Dennis Mohn - New Communications Coordinator for the Eurasia Region

Dennis Mohn was recently named the regional communication coordinator for the Eurasia Region. Originally from Germany, Dennis currently serves as a youth pastor in the Netherlands.

How did you begin your relationship with Jesus?
I grew up in a pastor’s family. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that I lived the things my dad was preaching about. I did everything people would NOT suggest their teenage kids to do. I lived two lives – Sunday morning smiling pastor’s son vs. Go nuts and don’t care about anything. Even though I didn’t have much of a relationship with God and an interest in faith, I did participate in several church activities like the annual youth camps in Germany. During the last camp that I could be part of because of my age, I accepted Jesus during the last service of the week. I had a very emotional conversion, and it was certainly a complete turn-around in my life. That was in April 2001. When I came home from camp I asked my parents, who studied at European Nazarene College (EuNC) some 30 years ago, what a semester would cost at EuNC. I wanted to go there because, with my conversion, God called me to ministry. I wanted to be in fulltime pastoral ministry to help others have an authentic experience with God.

What training has led you to this point in your ministry?
Well, I graduated from EuNC with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Religion. I don’t really have any education in communications. Before I went to EuNC, I did a 4-year apprenticeship with Mercedes-Benz to be a certified car mechanic. All I do and know about video editing, Web and graphic design is self-taught. I guess I always had a passion for those kinds of things. It kept me going, and I am challenging myself more and more.

How did you begin in your communications ministry?
During my theology studies, students were required to organize and lead some chapel services. I had the idea to make some short video clips that introduced the theme. At that time I still worked with some free editing software. I really liked doing clips and continued making fun things with students (really just for fun without any purpose). Later I was asked to do some serious projects like a promotional video for EuNC, which turned out to be a very good one. I was fortunate to use professional equipment from the Eurasia Regional Communication Center. Through several projects I developed some skills in video editing. During my time at EuNC, I also worked a lot with Photoshop and created some design work.

When I moved to the Netherlands after I graduated, I began to challenge myself again by wanting to learn how to do Web sites. I have no idea about the HTML language, but I am an expert with Joomla, a Web-design software. I created several Web sites including: www.d-sharp.eu; www.njizaanstad.nl; www.carricknaz.com; and am currently working on a new design for the Eurasia Regional Web site www.eurasiaregion.org (not live yet).

I enjoy this type of work, because it is so important to support your ministry with professional communicators like Web sites. People wouldn’t take your ministry serious if your Web site is a mess. I think that all this is very important to what my calling is and what we as a church and a region have set as our vision/mission.

Tell us about your current communication ministries on the Eurasia Region.
I just started and it is all new to me, but I love new challenges. A lot of good things are happening on the region, and I really believe that the communication ministry can and should take a bigger part in what is going on. I want the communications department not to be just a production office that puts out nice videos for others to see; I want it to be part of the ministry. We have tools that reach and touch people faster than any verbal communication.

What objective are you trying to accomplish through the communications ministry?
My current focus is creating a certain automatism to running business so we can focus on new things. I also want to localize the communications department as much as possible. One of the reasons that our regional director, Dr. Gustavo Crocker, chose me is because I am from Europe. I would like to continue that idea by building a team that is mostly local to the Eurasia Region. Finally, I want to make the communications department part of the dialog and not just a monolog. Mostly we need to chase stories throughout the region in order to have something to report on. I want to help build a network of local communication coordinators and help fields, districts, and churches learn to effectively communicate. Help them produce videos, setup Web sites, maybe conduct Joomla online classes. As a region we could provide the server space... Well, lots of ideas!

What are the issues facing people on your region today?
I think that the greatest challenge, we are facing as a region, is our diversity. We have so many countries with many different languages and different cultures, different religions and histories. So I would say the issues we face stretch from postmodernism and prosperity to poverty and persecution. One great idea won’t do the trick for all the region. Flexibility and cultural sensitivity are standard characteristics of anyone serving on the Eurasia Region.

How can we pray for you and your ministry?
Personally I would appreciate prayer for my traveling back and forth between the Netherlands and Switzerland and also for wisdom and discipline in combining two ministries. I am also serving as an associate youth pastor in Zaanstad, The Netherlands. Both ministries are part-time employments, but full-time assignments.

The communications department certainly needs prayer as well as our staff –reduced from 3 persons to 1 1/2 persons. It will be a challenge to keep up the work, but that is just another reason why there needs to be a change in the way we do things. I would love to see the communications department to be fully Eurasian, and I pray that we will be able to accomplish it. Furthermore I pray that we will find new ways to be a ministry and not just a reporting element about someone else's ministry. I pray that God will show us new ways to reach people and help people in their efforts to reach people.

---Brian Utter, World Mission Broadcast