Invited my driving instructor for the healing campaign in the Jaarbeurs next weekend. He's not ill, but since Jesus healed his daughter three years ago, he is very interested in the subject. He told me he thinks his daughter was cursed during a holiday in Africa by a guy who wanted to marry her and probably consulted a witch doctor to have his way. When she returned to Holland she became ill. The doctors couldn't find any cause and she ended up in hospital. A friend of mine who took driving lessons at that time offered to come to the hospital and pray for her in Jesus' name. When he did this, she quickly improved and asked for food. Great story, though this hasn't led to his conversion yet.

Ronald van der Molen and I taught on Soul Survivor's first seminar day for young churchplanters. The theme was 'New churches for a new generation: the revolution of the Jesus groups.' It was nice to teach together, there was a good flow of God's Spirit and humor. :-)

After the meeting I had dinner with Branko Bjelajac, my friend from Serbia. We worked together on Joel News for five years, and it was wonderful to catch up. Branko told me he wants to mobilise more prayer for his nation, because things are pretty stuck and God's light needs to break through.

Time to CRY OUT!

Today it snowed, which is very uncommon for October. Is God bringing us into a new season? I believe so - I sense it in my spirit, God is up to something fresh and unexpected! It's time to climb the mountain of the Lord and CRY OUT! What shall we cry? PREPARE! RAISE UP! MAKE A HIGHWAY! For the glory of the Lord will be revealed! (Is. 40:3-11) It's time to (re)align ourselves with the purposes of God for our nations.

Last weekend my son Peter cried. I took a picture. Don't know why. But yesterday evening the Lord said: "Put it as a wallpaper on your laptop. It's a picture of the church, being desperate and helpless, crying out to Me."

The last two days we had David Damian over from Canada. He's an Egyptian doctor, used by God to lead (the church in) Canada into her destiny. What he shared resonates with what I just described. It's necessary to draw closer to God to grow in the authority needed for the next phase of His dealings with our nation and continent. It's not a time of projects and programs, but of reconnecting with the 'favour of God'. It's not about what we can do as a church, but about what we cannot do (and what only God can) - change our hearts, and change the spiritual tide. And God's strategy is very simple: He speaks, we obey, and things happen. They key to unity is not agreement, but death - laying down our lives, so God can speak and we can walk together in unity.

El editor Marc van der Woude de Joel News, anotò sus impresiones de un viaje reciente a Gales y Inglaterra, y les puso sabor con una leve dosis de ironía.

Guess what? Thanks to Liliana Long in Argentina Joel News International is now being translated into Spanish. We hope to find a good partner ministry in Argentina to start 'official' publishing in this nation.

Compiled a 10-point 'management summary' for Hoop21 (a working congress for transformation), based on the input of five prayer leaders. Perhaps the most relevant point is our last one: "We need a profound encounter with God. Without intimacy no conception, without conception no birth of a real move of God in our nation. As leaders and people of God we need to get to that place where our Lord can truly meet us and share His heart with us."

God's economy

Mark de Boer mailed me a website on 'God's economy' where His life-giving care for us is compared to a river.

"A river has its source in a fountain, which is hidden underground and thus inaccessible. When the water emerges from the ground, it takes the form of a spring. Finally, when the water begins to flow forth from the spring, it becomes a river. God the Father is like a fountain of water (Jeremiah 2:13). He is the marvelous, abundant, eternal source, yet He is hidden from man. God the Son as a gushing spring is the emerging, the manifestation of God (John 4:14). Now the Spirit flows to us and within us as the river of water of life (John 7:37-38; Revelation 22:1), conveying the entire Triune God in His inexhaustibly rich supply to quench our inner thirst."

Today we were able to support ten ministries out of our 'Isaiah 58 Fund'. Ten percent of the donations for Joel News go into this account to provide for God's work among the poor, the oppressed and the persecuted. I believe revival can never be separated from social justice.

It's also a testcase for God's principes of faith and generosity. This year our ministry income dropped with 40%, due to the economic recession in Holland, which is quite dramatic. But we will not strike (I was told that people only do that when their income is reduced with 2% ;-), we just keep on giving, and trust God will provide. Is there anybody who already figured out God's way of doing economy?

Native American church planter Ray Levesque relates on his website that he took a class in 'Church Multiplication'.

