Marc's Messages

In memoriam: Christian Winter

Two days ago Christian Winter of the house of prayer in Herrnhut, Germany, died quite suddenly. It's remarkable that in less than a year's time three leaders of European prayer houses (Amden CH, Utrecht NL and Herrnhut D) have deceased. In all three situations God impressed on me that "the grain of wheat has to fall in the earth and die in order to bear fruit". All three leaders carried a fatherly mantle and godly promises. Their death seems to be premature, but I'm sure it's not from God's perspective. It's up to the emerging generation to pick up the mantle and walk in the inheritance these spiritual fathers left.

I met Christian in the Summer of 2001, when God led me to Herrnhut for a personal prayer retreat and research for my (yet to be written) book on spiritual wells in Europe. Herrnhut is the birthplace of the Moravian Pentecost, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the early 18th century, leading to a 24-hour prayer chain that lasted for more than a century, and a passionate missions movement that reached the ends of the earth. Christian greatly helped me with my research. He had dug up many stories from the local archives that were key in understanding God's dealing with people and places throughout history.

Years ago the Lord spoke to Christian that He would restore the wells of 24-hour prayer and missions in Herrnhut. Since that time prophets from all over the world have travelled to this tiny village on the border with Poland and Czechia with the exact same message. And God is already fulfilling his promises - youth prayer movement 24-7, Tom Hess' World Wide Watch, the Swiss 24-7 prayer network, and Connect Europe were all 'birthed' in Herrnhut. Still Christian believed that the community of Herrnhut itself would also be restored as a place of 24-hour prayer and worship, and a strong missionary sending base. He established a house of prayer, and took the first steps to also establish a missions centre (just two months ago he received permission to buy the property).

Christian's sudden death is our loss, but heaven's gain. God's promises surpass human lives, He keeps them throughout the generations. The Moravian Pentecost was a 'hidden seed' that produced its fruit at the right time. John Hus planted it, Comenius watered it and Zinzendorf witnessed the harvest. May God do it again.

Transformation in Holland

Over the last week I completely restyled and updated the Dutch Transformations website. What's new: a section with the best articles on transformation in the Dutch language, ordered by category, and a short description of the Transformations.NL platform. Of course it's still possible to order the well-known Transformations videos.

Listen to the Wind Words

Amazon delivered my long-awaited copy of 'The Message'. Eugene Peterson's version of the Bible in contemporary language is quite popular among 'emerging church' folks, so I wanted to check it out. The nice thing about Peterson is that he is not just a scholar, but also a pastor, writer and poet. His language is clear and poetic. I started off in Revelation:

"Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches."

The counter culture of fruit salad

It's one thing to live from donations, it's another to live up to a faith decision not to spend money on food, but to let God literally prepare the table, day-by-day. While post-war Germany was becoming more and more individualistic and materialistic, and was under threat of a nuclear conflict, the Protestant Sisterhood of Mary formed an intentional counter-culture of child-like dependency on God. Intentional poverty can be a road to deeper intimacy with God, thus experiencing the richness of his daily fatherly care.

In her book 'Realities of Faith' Mother Basilea Schlink relates the story of a butcher in the Odenwald region who had developed a new type of sausage. But it didn't sell at all. Then God reminded him of the biblical principle of giving first fruits and told Him to bring six big sausages to the monastery. After that the sausages sold like crazy.

On another occasion the sisters threw a birthday party. Mother Basilea announced that God would provide all the food, even a special dessert - a fruit salad. The day before the party all the food arrived, as God specificially led people to bring the different ingredients to the monastery, but there was no fruit salad. Only on the day of the feast, when the birthday meal was nearly finished and the time for the missing dessert had come, the doorbell rang - a well-known company brought a huge portion of fruit salad.

These kind of miracles, as special as they are, have been daily practice for the Sisterhood of Mary for more than 50 years. I wouldn't be amazed if God would lead more Christians in such a counter-culture lifestyle of intentional community and dependency on His daily provision. After all Jesus sent out his disciples and told them not to bring food, money or extra clothing - but rather trust God for his daily care.

Shoes, Ice Age and giving

The Van der Woude brothers think they look bigger wearing their mom and dad's shoes. Always nice for a picture.

We watched Ice Age together, a crazy FOX animation movie about a mammoth, a sabre-tooth tiger, a fast-talking sloth, and an acorn-crazy saber-toothed squirrel. This quartet of misfits unexpectedly, and reluctantly, comes together in a quest to return a human infant to his father. They overcome boiling lava pits, treacherous ice caves, freezing temperatures and an evil plot.

