This is Jesus talking

Today Karolien tried to explain to David (4) that it's possible to hear God's voice.

Karolien: "When you pray, you can talk to Jesus, but you can also ask Him to say something to you."
David: "But then we first have to go to Heaven, because that's where Jesus is."
Karolien: "Well, not necessarily. Because He also lives in your heart, you can hear his voice inside. Let's listen to Him for a few seconds and see what He wants to say to you."

After a few seconds...

Karolien: "Did you hear Jesus say something to you?"
David: "Yes. He said He loves me very much and he promised to send me a Bob the Builder postcard!"

Andrew Jones, the kiwi who lives in the world's beer capital Prague, mailed me that he will close down his Tallskinnykiwi blog. But no mourning, he already opened two new ones: Avandownbytheriver (family blog) and Boaztheproject (new churches in the global emerging culture). And yes, Akingdomspace is also online again.

Many postmoderns have a love-hate relationship with the term 'church planting'. Andrew responds:

"I think I know the tension. Still 'planting' is an organic gardening word, which makes it sound better than 'implementing' or 'establishing' which sound more instititutional. But it is bittersweet. Some years ago, the focus of church ministry moved from evangelism to discipleship and then from discipleship to church planting. It was further strengthened by C. Peter Wagner's famous sentence: "Church Planting is the most effective form of evangelism under heaven". Wagner's phrase was so profound that the American church was stunned into a dumbfounded silence. Angels in heaven starting bickering over why they did not think it up before humans. The living creatures stopped saying "Halellujah" and instead began chanting Wagner's mantra. And a new term was accepted among men.

"Still, when people today hear 'planting', they often see it in institutional terms. ie., "There's a problem, lets PLANT an institution to deal with it." It can also be a step away from holistic ministry that deals with the whole person towards a numbers oriented, strategy based, merciless missions strategy that says "new churches planted at any cost". Some mission organizations have recently been criticized for telling their medical doctors to start planting churches or return home. There is also the temptation of ecclesiocentrism, which reduces the goal of mission and its measurement of success purely on the number of new churches planted, without recourse to whether those churches are life-giving or impacting the wider arena of the city and its structures.

"What do I use right now? In missions circles, I still use 'plant' or 'start', but I try to move the focus from individual churches to movements ('ignite' is a cool word) and from institution-starting to the holistic impact that comes when the Kingdom of God is downloaded (reloaded?) into a space."

Anointed or annoying?

I regularly get e-mails from pastors in Africa or India who want this 'anointed preacher' to come over and do a mass evangelism campaign. I have no clue why they come to me or why they assume I'm anointed in this area. Yes, I know they would expect me to pay my own way and contribute to the expenses of the stadium and the promotional material. And yes, I know it might increase their status if a guy from the West comes over to preach. But it's a stupid thing to do. They give away healthy spiritual ownership, it's very unrelational and I don't think I have to convince you that I'm a pretty annoying evangelist. Normally I would reply to these e-mails saying that I don't sense God is calling me right now to minister in Ivory Coast, Congo or Andrah Pradesh. But they don't give up that easily. "If you cannot come, beloved brother, then I'm sure you want to contribute towards Gods work by sending us money (US dollars please) and free books and video tapes of your anointed ministry." I think I'll forward them to Reinhard Bonnke - he has it all.

Who said the Salvation Army was boring? Captain Peter Schraa mailed me a report of the Roots 2003 conference, a yearly event for young-at-heart soldiers who want to combine the 'solid faith practice' of the Salvation Army with full swing charismatic renewal. And yes, they talked about relevant church planting in the emerging culture. Go, Salvation Army, go! More soup, soap and prayer. More shower, shelter and church planting.

Worked on a guideline for the '10 days for Holland'.

Jussi from Finland phoned me. He is setting up a prayer cover for the Connect Europe network and is planning to take a team of young Finnish intercessors on a tour to Europe this Summer. The idea is to gather somewhere and connect more young prayer leaders on location.

The latest piercing rage: tongue splitting. The shock value is enormous, but it also causes speaking problems. In the meantime brother Andrew (the kiwi, not the cheese head) is breeding on his new book 'The Prayer of Jael' - which he expects to become a big hype.

The Church is wonderful!