"On the second day, we had three case studies on how much each denomination invested in starting a new church. The first presenter described their church planting system and said they needed average $500,000 to begin a new church. The next presenter described their system at $75,000 per new church plant. I was not an official presenter, but the instructor asked if I would share about planting new native gatherings. I described the '1000 Tipis Vision' to them, explained what we do in our worship gatherings and answered questions. But we did come in at the low end of the scale. I told them that our average cost to start a church is $5, unless you want to get a new powwow drum and tipi, which would add maybe $2,000 to $3,000."

You can't beat the house church (or tipi church) movement! More food for thought from a native American perspective at Salmon House.

Ireland calling. It's Richard Treacy, with a fresh dose of Irish irony. "Hey Marc, take a look at the following..."

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Autumn

Autumn was on it's best this weekend, so we enjoyed a good walk in the forest, playing hide-away, looking for funghi and red and yellow leaves, making pictures.

Interacted with Andreas Wolf on a European 'cockpit' research we are preparing for the prayer and saturation churchplanting movements. Many questions were raised, like to what extent we can measure the strength of these movements in nations and what the possible indicators would be.

Emergingchurch.info is a new touching place for the emerging church, where real people share real stories about real life and real faith. Click here for more links to emerging church websites.

To be or not to be

Interacted with a prayer leader on a very existential question: "What is the right time to bury a ministry or organisation?" A few guiding questions might help:

1. Does God still confirm the ministry's calling, resulting in 'flow' and fruitfulness?
2. What is the added value of this ministry in the wider Body of Christ and do other leaders and ministries affirm this added value?

In general it's easier to start a work than to finish it. It takes common sense to prune a tree, and wisdom to cut her down before she starts withering.

Jesus finished his earthly ministry on (literally) the top of his 'career'. If it's true that a seed has to fall in the earth and die in order to bear fruit - then why are so few ministries eager to die?

On an internet forum I picked up a conversation between two young people on G12, a new brand of cell church. The talk went like this:

"In our church they are doing IT and I know IT is happening in more churches in Holland."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, G12."
"And what do you think of IT?"
"I can't say that out loud, then I will be kicked out immediately."

More funny remarks in a special Joel News edition on 'young people and church', featuring the results of a Dutch research on youth churches. The truth that no-one really wants to hear is that what we call 'youth churches' in Holland is not much more than a service for churched youth, and is not impacting today's youth culture at all. It's another step in maintenance-oriented Christianity, not (yet) a radical new way of Church for the emerging generation.

BTW, the newest branch on the youth church tree is Reloaded in Utrecht.

The cappucino church

Had a cappucino with our American friends Jon and Robert. The topic: how to communicate the concept of organic expressions of church in such a way that it appeals to people on a heart level? We came up with several ideas, like:

1. Making up a story (like Jesus' parables) that illustrates church as a way of life, a journey with God and each other, and to 'gossip' this story around, spreading it mouth-to-mouth.

2. Producing a prophetic-impressionistic video or CD that speaks destiny into the nation and shows how people are living out of that destiny.

3. Producing a booklet with 10 stories of people who are experimenting with a fluid form or church, an out-of-the-traditional-box approach to celebrate Jesus and share Him with others.

Any other ideas? I guess 'organic church' is very much like a cappucino: it's much lighter and more tasty than normal coffee, but also costs a bit more...

Paul Geeve, a networker from Zwolle, paid me a visit. He is organising a deliverance and healing campaign in the 'Jaarbeurs' in Utrecht with three Nigerian revivalists. Interestingly, the host of this campaign is scientist Willem Ouweneel, who just finished a book on healing. Years ago Ouweneel was still a cessationist, but since he discovered that God's Spirit didn't really pull out after the first century, he publicly promotes God's work.

Very funny: Dave Moreland's 'Bozo Criminal of the Day Report'.

Bozo criminal for today comes from Farmington Hills, Michigan where bozo Karen Chester was obviously in need of a makeover. Bozo Karen held up a bank and got away with a substantial amount of cash. So she jumped into a getaway car and fled, right? Wrong. Maybe she just blended in with passersby and vanished? Nope. She walked into a hair salon next door and asked for the works, a hair cut and dye and new nails. Her day of beauty was interrupted when shop employees recognized her and called the cops.

