Overcoming the Dutch disease

Is it the Dutch disease? We all dream and work hard. We all want the Church and the prayer movement in the Netherlands to function on a mature level. We all yearn for unity in the Spirit. We all realise we need visionary leadership AND humility. Then why is one initiative popping up after another that assumes all this, but is not able or willing to communicate with others and serve the Body as a whole? Is it a demonic divide and conquer tactic? Is it unsurrendered fleshly ambition? Is it just ignorance, a not knowing how to go about it? Probably all three, and it's not easy to handle it well.

One of the ways to overcome this weakness is by intentionally strengthening our relationships. Just hang out, get to know (and especially appreciate and honour) each other, create an atmosphere of friendship where people are willing to be accountable. The Dutch Transformations team decided to take this approach. Yesterday we had a first extensive meal with different prayer leaders. We plan to do this once every 4-6 weeks. Hopefully the Lord will knit our hearts together, so He can share his heart. There are things, I believe, that the Lord will (only) release if and when we are in unity.

Today we had a meeting in the Joel office with different people involved in city prayer initiatives. Robert van Mierlo is working on a website to resource this grassroots movement. The project looks good, but we still need a good web wizard. A nice example of a city prayer website is LondonPrayer.Net.