It's Queen's Day, a day of festivities all over the country, with orange colours everywhere. April 30 was late Queen Juliana's birthday, but her daughter Queen Beatrix continued the tradition. The weather was great. We went to the 'free market' in Houten where kids sell their toys, and bought a bicycle and some Lego for David's upcoming birthday (May 11).
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April 30, 2004
April 29, 2004
Strong and weak ties
Jon Gresham, who works for the European Research Center On Migration And Ethnic Relations in Utrecht, mailed me a summary of what he learned about principles on social networks, network analysis and social capital movement through relationships. Good insight also for the emerging church:
Strong ties with small groups of trusted contacts is necessary for personal and group nurture and the communication of norms and values. Too much dependence on a small group leads to introversion of belief, self-centered egocentrism, and shallow thinking.
Weak ties with large numbers of less-close contacts are necessary for innovation, entrepreneurship, community benefit, and personal growth and maturation as a leader. Too much activity with shallower relationships limits character development, small group nurture of others, and long-term relationship contribution to those closest.
The balance of strong and weak ties in the network of relationships is dynamic and is dependent on which tasks are deemed most important at a point in time. Tasks needing a lot of new information and new contacts are different than tasks needing concentrated, high-value information and high levels of trust with a few people.
April 28, 2004
No labels, please!
Sometimes people try to label me and categorize me in one of their 'church flavour boxes'. When this happens, I tend to give them a hard time. The question "To what church do you belong?" is an easy one. I use to reply: "To the only church there is - the church of Jesus Christ, as expressed 'locally' in my city and social network". When I'm in a funny mood, I might answer that I'm an Evangeliformed Baptolic with a PenteBrethren background. And when I really want to give them a bad day, I'd say I'm unchurched and that I don't show up anymore in George Barna's statistics. ;-)
Another boring question is "What is your ministry"? After all these years I still haven't figured out how to properly describe my ministry. "Following Jesus" might be a fair answer, though I'm afraid that in terms of character and miracle stuff I'm not even close to that. "Trying to keep up with God's worldwide wonders" is another one. Or "Hearing from God and acting upon it." Sounds at least challenging.
More and more people feel uncomfortable being labelled and categorized. And the problem is not so much brands as an expression of unique character, that's OK, but the imperialism and market control that often come with it. I'm convinced that Naomi Klein's book 'NoLogo' also contains a prophetic message for the Church. The practice of labelling is often used to control people, keep them in our camp, secure our market share, and mask our insecurity to deal with folks who don't fit our grid.
Yesterday a Reformed pastor-friend tried to put me in a Charismatic box. I asked him: "Is it possible to effectively follow Christ, pray and minister to people without being inhabited by the Holy Spirit?" It's a non-issue, really. Of course he wanted to know whether I'm mainly connecting with Christians from a Charismatic church background. And of course I'm not, otherwise I wouldn't have tea with a Reformed pastor. I've always had friends in a wide spectrum of the Body. And I draw inspiration from different 'streams of life' in the historic and universal church.
Somehow denominations, intentionally or not, are keeping the Body separated and thus powerless. We are locked up in our church structures, church doctrines and church buildings. On conferences, in student unions, inter-church prayer groups, and city-wide celebrations and evangelism campaigns we suddenly realize we are one in Christ and truly enjoy the fellowship. But then the next Sunday we move back into our separate church castles again. Jesus foresaw this when He prayed for unity (John 17). Paul foresaw this when he warned against denominationalism (see 1 Cor. 1:9-13, 1 Cor. 3). He basically states that this is carnal behaviour and laying another foundation than Christ - so denominationalism is essentially anti-Christ.
I guess I'm not the only one these days who finds congregational and denominational boundaries a nuisance. We tend to say: "But we are one in the Spirit", while at the same time holding onto our petty theologies and different church structures that effectively box people in. I believe it's time to model something new (or actually ancient): there's only one Church in Jesus Christ, and we simply don't have the right to invent 'church membership' as a way to decide who is in and who is out... It's a form of spiritual racism. Paul speaks of being 'in Christ' as the only criterium that matters.
Besides, most denominational labels don't have real substance anyway. We all know that Full Gospel churches have a pretty shallow theology and are not really known as powerhouses of the Holy Spirit. We all know that Reformed churches are not really in the business of reformation and change anymore. We all know that Baptists do much more than just baptizing people. Real followers of Christ don't need labels. If we do get labelled, it's by people who observe us and are blown away because they see Christ in us. That's where the term 'Christians' came from after all (Acts 11:26).
