Marc's Messages 3.0

Reconnecting with Jasper

Had an interesting meeting with Jasper van der Kolk, who coaches people in creativity and innovation, and also pioneers a form of emerging church in Amsterdam. He just came back from Legoland, to learn the ins and outs of a form of strategy development and moderation called LEGO SERIOUS PLAY. But we talked mainly about organic networks. ;-)

Simple church in Europe

It was good to have Steve Hill, David Schäfer, Alexander Campbell and Nico-Dirk van Loo over for one and a half day to process the development of simple church networks in Europe. It was a fruitful time in which we prayed and talked through issues related to team building, cockpit research (research as a steering instrument), communication and training.

Btw, if you need a personal prophetic word for 2008, look here.

Learning from history

VPRO television started a docu series based on Geert Mak's impressive journal 'In Europe', chronicling 100 years of European history, based on many highly interesting interviews with people that personify that history today. Tonight's program was about the year 1916, the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest battles in human history with over one million casualties. A crazy war that drove many literally to madness, distruped hundreds of thousands of families, still impacting generations after.

It makes you wonder what the Dutchies are doing in Uruzgan - engaged in a so-called human mission, but in reality a guerilla war that's impossible to win. Same with the Americans in Iraq. Why aren't we learning from history... Btw, over the years VPRO has developed a comprehensive website with excellent historic documentaries, that links yesterday's stories to today's realities. Good stuff, worth to check out.

World history in one day

Today I joined a few Shift friends and fifty other people for a seminar with the presumptious title 'The history of the world in one day'. In just four hours and five cups of coffee Evert Jan Ouweneel took us through 5,500 years of history, from the stone tablets of Mesopotamia to the globalized currency markets of the 21st century. No new facts for a historian I have to admit (except some parts of Chinese history), but Evert Jan is an excellent teacher, and it was good to see how he told this megastory and kept his audience hooked from beginning to end.

Sigur Ros returns home

Simon Turner pointed me Sigur Ros' new CD-DVD 'Heima' (at home, homeland), which is also their first road movie, in which the band after a two-year concert tour across the globe starts a journey through Iceland. Beautiful images of the most north-western part or Europe with the typical Sigur Ros sound. Ian Nicholson just reported on a trip to Reykjavik for 24-7prayer, where Eric & Katie St. Clair are starting a 'boilerroom', a place of non-stop prayer, and Petra Karilainen and Krister & Resa are currently preparing for a trip up there in December. At the beginning of 2007 I sensed God speak about Iceland and this nation's ministry to Europe, so these cold lands have my warm attention and I hope to make a trip up there myself.

Peter and Baloo

Peter joined a drawing competition at the local supermarket and received a call today that he won the first prize: a gigantic Baloo bear (from the Disney movie Jungle Book). He was overjoyed. Hard to imagine that Karolien transported the bear by bicycle and that he even fits in our apartment. I told Peter: "Now you have Baloo, he can cuddle you, and Mum and Dad can have a week off." He didn't buy that argument of course. :-) Click to enlarge the picture.

Walking Lieske

The boys enjoyed a walk with their little niece Lieske, but of course the real fun was in pushing the baby stroller through the forest.

24-7prayer in the Netherlands

It has been eight years since the 24-7prayer movement started in England, and nine years since Karolien and I ran the first European 24-7prayer room at the Mission '99 congress. Since that time there have been a number of local one-week 24-7prayer initiatives in the Netherlands (one was started at Opwekking conference by my former Joel News colleague Adriaan), but no one assumed a central coordination role or took the initiative for a more permanent non-stop prayer base.

Earlier this week I met with Johan den Hartogh who set up a Dutch 24-7prayer website, with the vision to encourage 24-7prayer in the Netherlands. And last week Jan Wolsheimer paid me a visit, who is opening the first 'prayer shop', a permanent place of prayer and missional hospitality in the centre of Woerden, just west of Utrecht. Another friend, Johan Doornenbal, told me that he's involved in an initiative to start a 24-7prayer house Kansas City-style in Harderwijk, in which my brother also participates. So it seems the Netherlands are getting up to speed prayer-wise. An update in Dutch is available at the Shiftzine website.

God sends revival

This week in Joel News International a clip of the revival in Meghalaya, India, where the churches are experiencing a move of God among the children and young people.

We are the church

Last weekend I taught at Soul Survivor's Mini Festival. I used a loop of Joshua Longbrake's photo series 'I Am The Church' and started with a new presentation I'm currently developing on what God is doing in Europe. In this presentation we base jump from Rio's Christ statue and then hoover over several nations in Europe. Because we had only one hour, I sticked to North-West Europe, but of course there are also exciting developments in the South and East of our continent. The weekend was also good to reconnect with the Soul Survivor board and team, and with Jim Yost from Indonesia who taught on simple church, Luke 10 and out-of-the-box organic ministry among the poor, prisoners, prostitutes, Muslims, and what else.

Btw, today I found the 'I Am The Church' series on YouTube, put on a Sigur Ros track. Check it out. And here's another version.

