Wayne & René Neuper (Founders of Activate Network)

Dresden, Germany

Wayne and René were born in South Africa. Wayne comes from a German family that emigrated to South Africa in the nineteenth century. The two grew up in South Africa as native English speakers. Wayne became a Christian when he was 17 years old. René grew up in a pastor’s family and became a believer as a child.

René is a primary school teacher. Under the South African legal system, Wayne is a tax consultant and certified public accountant. Between 1987 and 1989, he was sent to Germany for two years of training by his employer at the time.  During this time, Wayne and René had a vision of someday being involved in church ministry in Germany. After returning to Johannesburg, Wayne worked for his employer for 3 more years before Cornerstone Church, Johannesburg, asked him to join their pastoral team on full-time staff in 1992.

Their experience at Cornerstone Church, an evangelical free church, was very important and had a profound impact on their lives. They experienced healthy team and leadership structures in a church context.

In 1993, Wayne and René planted a new church east of Johannesburg with the full support of the sending church. They had their own first experience as church leaders here. The plant was very successful and they experienced strong growth. During this time the church also purchased a building to facilitate all the church meetings and activities.

In this phase, they kept contact with Germany and waited for God’s timing for the next step in their lives. In 1999, they were asked to take over the leadership of the Jesus Gemeinde in Dresden. Consequently, they handed over the leadership of their church and moved to Germany with the whole family.

The Lord confirmed and blessed their obedience and the church in Dresden has become stable and grown steadily since then. The Jesus Gemeinde celebrates 5 services on most Sundays at various locations. The services are regularly attended by over 1,000 adults and children and the core leadership team is made up of 13 pastors.

At the beginning of 2015, Wayne and René began to sense that the Lord was planning something new – specifically that they should start a network. In the following years, numerous prophecies from different leaders in different countries confirmed this step. After much reflection and consultation with their eldership team, they decided to to take this step. And therefore, in July 2018, the Activate Network was founded under their leadership. Wayne and René travel extensively to strengthen and support the churches that are networking with them.

Wayne’s heart is for healthy leadership and team building, vibrant, effective, biblical, relevant and strong churches worldwide, and networking church leaders who want to lead their churches according to the biblical pattern. The importance of the Gospel and Jesus Christ as the centre and focus of every church is also a key theme. 

Wayne and René have been married for 38 years and have 3 married children and 6 grandchildren.