April 27, 2004
Back and forth
"One step back is sometimes the best way forward," a friend remarked several months ago. Perhaps that's also true for Robert's project to make an inventory of local and regional prayer groups and networks. We decided not to continue his assignment and 'park' the project for the time being.
Later in the afternoon I discussed the outcome of the Hoop21 prayer track and several developments in the prayer movement with Robbertjan Perk (insert) and Bert Roor. In June we will meet again to plan the way forward.
April 26, 2004
Becoming more proactive
"Slow is good," Stephen Covey said in the introduction of his best-selling book 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families'. Consequently, Karolien and I are still working on the first habit: Being Proactive. The basic idea is that we don't react based on emotions or circumstances, but PAUSE and respond based on our principles/values.
Covey says we have four unique human gifts that we can/should use:
- self-awareness: the ability to 'step back' and observe ourselves;
- conscience: our inner voice, moral sense and moral power;
- imagination: the ability to envision something entirely different from past experience;
- independent will: the power to take action
He included a little test which we did for ourselves and for each other, which confirmed what we already suspected: Karolien's strength is self-awareness and conscience and mine is imagination and independent will. So I guess we have to stick together to be able to cope in life. ;-)
By pausing and applying these gifts we can become a 'transition person' (stopping the transmission of tendencies from one generation to another) and an 'agent of change' (writing a new script for the family culture). Proactive people don't accept a victim's role, but take responsibility for their own life.
What we did tonight is discuss these principles and check them with real-life situations of the past few weeks. A fruitful exercise.
April 24, 2004
Tents, tents and more tents
The ANWB (the Dutch Automobile Association) put up more than 800 tents at the Camping and Holiday Fair at the Almeerderzand. For the kids it was fun. There were climbing walls, a bouncy castle, canoes and bicycles. They even had tipis, probably the only tent that allows for a woodfire inside.
We consider buying a family tent, but haven't made up our mind yet which one. Will we go for a heavy cotton family tent, or a light polyester trekking tent? Of course with 800 tents the choice only gets more complicated, even if we leave out all the tents that I don't fit in anyway without my feet sticking out.
April 23, 2004
Bridge builders
Met up with Peter Kos and Carol van Wieren to prepare a one-day leaders retreat, planned for June 4. The aim is two-fold: to build friendship among pastors and ministry leaders in Utrecht, and to grow in a common understanding of God's calling on the church to bring Life to the city.
On my way to the office (45 minutes by bycicle) I crossed the new Prince Claus Bridge that connects Utrecht to Leidsche Rijn. It's not so much a hallmark as the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, but it comes close. It reminded me of God's desire to connect the church. He's looking for bridge builders.
April 22, 2004
Network Church 3
Steve Collins published his third article on Network Church (first contributions here). He explains the difference between localised models of church and the network church paradigm.
This picture illustrates that people who have left churches are not 'trackless waste', but are enjoying a wide variety of connections, including back into the localised churches. The localised churches appear as concentrations or nodes that are not as self-sufficient as they imagine. They are not the only places where 'church' happens.
April 21, 2004
April 20, 2004
Lighthouses
This is the ultimate thing for rest seekers: a retreat or holiday in a lighthouse along the coast of Croatia. Beautiful pictures.
April 18, 2004
Hitchhiking to Beijing
Watched 'Peking Express', a TV series about eight couples who are competing in a hitchhiking race from Moscow to Beijing on a budget of just 2 euro a day. Great television.
It reminded me of the Summer of 1992 when Karolien and I decided to hitchhike to the Czech Republic. We never got there. We started early in the morning on the Biltstraat in Utrecht with a sign for 'Prague', but at the end of the day we were being dropped in an obscure hotel in Poznan, Poland. We decided to forget about the Czechs and travelled through Poland for four weeks. Glad we didn't end up in Beijing. It's a long way back home.
April 17, 2004
April 16, 2004
Cycling in the Biesbosch
The weather is great, so after we delivered David at school, we took Peter on a cycling trip in the Biesbosch and Land van Altena. Water, reed, birds, grasslands, farms in a vast polder landscape, sheep with little lambs and a picknick on a green leverage bridge.
April 15, 2004
April 14, 2004
Need some demotivation today?
"Increase your success by lowering your expectations! No matter who you are, you have the potential to be so very much less. And with the transformative powers of our Demotivators® products, you will be." Check out Despair.com - a clever product line for anti-heros, how ironic.
