministry two years ago. But, at 71, he’s ready to resume his pastoral duties on a moment’s notice if he could open a German-speaking church in the Joplin area.
Ott and his wife, Daffol, operate The Black Forest House out of Carthage, but it is the idea of opening a German-speaking church (open to those of all languages) that occupies a great deal of his time these days. It all has to do with his German heritage and the religion that he grew up with that is at the center of this newly proposed church.
He is so serious about a religious change for Germans that he has even established a Web site, www.thegermanspeakingchurch
fellowship.com in which he has outlined 95 theses to explain his plan, designed upon a true biblical Christian faith as opposed to any mainline denominations.
Ott, who was born and grew up in Germany from 1938-58, came to America when he was 19 years old. He became a Christian in 1972, was ordained into the ministry in 1978 and two years later graduated from Ozark Bible College (today Ozark Christian).
He then went back to Germany in 1980 but this time as a missionary. After spending the next 18 years on the mission field, he returned to America to pastor more churches before his retirement.
“For our ancestries’ sake and for the love Jesus has for the German-speaking people, we are very concerned about their practices of faith,” Ott said in the introduction to his thesis. “It is our heartfelt wish and prayer to help Jesus in leading individual German-speaking persons to a living faith and sure hope of salvation through the New Covenant in his blood.”
Ott said most of the German-speaking people of the world are either of the Lutheran or Catholic faith.
“Even those who have dropped out of these denominations often seek no other involvement,” he said.
So it is Ott’s desire to open a non-denominational church in order to offer German-speaking people and everyone an alternative to mainline denominational teaching and preaching.
“Our parents had led us into the religious teachings they had been led into by their parents,” Ott said in Lesson Two of his thesis. “One generation passes the traditions and teachings of their church on to the next generation without even checking if the teachings are the word of God or the traditions of men.
“As Catholic or Lutheran German-speaking people, we were not taught to accept the Lord Jesus according to his will as stated in the Bible. We believed what our church leaders and our parents taught us and defended their point of view against all those who believed differently. They were all sects according to the teachings of our churches and the German government.
“We didn’t know what Jesus and his Apostles, whom he had called, ask of every single person who would like to be redeemed. We were the German churches and that was good enough for us. We didn’t know that each person had to accept the will of God on his or her own. We had never been asked to repent or to obey the commandments of Jesus’ New Covenant.”
Following his immigration to the United States in 1958, Ott worked as a baker and pastry cook in bakeries in Crawfordsville, Ind.
“Our helpers would always talk about the teachings of the Bible,” he said. “They would never say ‘the Pope said this’ or ‘Martin Luther said that.’
“One day, Loretta, one of our bakers and a great helper, explained to me, ‘The reason you don’t know what the Bible says is because you don’t read it.’ That is also the reason, she said, why you have never become a Christian according to God’s will. She said that I needed to read the Bible on a daily basis.
“To be honest, I couldn’t just overlook what she was saying. I could also not think of her as a foolish or silly woman. She had a wonderful family life with her husband and their children. What she tried to explain to me was also the content of her daily life and work ethic. It battered me to no end and upset me that I knew so little about the redeeming teachings of Jesus.”
Ott furthered his education and understanding in his new walk with God by enrolling in OBC in 1975.
“If you study the Bible for such a long time, on a daily basis, you get to know the Lord Jesus as a loving and caring lord and savior in a very personal way,” he said. “You also get to know His Word and intentions in a way that they become a part of you.”
Ott said he now understands why the German-speaking people have so many problems in understanding and accepting the teachings of Jesus.
“We have just never learned to relate to him and his truth,” he said. “We have a relationship to the Catholic or Lutheran church but not to Jesus.”
You may contact Ott at 417-325-7506.
Address correspondence to Rich Brown, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, MO 64802 or email rbrown@joplinglobe.com.
