Marc's Messages

Discovering new shores

For some time already I sense it's time to move on, to leave old things behind and pioneer new territory. A prophetic friend just send me this word through skype: "This is a major transition season for you and God will increasingly make you uncomfortable in what you have been in. I sense God is shaking you out of where you are geographically and there will be a new emphasis." Interesting.

Earlier today I printed some material related to the 400-year celebration of the discovery of Australia by the Dutch navigators, pushing for new territory. As I write this I watch the 'Red Details' calendar in front of me that Kerstin gave me for my birthday. January shows a lighthouse with a quotation by French author Andre Gide:

One does not discover new continents without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

And this can be quite scary...

The Motorcycle Diaries

Tonight we watched 'The Motorcycle Diaries', a road movie about young Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, before he became a revolutionary. In his last year of medicine, in 1952, he embarked on a motorcycle trip with his buddy Alberto Granado through the heart of South America. This journey, and the injustice he encountered, opened him up to the things to come later, although it's hard to imagine from this movie that he would later side with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The breathtaking music by Gustavo Santaolalla is a perfect match for the monumental landscapes of Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela.

Jonah from Spain already blogged about the most moving scene, when Ernesto swims across the Amazon to spend his birthday with the lepers, so I will just refer to his blog.

How to make networks visible?

I'm looking for a tool that would help make networks (like Connect and DAWN) visible, so you can see who is connected to whom (a bit like Friendster) on a map of Europe (kind of digital GPS system) and including people's areas of ministry and expertise. Paul Dzubinsky, an emRG researcher from Barcelona, mailed me a link to Touchgraph, an interactive page mapper, based on Google's search technology. You can give in someone's URL, and get a picture of his/her social hyperlink network. It's not yet what I'm looking for, but it's a good starter. I generated maps of Marc's Messages (left) and Joel News (right).

Vast polder landscape

One of the great things about Holland is the vast polder landscape on bright winter days. This morning we went for a ride to Loosdrecht and Tienhoven, north of Utrecht.

Just God's presence

Today I met up in Venlo and Steijl with the prophetic team of the houses of prayer. We get together every two months for a full day to listen to God corporately and share what we sense He is saying about the Netherlands. The four main themes are: living out of God's presence (the sabbath principle); reformation of church and society; reconciliation between the Netherlands, it's former colonies and Israel; and praying into Brussels (centre of the European Union).

Johan Doornenbal told us what is happening with young people in Leeuwarden. For years already they get together every week to 'just worship Jesus' and 'declare his victory'. God's presence is so tangible, that it draws all kinds of people to the meeting, who leave changed. The young people also pray on the streets, where dozens of folks find Christ. Could it be that the next move of God is a street revival that is marked by an inescable experience of 'just' his presence?

The seven-day weekend

Sometimes you read a book that makes you jump up and down on almost every page, because it's provocative, insightful and inspiring. 'The Seven-Day Weekend. Changing the way work works' by Brazilian entrepreneur Ricardo Semler is one of those books. If you ever wondered whether it's possible to run a company of 3,000 workers organically, and apply organic principles to business, government and organisations, then this is a must-read. Talking about reformation in the workplace - Semler did it and is still doing it after more than 25 years. "But," he says, "there's only one minor issue - you have to give up control."

Just imagine a company where people are empowered to schedule their own working days, choose their own job, make their own business cards, and even decide on their own salary. Utopia? Not really. It's common-sense for people who think and live outside the box. Semler is a catalyst, he broaches weird ideas and aks dumb questions that force you to foundationally rethink what you're doing. Like: Why does a workweek have five days? Why does a weekend have two days? Why nine-to-five? Why have an office? Why have employees? Why have rules? Why grow at all? Why not shrink? Why is money so important? Why not make attending meetings optional? Why have a permanent CEO?