New expressions of community

A new generation of church planting pioneers is taking the lead in the Netherlands. On 19 January 2008 Ronald van der Molen, Stefan Paas and others will facilitate a national day for church planters, pulling a wide spectrum of the Church together. The topic is 'reproduction in church planting'. In the meanwhile Martijn Vellekoop coordinates a research project to find out how many churches have been planted in the Netherlands over the past ten years.

Together with five other pioneers Martijn is preparing a weekend in April 2008 on 'emerging church', while Matthijs Vlaardingerbroek will launch a Dutch version of the (British) Urban Expression network that focuses on church planting in a city context. His vision is to help the Church in the Netherlands start new communities in the top-40 'problem areas'.

Talking about this top-40, The 'urban mission' branch of Youth for Christ in the Netherlands was awarded the European HOPE Prize for their innovative pioneering work in these disadvantaged areas. Two church planting projects recently got national TV coverage in a program called 'The Third Testament', which features how people still actively practise their faith in postmodern Europe. The clip of 'In de Prakijk' in The Hague can be viewed here, and 'Villa Klarendal' in Arnhem here. And as I blogged in July this year, things are also moving in Overvecht, the area where we live ourselves.

Next weekend I'm off to a national conference for young people where I will present a helicopter view of what's happening with simple and radical communities in Europe.

Less blogging these days

If you're a regular reader of this blog you surely noticed that I'm blogging much less these days. After a quite intense and rich blogging journey of five years, during which I processed a lot of issues related to emerging church, reformation, global prayer and innovation in missions, I decided to take a slower pace of life and reflection at my blog 3.0. While other - mostly younger - friends go through their own journey of 'rediscovering church and ministry as Jesus intended it', I feel more the need to chill out for a while and hear God afresh for myself.

Most of the active discussions I see on the web feel like repetitions to me. At the moment I'm trying to simplify my life and focus on the assignments God gave me. This might at some point in the future lead to a new, fresh season of blogging (or whatever platform is 'hot' at that moment), who knows.

If you want to draw inspiration from my five-year journey, check out the archives of my blog 1.0, my blog 2.0 (the most interesting period, where you can click on 'ministry' and 'emerging church' for the hot stuff) or the full text search option for all blogs.

Why Europe, Why Now?

A bit over two years ago a video team of The Caleb Project visited me for a long interview on the state of the Church in Europe and the missional challenges of our continent. It's always interesting to see that out of such a lengthy interview only a few spicy quotes make it to the ultimate DVD. But the good thing is that they did the same with the interviews of around fifty other pioneers all over Europe, generating a rich and inspiring picture of what's happening in our continent. The DVD covers both the huge transition/reformation the church in Europe is going through, and the real stories of real people praying and planting churches. This Fall we're distributing this unique DVD, and you can order your copy here.

Autumn hike in Limburg

The boys are spending their Autumn holiday with my parents in Enschede, so Karolien and I took the opportunity to go on a short Autumn hiking trip to Zuid-Limburg. This is the only part of the Netherlands that has hills, the rest of the country is as you may know as flat as a pancake. The weather was beautiful and we walked a quite long track through the Gulp and Geul valleys. More pictures here.

Two missing sacred fingers

On our way to Limburg for a few days hiking, Karolien and I came across this Sacred Heart of Christ statue in Leende. The text on the statue says: "From the parochians of Leende to their King." About 83 years ago it was placed in the centre of town, and in 1999 moved to a more quiet part called Boschhoven's Pleintje.

Now, for some reason the statue is missing three fingers: the middle and index fingers that form the sign of blessing, and Christ's thumb.

Assuming a vandal just broke the fingers off and threw them away, or Christ's right had was hit by a branch in stormy weather, we launched a small seek and rescue operation in the surrounding Autumn leaves. And lo and behold... we found Jesus' middle and index finger. Today I dropped the secretary of the Roman Catholic Church in Leende an e-mail asking if she would like me to return Christ's fingers in a bubble envelope. The sacred fingers are still somewhere in the trunk of our car.

Connect Portugal

I'm still recovering from a week of flu when Nuno sends a report of the Connect Portugal gathering held last weekend in the beautiful beach town of Sintra. He writes: "We spent quality time sharing life stories, vision and encouragement for the future. It was, I believe, the first time in our country that such a diverse group of Christians (institutional church, emerging groups, freaks, etc.) were united in an ambiance of true relationships, with people pouring their hearts out while sharing the ups and downs of trying to be the church of Christ."

Nuno says many are disappointed with the traditional church system and exploring new ways of the Kingdom. "Bárbara is starting an alternative community in the countryside. Junior is leading teams into Morocco for short missional trips. Justino wants to start a café church in a small town right next to Spain (in the north). Ita also wants to open a café to support missional people. Nuno and Paula are going to Switzerland to help Shema Community. Ricky and Marta are meeting bikers on Sunday mornings in a very famous spot for bikers. I want to develop a discipleship program for young people. We all sensed that Portugal is in the very early stages of emerging movement, but we all agreed that we need to invest in the younger generations as they are more than ready to grasp a more genuine and missional vision of the gospel."

"We finished with some ministry time, praying for every one there, worshipping God, participating in the Lord's supper and encouraging the hurt ones. It was powerful, believe me." I believe it, as in every Connect meeting we had so far, God really knitted people together for His purposes. Go, Nuno!