April 11, 2004
April 09, 2004
Good Friday
Good Friday. Jesus Christ gave his life to reconcile us with God. "He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was on Him; and with His stripes we ourselves are healed." (Isaiah 53,5)
My Flemish friend David Sörensen designed this set of postcards that express something of the passion of Jesus. This month we give these sets away to people who support our ministry. Check it out. If you can't read Dutch, just drop me an e-mail.
April 07, 2004
Connecting Europe
Globetrotter Maaike paid me a visit today to talk about the development of Connect Europe, a network for emerging (prophetic) leaders. This morning Matt Scrimgeour mailed us the list of nations that are not yet connected, but where we have initial contacts. Maaike plans to build connections in East-Europe. We also agreed to facilitate a Connect Netherlands meeting and, if we can find the right people, something similar in Belgium.
We also talked about issues related to Soul Survivor. Together with Mike Pilavachi and Paul Donders I'm on the 'board of advisors' of this movement, so we are supposed to keep an eye on the vision, the board and the core team. Over the past few years our role has been quite low-profile, but I would like the board to become a bit more pro-active.
Finally: I just received word from Christian Winter of the house of prayer in Herrnhut that he received permission to buy the local hospital to establish a 24hour prayer watch and missionary training centre. This is a wonderful step forward for the community in Herrnhut. 300 years ago God used this place to kickstart a 100 years prayer chain and a missionary movement that hit the ends of the earth. In our days new movements like 24-7prayer and Connect Europe were 'birthed' here, and more is yet to come!
April 06, 2004
Overcoming the Dutch disease
Is it the Dutch disease? We all dream and work hard. We all want the Church and the prayer movement in the Netherlands to function on a mature level. We all yearn for unity in the Spirit. We all realise we need visionary leadership AND humility. Then why is one initiative popping up after another that assumes all this, but is not able or willing to communicate with others and serve the Body as a whole? Is it a demonic divide and conquer tactic? Is it unsurrendered fleshly ambition? Is it just ignorance, a not knowing how to go about it? Probably all three, and it's not easy to handle it well.
One of the ways to overcome this weakness is by intentionally strengthening our relationships. Just hang out, get to know (and especially appreciate and honour) each other, create an atmosphere of friendship where people are willing to be accountable. The Dutch Transformations team decided to take this approach. Yesterday we had a first extensive meal with different prayer leaders. We plan to do this once every 4-6 weeks. Hopefully the Lord will knit our hearts together, so He can share his heart. There are things, I believe, that the Lord will (only) release if and when we are in unity.
Today we had a meeting in the Joel office with different people involved in city prayer initiatives. Robert van Mierlo is working on a website to resource this grassroots movement. The project looks good, but we still need a good web wizard. A nice example of a city prayer website is LondonPrayer.Net.
April 04, 2004
Finding rest and Nemo
When I returned from my retreat two weeks ago, Karolien asked: "So when is it my turn for a retreat?" Fair enough, so we planned it immediately. This weekend she spent praying and Psalm reading in a studio in the missionary deaconesses' home in Amerongen.
I told the kids: "If mom is gone, we will 'take the flowers outside'" This is a Dutch expression for 'having a real good time'. I had bought the Finding Nemo DVD for them, and this was a success. The guys at Pixar studios created an incredibly ingenious movie about life in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Clownfish Nemo is caught by a diver and ends up in a dentist's aquarium. His dad Marlin tries to find him in a seemingly impossible sea-and-land-rescue. Finally Nemo was found, and happily not here.
April 02, 2004
Joel News' April 1 edition
I love April 1. At least one day a year Christians can show they have a God-given sense of humor too. Of course yesterday's contribution on Church Extreme was fake. Just like Joel News' April 1 edition. As expected I received a lot of response.
Carole from the States wrote: ”I absolutely howled at the Microsoft/Catholic Church article. Up until that point, I didn't realize it was a joke. Of course, I could see President Bush holding his arms up while our troops were in battle and prayer warriors going ahead of our troops taking the high ground for Christ! And I could certainly see those at the Pentagon ‘rolling their eyes’. But, what I couldn't figure out was how $100 million was squeezed out of Congress. You got me and I must admit, my day was not going well until I read the Microsoft article. I laughed so hard that I had to forgive everyone responsible for ruining my day. I'm sure that God even chuckled. Keep up the good work!”
Barbara would have preferred it not to be a hoax: “My husband was ready to join the Secret Spiritual Warfare team! What an incredible idea!”