In the evening we told the boys the Bible story of the greedy rich man who didn't want to share his wealth with others. David said he wanted to give some of his money or toys to poor kids in Africa, so we counted out 12 domino stones representing the 12 euro on his account, and explained to him that he could ask Jesus how much to give away. After a quick prayer David said: "Jesus told me to give 5 euro to the kids in Africa" and handed the stones to Karolien. Not a bad starter for giving.

Cycling on the Closure Dike

The weather was great, so I made a start with the LF10 Waddenzee Cycle Route, part of the international North Sea Cycle Route (only 6,000 kilometers, nice if you have half a year off). Today's track was from Anna Paulowna to Harlingen and took me through the empty polder landscape of North Holland and over the famous 32 kilometer long Closure Dike to Frisia, with - of course - a nice view over the Waddenzee.

The Closure Dike is perhaps the most famous dike in the Netherlands, a huge drainage and land reclamation project that was finished in 1932 to prevent the regular floodings caused by the tide. It's still amazing to realise that 40% of the Netherlands is two meters under the sea level (now you know why I'm two meters tall - when the dikes break I will at least be able to keep my head above the water). Without the dikes, key areas like Amsterdam and Schiphol Airport would be under water. You would nead a water plane to fly to Holland.

I returned home just in time for the tense soccer match between Holland and Sweden. It's incredible that after prolongation Holland won on penalties and overcame her 'national trauma' of loosing quarter and half finals in the penalties section.

Catching up with friends

Met up with several friends this week. On Tuesday Karolien and I visited the Ouweneel family who live in a pittoresque 19th century laborer's house in the old centre of Utrecht. Evert-Jan is a brilliant philosoper, so we talked about all kinds of topics, from the start of Greek thinking to changes in societal roles and integrating a biblical perspective in teaching philosopy.

On Thursday the board of Joel Ministries met, to pray about and discuss the development of the ministry. It's good to have people around who believe in us, but also ask the hard questions and keep us on track. And as the board members were selected on their sense of humor, we always have a good time.

In the evening a former colleague, who works on internet development projects in Egypt, paid us a visit. It was good to catch up and learn from his experience in another culture.

Today, Friday, is Dirk-Jan and Marieke's wedding day. Because they committed themselves not to watch television in their first year of marriage, every guest will bring a self-made quartet to make sure they have something to do. I compiled a series of early apostles/missionaries in the Lowlands. Dirk-Jan and I currently work together on a research and writing project on the 'spiritual wells' in the Netherlands.

Miracles do happen

The miracle of Braga: the Dutch soccer team made it to the quarter finals, against all odds. They won with 3-0 from Latvia, while the Czech B team finished off the Germans. Good luck for the coach, who was well on his way to become the national black goat. Spotted on the shirt of one of the reserve players: 'I stand behind my Dick'. The next challenge will be Sweden on Saturday.

Declining church

"Our church is declining," writes Ronald, a church planter friend from The Hague. "I've been fighting this thought ehhh fact for a while now, but it's irreversible at the moment. Despite all our good theories and models on church growth the opposite is happening. We dropped from almost 60 people to 45 in a short period of time."

Interestingly his wife Maresca felt led to pray that God would close their church building. I haven't met a pastor yet who dared to pray this, or even allow the thought itself. And God answered pretty fast.

Ronald comments: "He spoke clearly to me that my main task is to trust Him, but I'm still in denial I guess. It doesn't fit my thinking as a church planter to see a church decline. It should grow, right? That’s what all the magazines, books and other (more successful) pastors and leaders told me. Sure, I know that Jesus' church declined too before it started growing. And the churches Paul planted, they don't exist anymore, do they?"

I just placed a comment on his blog to cheer him up.

Invitation Geneva gathering

Today I sent out the invitation for the upcoming Connect Europe gathering in Geneva.

The two Maartens

Had a cappucino with the two Maartens. Maarten no 1 coordinates the company prayer network in the Netherlands, comprising around 90 prayer groups in companies and government institutions. Maarten no 2 coordinates a new, still embryonic prayer network that links the national government institutions in The Hague. We talked about several issues relating to these networks.

Halfway our talk Maarten no 2 shared something interesting. In order to gain more interest in the prayer groups on the different ministry departments, he wrote a letter to both the Christians who worked there and the different ministers who were responsible for these departments. Most of the Christian civil workers didn't show any interest to respond, but four ministers (including the PM) responded saying they were happy to know that there were prayer groups in their departments praying for them. So the government wants prayer support, but the Christians are not (yet) too eager to respond...

The 25 euro question

Dutch soccer coach Dick Advocaat seems to get all the blame now. He even misses the easy 25 euro question in Weekend Millionaires.

