Marc's Messages

Top-5 postings of 2004

The last day of the year. A good moment to list the five postings on this weblog that provoked most comments in 2004:

1. Rick Joyner on Europe
Americans think the antichrist will arise in Europe, and Europeans that 666 will come from America. Let the true prophet rise, please!

2. No labels, please!
My statement of freedom from denominationalism and church politics.

3. Freedom of expression?
People get killed these days for expressing their opinions. Ongoing polarisation in the Netherlands.

4. Covenanting and DNA
The key discussion among young leaders in Connect Europe and 24-7prayer.

5. Bush hiring Jesus
Of course it would be unthinkable to miss Bush in this top-5. Politics, and especially religiously motivated politics, is a continuing hot item.

This top-5 wouldn't be my personal choice (except for number 2), but I will compile my own favorites another time. More top-5's here.

Winter in Holland

Yesterday Karolien and I went for a long walk on the icy and misty grounds of Singrave estate, near Denekamp.

Today we had some real snow and fun in the park.

Tsunami disaster in Asia

John Robb (IPC) and Victor Choudrie (DAWN) mailed around prayer requests and reports related to the terrible tsunami disaster in South-East Asia. I published them on our Joel News weblog.

The two shepherds

We're celebrating Christmas at my parents' place in Enschede. David and Peter dressed up as shepherds and announced the birth of baby Jesus.

Merry Christmas!

It's not likely that we'll have a white Christmas in the Netherlands this year (that only happens seven times a century, and then only a very light layer), so as a comfort I dug up this picture that I took a year ago in Norway. Have a blessed Christmas time!

Clean desk before Christmas

A busy week, because I committed myself to have a clean desk before Christmas, so I can make a fresh start in the new year. That means a lot of paper work to sort out, getting my financial administration up to date, sending out newsletters, and throwing things away. The good thing about cleaning up is that it creates space and rest.

Government prayer initiative

Rob paid a visit to the Ministry of Justice today to meet up with Maarten Verhoef, who heads up the government prayer initiative (Rijksgebed). He also met Minister of Justice Piet Hein Donner (insert), who is supporting the intercessors on his department. The past few weeks several national media ran reports about the initiative, leading to more Christians joining the various prayer groups.

Donald Trump, you're fired!

Yes, we admit it - Karolien and I got hooked to reality TV series 'The Apprentice', where 16 candidates compete to become the director of one of Donald Trump's companies. Every episode Trump fires one candidate, until there's one winner who gets hired instead of fired.

It's quite entertaining, but for some reason RTL4 didn't broadcast the two final episodes. Looking on the website I found out that Bill won the competition. He will oversee the construction of a new building in Chicago. A new show, 'The Apprentice 2', is running here.

I think it would be even more fun if the viewers could fire 'The Donald' himself by SMS if he makes a bad decision.

House of prayer in Venlo

Karolien went to the official opening of the (new) house of prayer in Venlo, while I spent a day with the kids. The Hardicks, the founding couple, also celebrated their 25th wedding day. Looking back, Bernard said there are three things in life that really matter: destiny, relationship and anointing. In other words: what is God calling you for, who is He connecting you with, and how is the Holy Spirit empowering you?

The people in Limburg love to celebrate the good things in life. Karolien told me she enjoyed an abundance of food and drinks. In my picture archive I found this nice shot of me, Bernard and Herman, having a good Czech beer at the house church consultation in Prague, November 2002.

Leadership and team roles

Had a meeting with the board of Soul Survivor at Paul Donders' place in Hoornaar. We talked about leadership and team roles. Interestingly Paul (insert), who heads up an international training and management consultancy firm, said that from his perspective an effective leadership team would be made up of two or three people. Two people can move relatively fast and are most effective in project organisations. Three people will move a bit slower, but bring in more creativity and are best for organisations and movements that seek a longer-term impact.

In memoriam: Eric Olson

Last night Eric Olson died of cancer in a hospital in Norway. This evangelist inspired me because he went to places where most people wouldn't go: hospitals, prisons and orphanages in the Kola peninsula in arctic Russia. In Joel News we published several of his 'typically God' stories, that I leave here with the prayer that God will raise us many pioneers like him with a broken heart for the unreached.

God's love for an ordinary missionary

Jesus' love for prisoners in arctic Russia
God touches drug rehabilitation centre
Evangelist in cancer hospital

Life is communication (8)

The seventh and last day of my training in communication and personal effectiveness (earlier episodes: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7). I didn't pick up much today because I was pretty tired. I had a short night, and the weekly frequency is a bit too intense in a busy period like this. I need some time for reflection.

The group gave me a hard time. I guess they were right in some respects, but I also felt irritated by their feedback. When I evaluated it with Karolien, she said: "Yes, when you're tired you don't want people to jump on you, cross your safety zone and victimize or psychologize you. Besides that, automatic communication patterns come out worse when you're tired, and can best be improved when you have energy." Makes sense. Glad I married a psychologist.

