Crime journalist Peter R. de Vries launched his new Party for Justice, Decisiveness and Progression (PRDV) by nailing 55 theses for a reformation in politics and society on the 'doors' of the Dutch Parliament. In six weeks time, measured in an official NIPO poll, he wants to have the support of 41% of the population for his political ambitions, otherwise he will call it a day and not participate in the elections of 2007.
It is highly unlikely that we will see the PRDV in Parliament, let alone realise it's idealistic program. Of course I would favor less bureaucracy and stupid rules, and could also live with a free public transport system, but skipping government subsidies for Christian schools? No way! I think Peter R. forgot how much the real Reformation has done for modern-day education. Wasn't it Czech reformer Comenius who introduced the concept of schooling for kids? And German reformer Luther who, by his translation of the Bible in German, caused a renaissance of learning?
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« September 2005 | Main | November 2005 »
October 31, 2005
October 30, 2005
Sunny Autumn day
With 20 degrees Celcius for late October we have incredible Autumn weather. The forest area between Groenekan and Bilthoven is one of my favorite areas, because it's so quiet, especially on a Sunday morning.
October 29, 2005
October 27, 2005
A new kid on the block
Met up with fellow blogger Mark de Boer, who serves as one of the new associate directors for Agapè The Netherlands, responsible for Finance & Operations, HR and Media. We talked about the transitions in an established organisation like Agapè, his new role, women in leadership, changes in the church landscape, and the 'grace movement' among young people. I liked his sound view on things - a brethren background always comes in handy. And he gave me some good suggestions for raising support.
October 26, 2005
Is iPod bigger than Jesus?
Cult of Mac (yes, Mac users are cultist in case you hadn't noticed) reports here and here about a new gadget: iBelieve, a $13 cap and lanyard for the iPod shuffle that turns the player into a cross when hung around your neck. Designer Scott Wilson says: "Inspired by the world's obsession and devotion to the iPod, iBelieve is a replacement lanyard for your Shuffle. It is a social commentary on the fastest growing religion in the world."
Funny is the 'biblical' quote in the upper right corner, taken from '2 Jobs 3:15'. It reads: "But now bring me a man who plays music. And when the man played music, the groove came upon them." Actually this quote is a version of 2 Kings 3:15, which says: "'But now bring me a man who plays music.' And when the man played music, the power of the Lord came upon Elisha."
October 25, 2005
Transform your community
Ton and I went to Hilversum to drink a cappucino with TV producer Eric Velu. One of the topics we discussed was how Christians can be prophetically innovative in the area of media. Eric told us he's working on a reality program intended to trigger churches to really invest themselves in their communities.
October 24, 2005
Beyond Popecasting
His series on 'The Secrets of Harry Potter' is simply excellent. He brings a lot of symbolism back to God's Story, in a non-imposing way. He also has a series on StarWars, and podcasted about his recent trip through Ireland. The Praystation, a daily morning and evening prayer is too liturgic for my taste, but the idea of a daily prayerpodcast is great. His latest invention is the CatholicMinute, "your visual fast guide to the Catholic universe," a videopodcast. For Dutch television program 'De Wereld Draait Door' reason to interview him.
October 22, 2005
October 21, 2005
Return to Meissen
We're heading west again and paid a visit to the wine and porcelan city Meissen. When I was here in the Spring of 1990, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the city had a grey, industrial feel. In every street a pile of coal that was used for heating and rows of - also grey - trabbis (communist-manufactured East-German cars). I remember I made pictures in black-and-white of the typical contrasts of that time: a small trabbi parked besides an expensive Mercedes, the simple factory worker versus the West-German business guy who just took over his factory. Today I took some more colourful pictures, but with a taste of Autumn melancholy.
October 20, 2005
Count without borders
Watched a documentary on Zinzendorf titled 'Count without borders'. What impressed me afresh was his radical unconventionality. It was a revolutionary thing in his time to intentionally educate women, and to treat men and women, young and old, slaves and noblemen equally as members of Christ's household.
What also struck me is that when a key decision had to be made, they consulted Christ by ballot, so no man (not even Zinzendorf) could assert a position over others. So when the issue arose of who should lead the growing Moravian church, they took a ballot, and guess what... it turned out to be Christ himself, so they 'appointed' Him as the official head of the Unitas Fratrum.
October 19, 2005
Beautiful Saxony
Saxony is becoming my favorite part of Germany. Our friends Kai and Conny, who are on holiday in Mallorca, were so kind to lend us their apartment in Dresden. An ideal base for an outing to the romantic water castle of Moritzburg and the sandrock formations of Saxonian Switzerland. We walked near Pfaffstein and the fortress of Königstein.
October 18, 2005
The wedlands of Spreewald
The Spreewald is a forest-wedlands area between Berlin and Dresden. A great place to walk.