Father's Day 2004

One of the nice things of our kids going to school and kindergarten is that they make presents for Father's Day. So today they 'surprised' me with their self-made gifts. David made a hedgehog of clay, while Peter gave me a red and orange painted stone with a flag on top saying 'Daddy, you rock!'. Thanks, guys.

We spent the rest of the day in Enschede, where my dad celebrated his 60th birthday. Because my mother also turns 60 this year, we offered them a romantic trip to Antwerp.

Andrew also enjoyed Father's Day - in a fancy outfit and with a real wicked mower.

What a match!

In a thrilling but also dramatic match the Dutch soccer team lost their initial 2-0 advantage to the Czech Republic, who signed the victory with 2-3.

The Orange supporters blame coach Dick Advocaat for the dramatic loss, because he changed Robben for Bosvelt, which turned the tide of the match. The latest news is that they collected money to buy Advocaat a plane ticket, and already booked the seat for next Tuesday, one day before the encounter with Latvia. The trip will not go to Amsterdam, because according to the supporters nobody wants him there anymore, but to Brussels. Advocaat will find the ticket in his hotel mailbox tomorrow.

Jan Marijnissen feels sorry for Advocaat and wrote a column for the NOS Sport website. On his blog he included some nice pictures of the match.

Emerging visionary leaders

Today I updated the Connect Europe website and changed our motto from 'A network of emerging prayer leaders' to 'We connect emerging visionary leaders around God's purposes for Europe'.

When we held the first Connect Europe gathering in Herrnhut two years ago, we intentionally focused on young prayer leaders under 35, because there was a clear prophetic momentum. Then we quickly found out that most of these folks were not just involved in prayer, but also in missions, church planting and justice issues. We also noticed that they were very aware of the 'prophetic' and the 'apostolic' going together.

Although the term 'emerging visionary leaders' should cover it, not everyone might have the same connotation with these words as we do. What is 'emerging'? Does this say something about an age group, or a mindset? What is 'visionary'? Does it mean prophetic people or extroverts who love to inspire others? What is a 'leader'? Someone who already leads a church or movement or someone with the potential to start something new?

Phil Togwell who leads 24-7prayer in the UK mailed me that he doesn't consider himself the 'emerging visionary leader' type. But of course for our upcoming gathering in Geneva this Summer we would love to have anyone on board who carries something of God's vision for Europe and the emerging generation.

Realities of Faith

Robert van Mierlo lent me his copy of Mother Basilea Schlink's book 'Realities of Faith'. It's about God's miracles in our days, and the inspiring lessons of faith the Protestant Sisterhood of Mary learned throughout the years. We know that God's work never lacks God's resources, though it can be challenging sometimes! Every day I read a few testimonies from this book. It ministers to my heart, and raises my level of faith and trust in God.

Another book that helped me in the area of faith and finances is Loren Cunningham's 'Daring to Live on the Edge'. The history of YWAM has been a road of faith and miraculous and timely provision.

Shopping time

Guess what - I shopped the whole day. What most women do every week, I do only once every two years, and then obviously it takes a bit more time. My shoes have holes and my clothes are getting bleak, so I know it's time to get some new stuff. Yes, I'm a man, no apologies for that.

The postmodern mentality

Tonight I did the Mentality Environment Test at Motivaction (Dutch only) and found out that I'm even more postmodern than I thought. They put me in the 'postmodern hedonist' box, followed by the 'cosmopolitans', 'postmaterialists' and 'upward mobiles'. On the bottom of my score list are the 'modern and traditional citizens', but this is no surprise. Click here for a full description of the mentality profiles.

A postmodern value orientation is marked by the values 'develop' and 'experience'. Of course I don't recognize everything of my mentality profile, especially not the hedonist part, but what I do recognize in the more postmodern profiles are these traits: innovative, exploring, breaking with conventions, the desire to be FREE, carpe diem, tolerant, international orientation, engaged with justice issues, technology-minded, networker, reflective and critical, sober, looking for balance between work and family/friends.

Ministry newsletter online

Just finished our quarterly (this time half-yearly) ministry newsletter, which offers a helicopter view of what we've been doing over the last six months, and the plans for this Summer. Quite encouraging and challenging. Dutch-only and in PDF format.

No place like home

When people visit us, we always have to pull them away from our living room window, because the view is so compelling. It's one of the reasons why we haven't moved yet. And every season has it's beauty.

I created a photo album with some nice panorama pictures taken from our apartment, and a few shots of the old city centre of Utrecht. The picture above was taken a few weeks ago.