Don't think small of Me

It may be the Dutch mindset. We live in such a small country, have small houses, and are often focused on our tiny affairs, even in the church, that it easily influences our spiritual state of mind. This morning God confronted my small thinking and challenged me to take Him more seriously. He's a caring Father. His ways and thoughts are higher than ours. His way of accomplishing things is so different from our human planning.

When I talked to a friend on the phone yesterday, I admitted I had lost some of my childish trust related to the prophetic. I've come across so much pretentiousness and empty words, that I've become a bit sceptic. After I confessed this, I felt relieved, a new freshness entered my heart. God reminded me of dreams and words received years ago, related to revival, and a prayer, community and training centre.

This place would have plenty of room for people to hang out and grounds. It would become a hub for leaders of the emerging generation. I have no idea how God will do it, but I know He loves us and has His ways. It's encouraging that several friends received a similar vision, even for different places in Europe. Yes, a new season of God is upon us.

The devil uses PowerPoint

"I did it. I finally used PowerPoint, that program-with-horns from the pit of Microsoft," Andrew confesses on his weblog. A funny posting in which he also quotes Wired:

PowerPoint's pushy style seeks to set up a speaker's dominance over the audience. The speaker, after all, is making power points with bullets to followers. Could any metaphor be worse? Voicemail menu systems? Billboards? Television? Stalin?

Agree with most of it. Up to now I've never used PowerPoint when teaching, for two reasons: it's pretty inflexible, you're more or less forced to stick to a chronological presentation; and it draws away attention from people to a screen.

More, Lord, fill him up!

Readers of this blog are getting used to weird stories. Satirical newspaper Lark News reports that a heart attack victim went unnoticed in the midst of a 'Holy Spirit revival meeting' because dozens of people were 'slain in the Spirit' around him.

"I thought he was overcome by the power of God," says associate pastor Kevin Toomey, who saw brother Munrow fall into the aisle during the visiting evangelist's sixth impassioned altar call. But at 11 p.m., when the service wound down, people noticed that Munrow had not moved for at least two hours. They also noticed he was blue. "That's when we knew something was wrong."

As a result of the incident the church decided to add a crew of life signs ushers to work revival meetings alongside regular catchers and modesty cloth drapers. "We want people to meet with God at our meetings, but not face to face," the pastor said.

A Celtic parable on unity

Met up with the 'Utrecht Team' to prepare of our next Leaders Day on 14 January. We plan to have three get-togethers in 2005, each dealing with a key issue for Utrecht: honouring/discerning the Body (on unity and undivided love for Jesus), blessing God's people (the relationship between the Church and the Jewish people), and regarding/caring for the harvest (discipling our city and the nations).

The theme of unity reminded me of my posting 'No labels, please!' about denominationalism, and the Celtic parable that Tony Goodluck from Adelaide posted as a comment:

There were three priests living in a small town. One wanted to preserve the old Celtic styles of religion: "I abide by the traditions of Patrick and Brigit, the founders of our church," he said. The second wanted to adopt the new, sophisticated styles and doctrines of the Roman church: "I want to be part of the universal church under the pope in Rome - and that is what Patrick and Brigit wanted." he said. The third said, "Let all people worship and believe as they think best; if religion is just going to cause division, I want none of it."

These three priests remained friends and often met for dinner; but their meetings always ended in argument. Sometimes they argued about how certain rituals should be performed. Sometimes they argued about heaven, and who would get there. "I believe that only those who remain loyal to the old Celtic traditions will get to heaven," the first said. "I believe that only those who accept the authority of the pope in Rome will be saved," the second said. "Let each person try to lead a good and honest life," the third said, "and then God will be the judge."

Some years later the three priests died, and arrived at the gate of heaven. Peter took the hand of the first priest. "Welcome friend," Peter said, "you go and sit over there among those who preserved the Celtic traditions." Then Peter took the hand of the second priest. "Welcome friend," Peter said, "you go and sit over there among the others who have obeyed the pope in Rome." Finally Peter took the hand of the third priest. "Welcome friend," he said, "you are free to wander wherever you want."

So the third priest wandered freely amongst the different groups in heaven. And amongst the other people he saw wandering amongst the different groups were Patrick and Brigit - and Jesus Christ himself.

Life is communication (7)

The sixth day of my training in communication and personal effectiveness (earlier episodes: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6). How to start and maintain conversations at receptions and parties? The trainer gave us some suggestions:

- develop the art of associative conversation (associate based on what someone else has been saying, giving your 2 cents or a funny anecdote);
- be convinced that you have something interesting to contribute (this is about our mental attitude in conversations);
- people's sympathy for us grows as we share more of ourselves;
- friendliness and humor always work.

Based on the reaction of one of the participants we also talked about the Drama Triangle, three faces of victimhood (the roles of victim, persecutor and rescuer), and how we can break out of this dysfunctional situation.

Thoughts on training

My friend Taco just mailed me his thoughts on training in 24-7 and Connect Europe. Good stuff. (Download taco_on_training.doc).

We just don't like mice!

Satirical newspaper The Onion reports that nearly 700 scientists representing 27 countries convened at the University of Zurich last Monday to formally announce that their experimentation on mice has been motivated not by a desire to advance human knowledge, but out of sheer distaste for the furry little rodents. According to a 500-word statement, scientists hate mice for "their beady little eyes," "their repulsive tails," and "the annoying little squeaking sounds they make."