The Wales report: new streams of prayer

Our trip to Wales was inspiring and full of 'God's suddenlies'. We flew to Stansted from an obscure airport called Niederrhein (somewhere between Nijmegen and Venlo, just across the border with Germany) with Spanish speaking Ryanair crew. It was less cheap than we anticipated - the real budget flights seem to be around six AM and on weekdays, which is not so useful - but at least we have some Ryanair experience now. At Stansted we rented a car and headed for Wales. That is to say: Karolien drove and I gave instructions, which in combination with driving on the left side was a daring test for our relationship. :-)

We arrived in Port Talbot, near Swansea, just in time for one of the last meetings of a prophetic conference called 'The Gathering' that our friend Carl Brettle hosted. What we really liked was the free flow of the prophetic - to be more precise: prophetic warfare (with drums and sticks) and prophetic creativity (with upbeat music, dance and people painting what they 'saw' or sensed God was doing during the meeting). It was pretty wild and out-of-the-box, but the main thing is: God was there, and something was shifting in the heavenlies. "This is an emerge-and-see!"

Roger and Sue Mitchell were also around and it was good to meet up. Roger behaved like - as we say in Holland - "a chicken without a head" because he believes the extatic prophetic (read: loosing yourself in God's presence, while prophesying jumping up and down) is bringing down idolatry. I can see that. If I were an idol, I would also run away from these crazy Christians. ;-)

I had asked Carl if he could put us up at someone's house, but he was very nice to us and arranged an excellent hotel in the centre of Neath with English breakfast. Great hospitality. The next day we spent with the folks of Church on the Move. As the name suggests this church is continually moving with God, and cannot be put in a box. Last time I was there, they worshipped with Beatles songs like 'I wanna hold your hand'. This time the talk of the day was about the apostolic dimension of church ("c'mon, push your apostle"). I shared shortly about 'corporate anointing', based on Ez. 37, and what Wales can give to Europe, based on Is. 40. There's a beautiful combination in Wales between wild prophetic worship and the pastoral dimension.

It was also good to connect with Gary, Martin, Faith and Nadine, who formed the Welsh delegation on our Connect Europe meeting in Herrnhut last year. Gary plans to set up a chatbox for the CE team and Nadine told me she will pray about coming to Holland. In the afternoon we hang out with Carl who told me he'd deleted the database of the Welsh prayer movement because "the prayer movement is like a river - we cannot and should not control it; God will direct and inspire it himself." Quite a risky thing to do. We also connected with Richard Treacy from Northern Ireland (who is convinced that if I add more irony to Joel News, the number of subscriptions will go up), Malcolm from the 24-7 Boiler Room in Reading and Arnold Muwonge from John Mulinde's team in Uganda (who gave an excellent teaching on covenant relationships).

On Monday we joined a prayer event in Llanelli that could best be described as 'prophetic flashmobbing'. Flashmobs are sudden gatherings of people at a predetermined location at a predetermined time, who basically do something wild and creative together, and then continue their journey. A sort of postmodern version of a Blitzkrieg. Heidi Plympton (who was also in Herrnhut) took the initiative - she sensed God was saying to her to do a prophetic prayer and worship tour on three 'hights': Llanelli in Wales, and Glastonbury and Salesbury in England. A small core group prayed into this and gave a 'trumpet call' in their network. Whoever felt led to come, joined in and brought whatever God told them to bring. Some fifty people showed up. It was an experiment with a refreshing freedom in the Holy Spirit in which a special prophetic-creative synergy developed. Not something to talk about, but something to experience.

Matt Scrimgeour and Gareth Richards were also there; Matt wearing an interesting combination of a Scottish kilt and pink socks. The prayer event was hosted by Antioch Church, a creative community that is rediscovering their Celtic roots. I brought some videos with me that they produced about God's callling on Wales. Couldn't keep my eyes dry.

On Tuesday we decided to visit Ffald-y-Brenin, a prayer retreat centre in Pembrokeshore on the west coast. Like the earlier Celtic monasteries it's a hard-to-get-to place in the-middle-of-nowhere (in the Cwm Gwaun valley of the Preseli mountains, where some say Elvis came from). The place has an astounding view and carries a tangible presence of God. It also has a beautiful 'organic' design, a prayer garden and a chapel. We stayed there for three days, praying, reading and walking the area. We also paid a visit to St. Davids, Britain's smallest city and the apostolic home base of Welsh Christianity.