There's not one hidden success factor in 'The Seven-Day Weekend'. Semler applies organic thinking to every aspect of business and leadership. One application is that business units never exceed the size of an average house church. Semler: "If you organize employees into groups of ten people, these clusters can be counted on to monitor and manage themselves. It's a question of respecting the basic atomic structure of a nuclear family." Don't tarry one more day - get your own copy of this book, you wont' regret it one second.

House church & finances

Maintaining churchianity costs big money. Most of that goes into buildings, equipment and pastors' salaries. The good thing about house church is that it's very cost-effective and you can invest substantial amounts in ministry among the poor and pioneer missions. Like a house church network in the States that releases one million dollar a year (yes, you read that right: ONE MILLION), and not by selling pixels. More here.

Babylon in Utrecht

The AD reports about plans to erect a 262 meter high apartment and office building in Leidsche Rijn, called 'Belle van Zuijlen', which would give Utrecht the dubious reputation of having the highest building in the Netherlands (2.5 times the Dom tower). It is inspired by the concept of the 'vertical city', aka Babylon I would say, because many of these projects symbolize the connection (fertilisation) between heaven and earth. Not something to be proud of, really. And big, prestigious buildings are an open invitation to Al-Qaeda.

Where are the Navigators?

Met up with Joost van Heusden who leads the Navigators Student Union in Utrecht and prepares a national training conference for students called 'Momentum', to discuss to what extent he envisions an organic church planting movement among students. He told me that at this moment students are not being trained in discipling others and starting small groups that can reproduce. This truly amazed me as I thought this was the Navigators' core ministry, but apparently times have changed and the wheel has to be reinvented.

How everything is Linked

Andrew Jones, aka Tallskinnykiwi, named Albert-Laszlo Barabasi's book 'Linked: The New Science of Networks. How everything is connected to everything else and what it means for science, business and everyday life' his most enjoyable book of the year 2005. Not sure if I agree with him, because in December I started reading a book that I enjoy even more, and about which I will blog as soon as I finish it. But 'Linked' is certainly a great book for everyone who wants to understand network dynamics, whether it is the internet, social networks or biological networks.

According to Barabasi they all work according to the same laws, as if God created it. Well, probably He did, and the whole rediscovery of 'living and working organically' is just that - a rediscovery of what is already embedded in creation. When reading 'Linked' it becomes immediately clear why conventional church doesn't work, and the immense potential of organic church networks. Barabasi could be right with his claim that networks will be the central science of the 21st century. Certainly those who understand the underlying principles of networks will have a strategic advantage over those who think institutionalized.

Check out Andreas.com or DougSimpson.com for an outline of the book.

Un long dimanche de fiancailles

Watched the French movie 'Un long dimanche de fiancailles' (A very long engagement) by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It tells the story of a young woman's relentless search for her fiancée, who has disappeared from the trenches of the Somme during World War One.

An impressing movie, because of the beautiful scenery, the special light and photographic effects that give the movie the feel of the early 20th century, and the many historic details and anecdotes of the (almost forgotten) battle field of 1914-1918. And of course this movie has the inescapable touch of existentialism that marks many French movies. If you get the DVD, make sure you also see the director's cut, in which Jeunet explains many details you might otherwise overlook.

Charisma's Barna-bashing

Charisma editor Lee Grady, who's often prophetically sharp in his observations, jumped on George Barna last week and killed off 'Revolution'. The response he got on the Charisma forum is quite interesting. Quote:

"Lee, you can bash Barna all you want, but he's absolutely right. The traditional, program-driven, facilities-based church is dying, and while it may not seem like death is imminent when you look at the Lakewoods of our country, it will accellerate toward the end and surprise even those of us who anticipate it. A new, organically-grown church will emerge, pastored by unpaid men and women of God whose lives are filled with relationships with unbelievers and relevancy. Lee, embrace the certainty of our future as Christians in this time of transition. It will not only go easier for you, but we'll end up with an unstoppable grassroots movement that will be far more powerful than what we have now."