"It’s time to come out of the closet. At the risk of losing all credibility amongst the alternative worship shoe gazers and the pomo-pogo arty crowd, can I just say that I think the church is actually really WONDERFUL! I'm tired of being tired of her. I'm bored of being bored. I'm willing to admit that she is me and I am part of the mess and part of the blessing too. The church is BEAUTIFUL. I mean, where else do you get people behaving with such outrageous generosity, such counter-cultural thoughtfulness, such unstoppable and irresponsible gentleness towards one another on a regular basis?" More provoking thoughts from Pete Greig at the 24-7prayer.com website.

The proportion of Christian adults who tithe to their local church has dropped by 62% in the past year, reports Barna. Just 6% of born again households tithed to their church in 2002. Barna gives several good reasons for this trend, but doesn't burn his hands on the reason why a growing number of post-evangelicals don't give 10% of their gross income to a local church. In fact, although I wholeheartedly believe in a prophetic lifestyle of generous giving (beyond the tithe) and in commitment to a local expression of the Body of Christ, I'm pretty convinced that the tithing-system-as-we-know-it is an ungodly practice. The main reason is that most local churches use the tithe that belongs to God for their own maintenance and not for the things that matter to God: reaching the unreached, justice to the poor, and any development that's clearly a work of the Spirit. I believe the Spirit is calling for a radical reformation of finances.

Church planting in youth/student culture

Talked to Constantijn Geluk (EO Ronduit) about what God is doing among young people in the Netherlands. Hearing the voice of God and the work of the Spirit are becoming main topics at the moment. And next on the agenda are relevant expressions of Church in youth culture. To Soul Survivor I gave some input along these lines:

I fully agree with Mike Pilavachi's two-fold approach: serving and resourcing the existing church to become more passionate and effective in their ministry to young people AND encouraging relevant church planting in youth/student culture.

I would want to add to this: there is a momentum of the Holy Spirit for church planting that SS shouldn't miss. It's time to train young people for serious ministry: not just doing a 'youth program' in church that merely entertains or maintains, but pray and reach out and plant churches. Become passionate and serious about reaching and shaping a generation for Jesus.

Some say there is a confusion about church planting, which I recognise. But part of this is simply fear of the unknown and not knowing how to go about it. It's important to make it a priority to get some 'church planting training exposure'. Otherwise it's difficult to break through the vicious circle of not having the experience.

At the beginning of this week I talked quite extensively with Jono West about the Fusion concept. I think this might link in very well with SS. It's a cell based church planting strategy aiming to raise up young leaders that know how to start and multiply cells (a very basic church planting skill) and reach friends by building a 'Jesus community'. It's more organic (less rigid) than G12. Existing churches can work with it, but it's also fit to start something completely new in the youth/student culture. Some young people are more pioneering than others, and some churches are more releasing than others, so it can be adapted to the situation. Another advantage of a small group approach is that it takes the 'heaviness' out of church planting (people tend to think it's a huge enterprise for which you need very skilled people and for which it's difficult to get your pastor's permission) and gives the tools in the hands of the young people, so they can minister and multiply throughout the year. It could be the start of a grassroots movement that impacts this generation.

I heard that at the festival up to 100 young people committed themselves for church planting and another group for church leadership. That shows to me that they have a sense of calling in this area, but likely need solid input, resources and coaching. Let's give it to them. I believe two aspects are equally important: how to start, lead and multiply a small group (network), and a new paradigm of Church and Church leadership (more organic, releasing, innovative and apostolic/strategic then the leadership we've been seeing). It's a new season!

Anybody interested to join me for The Matrix Reloaded and discuss it a bit more in-depth? (only if you saw the first one)

The Overvecht project

Karolien and I are doing some research in Overvecht, the neighborhood where we live. We're also trying to find out how many Christians there are in our little corner of this neighborhood, three ten-story flats with 365 households and around 1,000 people. The percentage of Evangelicals in the Netherlands is 4%, but because 40% of our neighborhood are immigrants, and many of these have a muslim background, I guess it will be around 1-2% in our corner of the world. So that would be 10-20 Christians. So far we've identified 10...

Roger Ellis gave me some info on Resource, a new church plant training for those who want to create church in the emerging culture.

Reviewed an article for Visie about the '10 days for Holland'. It was quite fuzzy, so it took me two hours to improve it.

Had an extensive talk with Cris van Dusseldorp and Arjan van Kempen about raising up young leaders and the Arnhem city reaching initiative.