Week of (pseudo)democracy

In the middle of the Dutch Week of Democracy democracy was at an all time low. In Utrecht, the city where I live, the fourth city of the Netherlands, a referendum was held to choose a new mayor. Only 9.3% of those entitled to vote participated in the election, and 16% of those who voted intentionally devalued their voting form. As the outcome of a referendum is only binding with a 30% participation, it was a clear disaster. How come? Are people not interested in democracy?

They surely are, and it's not a bad idea to elect a mayor out of or by the population. But the city council decided to do a preselection first and came up with two mainstream, not very outspoken candidates from the same political party (Social Democrats) who both live in another city. The population decided to boycot the referendum as being a form of pseudo-democracy. They reason: "Either the city council appoints a mayor (which is indirect democracy, but still defendable), or the population chooses, but then the race should be really open to anyone who wants to run for mayor." I fully support this view. For the first time in 22 years I did not vote while I had the right to vote, because it was such a farce. Now, on the day after, politicians in The Hague are stating that the Utrecht referendum shows that the population isn't interested in choosing a mayor. They didn't get the message. Now who is devaluing democracy here?

On the picture in the middle our current mayor, sided by the two candidates. The guy on the right, Aleid Wolfsen, got most votes and will probably still be appointed by the city council as our new mayor. I don't think he's a bad candidate in terms of capabilities, but the way things have been handled sucks. Yes, it might be time to rethink democracy.

Colours of Autumn

It's beautiful Autumn weather, so I took the boys to the flower gardens of Gooilust, near Hilversum (open: Saturday and Tuesday afternoon). They love to search the forest for coloured leaves, branches and chetsnuts.

Karolien wrote a poem in Dutch about Autumn:

Najaar

zoete kou kust
zachtjes mijn wang
geur van najaar
tintelt me tegemoet

goudgele glorie
in laagvallend licht
stille luister
van nazomerrust

scheidend blad
ritselt haar laatste woord
met een zuchtje wind
wuift ze een vaarwel

The Vision, the Vow and the Beer

With a group of Connect Europe friends we are exploring Zinzendorf's Order of the Mustard Seed. As we plan to meet in Prague for a community weekend, I suggested to extend the three-fold Vow with a fourth commitment:

Being true to Christ
Kind to people
Bringing the gospel to the nations
Valuing Czech beer for what it's really worth

This proposal was welcomed with zeal. Phil Anderson even came with a solid undergirding from church history. "The whole beer idea is faithful to a great tradition of European Celtic spirituality," he said, quoting St. Brigid’s prayer (Brigid of Kildaire was an Irish Celtic abbess from the 5th century).

I'd like to give a lake of beer to God.   
I'd love the Heavenly   
Host to be tippling there 
For all eternity.   

I'd love the men of Heaven to live with me,   
To dance and sing. 
If they wanted, I'd put at their disposal 
Vats of suffering.   

White cups of love I''d give them,   
With a heart and a half; 
Sweet pitchers of mercy I'd offer 
To every man.   

I'd make Heaven a cheerful spot, 
Because the happy heart is true. 
I'd make the men contented for their own sake 
I'd like Jesus to love me too.   

I'd like the people of heaven to gather 
From all the parishes around, 
I'd give a special welcome to the women, 
The three Marys of great renown.   

I'd sit with the men, the women of God 
There by the lake of beer 
We'd be drinking good health forever 
And every drop would be a prayer.

Cheers!

Orange under pressure

I feel quite a lot under pressure these weeks and struggle to find focus and motivation for the season ahead. Partly it's the unclarity of the transition we're in, which silently sucks away creative energy. Partly it's being structurally tied (and likely overburdened) into project coordination and admin tasks which don't make me tick. Partly it's my personal working style that is not the best expression of a healthy balance of family, work, friendship and relaxation. Partly it's personal discouragement of unmet expectations - or is it midlife crisis already, having reached the magical age of 40?

Anyway, a week ago I talked it through with my board, and they suggested I would more radically simplify my life and work towards a sabbatical period in 2008, which would also (hopefully) create 'vital space' for writing. I know a new season is coming, and I want to be able to receive and flow with what God has in store for us and for his Body in Europe and beyond. My prayer these weeks is for boldness to let go of things that limit instead of release. Or as Harold Eberle said yesterday, when we met with a group of Shift friends in Hilversum:

"We don't have a work-slave relationship with God in which we are being rewarded for our work. But God called us into sonship, to live out of our inheritance."

September wrap-up

Some highlights of the past ten days:

- Started weekly publication of a simplified version of Shiftzine, a short inspiration newsletter for (potential) innovators and reformers in the Netherlands.
- Joined the first 'Prinsjesdagontbijt' of the GIDS Network in Utrecht, a first get-together of church and ministry leaders with Christian and non-Christian professionals in the fields of government, business and society, for (of course) the benefit of the city.
- Had an interesting catch-up with Cris van Dusseldorp who pastors a church in Arnhem that is slowly developing into a multi-shaped 'network church' that incorporates both organic DNA and projects to serve the city.