I'm not surprised that the strongest resistance against the organic church comes from leaders with an invested interest in maintaining the conventional church structures - pastors and editors of charismatic magazines who live from the advertisements of the megachurches.

Financial reformation

Met up with Peter, an out-of-the-box business guy and financial advisor who also functions as a prophet and healing evangelist. He just returned from a trip to the Sahara where he witnessed a grassroots revival among the destert tribes. He is coaching several emerging leaders and young entrepreneurs, and it was inspiring to share vision and ideas.

When we envision a reformation in the way we do - or are - church, this also touches the area of economy and finances. Over the past four weeks I joined a conversation among several thinkers and marketplace professionals in the Connect network about the topic of financial reformation and 'apostolic funding strategies'. As you might benefit from this conversation, I anonymized the entries and ordered them chronologically in a Word-document that you can download. Very likely in the course of this year we will throw a Connect weekend for business professionals and others to interact deeper and more relational about this topics.

Download Conversation-On-Finances.doc

How to prevent bird flu?

The Norwegians found a way to prevent avian influenza (bird flu). Not sure if it will bring them this year's Nobel Prize, but it's at least good for the wool market. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Barna and the worship gypsies

Just watched the 6 December CBN broadcast on the organic church movement in America, including an interview with 'Revolution' author and researcher George Barna. A spicy quote from a former mega pastor about conventional church: "We've created a monster that we now have to feed." And from a simple church planter: "I don't have time to go to church, I'm too busy being the church." I also learned a new term: worship gypsies, a kind of nomadic worship leaders, going from house to house, from pub to pub. Check it out.

Following Jesus kids' style

It's interesting to see how different our kids are. Today's Bible stories were about Jesus calling his disciples, and our conversation went like this...

Dad: Just imagine: you're busy playing with your lego, and Jesus comes along and says: "Hey David, come follow me." What would you do?
David: I would leave my lego and go with Him.
Dad: Then what would happen when you follow Jesus?
David: Well, all kinds of funny things, like changing water into wine and catching loads of fish.

While David is very sincere and sticking to what he thinks is the right answer, Peter is more out-of-the-box. Our talk went like this...

Dad: Just imagine: you're having birthday and just got loads of presents. Jesus shows up and says: "Hey Peter, come follow me." What would you do?
Peter: I would first unpack my presents and then take my presents with me when I go with Jesus.
Dad: Then where would you go with Jesus?
Peter: Well, first we fly to the other side of the world, and then a bit further to Heaven. In Heaven there's only light, nothing more, and that's very boring, that's why I bring my presents.
Dad: But Jesus is around, so probably it's not too boring, right?
Peter: Yes, that's true. I will whisper in his ear that I love Him, and then we will cuddle.

Bright morning walks

It's wonderful Winter weather - a bright sky, freezing cold. Yesterday (first row) we walked the grounds of Hoge Vuursche, today (second row) the polder and forest landscape of Hollandsche Rading. Click on the images to enlarge.

European research progress

European missions research is advancing strongly these days, reports DAWN colleague and EMRG research coordinator Andreas Wolf. His team just published the first results of The European Spiritual Estimate, which answers the question "How Christian is Europe?"

According to this survey, 72.7% of Europeans would be culturally affiliated with Christianity. However, only 4.12% are Christians that are actively concerned about the spiritual condition of their friends and neighbors. The progress of the gospel continues to be slow across the continent as well. Just 3.84% of Europeans would receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and join a fellowship of other believers if offered a relevant presentation of the Gospel. Furthermore, there is only one church for every 19,920 Europeans with one new church planted for every 318 existing churches.

The EMRG guys used the Wisdom of Crowds approach, and I also contributed my 2 cents for the Netherlands.

Visited countries

I'm behind on schedule, because I visited only 13% of the countries in the world, according to an application by World66. But at least I travelled 60% of Europe. More projects here.

