On an inspirational tour through Great Britain Marc Stosberg (EFG Erkrath) and Veit Claesberg (Jugendforum Wiedenest) got to know the English initiative Hope 08 (www.hopetogether.org.uk). They decided to invite youth pastors they knew for a think tank to consider if a similar initiative (working title serve 1/1) could be possible in Germany.

At the same time Thorsten Riewesell (EC-Verband) and Stefan Lepp (Bad Liebenzell) were working on an idea for an initiative with the working title hope 2011. In a meeting of the committee of youth pastors working for the German Evangelical Alliance in February 2008 Thorsten Riewesell and Veit Claesberg introduced hope08 and serve 1/1. It was immediately obvious that these two initiatives were identical. The committee supported the ideas and suggested to combine the two initiatives. So they all were invited to the first think tank on March 12,2008 which become the starting point of the initiative.