The Lives of Others

Yesterday we watched the German movie 'Das Leben der Anderen' (The Lives of Others) in the Springhaver theatre in Utrecht. It describes in detail how the Stasi, the East German secret police, operated, how oppressing the communist dictatorial regime was and what it did to people, and how one Stasi officer went through an unexpected personal transformation. The Americans called 'Das Leben der Anderen' "the best foreign language movie", which is of course nice, but I would say Europe produces more excellent movies these days that could easily stand the competition with Hollywood if it were not for the marketing budget. Make sure you see this movie. I also watched Spielberg's 'Munich' on DVD this weekend, which is also an intriguing piece of work.

The peacefulness of Gooilust

This weekend we enjoyed the sunny Autumn weather on the premises of Gooilust estate and the Spanderswoud, east of 's-Graveland and west of Hilversum.

Wished we had discovered this area before, as it's quite vast, has a rich variety in vegetation and landscape, and is much more peaceful than the areas south-east of Utrecht. On Sundays you might get trampled in Rhijnauwen with half the city crashing in on the estate, but in Gooilust it's quiet with only a handful of visitors around.

Researching Europe

In this week's edition of Joel News International I focused on the question: how many people in Europe follow Jesus? Three different studies, using different definitions of 'committed Christian' and varying methodologies, came up with multiple indications: 1.1% (GEM), 3.5% (OW) and 4.2% (emRG). My colleague Andreas Wolf from Germany says he has most confidence in the higher percentage, and suggests that in God's Book of Life it might well be 10%. Wolfgang Simson disagrees with him and stresses that the issue is not about what people profess, but whether they really live surrendered lives and take their orders from Christ the King. He estimates the number of 'real Jesus followers' at just 0.1%. What is certainly clear though is that Europe is probably one of the most needy places in the world today.

The emRG wizards regularly come up with innovative new ways to apply research to missions and church planting. Paul Dzubinski from Spain developed a quite interesting approach to prioritize which area(s) in a region offer(s) the best opportunity for church planting. It recognizes the need to be led by the Spirit with intelligent leadership. Check out his post here and his Powerpoint explanation here. Yes, God even uses mathematicians. ;-)

Subject to parody

Dutch satirical website Goedgelovig.nl played a little parody on Joel News. In our Dutch edition we published a story of a lady who prayed for her dog who was incurably ill, and the dog got healed. Goedgelovig.nl picked it up and asked when the stories would start pouring in of the miraculous healing of rabbits, parrots and other domestic animals. And would Dutch healing evangelist Jan Zijlstra soon start a prayer campaign for animals? Quite funny. Interestingly, praying for sick animals seems to be a quite normal practice for many Christians. We have testimonies pouring in daily.

I've been following Goedgelovig.nl for some time now, and think they're quite on top of the ball with their satirical view on developments in the Christian subculture. A few weeks ago they started a photo cartoon series titled 'Knevel & Van den Brink', starring the two best-known Christian television journalists, ascribing them dry tongue-in-cheek and sometimes quite absurd quotes. In the one below Andries says: "Breaking news: Dr. James Kennedy passed away." And Tijs comments: "He died in an evangelism explosion." Then, because in their real show they also had five female side-kicks, one of them, a Musllim lady called Esmaa makes a very polically uncorrect remark: "That sounds familiar. I didn't know Christians also did that stuff."

A new breed of evangelists

Today Mattheus van der Steen of Touch, Reach and Impact the Nations (TRIN) paid me a visit. Mattheus is an exponent of what you could call 'a new breed of faith and charity evangelists' that is emerging from the Netherlands. TRIN started nearly two years ago and quickly developed into an international hub, based in Harderwijk, where young people can realize their God-given dreams related to reaching the world for Christ and bringing hope to the poor and oppressed.

Mattheus' philosophy on development is quite simple: anyone can join TRIN if they commit to relationship and values, and make their projects self-supporting. The key words are 'Spirit-led', 'empowerment' and 'decentral responsibility'. TRIN currently has 17 fulltimers and a budget of well over a million euro. The ministry is holding massive gospel & healing campaigns in Pakistan, supporting 1200 orphans in various countries in Africa and Latin America, throwing 'fire nights' to impact (mainly young) people in the Netherlands, setting up a 24-7 prayer center, and has advanced plans to launch 30 house churches.

Having said this, and appreciating Mattheus' faith to think big and jump in stormy rivers, I also have some concerns about the personality culture I see and the way some things are being handled. People with a persuasive personality tend to overlook the relational side of things and can by their activism easily burn people out. Charismatic evangelistic pioneers are good in kick-starting things, but pretty bad in getting organized and leading organisations. The future will tell how things will work out.

Connect Europe this Autumn

This Summer several Connect Europe friends hit the road. Krister & Resa blogged about the trip of the Nordic team to Latvia and Lithuania (pictures here), Gabi uploaded her pictures of the SLOT Arts Festival in Poland, and Marek reports about the first Czech Connect meeting that took place in the house of prayer in Senozaty (pictures here).

For this Autumn several focused and regional Connect Europe events and trips are shaping up, which provide excellent opportunities to (re)connect, develop friendship and grow in teamwork.