Jan M. visits the EO Youth Day

Jan Marijnissen, the leader of the Socialist Party, visited the EO Youth Day in the Gelredome stadium in Arnhem, and was impressed with 32,000 praying, singing and dancing Christian teenagers. "I've always wanted to visit this event, and I was excited about the quality of the program and the atmosphere."

Of course the EO Youth Day and the Socialist Party have something in common: a strong grassroots involvement - they connect very well with their constituency and are able to moblise them around specific issues.

And the winner is...

Holland is breaking the rules by publishing the results of the elections for European Parliament before most other countries ran their polls. The European Commission is not happy, and they are probably not happy with the results as such either.

According to the newspaper headlines Paul van Buitenen, Europe's whistle blower, is the big winner with two seats in Parliament. His response: "I don't look pretty and didn't have money to run my campaign, but people nevertheless got the message."

The Socialist Party jumped from one to two seats, and the Christian Union from three to two. This is not bad, realising that there are only 27 Dutch seats in the EP, to 150 in national Parliament. Because relatively more Christians made their way to the polls (with 39% the turn-out was quite good for European norms, 10% higher than five years ago), they gained more seats percentage-wise in the EP than in national Parliament.

Wining and dining

Had a relaxed evening in 't Kalkoentje at the Nederrijn river in Rhenen with the boys of the former Think Think Group, a crazy IT company and dream factory that I was part of for one and a half year. Unfortunately Fokke was ill, but Taco and Ewout showed up. There's nothing like a real good meal and catching up with friends.

Bush bashing

Bush bashing on the internet. Left the bushbrella (based on last week's umbrella picture) and right a Bush portrait based on the faces of US soldiers who died in Iraq.

Organism or organisation?

It's a recurring theme: to what exent should we structure or organise what we see God doing? There's a thin line between moving with the Holy Spirit and expecting the Holy Spirit to move with us, between release and control, between an organism and an organisation, between recognizing functions and anointings in the Body and introducing positions and official membership.

Today we discussed this with representatives of different streams/platforms in the prayer movement. Of course we should function based on corporate God-given vision, values and an open/fluid structure. The key is trust and relationships, and the willingness to keep moving with God. But tradition, church paradigms (ecclesiology), insecurity and specific interests can be easily in the way. After the Summer we will go on a one-day retreat to dig a bit deeper into the specific issues at hand.

Canoeing on the Kromme Rijn

Thirty degrees Celsius today. I took a break and went canoeing on the Kromme Rijn, along the Rhijnauwen estate. Sun, water, reed, grassland, birds, a pint and a good dive.

A prophet in Brussels

I have to admit I'm a floating elector. There simply is no political party that I really get excited about and that fully matches my convictions, though a few that stir something in my heart. In this respect political parties have a lot in common with established churches. Both tend to be boring, parochial and breeding group-think; both are thinking short-term and have difficulty embracing innovation and reformation; both seem to be concerned with politics more than with real-life; both charge you money to become a member; both run a maintenance-oriented program that will likely never change the world.

My light scepticism (mind you, I still call this light) is even magnified when I look at the European Union, with it's heavy-paid, hyper-bureaucratic and more and more un-democratic power base in Brussels. Some call it the European Soviet Union, just to set the tone. This week we have elections again for the European Parliament, and although normally I keep on floating until Election Day, this time I already made up my mind some years ago. How come?

When in 1998 whistle blower Paul van Buitenen revealed the corruption going on in the European Union, I thought: "That man has guts, if he ever starts a political party, I will vote for him." Only later I heard that he blew the whistle because of Christ - he simply could not turn his head away when facing power politics, fraud and injustice. As a result the whole Commission fell, and Van Buitenen was put on a side-track and discriminated because of his 'lack of loyalty'.

In the media Van Buitenen recently stated: "Jesus Christ is my inspiration. He was a radical man of action who disliked the establishment, fought against injustice and lived among the poor and oppressed." And about the established Christian parties: "They are dogmatic and conservative, and tend to turn away their heads when they see corruption. I rather work with non-Christians who follow their conscience, then with Christians who don't." Ough!

Several months ago Van Buitenen started a political party - Europa Transparant - to join the upcoming elections. It's a one-issue party for a transparant, democratic Europe. Honest government, justice and integrity in dealing with subsidies and budgets. A reformation (or conversion) of the system. It's David against Goliath, Elijah against Jezebel, Neo against the system. So yes, I will put my vote on him, my little contribution to the 130,000 votes he needs for a seat in Parliament.

Second best for me would be the Socialist Party or the Christian Union. I've been following Jan Marijnissen's weblog over the past months, and it's pretty cool. He's the first politician to publish a specification of his salary on the web. Besides that, the socialists answer their e-mail within a day, which is compelling for a heavy internet user like me. The Christian Union is also pretty fast and up-to-date, and strong on environmental issues, but they have lousy weblogs.