Our family doctor diagnosed that I'm probably hit by a tick and he put me on a two-week doxycycline treatment.

E:merge

Just returned from a retreat with the E:merge folks at the beautiful grounds of Dalesdown House near Horsham, south of London. It was good to connect with leaders of movements like 24-7prayer, Fusion, Cultural Shift, Revelation, Contra Corriente and Kraftwerk. E:merge is a friendschip-based network that links ministries that 'express church in youth culture'. Most of them are based in the UK and they combine a sound evangelical theology and methodology with prayer and the gifts of the Spirit. The downside is that E:merge tends to be focused on 'their own kind' and doesn't show pro-active leadership when it comes to strategically develop the network. I challenged them to embrace what God is doing in Europe and help strengthen the emerging youth prayer and churchplanting movements in nations that are yet underresourced.

Celebrated David's 4th birthday yesterday with family visiting and a little outing to his school. He was happy with the collection of Bob the Builder presents he got.

This afternoon I'll fly to the UK for the E:merge European Consultation on prayer and churchplanting in the emerging culture. Will be back on Wednesday morning.

Met with a small group of church leaders in Utrecht to pray and plan towards unity and city reaching. At the same time in the local newspaper a discussion is going on about Utrecht's identity. The city branding committee sees Utrecht as 'the spiritual capital of the Netherlands'. Rightly so, because since 690 this city has been the 'apostolic base' for reaching the Netherlands and surrounding nations with the gospel. "Well," says the city branding committee, "actually we mean that Utrecht should become the spiritual centre for islam. The city should host an international centre for islam studies and should get the first seminary for imams." Somehow the battle is always around the spiritual wells of a city. Perhaps Utrecht can become an apostolic base to reach muslims with the gospel. But that's a huge challenge for the Church!

Raising up apostolic leaders

Talked with one of the young leaders I'm coaching about theological education. Many seminaries are unspiritual, unpractical and unapostolic. Yes, you can blame me for saying nasty things like this, but it is true. If God is really restoring the prophetic and apostolic dimension of Church, then we need to raise up and train leaders in a prophetic and apostolic way. Young leaders who hear the voice of God daily, obey Christ in whatever He asks of them, are gifted and trained in starting and multiplying healthy churches, and have an apostolic passion for the lost.

This reminded me of what pastor Yun, one of China's housechurch leaders, wrote at page 290 of his book 'The Heavenly Man'. He is raising up an army of Chinese missionaries who are called to bring the gospel 'back to Jerusalem', impacting the nations along the Silk Road. Each missionary receives training in several main subjects and these are not what you might expect:

1. How to suffer and die for the Lord. We examine what the Bible says about suffering, and look at how the Lord's people have laid down their lives for the advance of the gospel throughout history.

2. How to witness for the Lord. We teach how to witness for the Lord under any circumstance, on trains and buses, or even in the back of a police van on our way to the execution ground.

3. How to escape for the Lord. We know that sometimes it is the Lord who sends us to prison to witness for him, but we also believe the devil sometimes wants us to go to prison to stop the ministry God has called us to do. We teach missionaries special skills such as how to free themselves from handcuffs, and how to jump from second-story windows without injuring themselves.

Yun explains: "This is not a 'normal' seminary or Bible college! We believe nothing less is required if we are to break down the walls that separate Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists from knowing the sweet presence of Jesus."

Yesterday I was invited to introduce the '10 days for Holland' to a group of intercessors and pastors in Bunschoten-Spakenburg. It was encouraging to find a group of motivated intercessors from different churches, committed to pray together for their town. The pastors still had to be convinced though, but didn't get much room to interact with the intercessors who had already made up their mind that the '10 days' were 'from God'. When it comes to prayer intercessors of course run much faster than most pastors, but they can easily miss the opportunity to build trust and to help pastors take ownership themselves.

At coffee time one of the pastors came up to me and said: "Do you realize that of the 18,000 inhabitants in our town 17,000 already go to church, that leaves only 1,000 people to pray for and evangelize, so we don't need this transformation stuff." I asked him: "Would you consider your town thoroughly impacted by the gospel, while still many marriages break down, and materialism and drug addiction among youth are rampant?" He said: "That's rubbish. The only problem we have in this town is that we want other people to like us." Blessed are those who are content with themselves, they don't need Jesus.