Of special interest is a Europe-wide consultation on ministry among new agers and neopagans, and a training in the supernatural, held in Basel, Switzerland. We cooperate in this effort with Hope for Europe. This network is pulling thinkers and practitioners from various nations together, and several people from Connect Europe will provide hands-on training. More information in this brochure (pdf).

Two pioneer trips (for prayer and connection with emerging pioneers) are planned to France and Iceland. If you're interested, check out the Connect Europe 2007 agenda.

Remember the kitchen table?

Herman Ketel (on the right) sent me this picture with a little note: "It was good to meet again and experience the bond that was forged in the early years of the house church movement in the Netherlands. So much has changed, and so much is still changing! 'Church at the Kitchen Table', Hans Groeneboer's book on simple church, recently struck a cord in me again. Glory to the Lord who is renewing His Church!" We reconnected shortly at Floyd McClung's seminar early July. On the left Henk Vos, who is probably now in his early eighties, and still coaches young people to plant simple churches.

David the builder

Our David (8) loves to build. For years he played with LEGO and created his own 'cabins'. Now he also develops his computer art skills and launched his own weblog. I promised to 'plug' it for him, so if you have a chance check it out: there's a cool Tom & Jerry clip, lots of smileys and pictures he likes, and also some of his own creations.

Babel the movie

A good illustration to Richard Rohr's claim that true change or transformation happens in a state liminality is the movie 'Babel' that we watched yesterday. Babel tells the unexpectedly interweaving story of a Moroccan, a Mexican, an American and a Japanese family. All of them are disconnected in communication and relationships, and it's a phase of liminality or crisis that reconnects them to their true self and each other.

Adam's Return: male spirituality

In the left margin of my blog you find links to some of the books I read recently. One I'd like to point out specifically is 'Adam's Return. The five promises of male initiation' by Franciscan author Richard Rohr. He touches on several issues related to shift/reformation that I raised on my blog before, like the need to 'rediscover' a male spirituality, and the role of liminality in our spiritual formation. You might want to check out Rohr's website and this excerpt of an interview with him for an Australian radio station. Some spicy quotes:

- Few transformations happen in church. The places where real transformation happens in our world are Alcoholics Anonymous, Ground Zero, the cancer ward, and of course the mountains of New Mexico.
- Church liturgies/programs are very much a confirmation of the present consciousness, the present politics, the present self-serving world view. To join the clergy is to join an establishment world view of status and security. And I think that's what my father St. Francis was trying to oppose. Churchyanity has far too often become a substitute for Christianity.
- Not secularisation is the big reason for the collapse of churchgoing, but the failure of the church and its leaders to use their imagination.

To move or not to move

Last month, just before we left for our four-week family trip, Connect friend Jeff and his colleague Cevin came by for a good Dutch pancake. Jeff then asked the inevitable question: "So how about your plans to move?"

I realize we've been talking about this for some time, and nevertheless are still sticking around in the Utrecht area. Things are going less fast than we hoped and anticipated (we already cleaned out our house and I phased myself out of local and national projects), but we are taking concrete steps based on our current state of 'seeing' in which direction God might lead us. Our trip to Germany, checking out potential places to live and possibly start a community and training base, was one of those steps. We even found two places that would fit our vision quite well, though they're quite beyond our budget, if you could even speak of a budget.

In a way I also envy my missionary friends who seem to move quite easily from one country to another. Jeff moved from America to Turkey, to Germany, and now lives in the Arab world with his family. I lived most of my life in two Dutch cities: Enschede and Utrecht, both for about 20 years, and as such am more rooted. Talking to missionary and multi-culture kids I know being rooted is not a bad thing. But at the same time I want to develop a more daring flexilibity in how we pursue Christ and his Kingdom.

Perhaps you could pray with us. We want to press into what God has prepared for us. We feel like Joshua and Caleb; after 40 years they knew it was time to take hold of the Promised Land.

Family trip - week four

The highlights of this week:
- An outing to Chamonix Mont Blanc, where we took a mountain train up to the Mer de Glace, where you can walk through the glacier. The glacier shrunk significantly, so maybe Al Gore was right after all.
- A stroll through Geneva's beautiful Botanic Gardens.
- Water cycling with the boys on Lake Annecy in the French alps.
- An overnight visit to Florian and Iris of the Dream House in Taunusstein, near Frankfurt.
- Spending a few days with my parents, where we celebrated Peter's 6th birthday.

More Chamonix Mont Blanc pictures here.
More Botanic Garden pictures here.

Family trip - week three

The highlights of this week:
- A few relaxing days at Lammert & Conny's place in Geneva. A country house close to the centre, which offers a good base for outings.
- Getting soaked at Geneva's impressive Jet d'Eau, with 140 meters, 200 km/h and 7,000 litres of water the largest fountain in Europe.
- Spending a day with the Mudriks on their way from Taize to Prague, catching up on plans to develop community.
- A visit to CERN, the world's largest particle physics laboratory, where the World Wide Web was born.