Scouting out the land

Isaac Phillips and his dad came over grab a Dutch coffee, before driving on to France. They're working with a house church network in the States, and with 24-7prayer, and would like plant a church in Europe. What would be the best investment to make? I suggested to pioneer an organic church movement among muslims, currently the biggest unreached people group in Europe.

12x10x10 = 1200

This morning I conspired with my friends of the LaPlace group to work on a pilot training for young pioneers. When in the 7th century the Anglosaxon-Irish apostle Willibord brought the gospel to the Netherlands, Utrecht functioned as a training base where he raised up young leaders for pioneer missions. Our vision for the coming ten years is to see 1200 young people in Utrecht being trained to make disciples and start organic church planting movements. Of these 400 will start new Christian communities in Utrecht and 800 will be sent out to other places in the Netherlands, Europe and the world. Thinking big, starting small.

Reflecting on Ichthus Utrecht

The president of Ichthus Utrecht, the Christian Union that I was part of during my years at university, asked me for a contribution for their montly information outlet Vis-a-Vis. How do I look back on my time with Ichthus, what lessons did I learn, and what challenge do I see for the coming 15 years?

Download bijdrage_ichthus.doc

Organic CPM's in Europe

I've been interacting with Steve Bufton and Alexander Campbell about doing some field research to gain more insight in and overview of organic church planting movements in Europe. We use the term CPM for multiplying simple/organic church networks with a focus on the harvest. The picture on the right is Steve and me throwing organic snowballs, while Alexander made a simple picture.

A fluid core team

Are you in for an experiment? Yesterday, as an outcome of the existential crisis I mentioned earlier, we decided to dissolve the 'official' leadership team of Connect and move into a more fluid function of the 'core'. Our shared vision, journey and relational commitment continues, but without pursuing a central organisational agenda. Some say this won't work, but I'm in for the experiment. Effectively it isn't a big change in the light of how we already functioned, or intended to function (see my posting 'how to lead organically?'). But the situation of Heidi being on sabbatical, Maaike being ill, and myself laying down my operational responsibilities, speeded this up.

We skipped all dates we pencilled in, except for the next Europe-wide gathering in the last weekend of August. A good move for me personally is that I laid down my coordinating/logistical role. I will keep on envisioning and connecting, but not maintain websites and organise meetings. Phew... I assume the Holy Spirit won't stop working, so I have no doubt several good initiatives will pop up the coming year. In fact, there's already some breeding going on.

The good thing in all this, and the Berlin gathering more or less proved that, is that Connect will be less dependent on us, and more on God. Also it will give us flexibility to function as a 'core' as God leads, rathen then by default. In Berlin it was four people, on other occasions it can be another combination of people who have been journeying together in the Connect context more intensively.

Over the past few months I've been reading my way into network dynamics, and I'm getting more and more convinced that if we all just function in what God called us for and in the way we are wired, while journeying as a company of friends, things will work out.

Gas explosion in Overvecht

Let's assume it wasn't Al-Qaeda, but an ordinary gas explosion that speeded up the already planned deconstruction of our local shopping centre. The blast happened at 13.30 today and wounded three people, of which a 12-year old girl severely. The local drugstore is gone, some other shops are damaged.

Learning from the Natives

My Connect friend Niina from Finland spent the past few weeks among the Native Americans in Canada, and blogged some of her experiences. "Western society has lost a sense of interconnectedness. Membership in groups is mostly contractual, we choose it ourselves, causing unintentional division and losing sight of being part of something bigger, God's creation. Native peoples understand there is collective responsibility for all people, both in good and bad."

Hotel Rwanda

Another impacting movie is 'Hotel Rwanda'. "When a country descended into madness, and the world closed its eyes, he opened his arms and created a place where hope could survive," says the trailer. It's the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, manager of the five-star hotel 'Milles Collines' in Kigali, Rwanda, who in the midst of the genocide of April 1994, when in a few weeks time one million people were brutally massacred, opened his hotel as a place of refuge.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Watched the highly challenging movie 'Mother Teresa of Calcutta'. The impressive story of an Albanian nun who is following her calling to help the poorest of the poor in India. It brings endless struggles, and she has to challenge many authorities, including her own church. Undaunted, she pursues her mission tirelessly and obtains international recognition for her work in 1979, when she is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Blogging in tongues

As a special service to my baptist friends, I run a parellel version of my weblog in tongues. Comments only in tongues please.