2004 Year of the Blog

The term blog has been chosen as the top word of 2004 by US dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster. During 2004 blogs, or weblogs, have become hugely popular and some have started to influence mainstream media. Here's the definition:

BLOG noun [short for Weblog] (1999):
a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.

A time to give presents

Yesterday we celebrated Saint Nicholas with the kids. I bought them the DVD's 'Ice Age' and 'Chicken Run', and for Karolien I found Dave Fitzgerald's latest CD 'God is Love'. Dave worked with Adrian Snell and Iona, but is also an amazing solo musician. Karolien surprised me with an electric blanket (I'm a bit coldish) and two Asterix cartoon books (btw, check out his website, maintained by Doubleclix).

Prague, here we come

Time to wrap-up. We talked about team roles and our planning for 2005. Apart from visiting several key nations, we will plan towards another Europe-wide event, this time in Prague, 26-29 August 2005, to deliberately connect eastwards.

Covenanting and DNA

Hey, believe it or not: this morning Saint Nicholas, one of the connectors in the early church, delivered a bag with presents for us and addressed the team in a funny personal letter (Download hey_connect_team.doc).

What is the strongest form of cooperation in the Body of Christ? We sense God saying it's not a platform, a network, an association or a partnership as such - it goes much deeper: covenanting with Him and each other. Could/should Connect Europe develop into a covenant of the tribes? Interestingly God seems to be leading our friends of 24-7prayer on a similar track with their initiative to relaunch Zinzendorf's Order of the Mustard Seed (they just put up this new website).

Several years ago a friend of mine who was involved at a high level in the occult world before he met Christ, told me that from his experience the most powerful weapon in the heavenlies was not prayer or fasting (though a key discipline), but covenanting. This biblical concept stands for a committed relationship that outsiders cannot break. We hope to explore this more over the next months.

In the afternoon Simon Mason talked us through some interesting concepts in Jesus' ministry, related to spiritual DNA, teams, training and multiplication. This is very relevant for Connect if we want to see a reformational movement in Europe that will last. We feel strongly that it's time to move from prophetic events into mobile apostolic teams, and want to create a space for emerging apostles to be trained and multiply. Several nice quotes from our interactive session:

- Jesus was training the apostles to move from town to town, and He's calling us to rediscover this mobile, fluid, organic and dynamic expression of Church. Our authority comes from following Jesus and being sent out.

- Experience is only useful if you think tomorrow will not look different from yesterday.

- The missing link in many revivals (like that of Wales) was the training of Christians to train others. There was a true visitation of God, but no apostolic DNA to multiply in people, leading to new expressions of Church.

- The greatest danger for the apostolic ministry is people who call themselves apostles, but instead of going out build their own church or organisation.

- Jesus didn't just have the twelve, He developed several smaller teams in his team, in which He modelled the key values of the Kingdom and the five-fold ministry.

We finished the day with an excellent curry in the Chesthunt Tandoori.

Bards and money miracles

Matt arranged a five-star youth hostel in Chesthunt, just north of London. I didn't know youth hostels and five stars could go together, but everything was just excellent for a very reasonable price, including the traditional bacon and eggs for breakfast.

We took most of the day to pray and catch up. Maaike set up a Soul Impact training for young leaders (most of them in their teens), and had some wonderful stories of how God is revolutionising their lives.

Matt is making preparations for a 'bardic training'. In the Celtic times bards were travelling poets, prophets and story-tellers. He believes God is raising up a new generation of bards who will capture the hearts of people for Jesus and minister among the creative class.

Heidi just returned from an extensive trip through Germany and experienced several money miracles. On three occasions she had spent her money, and noticed when looking in her purse that God had supplied several hundreds of new euro's. This makes me wonder... if God supernaturally creates money while we're on the road, then why the hack are we talking about a travel budget?

Kevin and Tim shared that God is taking them through a transition in their ministry, which is a bit unsettling, but also very healthy. I remember the prophetic word they received in Geneva: "Don't you dare to stay in the UK!" God is preparing the Brits to invest themselves (once again) in the continent. Transition is also a theme for Jussi and Niina from Finland. And Warren confirmed that there is an escalation of God's work among young people, especially related to prayer and new expressions of church.

Flying into London

Flying into London for the weekend to hang out with the Connect Europe team. Lots of challenging stuff to pray into and discuss. Plan to be back on Sunday for Saint Nicholas.

Life is communication (6)

The fifth day of my training in communication and personal effectiveness (earlier episodes: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5). Based on our experiences of the past week we revisited some of the dynamics and techniques.

One of the things I still find a bit complicated is how to effectively address the communication process (not the content, but what's under the surface), especially in conversations that don't flow well. It helps to consequently paraphrase what the other person is saying and ask questions, before describing the effect it has on me. Hopefully we will practise this more next week.
         

The main thing I learned today is that I have to take my inner signals (like uneasiness, irritation) more seriously. These signals tell that something is going on under the surface that might have to be addressed, in order to take away roadblocks in the conversation or relation.