October 17, 2005
The Wolfs in Rogäsen
Today we hang out with Andreas and Christine Wolf in their temporal castle in Rogäsen, Brandenburg. A brunch with candle light, a visit to a monastery, a walk in the lake district, a Greek dunch or linner (or however you would call a combination of lunch and dinner), a table talk on community, a strategy game called 'Simply Genial', and helping their hand doll Jule to check on her e-mails.
October 16, 2005
Autumn break in Germany
Our boys are spending their Autumn holiday with my parents in Enschede, while Karolien and I head for Germany. Today we visited the forest and farmland area of Melle (near Osnabrück) and the historic town of Tangemünde on the shores of the Elbe river.
October 14, 2005
Pastors and nobodies
Yesterday, in a lunchroom overlooking the city, I met up with a small group of friends to conspire about an 'organic' disciple-making movement in Utrecht. An open, challenging discussion, that somehow ended in hell, or rather the concept of hell. Cool to recognize that we come from different backgrounds, but are on the same journey, exploring issues that are normally not (at least not foundationally) discussed in the organized section of church.
Today I met up in a church building with our Utrecht team to prepare a vision day for pastors on 'how to reach our city'. One of the discussions was to what extent pastors are key in a process of unity and transformation in a city. In other words: do revivals start with pastors or with nobodies? Or: do foundational changes start with the religious establishment, or with grassroots movements?
The Bible and church history are very clear about this. Most spiritual breakthroughs came through ordinary people who did not have a very visible position in the church hierarchy, but obeyed God. "The simpler the better," Jesus would say - "become like a child, or like the poor in spirit." The Kingdom of God is the domain of shepherd boys, carpenters, fishermen, tax collectors, ex-prostitutes and now and then a born-again rabbi.
October 12, 2005
Rather rich than gay
One day three men enter into a church. All three are seekers and have an open attitude to God. They have been reading their bible for some time, and now took the big step to join a local church. They are warmly welcomed. Oh by the way, Eric is single, a lawyer and quite wealthy. Arnold and John are gay and have been living together for four years... Everything goes fine; people are friendly and hospitable towards them, until they discover that Eric owns a small capital, and Arnold and John are gay. Now what will happen in this Evangelical church?
My daring friend Matthijs is not afraid to burn his hands on churchy taboos. In most churches the gays will be confronted and ultimately forced to leave, while the rich lawyer can be at peace, and even make it into the church board. Read the first and second part of his comments. He offers four ways to deal with imperfection. Sorry, only in Dutch.
October 11, 2005
Shakings down-under
Donny McGregor of Youth Arise called me from the 'Great Southland of the Holy Spirit', as Portuguese navigator De Quiros prophetically named Australia 400 years ago. He told me that the church seems to be going through a transition (does this sound familiar?), many young people step out of the church matrix and explore something 'organic' (does this sound familiar too?). In one of those meetings people spontaneouly got baptised in the Holy Spirit without human intervention or 'ministry' (hm... sounds like Pentecost to me, are we getting on God's page again?).
DAWN in The Morning (2)
Belgian newspaper De Morgen sent me the article for which they interviewed me. It's probably the only article that features the pope and DAWN on the same page. Store it, in ten years time you can make some money with it on ebay. ;-)
Overall a positive story about the spiritual revival among young people and the incompatibility with the existing church structures. Not pushing us in the 'sectarian' corner of the church, as happens regularly with Belgian publications.
The amazing Google
It will take search engine Google 300 years to index the complete World Wide Web, said Google boss Eric Schmidt. Of the approximately five million terabytes of information Google has indexed only 170 terabytes. Google's calculation is based on the current amount of information, so no-one should add any more information on the web, otherwise it will take Google an eternity.
So I guess I'm pretty lucky to be popping up in Google at all. When typing "marc van der woude", my weblog appears as the first hit, and five entries in the top-10 also refer to my weblog. That's good I guess. Only less good when I travel to C*h*ina or S*audi-A*rabia, but that's another story. It's so easy these days to track down and 'get to know' people by the traces they leave on the web, that you could imagine the customs guys typing your name in Google and saying: "Sorry, we can't let you into the country, you just published something controversial on your weblog."
Talking about Google: Rob installed Google Earth on my notebook, and this is a really intriguing program. You can type in a place anywhere in the world, from New York city to Antarctica, and from Utrecht to the desert of Mali, and then descend from outer space by satellite, ending up right where you want to be. Not every satellite picture is as sharp as could be, but it's an amazing tool. You can zoom in to street level (also seeing the names of the streets), and the US maps are even linked to hotels, petrol stations, restaurants, libraries, churches and other public facilities. Just imagine that maybe in a few years' time this could be real-time, and so sharp, that you can observe someone reading his newspaper in the garden, and even read this paper without have to take a subscription. Big Brother is watching you... ;-)
October 09, 2005
Three challenges for SoSu
Yesterday and today I hang out with the crew of Soul Survivor, a youth renewal movement in the Netherlands. It was good to catch up. I also shared on 'three strategic challenges for Soul Survivor':
1. Moving from a stage-oriented program to a disciple-making grassroots movement. This is what Jesus modelled, and from a missional point of view it's the only thing that makes sense if you want to see a nation transformed.