- Because it was raining for three days non-stop, we also spent an afternoon at the Museum of Natural History, which had an impressively extensive collection of animals, stones, and more.
- A stroll along the Rhone river to the old city with the Gallery of Reformers in the Parc des Bastions. Don't visit the International Museum of the Reformation; it's deadly boring, only portraits of John Calvin.
- A day-trip up to the Saleve range, from where you have an excellent view over Lake Geneva.
- Climbing the top of La Dole (1678m) in the Jura mountains.
- Swimming in Lake Geneva - quite cold, but refreshing.
- Watching 'The making of The Lord of the Rings', a story as impressive and epic as the movie itself.

More Geneva, Saleve and Jura pictures here.

Family trip - week two

The highlights of this week:
- Enjoying a few quiet days at Wolfgang & Mercy's place in Feuerbach, an idyllic village with fruit trees and vines in the Black Forest.
- The boys wanted to sleep on the balcony because they thought that would be more fun.
- Walks in the forest and a visit to the bird park in Steinen, where they do impressive shows with birds of prey.
- We also looked at some houses in this region.

More Black Forest pictures here.

Family trip - week one

The highlights of this week:
- We saw a whole series of rainbows, one after the other, when we drove through Saxony on our way to Herrnhut. Beautiful.
- Revisiting Herrnhut. Something that unintentionally happens once a year. This town holds a special place in God's story. We caught up with pastor Frank, and I was encouraged to read in the history of the Jesus Haus (the house of prayer) that God used Dutch missionaries to ignite the youth revival that touched Herrnhut in the Seventies.
- We looked at several houses in East Germany and prayerfully asked God and ourselves: could we live in this part of Europe?
- A fresh walk in the wetlands area of the Spreewald, where we saw a toilet being used as garden decoration.
- Reconnecting with friends Kerstin in Berlin, and Andreas & Christine in Magdeburg.
- A two-day DAWN team meeting in a hotel in East Berlin with an interesting view on the typical socialist-realist architecture of the Commie times.
- Meeting the wonderful Eichler family, who offered us a bed in the Christian Center in Reichenbach, and shared some of their experiences with ministry in East Germany.

On the road again

The next four weeks I'll be travelling with my family through Germany and Switzerland (and a little bit of France). We'll be visiting various friends, meetings and places, and have some holiday time as well in the Black Forest and Geneva. Will catch up when I'm back, or maybe halfway.

Watching the innovators

There are several business innovators and trendwatchers that I keep an eye on, because they're often ahead of the rest of us and offer keen insight in how to play on the ball in fast changing times. To name a few: Michael Katz (e-communication), Phil Cooke (faith and media), Seth Godin (marketing and ideas), Guy Kawasaki (business and innovation) and Tom Peters (leadership and strategy). And of course I should also mention Wolfgang Simson here, but some people are so forward-thinking that they don't bother to make a proper website here and now. ;-) Btw, I just found this quote from George Bernard Shaw in Lammert Vrieling's newsletter that describes this type of people quite well:

"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world.
Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves.
All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people."

Doing or singing love songs?

Steve Hill, a simple church planter who - if he's not 'out there' - lives in the Netherlands, loves to provoke. Today he mailed me: "What if John 15 read like this - 'Jesus looked at the disciples, sighed deeply and said, 'I can hardly wait for my marriage supper when we will be united as bride and groom! I can hardly wait to behold you in your beautiful wedding dress and call you my beloved! From now on I am not calling you servants but 'My Bride' because my Father is uniting us in marriage.''

I think Peter and John would have begun to look for an exit strategy! Time to go back to fishing! Things are getting weird around here! NO! Jesus looked at his men and said to them, 'You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.' No obedience, no friendship! The dominant relational metaphor of John 15 is father/son and friends - the band of brothers. Love is demonstrated by doing, not by singing love songs!

Why does the metaphor of the bride (which we also need, but which has much more to do with the future!) have so much more air time in some parts of the church than the metaphor of a band of brothers fulfilling a mission? Why the bridal imagery so much more than that of the army on white horses? Maybe we love the bridal stuff of Jesus the lover because it is romantic, pretty and indoors rather than the messy, challenging and outdoor life of Jesus the servant? Maybe that is why worship conferences sell out, but few of us have little evidence to accuse us of being friends of sinners?

Paul (II Timothy 2) did not tell Timothy to work on his new romantic worship CD! He told him to fight like a soldier, compete like an athlete, work like a farmer and suffer like a prisoner. Nothing romantic or nice there. Nothing you can sing your way through. You either do it or you do not. Jesus did not promise to make His disciples romantic lovers. He promised to make them 'fishers of men' and promised them persecution and suffering as they did it. When does private 'seeking His face' become an obedience avoidance mechanism? He has placed His face on the least and said that to serve them is to serve Him!"

If I were a king...

What if you would be a king or queen and could advise the prime minister? What would you do? Interesting challenge for the kids in 'group 2' of reformed primary school 'De Wissel' in Utrecht. Our Peter (5) drew himself (click to enlarge) and said: "When I become king I will eat a lot of icecream." And talking to a friend whose mum just became director of the school: "If your mum isn't good enough, then perhaps my mum could become the director."

