by Emily Smith

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches.”

—Ezekiel 17:22–23

“That’s what we want to be, a place where the birds can come. And they might not build their nest in that tree, but they can sing,” shares Elissa Picconatto, a leader and international worker with Envision Berlin. Elissa and her husband, Mike, followed the call of God on their lives to go to Berlin, Germany, in 2012—with their three children in tow.

With 170 nations represented, religious backgrounds abound in Berlin. But the Church still has a checkered reputation from the Nazi era and other key periods of European history, and today, many Germans view Christianity as a far-off and irrelevant piece of the past. And though religion is more prominent in the city than in the rest of Germany, 70 percent of Berlin has no spiritual life—not just widespread agnosticism, but a majority people entirely unconcerned with spirituality.

So, the Picconattos were left with a question: How are they—people whose lives are centered on Christianity and Jesus’ call—supposed to establish meaningful community among a people so detached from spiritual beliefs?

From the beginning, Mike and Elissa established a very open, public, and visible ministry. In 2021, along with Stephen and Jennie Jones, they launched an Envision site in Berlin, beginning to focus on the next generation of missional leaders. During a time of prayer early on in the process, Stephen received a picture—one of God clearing the ground and planting a tree—which was later bolstered by Ezekiel 17, as they agreed that this was a direction from God for ministry in Berlin.

As they continued ministry with this in mind, they grew in their desire for spiritual openness in the people around them. “We want people to know we are people of faith, and we want them to begin to think, Oh, spirituality is plausible and something we could imagine entering into—it might be something more than a fairy tale,” says Mike, “[We want this to be something] that isn’t connected immediately with a church building or an expression of historic Christianity that they’re reluctant to enter into.”

Mike and Elissa’s work through Envision is inspired by Jesus’ Great Commission in John 20:21: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Jesus stepped into incarnational ministry to be with His people—and then He told His disciples to do the same. Jesus came to Earth focused not on metrics, but community—He came to dwell among people, to be present with the ones He would die for, and to take part in their lives—and then He commissioned His followers to do the same. Jesus’ ministry was defined in part by creating space for the lonely—the people on the outermost fringes of society. Part of Jesus’ mission was to make places where people belong, soothing isolation and loneliness.

As Mike and Elissa established Envision Berlin with this mission in mind, they asked themselves what a meaningful, impactful presence meant in their particular context and unique city. “If there’s something meaningful to the people around you, and it’s meaningful to you, too, there’s a connection made,” Elissa shares. “So, that’s one of the reasons that the arts were one of the first things we tried.”

As the Picconattos followed God step-by-step, He led them deeper and deeper into the Berlin arts community, creating paths they never would have imagined for themselves when they first set out for overseas ministry. “Art just really opened up the door for us to have meaningful conversations with people about topics that mattered,” Mike explains. “The topics we were bringing up mattered not only to the people around us, but they mattered to God.” Through arts ministry, Mike, Elissa, and the rest of the Envision Berlin team aim to help people tell their stories—walking alongside them as they discover, learn, grow, and encounter Jesus together.

As Envision Berlin’s involvement with the arts scene has grown, especially through their exhibition space, many additional branches of ministry have formed, some even established by Envision residents:

• Drawing and Coffee, open to all skill levels and hosted every other Saturday morning.
• Art O’Clock, where artists have space for a show and tell of their completed or in-progress art pieces;
• Philosophical conversation evening, where phones are set aside and replaced with deep conversation, honoring the kinds of discussions that Germany has historically participated in;
• A publishing house, brought to Envision Berlin by Stephen and Jennie, creating tangible, finished products out of written works; and
• Drawing and Coffee, open to all skill levels and hosted every other Saturday morning.

One Drawing and Coffee event recently sparked the attention of a girl from Southwest Asia, who has begun attending regularly. While recently talking with Mike and Elissa, she expressed her gratitude for Envision Berlin, telling them that the space has become a second home to her. “It’s meeting her on so many levels of who she is, who God created her to be, and we get to be a part of that,” Elissa reflects. Among a city plagued with staggering levels of loneliness and isolation, God is giving Envision roots, creating space for those who call Berlin home to have meaningful interactions with Christ followers.

“That’s what we want to be, a place where the birds can come.”

This is the vision and hope that the team has for Envision Berlin—a tree, planted by God. And what is the difference a tree makes? It impacts the landscape around it in many ways, but perhaps most significant is the shelter it provides for all that exists around it. And so may it be for Envision Berlin—providing a shelter for the city’s lonely and safety for creativity to flourish in the presence of those who follow Jesus.