Featured Author – Dr Frank Hinkelmann

I was born in 1967 in the small Palatinate town of Kusel in Germany. The first years of my life were characterised by constant moves – from Düsseldorf to the greater Frankfurt area and a stay near London until in 1972 our family left for Sumatra in Indonesia, where my father taught at a Bible school and where I spent the next four years of my life.

After our family had to return to Germany at the end of 1976 for both educational and health reasons, we moved to the northern part of Germany, where my parents set up the regional work of a missionary organisation. It was also during this time that I made a personal decision to live with Jesus Christ. At the beginning of the 1980s, we had to move again, this time to the vicinity of Bremen.

From a spiritual point of view, getting to know the missionary organisation Operation Mobilisation (OM) was a formative experience for me during these years. I took part in numerous short missionary outreaches, and I also decided to study theology instead of pursuing a career in politics. In 1989, I began my studies at the Freie Theologische Akademie Gießen (today: Freie Theologische Hochschule) and continued to work with OM in Austria during the lecture-free periods. After completing my studies in 1993 and my subsequent wedding to Dorothee, we joined OM full-time in 1994. During the first two years, we were seconded to a local church where I gained experience in local church ministry. Today we still belong to this church, which I now serve as an ordained pastor.

The following years were characterised by leadership roles within OM: From 1998 to 2007, I led the work of OM in Austria and from 2008 to 2017, I was responsible for OM Europe while also being part of OM’s international leadership team.

Networking with Christians from other churches and ministries has always been important to me, which is why I got involved with the Evangelical Alliance. I have been a member of the Council of the Austrian Evangelical Alliance (ÖEA) since 1996, joined the board in 1998 and took over the chairmanship of the ÖEA in 2003. When I was elected to the International Council of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) and to the Board of the European Evangelical (EEA) both in 2013, I resigned from my Austria EA role.

Even though I could never have imagined continuing my studies or even doing a doctorate when I completed my theology degree in Giessen, God paved the way for me to do so. I am grateful that OM has always given me the freedom to continue my studies alongside my work. In 2006, I was able to complete my MTh at the Theological University of Apeldoorn (Netherlands) and in the autumn of 2014 I defended my PhD dissertation at the Free University of Amsterdam, which is a study of the history of the Evangelical movement in Austria. In the spring of this year, I also completed my habitation (second doctorate) at the Aurel Vlaicu University in Arad, Romania.

Today, my ministry focuses on three areas:

• Teaching and research. Since 2018, I have been the rector of the internationally focussed Martin Bucer Seminary in Pforzheim (Germany) and I’m also a lecturer at the Akademie für Kirche und Gesellschaft in Vienna. Starting this autumn, I will also be part of the doctoral school at Aurel Vlaicu University in Arad.
  My research focuses on the history of the Austrian Free Church movement, Austrian denominational studies and the history of the Evangelical movement in the European context. I have published numerous books and articles on these subjects.
• A second focus is training boards of Christian organisations in the area of governance. I’ve noticed that while Christians are very good at starting new initiatives and ministries, they often don’t reflect much on the question of what ministry governance actually means and how the operational level and the board level should be distinguished. I am still responsible for governance training in OM and also run training courses in this area for the WEA.
• I am involved in the Evangelical Alliance and currently I am still the President of the EEA and Vice-Chairman of the International Council of WEA.

This summer, our youngest son completed his schooling and left home in the autumn to attend a Torchbearers’ short Bible school in New Zealand. Our two older daughters have been living independently in Vienna and Upper Austria for some time now.

When I look back on the thirty years of my full-time ministry to date, I can only marvel at God’s guidance in many ways and look back with gratitude. It is my desire and my goal in life to glorify God through my life and my ministry and to contribute to the academic field to increase knowledge and understanding of the Evangelical movement, especially in the non-evangelical sector.