Marc's Messages 3.0

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.

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.

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.

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.

Painting the big picture

When pursuing a 'shift' or 'reformation' in the church and society, there are various levels at which we need a renewal of thinking. One level is that of our overall worldview, the relationship between God and men, His foundational purposes with this world. My philosopher friend Evert-Jan Ouweneel, who's part of the Shift and GIDS networks (check out this interesting radio interview with him in Dutch), has the gift of painting a large, holistic perspective of God's restoration plan. At university he's walking his students through world history in just ten hours, which is quite admirable. We talked about how to communicate some of his quite abstract theological-philosophical-reformational megaperspectives to a wider non-academic audience.

One of the concepts we covered is that of salvation, heaven and hell. The Greek and Roman influence in the church turned this into a guilt and judgement issue where based on a revelation of our sinful state we make a one-time decision with eternal consequences. In this view the earth is a temporal dwelling place that will perish, so why invest here and now, except to save souls for eternity? Heaven is a place where we hang out with Jesus and sing songs eternally, while hell is a real place where people who don't 'choose for Jesus' suffer eternally. Is this simplistic and legalistic perspective really consisent with God's character and overall redemption plan? asks Evert-Jan. He wrote an article in Dutch with 40 reasons/arguments for a different view on redemption. Those who follow Christ become here and now part of his Nehemiah-type 'restoration interim government', which is not the same as 'being a Christian' or 'going to church'. He also has good arguments why our Catholic or Evangelical concept of heaven and hell doesn't make sense. We hope to get some of his material translated into English, as I believe it's quite timely input.

The church in transition

Today I taught at a prophetic training in Gorinchem, hosted by Jefferie Lammers, on the topic 'Five marks of the Church in transition'. These are:

1. A revival of prayer, seeking God, abiding in His presence.
2. Getting detached/delivered from 'organized religion', and growing up to maturity.
3. We can be the Church/the Body of Christ anywhere, and as a result we see a myriad of so-called 'new expressions'.
4. A Spirit-led, apostolic lifestyle of breaking open new ground for the Gospel, similar to what we see in the book of Acts; and to move in this dimension God is taking us out of our comfort-zones.
5. A new reformation is taking place, God is challenging us in foundational areas; we need a revival of the heart, a renewal of thinking and a reformation of structures (one cannot do without the other).

Shift! webzine launched

This week I'm launching a new publication in Dutch called Shift! webzine, a weblog and newsletter focused on helping young people and (potential) innovators and pioneers to dream and act out-of-the-box, and start a Jesus-centered grassroots movement of prayer, community, missions and justice. There's a growing momentum in the Netherlands for organic church and reformation, and I believe an information/inspiration hub where Dutch writers contribute can help catalyze that process and create indigenous ownership.

Shift day in Rhenen

Today we had a first get-together of the various Shift groups in Rhenen. Shift is an informal relational network of people who carry a vision for reformation. More pictures here.