You speaky tongues?

The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest protestant church in the United States, took the decision to only send out new missionaries that don't speak in tongues. They noticed that more and more candidate missionaries admitted they are speaking in tongues and regularly receive 'revelation' from God. But the IMB is afraid that using this 'personal prayer language' might cause 'division and confusion' on the mission field. The IMB currently employs 5122 missionaries.

Three things puzzle me in this report:

1. On the IMB website sending churches are encouraged to pray for their missionaries, and missionaries who don't speak any foreign languague receive training. Seems to me that skipping tongues then is quite counterproductive...

2. IMB president Jerry Rankin speaks in tongues himself, and commented on the board decision: "I speak in tongues for already 30 years, so I suppose this decision is not about me." So the boss speaks in tongues, but the newbies are being selected to not do what the boss is doing...

3. Allen McWhite, one of the Commission board members that voted against the banning of tongues, said that speaking in tongues never caused real problems on the mission field. So it seems a highly political decision...

Maybe the IMB could introduce tongue piercings for every new missionary. It limits speaking in tongues (or at least the clarity of it), and would make the IMB more trendy nevertheless. Just wondering: if the baptists are not allowed to be charismatic, are the charismatics still allowed to baptise? And should I launch a special version of my weblog in tongues?

Time for reflection

The coming ten days or so are for prayer, reflection, planning and getting sorted for 2006. On Henny Netjes' image blog I found this drawing titled 'reflections'. Her comment: "Too many things that are not important in life act like very important things. They screem and shout with loud voices, like ringtones, pop-ups, and advertisements. Always hurry and demanding, even manipulating. The really important things, mostly whisper or do not speak at all. They seem to like to hide so that you have to search for them."

How rich are you?

Every year we gaze enviously at the lists of the richest people in world. Wondering what it would be like to have that sort of cash. But where would you sit on one of those lists? Here’s your chance to find out.

Joel News auf Deutsch

This week we will publish the first edition of Joel News in German. Oliver Schippers will distribute it in Germany and Austria, and Peter Schäublin in Switzerland. It will replace Wolfgang Simson's Friday Fax (see my earlier posting here) and is a translation of our international edition.

At the start of 2006, I open with a simple top-5 of what I consider the most encouraging developments at this moment:

1. an unprecedented growth of the prayer movement worldwide;
2. God's Spirit being poured out in many places, marked by conversion and miracles;
3. many new partnerships and networks are being formed on a city-, nation- and even continental level, linking prayer, saturation church planting and frontline missions;
4. more and more Christians, churches and ministries are engaging in a transformational process to bring godly change to their societies;
5. radically simple and innovative forms of church are springing up in many places, reaching the unreached.

Reworking Connect Europe

Today I reworked the Connect Europe website. Because I'm cutting down on my operational responsibilities, I deleted the blog. A list of Connect bloggers is now available here and blog reports of our events in Geneva, Prague and Berlin here.

Bloggy new year!

While 2004 was the year of blogging, and 2005 the year of podcasting, 2006 will be the year of Web 2.0 with its array of social networking services, says Tallskinnykiwi Andrew. He predicts that tagging will be more important than blogging, and videoblogs will rule over podcasts.

For those interested to use blogs in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure, check out the 'Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents' published by Reporters Without Borders.

Guess what - Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the Web, finally got a weblog. Apparently the innovators of yesterday can be late majority today.

Is one of your good intentions for 2006 to read the Bible daily? Then check out the One Year Bible Blog that helps you read through the book of books in just one year.