Our host Roy Goodwin told us some encouraging stories about what God has been doing in Wales. Four years ago they started a year of prayer for Pembrokeshire. Although they did not advertise it, people signed up from all over the nation and there were 10 hours of prayer going on daily throughout the year. At the end of this year their specific assignment ended, but several people felt the need to stay connected. When prayed over it, Roy felt the way forward was to form a network of people who'd commit themselves to pray blessing over Wales every day, until the end of their lives. This Caleb Prayer, a simple prayer for Wales, spread like a virus. It wasn’t advertised in any way, but many people used it and passed it on to others. With some understatement Roy says: "I have no reason to believe it is being used in China, but cannot say the same of most other nations in the world."

It illustrates the principe that God's ways are higher than ours. Once Roy read a report in an internet newsletter about Namibia and felt an immediate confirmation in his Spirit. He looked the nation up in the world atlas and did some research and was amazed to find out that this nation is so similar in many ways to Wales (except for the climate). He connected with Hein van Wijk, the prayer coordinator in Namibia, and just mailed him the Caleb Prayer. What he didn’t know at that time was that the church leaders in Namibia had a national prayer retreat, at which one of them had prophesied that God would send Namibia a prayer from outside Africa, which they would start praying for their own nation. And so the Caleb Prayer crossed continents.

The Caleb Prayer goes like this:

"O High King of Heaven,
Have mercy on our Land.
Revive Your Church.
Send the Holy Spirit
For the sake of the children.
May your kingdom come to our nation.
In Jesus mighty Name.
Amen."

Talking about the Caleb Prayer: somehow God managed to also get this prayer in the hands of Europe's first ladies (the wives of heads of state). I'm getting convinced that God is a much better networker than all of us together. ;-)

On Friday suddenly Brian Betts appeared on the scene. He is the former director of Ashburnham Place, a prayer centre in the south of England, and recently set up a network of prayer houses throughout the British Isles. It was good to connect.

On our way back we paid a visit to the 24-7 Boiler Room in Reading, where we also spent the night. The Boiler Room is a place of permanent prayer, creativity, service to the poor and pilgrimage. Many young people pop in to pray or just hang out. An inner-city ministry that is quite a contrast with Ffald-y-Brenin, but is rooted in the same Celtic spirituality. I truely liked it.

At Stansted we met up with David and Claire Sladden, researcher friends from Cambridge. They spoilt us with some real English food. David is working on a book about the spiritual roots of Europe, and Claire is preparing a British reconciliation initiative in India. Both touch on issues of control, the roots of which go back to the dominance of Greek thinking and Roman empire-building in Europe.

The main thing that God impressed on me in Wales is that we cannot control or manage the move of His Spirit, and that if His thoughts and ways are really higher than ours (Is. 55), we better ask Him to take us up to His level. We wouldn't want to miss out on anything He has prepared for us to walk in, would we?

Did the simple KPMG self-test in Intermediair on integrity and found out that I'm classified as a 'defender of common interest' (type Dalai Lama). This person is "led by common interest and care for society", but according to business consultancy KPMG "should keep the self-interest of their company more in the picture." Yeah, right, put me in a box. So I want to save the world, and ignore my own interests... looks like a Messiah complex to me...

Fast Company published Keith Yamashita's '10 Ways to Reinvent Your Company'. My derived top-3 would be:

1. Make the creation and re-creation of strategy an everyday act. Not something you do once a year.
2. Argue forcefully against your most dearly held hypotheses. Only then will you know if they stand up to scrutiny.
3. Startle people. Break out of your comfort zone, and do something unexpected.

Marc Pranger forwarded me the url of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal churches, a US based group of churches that claims to combine the evangelical, charismatic and liturgical/sacramental streams of church, while being non-denominational and embracing the five-fold ministry. Sounds like the ideal church for postmodern seekers. Or for people who are part of a small organic house church and still long to have their own bishop, sound evangelical doctrine and charismatic liturgy (how would that look like I wonder).

Funghi and angels

Back home - many pounds lighter, but enriched by God and the people we met. Will post a little report and some pictures later this week. We were glad to hear that the kids didn't really miss us the past eight days. They enjoyed their stay with my parents in Enschede, going to the park everyday to look for Autumn leafs, acorns and funghi.

BTW, our David of four seems to experience some interesting stuff lately. Sometimes he knows of things before they happen. He also talks about seeing angels. Last week he woke up because he said he'd heard the door bell ring. An angel came into his room and they played together. Later he pointed through the window, saying: "Grandma, look outside, there is the angel I met." Of course grandma didn't see anything... what does a responsible parent make of that? Would it be the funghi? ;-)