The amazing Rob

Today we threw a party for Rob Piket, who has been our Joel Ministries office manager for the past five years. As Karolien said in her speech, Rob has been the most dedicated colleague we could wish. He runs the subscriptions for Joel News, the financial administration and all our computers and software. In fact, we don't use Microsoft Windows, we have Rob as operating system. And the secret of his brightness is pure quality whiskey, one little nip a week.

New life in Overvecht

After having lived in Overvecht, one of the Dutch government's 40 'social hotspots' or 'problem areas', for 13 years, we sense it's time for us to move on. At first we were a bit hesitant - why leave an area without seeing a Christian community planted as we envisioned? - but two recent developments give us more peace about this decision.

First of all we realize that our prayers and initial steps (though sometimes it felt more like stumbling our way forward) to see Kingdom come to this area are paying off. Over the past year God led a new generation, a group of around 20-30 recently graduated students in their twenties, to intentionally move to Overvecht with the vision to start communities and provide social care. Today we had a picknick with a number of them, and it was encouraging to hear about their plans, contacts and ideas.

Secondly, what happened to my office a few months ago, is now also happening to our apartment: we are more or less being kicked out. Plans for a large-scale renovation are currently being discussed, and if this takes place, we have to move out by 2008. The good thing is that we know God has new things prepared for us, and we can look back on a period in which we were able to sow destiny into our city and neighborhood. I guess in God's Kingdom the sowers are not necessarily also the harvesters. We all have our role to play. And if we leave and 20-30 others emerge to take our place, that's a pretty good deal.

Floyd on simple church

Floyc McClung, who pioneered YWAM in Amsterdam, and currently trains simple church planters in Cape Town, South Africa, returned to the Netherlands for a seminar on 'the future of the church'. He did a pretty good job in pointing out the paradigm shifts we need to become a truly missional Kingdom movement. He quoted a lot from Hirsch and Frost's 'The Shaping of Things to Come', illustrated with stories from his own experience.

Not sure though whether the evangelical leaders who turned up got the real reformation message. Floyd is so kind and generously embracing (which is why we all love him), that he tends to just rub the surface.

The most striking example though came in reply to a question asked: "How did you turn a prophetic megachurch like Metro Christian Fellowship in Kansas City to a missional movement?" The answer was clear: in the five years that he pastored this church he wasn't able to really change the set-up or DNA, apart from impacting a few individuals. He said most Christians didn't want their kids to go into missions (too dangerous), and one lady remarked: "Are you serious about inviting non-Christians into our house and thus defiling our home that we just dedicated in prayer to the Lord?"

Prophets and power structures

Today Margreet Bouw of the house of prayer in Utrecht and I taught at Time to Turn's Prophets Training in Nieuwegein. Time To Turn is a youth organisation for social justice, fair trade and ecologic sustainability. It was interesting to see that in this group the areas of social action (horizonal prophetic dimension) and hearing/seeing from God (vertical prophetic dimension) hadn't really touched yet. So I guess it was good that we could challenge them to act out of revelation (hearing/seeing from God) instead of just a good idea, and combine the creativity in which they already excell with sensitivity for God's timing, connections and focused prayer. Especially when confronting power structures (be it religious, social or politcal) it's important to realize that it's demonic (not just human) power that upholds injustice. Anyway, illustrated with movie clips from The Matrix, Monty Python and Luther I gave eight characteristics of a prophetic calling:

1. Prophets focus on destiny in Christ and issues of the heart.
2. Prophets are door-openers.
3. Prophets are sensitive to God's Spirit and timing.
4. Prophets are called to not just 'give words', but live a prophetic lifestyle.
5. Prophets always face head-on opposition from religious spirits of control, manipulation, human religiosity and political correctness; it's important that they stay free from 'fear of man'.
6. Prophets expect God to break in, and think and act out of the box.
7. Prophets function as God's GPS system, they move intuitively and know the times.
8. Prophets are called to tear out and to plant (Jer. 1); deconstruction of human or demonic strongholds and construction based on God's design go hand in hand.

Virtual island hopping

Blogger and colleague publisher Paul Abspoel, who last month granted me a Thinking Blogger Award that I haven't collected yet, started a virtual island hopping journey. He already visited many exotic islands, like Pathmos, and now arrived on Lindisfarne. Last year I visited this former Celtic missions base in Northumbria, and Paul asked me to write a contribution on why the Celtic missionaries operated from monasteries that were so much off the beaten track.

Going takes away our fear

Brother Andrew is a Dutch pioneer evangelist (and I'd say also a prophet) who boldly goes to places where most people wouldn't be eager to go. In an interview with Christianity Today he challenges Christians to pray for bin Laden. "That question shocks a lot of us. Of course we haven't prayed for him! That is why he is what he is. We have an evangelical black list of people we don't want to see in heaven and put bin Laden on top. Saddam Hussein is probably second. In my 50 years of ministry, my biggest meetings have been always in the Muslim world. Why are we so timid? Why are we so afraid? They barely let me speak at my own evangelical church in Holland! I'm being sarcastic, but it is the truth. I find it easier to get speaking engagements with the Taliban than with my own evangelical church."