Why I blog

Adriaan mailed me that he will start blogging as soon as he has too much time. Well, actually blogging safes me time. It's one of the seven reasons why I blog:

1. It helps me to reflect on what I'm thinking and doing.
2. It's a good way to keep family, friends and sponsors in the loop of what's happening (goodbye missionary newsletter, welcome Marc's Update).
3. It helps me to not take myself too serious.
4. It saves time when I have to write reports and ministry updates, because the only thing I have to do is go through my blog to refresh my memory.
5. It gives me an opportunity to inspire friends with the good things of God.
6. I like the counter-culture of blogging: push-button publishing in the hands of the people.
7. My wife likes to read my blog.

Met a couple in one of the tough neighborhoods in Utrecht who pray and reach out to their neighbors and the young people in their area. They discovered that bringing these people to church is not really a great idea - they upset the church and the church upsets them. I encouraged them to open their house and form a 'fellowship of the King' right where they live and work.

This afternoon our office manager 'Rob-with-the-golden-hands' revived my notebook from a deep coma. No shouts ('Come Jeeeesuussss'), but a firm press on the start button did the job.

Today we remember Pim Fortuyn, the Dutch politician who was murdered a year ago. Some people want May 6 to be a 'national day of freedom of speech'. In Rotterdam he got a huge statue. YWAM's Jeff Fountain dedicated his 'weekly word' to Fortuyn.

Had a meeting in Rotterdam this morning to talk with some leaders about a new network for churchplanting in Holland. We agreed to draw a group of 'apostolic facilitators' together in Autumn.

Multi-media worship

Andrew wrote about our multi-media worship experience in The Hague: "I projected one or two video's on the ceiling, and really cranked up the music, and we all lay on our backs and really entered into worship. But something else happened with these videos that I did not expect. After we had created a mural of color and Scriptures and magazine images to reflect our ministries and what God was saying, we decided to pray for Marc van der Woude. Someone felt that God wanted to be the Potter in his life and was molding him like clay. Within 5 minutes we were praying for Marc up the front and I was projecting 'The Potter' Vibe video on to him – images of the Potter’s hands, the clay on the wheel, the furnace, etc. It was pretty cool, having someone mention the 'potter' and then for me to whip out the appropriate video for projecting almost immediately. It worked so well, actually, that right after that I put in the 'Fire' Vibe video and we prayed for God’s fire on Ronald and all those that wanted to jump into the projection stream and get some prayer for God’s fire in their lives and ministries."

Some food for thought from Next Wave International:

"How can we win the battle for influence in our world? How can we shape our culture more than it shapes us? How can we transform the world before it transforms us? This is what Daniel did: he was a Culture-Creator in his world. Having real influence is about creating a culture -- a new way of seeing and doing things, a fresh way of interpreting what is right, what is normal and acceptable. Without this kind of cultural definition there can be no leadership. The person, or group, who has the strongest culture will inevitably rise to leadership."

"There are, I think, two fundamental questions for every Christian to answer, if we're each going to win our battle for influence. The first is this: what kind of neighbourhood, city and nation do I want to see around me in 10 years from now, should Jesus tarry? What kind of city and nation would God want me to be living in by that time? What changes would he want me to make; what things would he want me to redeem around me? The second question is this: seeing that preferred future, what am I now prepared to do to set that in motion? As Bill Wilson, the great apostle to children in New York, likes to say: 'It's not important what you achieve in life; it's what you set in motion that counts!'"

A city on the road to transformation

The conference was good. Sverre Bjørnhaug, the coordinator of Pray Bergen, shared low-key how the Lighthouse movement is transforming his city. There are now 1200 Lighthouses: Christians and families who dedicated their house, school or workplace as a place of prayer, care and share for their neighbors, fellow students and colleagues. It's something everyone can do and it's quite effective. It brings Jesus to the people instead of people to a church program. The changes that resulted were also noticed by the local newspaper - the picture on the frontpage shows the weekly pastors' prayer meeting.

Feeling better, but still low-energy. Pieter collected the folks from Pray Bergen at the airport. They will share at the conference on Friday and Saturday. Bergen is said to be one of the most promising city reaching initiatives in Europe, based on Ed Silvoso's version of Lighthouse. In the Dutch edition of Joel News I wrote about my trip to this city in May 2000.