Meet Richard and Ali Maegraith. Richard completed studies at SMBC in 2010. For the last nine years, Richard and Ali have been serving with ‘European Christian Mission’ in Berlin, Germany.
What does your ministry look like day to day?
We are pastoring a bilingual church in the north of the city called “Kiez Church Wedding”, which basically means ‘neighbourhood church’. A typical week, for example, sees Rich preparing sermons and organising a men’s night that will feature a young man’s testimony. I’m teaching a Bible course to some of the ladies in the church and trying to establish a good music team in the church. Rich also plays in secular bands, which he primarily does to connect and meet with locals and musicians in Berlin.
Tell us about the Berlin Psalm Project
The Psalms speak to the deepest inner longing of every human being. Songs of lament, songs of joy, songs of adoration. Jazz, an art form that is driven by improvisation, capturing the emotion and essence of the moment, provides the perfect setting to explore deeply into what it means to pour out our hearts in vulnerability before God.
“Jazz… provides the perfect setting to explore deeply into what it means to pour out our hearts in vulnerability before God.”
As we are both musicians we felt that it was natural to bring our own original music into the worship music of the church. We also saw how expressing the Psalms in a modern secular jazz setting would be a wonderful way to be a visible presence in Berlin, for God’s glory. Our Berlin Psalm Project debut album was recorded in 2023.
What are some of the challenges about your work?
We experience the same challenges that many missionaries have had over the years:
- Waiting on God, being patient and not running ahead of him.
- Walking with Jesus when our sinful nature rises up and wants to ‘do stuff’—in the flesh I mean.
- The constant coming to prayer for people who we’ve been bringing before God for years- and not giving up.
- The sadness when people constantly come and go—this is part of being in a very transient city, but also because people decide that they don’t want God.
- When church attendance goes down at times and the temptation is to judge by what we see, and not with the eyes of faith.
What are some encouraging ‘moments’ you’ve experienced?
- We had a family who had come out of a ‘church’ that had all the trappings of a sect, to find joy and healing as they are settling into Kiez Church.
- Recently, we had a ‘church holiday’ for a week with our church family and others. It was so encouraging seeing some of the people who are not yet Christians hearing God’s word and wrestling with it.
- Another encouragement for us is our Berlin Psalm Project—performing the Psalms in a secular club with unbelieving musicians who love the music, and the club owner telling us that he has never heard anything like that before in his life! Please pray for them!
What have you been learning about God in the last 12 months or so?
That he is so kind and so merciful to us at every moment. That Jesus is on the throne and that he is drawing people to himself, by his Spirit and through his Word. That it is a great privilege to be the servants of the King of Kings! He is teaching us that there is no more powerful place to be for the Kingdom of God, than on your knees in prayer.
How can we be praying for you?
Please pray for us to continue to walk day-by-day with the Lord. Pray for us to organise our priorities well, especially the straddling ‘out there work’ in the city of Berlin with ‘in there work’ as we teach and pastor the believers in our church. And please pray for more workers to come to Berlin!
Richard & Ali Maegraith
Photos: Berlin Psalm Project, Christianity Today