Addressing Western militaristic policy: "We in the West are following or believing in the God of revenge as much as every Muslim does. We have to come down to the foot of the Cross and learn from Jesus. He came to forgive, and he came to die. I have seen this attitude in many Christians in Gaza. It gives me hope for the future. We should be flocking to Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and seek the Christians and help them. And then, please, for God's sake, listen to what they say. They have something to say. This should be the driving force in our lives. It's not solving political or economic problems. It's being Christian."

The Muslim world is not closed, but needs to be challenged on the right issues: "You can still go to any place in the Muslim world and preach Christ. Any place. I want to challenge the whole world with that statement. And if that is true, then why are we resorting to other weapons that, according to the Bible, are not weapons of our warfare? When are we going to be people of the Book? They claim to be people of the book. I challenge them at the Hamas university on dialogue - and I hate the word dialogue - I'm a proclaimer, a Calvinist at heart. I believe that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. I told them openly, 'I'm not interested in dialogue with you guys. But I'm always willing any place, any time, with any group of you, to have a dialogue on this one question: What kind of person does the book produce - your book, my Book?' You come back to Jesus' words: You must be born again. And they appreciate that. Because I want to challenge them on that issue."

We need to move from a defensive to an offensive approach: "I'm an evangelist. I'm a missionary. If I'm saying things that are politically not correct, I know the Lord will forgive me. We have a message that God changes people. Going takes away our fear. We are fearful because we stay home and prepare for the worst to come, because we think that's what they are planning. That may be true, but it's because of our inactivity. The moment we take the offensive and plan to go there, we lose our fear. That's very Scriptural. I'm not a bit afraid of them. I feel completely at home."

Other Dutch prophetic voices on Islam

Talking about boldness in the face of Islam: CBN News just published this interview with former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She is not a Christian, and would probably not side with Brother Andrew, but she certainly is a prophetic voice. Hirsi Ali points out that in its roots Islam is a violent and militant religion that's oppressing women and denying free speech. Therefore it's incompatible with democracy. She calls on governments in the West to take a much stonger stand against the intimidating forces of militant Islam. "Freedom is worth dying and fighting for." Hirsi Ali now lives in America, but already another young prophet stood up to take her place in the Dutch polder: Ehsan Jami, a 22-year old Iranian refugee and Social Democrat who calls for nothing less than a revolution in Islam. Daily newspaper Trouw published a quite interesting interview with him.

A visit to Noah's ark

Over the past decennia hundreds of archeologists worldwide have been searching for Noah's Ark, but today we accidentally found it. It's actually much closer to home than we thought - in Schagen - which proves that Noah didn't get stranded on the Ararat, but on the Dutch North Sea cost. Anyway, the boys really enjoyed it, as well as the add-on outing to the beach in St. Maartenszee. For those interested in details of Noah's Ark: it was built over a two-year period by evangelist-ship builder-creationist Johan Huibers, and is a 20% replica of the original ancient ark. So the original was even five times bigger! Didn't see Steve Carell by the way... More pictures here.

The streets of Stockholm

On Tuesday night we ministered in a church in Vasteras, an experience that I will come back to later in a separate post, as it raised - or rather confirmed - two key issues for me related to the call to reformation. On Wednesday I hang out with my hosts Vello and Ingalill Vaim, a prophetic couple from Örebro with a keen insight in God's dealings with the Church in Sweden and the nations, and also got some publishing work done. On Thursday I quickly debriefed with the team, as there were some communication issues to clear, and headed back to Stockholm to spend the evening with Krister from 24-7prayer. Today I walked the streets of Stockholm, the Venice of the north, enjoying the Midsummer military music parade at the King's palace. Wrapping it up: Sweden and Stockholm carry much potential for the Kingdom, and I was encouraged by what I saw here.

Connecting in Sweden

Having a good time in Sweden, the land of forests, lakes, vikings, knäckebröd and midsummer. At the airport we hooked up with US-based British healing evangelist Paul Bennison, a humorous guy with a big heart for people. He was invited to Sweden, following a report I published in Joel News International about healing miracles that happened in a hospital in Cali, Colombia. Heidi, who sensed God speaking prophetically about Sweden, was invited to join the first trip with Paul three weeks ago. On this second trip Stuart, Tim (a young worship leader and web designer) and myself are joining for a few days. The trip is being coordinated by journalist Per Danielson and publisher Joel Sjöberg from Örebro, two wonderful guys who got us a 'bed and breakfast' with very hospitable Swedish families in their typical woodhouses.

Yesterday we met with the 24-7prayer team in Stockholm, who ignite passion for Jesus in the nation and carry a vision for prayer and mission minded communities. Today we met with seven members and staff of the Swedish Parliament, who are part of a Christian fellowship that connects across the party lines. It was good to get a sense of what's happening in the nation.

Visit from the Plymptons

This weekend Connect friends Heidi and Stuart Plympton are over from England, and it's good to spend some time together. This morning we taught a slot on 'the prophetic and supernatural dimension in church planting' at a DAWN/Shift training for simple church planters, led by Ronald van der Molen. Tomorrow we'll take off to Stockholm for a healing and connection tour through Sweden with British evangelist Paul Bennison. I have no idea how this roadtrip will work out, but let's see what God has in store for us.