D-day and V-day

I know it's D-day, but for us it was also V-day. The Vineyard churches in the Netherlands and Belgium celebrated their 10-year anniversary with a big party on the grounds of the Golden Tulip Hotel in Doorwerth. This is actually close to where the Allies landed in 1944 for the famous 'Battle of Arnhem'. Glad we were invited to the party. Kees Goedhart delivered a good message on 'living by the tree of life', and the boys enjoyed the kids' program. Then the more substantial portion started with a buffet, free drinks, and playing outside in the park all afternoon. It was also good to catch up with several people we hadn't seen for a while.

Churchgoing tied to voting

Churchgoing is closely tied to voting patterns, reports USA Today. Voters who say they go to church every week usually vote for Republicans. Those who go to church less often or not at all tend to vote Democratic. This 'religion gap' became visible since 1972, and is still growing. Interestingly, the divide isn't between Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Gentiles. Instead, on one side are those of many faiths who go to services, on the other side are those who attend religious services only occasionally or never.

George Barna also researched the correlation between faith and politics and comes up with his own conclusions.

Leaders retreat in Utrecht

Today I co-hosted a city-wide leaders meeting in Utrecht. It was held in one of the panorama conference rooms of La Place, offering a great view over the old city centre. There were around 25 pastors and ministry leaders, and we had a blessed and inspiring time together.

We used the morning for worship and to get to know each other. After that I gave a 40-minute prophetic perspective on the city church in Utrecht, which was received well. I focused on Utrecht as the spiritual centre of the Netherlands, characterised historically by three components: a house of prayer for the nations, a training base for young pioneer missionaries (apostles), and a place of care for the poor and oppressed. But the city church is not yet functioning in the fullness of her calling, because there are three root sins that haven't effectively been dealt with and that withhold God's anointing. "You have dishonored the Body, you have not blessed my people, and you have disregarded the harvest."

In the afternoon we processed some initial responses, on which we will follow-up later. Then we released our corporate creativity by making four pictures of how the city would look like through God's eyes. It was encouraging to hear the dreams and vision behind every picture. I was also blessed by the spontaneous teamwork, which is the kind of leadership we would like to see raised up in Utrecht - not one man at the top, but teamwork in the Spirit of Christ. We finished the day with ministry and blessing each other.

Good news for dyslectics

Recent research at Cambridge University brought good news for dyslectics, reports Jamie:

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg !

THE PHAOMNNEAL PWEOR OF THE HMUAN MNID

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig huh?

The man of 110 books and one pint

Willem Ouweneel, with 3 doctor's titles and 110 book titles Holland's deepest digging and fastest writing Christian author, turned 60 today. His friend and publisher Henk Medema secretly threw a party for him 'down under' our office. Many grey-haired people and cars with fish emblems. Didn't see TB Joshua, one of his study objects, probably too busy healing people. ;-)

Ouweneel is an interesting guy. A grounded Brethren man who went through a personal charismatic renewal over the past years. Combining the two he wrote a 430 page book on healing - solid food for the charismatics and a piece of dynamite for the established churches. I like that, it's the best of both worlds.

Today Ouweneel received a copy of his latest book, 'Following Jesus', of which he didn't even know he had written it. Some people write while they sleep, you know. When they wake up, they see a published book. Wish I had this gift of 'sleepwriting'... Anyway, congrats Willem Ouweneel - please keep on writing and blessing the Body with solid Spirit-filled books.

Work in progress

In the old centre of Utrecht the work on the middle nave of the 750 year old Dom Church is slowly progressing. Twenty kilometers of iron tubes with a total weight of 260,000 kilos will form the largest scaffolding construction in Europe. It will be on display only this Summer. The city government set up a special website on the project, titled 'Back from being blown away', referring to the fact that the heart of the church was destroyed by a tornado in 1674.

It's interesting that there was a time lap of 30 years between the laying of the first foundation stone of the Dom Church and the actual start of the building. The nave of the Church was built in 30 years. The building of the tower took (without breaks) 30 years as well. And the second restoration of the tower also took 30 years. The current rebuilding of the middle nave of the church with tubes takes 30 days. When it's finished on 11 June, it's 330 years ago that the church and the tower were separated.

A visual artist is keeping track of the progress. Every day at the same time he takes four pictures at fixed locations. One of these is the top of the Dom tower, so he has to climb the stairs daily, which is surely good for his condition. He keeps a daily photolog, including little portraits of people he meets on the Dom Square.