Marc's Messages

New family pictures

I posted some new pictures in our family photo album. Enjoy it!

UK needs to get sorted

Andrew wrote a post titled 'The UK needs to get sorted!' featuring some serious prophetic words related to the UK, and thought it would be a nice idea to 'outsource' prophetic discernment to me, which of course is a mixed blessing. Anyway, I used the opportunity to post some thoughts on how to handle prophetic words, and linked some of the content to the extreme weather conditions around Connect Europe meetings. This time there was heavy snowfall in the west of Germany.

Evaluation and planning

Today we evaluated our time together, revisited some topics, and I shared some plans we pencilled in for the next season. Andi led us in a free-style meditation time. The rest of the day I hang out with Chris and Marja from Romania, Niina and Gabi, and Nuno and Itaguarra from Portugal.



Download what_is_connect_europe.ppt

Luther: the man who spoke out

Last night some celebrated Ben's birthday, while others watched the night movie 'Luther' in one of the seminar rooms. This intriguing movie shows the boldness of a man who spoke out against idolatry in the church, but couldn't prevent his reformation to turn into a massive bloodshed, killing over a 100,000 peasants. The sober lesson: what started in the Spirit, can end up in the flesh, especially when it gets messed up with politics.

Join the potato conspiracy!

When Heidi and I brainstormed about the Berlin gathering last September, we came up with an unconventional theme, linking the German soil to Kingdom DNA and multiplication: 'The potato conspiracy'. So we asked everyone to bring a potato from his/her own country and do something creative with it (a story, poem, song, prophetic act, or any other form of art, serious or funny) that we could learn from.



Tonight we broke up in small groups to share our stories, and it was hilarious. Kersti from Norway made a stamp in the form of a heart, and because Ben, our youngest participant turned 15 this weekend, we initiated him in the Order of the Jolly Good Potato. I also gave a short presentation on the basics of organic gardening, or what organic church planters can learn from the potato.

Download the_potato_conspiracy_light.ppt

Reading Scripture in public

Heard many excellent stories today. Andy from England shared about his plans to start a movement of young people reading Scripture in public places. Just imagine three people coming together in places like the McDonald's, a local pub, the library at school, the park, the metro, etc, to read the Bible together, discuss the implication for their life, and pray for each other. After all, it's the most normal thing to do, and it can inspire non-Christians to also grab a Bible and join in.

It links in to a Scripture God gave us for this gathering - Matthew 22, in which Jesus compares the Kingdom to a king who threw a party for his friends. But no-one was interested to come, they were all too busy minding their own things. Then the king told his servants to go into the streets and invite everyone who wanted to come to the party. Many Christians are so busy with their internal church activities, that they don't notice that the King already sent his servants into the streets to find the poor and needy. We're in a season of grace for the unchurched and unreligious to be invited to the King's table.

Prayer wrestling for Europe

Today we prayed extensively for the nations in Europe represented at this gathering. In four different corners we prayed first for the participants from the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Portugal. Each nation had a big flip-over paper on which we could write or draw prophetic impressions and encouragements. In the afternoon we prayed for Germany, the largest contingent, and in the evening for Norway, Finland, Hungary and Romania. A creative time of 'body ministry', of which Nuno from Portugal made some pictures. And Andy from England taught us how to 'prayer wrestle'.

Early Christmas dinner

In the evening we went out to a cosy restaurant with fireplace for an early Christmas dinner. The portions were too small for me, but we had a great time.

Is there hope for the church?

Today I held a presentation on the state of the church in Europe, starting with a mildly ironic description of our current effectiveness, then explaining why the church needs a reformation, and finally introducing several emerging, quite out-of-the-box expressions of church and ministry. Everyone contributed to this time of storytelling, and I was encouraged by the fact that most of us are actively pursuing new ways, like house church, monastic communities, Postmodern/EPIC conversations, café/pub church, houses of prayer and boilerrooms, mobile/nomadic companies of friends, virtual communities, liquid varieties of church, kids church, youth church, marriage transformation groups, active leisure and spiritual formation groups, indigenous church, and tribal outreach among new agers and neopagans.

Over lunch I joined a conversation on the abuse of tithing in local churches, and godly financial priorities. In the afternoon there were workshops on coaching, organic church and storytelling.

Download church_is_bigger_than_you_think_light.ppt

International worship team

Matt Redman and Jason Upton couldn't make it to the meeting, so we compiled an 'organic' worship band, a Norwegian-German-Portuguese partnership, with Renni (vocals & guitar), Anne-Maria (violin), Martin (piano), Nuno (guitar), Jeff (drum) and Helena (dance). Ronald from the Netherlands brought a song that he wrote several years ago, but never performed. God told him that he had to save this song until he would join an international meeting of younger leaders, then the time would be right to sing it. Special. (Click on the link below for the text.)

Download we_will_stand_accords.doc