The ‘it could be true’ factor is also a bit scary. Humor and reality are sometimes closer than we feel comfortable with. Phil from the UK: “For some reason I skipped straight to the Bush story, and was rolling my eyes in incredulity for the first two paragraphs before I became suspicious. The scary thing is, it *could* be true!?!”
Is this the new format?
Carl from Wales would like the ‘new format’ to be the standard: “I thought the 1st April edition was simply marvellous - oh that some of it were true! You should put at least one fake report in every issue - that would sort the men from the boys!”
Don from the States remarked that it put some things into perspective: "I will now have a much more well-rounded view of you! You deal with such serious subjects - I had no idea you had a killer sense of humor!"
As expected, there were also readers who were ‘not amused’. “Do you think this is holy behaviour, to distribute a spirit of lie?”, asks Nicolas from France. ”It is not funny to use the Lord's affairs for an April 1 joke,” writes Inge from the Netherlands. Another reader was so excited about this 'unbelievably great news', that he immediately forwarded it to his whole address book. When the truth dawned he was not really happy.
Perhaps this edition was a little revanche for the thousands of hoaxes we’ve received from friends and readers over the past seven years. And believe me: most of this stuff is forwarded by charismatics and people in the prayer movement. You would expect a greater gift of discernment in these segments of the Church, but the opposite is true. Perhaps praying too much can limit the ability to relativate?
A Pentecostal brother mailed me: "If this is an April 1 joke, you should do some self-intercession and self-exorcism." I replied: "Thanks for the suggestion. I followed your advice, and guess what - a demon of seriousness and lack of relativism came out." ;-) He could handle it and even apologized for his 'conservatism'.
Privateer and prayer healer
Last Wednesday night I watched a reality program in which two completely opposite characters spent a weekend together. Privateer and drug user Jeffrey joined Pentecostal pastor and prayer healer Cees. An interesting dynamic developed between the two, resulting in Jeffrey's more or less staged 'conversion'.
First Cees brought him to a sick person's home to pray for healing (with result, the lady gave her testimony the following Sunday). Then they spent time in the jacuzzi talking about life. Cees prayed for Jeffrey's girlfriend who needed a living permit for the Netherlands (the 'bureaucratic miracle' happened within two weeks). All very low-key, open and authentic.
Then on Sunday morning Cees took him to the Pentecostal church service. That's where things went a bit weird. Cees turned from a pretty normal human being into a typical Pentecostal pastor. The Christians also behaved like real Pentecostals ("Halleluuuuujah! Thank You, JESUS") which made Jeffrey remark: "Praying with people in their homes felt very natural, but here in this hallelujah atmosphere... it's scary, very much like Jomanda" (Jomanda is a well-known occult healer).
Cees, eager to 'lead Jeffrey to the Lord', told him: "Hey, listen. I will do an altar call later on. If you want to experience something of God in your life, come forward." I thought Cees would just bless him, but no - he led Jeffrey into the sinner's prayer. "Just repeat what I say... yadayadayada... we break Satan's stronghold over your life. Jeffrey, you are now my brother in Christ. Hallelujah!"
Off camera Jeffrey said about this unexpected 'conversion': "I was open to experience something, so I gave it a go. I felt Jesus in my body, but this wasn't very special to be honest. It's like getting a bit more energy." And about church: "That service was scary, I surely don't plan to visit something like that again. But I would like to meet Cees again, he's a good guy and was really interested in me."
April 01, 2004
Church Extreme in New Zealand
Athletes Church Extreme (ACE) from New Zealand are sending shock waves round the world as perhaps the most novel form of emerging church descends literally from the clouds (Rev 21:2).
Whilst their spiritual expression is unorthodox to say the least, they take church very seriously. One of the group leaders Tam Reylf explains that in their view a lot of so called emerging churches really are far too loose in their ecclesiology:
'People are meeting in homes or with their friends or in the pub and saying that it is church. But is that enough? For us it has to be more than just fellowship. We want to see at least a commitment to the Trinity, the wider church and the sacraments.'
It's particularly on the sacraments of baptism and communion that ACE have caused quite a stir. 'Extreme baptism', as they call it, involves new believers being baptised by bungee jumping off a bridge over a river such that they dip in the water.
Their 'extreme communions' always involve the elements of bread and wine being eaten and drunk. But ACE seem to go to whatever lengths they can to share communion in the most extreme places. They are pictured here skydiving, falling to earth at speeds of 600 miles an hour clutching the elements in novel formations known as the 'prayer partners' and 'the fellowship of the ring'.
Taking worship to the extreme is getting in touch with the adventure of following Christ which should give more fulfilment than anything else.
