Community
Bodenseehof's international student body offers a unique opportunity to fellowship with believers in Christ from around the world. Mixing with people from other backgrounds and cultures provides a framework for experiencing new flavors of discussion, encouragement, prayer – and a lot of fun.
Bodenseehof offers a schedule which usually involves one to two week modules of Christ-centered, systematic, and thorough studies covering many of the books of the Bible as well as topics related to practical Christian living.
Personal study, parallel reading, examinations, and community projects are also a significant part of the program and complement the material presented in the classroom.
Service plays a significant role in the daily routine at Bodenseehof, and is an important part of living together. Students participate in various duties and projects which contribute to the practical running of community facilities.
Sometimes learning happens best when there is a component of adventure involved. As you'll see when you come, there are a lot of opportunities to get out and experience new cultures, new cities, new mountains, and more.
We will offer several sightseeing trips and a hike in the Alps in the early weeks of school. On travel weekends and over Christmas break, students are free to travel around Europe on their own or take part in trips which are offered by the school (Austrian mountain hut, ski week, etc.)
First class skiing, hiking, and climbing in Switzerland and Austria are within 90 minutes travel by public transportation.
Community Life
K-Group
Koinonia means fellowship
Throughout the year we will meet regularly with the same group of people to pray, share life together, work together, and yes - once again - have a lot of fun. The idea behind these family groups is that we would get to know each other more deeply in a smaller setting.
As with church, we don’t get to choose the people in our k-groups. As with church, we wouldn’t always naturally gravitate towards the people in our k-groups. But, as with church—we have an opportunity to grow together, encourage each other, learn together, and experience the beauty of diversity in the body of Christ.
The 5C Experiment
CHRIST CENTERED COUNTER-CULTURAL COMMUNITY
We do life together in a very intentional way – as a Christ-centered counter-cultural community. What does this mean? Well, for starters, we try and put some community ideas into pracice while we live together. (see right) This has its joys and challenges, but if you ask our students, the will say that this is one of the things about their time with us that they appreciate most.
Idea 1 | The Gospel is a community thing, not an individual thing.
At Bodenseehof we want to learn to reject the cultural norm of narcissism (me, mine, my, and I) to experience the good of the gospel together.
Idea 2 | The Gospel is fundamentally about reconciliation and therefore places a call on our lives to live in reconciled relationships with each other.
At Bodenseehof we want to learn to take the initiative to maintain peaceful, healthy and engaged relationships with those around us.
Idea 3 | Jesus seems to indicate that the world will recognize that we are His disciples by our love for each other.
It‘s interesting that he didn't mention our worship sessions, abilities and gifts, or „being right“ when he said this in John 13:35.
At Bodenseehof, we want to learn to value a healthy relationship with Christ and others over results, success, and comfort.
Idea 4 | The outworking of the gospel in a community of believers is often seen in the seemingly small things.
Things like respecting a person who is weak, serving, showing up on time, including someone who is lonely, cleaning up, etc.
At Bodenseehof, we want to learn to take the „small things“ seriously and do them well in the power of Christ.
Outreach
OUTREACH FLOWS OUT OF MISSIONAL COMMUNITY
As wonderful as it is to enjoy fellowship with each other, we believe that a big part of living in community involves being a part of what God is doing OUTSIDE our immediate community.
The longer you are here, the more you’ll realize that Bodenseehof is interested in being a blessing in the name of Christ in Germany. In particular, we feel called to share the love and gospel of Christ with the many youth we are connected with.
We will orient you to the many things to be aware of as you engage in multilingual, multicultural outreach, and we’ll be giving you any of the tools you’ll need. We would love to invite you to join us in what the Lord is doing in and through Bodenseehof.
Here is a sample of some ongoing opportunities you’ll be hearing about and could choose to be a part of.
- ENGLISH CAMP TEAMS
- ENGLISH TUTORING
- WORK WITH REFUGEES + REFUGEE CHILDREN
- DRAMA TEAMS
- MUSIC TEAMS
- PRACTICAL SERVICE IN THE COMMUNITY
- WEEKEND OUTREACHES IN SCHOOLS AND WITH YOUTH
- SUPPORTING TEAMS WITH PRACTICAL SERVICE