2. Training young people with leadership potential in bringing the Kingdom of God and the basics of organic church multiplication.
3. Embracing Europe and intentionally building relationships into the continent. Most speakers on Soul Survivor are from the Anglosaxon world; where are the Germans, Portuguese, Czechs and Norwegians?
October 07, 2005
World values map
American professor Ronald Inglehart developed a map that visualizes the strong correlation of values in different cultures (click on the picture to enlarge). The vertical axis measures religiosity in terms of traditional/secular-rational values. So the farther south a country is, the more traditional, and the farther north, the more secular or 'rational'. The horizontal axis measures values related to quality of life. The farther west, the greater the concern for basic survival. The farther east, the greater concern for self-expression and equal rights.
As expected, the Netherlands and Scandinavia are the most democratic countries in the world. Sorry for America. And why is Israel found right in the middle of the map? David Holzel has a view on that.
The sheep of things to come
One of my favorite websites on churchianity is Sheepcomics.com. Recent entries include 'the sheep of things to come', 'the masterplan' and 'the prayer meeting'.
Diffusion of innovation
Ever heard of Rogers' diffusion of innovation? Very useful theory when you are determined the change the world. Always focus on the innovators and early adopters, while also keeping an open (though not intense) relationship with the early majority.
The innovators and early adopters are critical to launching a new product. If you could target your initial efforts at these groups, your limited resources will be well spent. They will become your champions. But who are they? From some studies, the characteristics of the innovators and early adopters are:
1. Venturesomeness: the willingness and desire to be daring in trying something new and different.
2. Social integration: frequent and extensive contact with others in one’s area.
3. Cosmopolitan: point of view extending beyond the immediate neighborhood or community.
4. Social mobility: upward movement on the social scale.
5. Privilegedness: attitude and possession of money (less risky to try something new).
Jesus among the wiccans
Henriette Ferguson was so kind to translate my article 'Jesus, wiccans and new agers' into English, and Jeff Fountain referred to it in his last Weekly Word. I got it translated for Gaz, who wants to include it an a magazine that will be spread among believers in the UK. Wicca is the fastest growing neopagan movement among young people in Europe today. But nearly no Jesus followers are ministering among these seekers.
Download Witches.doc
Christians and disciples
"The most unhelpful word in my life is Christian," says Gaz Kishere. "Why? Because it seems to have irreversably lost any significant meaning. For most Christians the word Christian is an adjective - it is a description of a point of view, a political alignment, a belief in a system instead of a belief in a divine person, a membership to a viewpoint club, an association to a locatable static people group, etc. I met these Connect guys in Prague recently who make disciple-making disciples... end of story. But I could pretty much guarantee that I could walk into 9 out of 10 Christian households and not find a single disciple who is making disciples." More here.
Some more thought-provoking stuff from Gaz:
Don't start with church
Church on the way or in the way?
Unity: a crippling charismatics domain
October 04, 2005
Community talk
Community is more than a buzz word, says Heidi, it's a radical way of life. At the same time Andreas kick-started an interesting conversation on missional, intentional living together. And our friends from 24-7prayer just approved their 'boiler room paper', which describes the purposes, principles and practices of intentional mission-minded communities of prayer.
Grow, beard, grow!
Last Saturday the World Beard and Moustache Championships took place in Berlin. The current Weltmeister is the guy on the right. More cool pictures here.
Not a nice guy
Steve Hill came along to pick me up for a forest walk-talk. Long time no see. He is pioneering organic churches in Kirghistan, Armenia and some other Central-Asian nations. There are great openings in those nations, so if God is calling you to come over and help, contact him. Also check out his challenging article on spiritual covering and prayer covering. A few spicy quotes:
"Being 'nice' was never one of my goals in life and being past fifty years old, I am not about to adopt that as a new goal. 'Nice' is not a fruit of the Spirit."
"I am not more protected the more people that are praying for me. Where is that in the bible? The issue is whether or not I am in Christ and boldly obedient to Him no matter what my circumstances."
"Graham Cook says, 'I have seen many eunuchs in the house of the Lord and very few fruitful sons' (A Divine Confrontation, page 99). Yes, amen! Men who are faithful to the meetings and to the programs! Men who are submitted. But men who have no faith to do anything for God! Some of the most faithful people have the least faith! I have seen men who are totally loyal to a certain 'spiritual house' to the point of disloyalty to the house which Jesus is building."
October 03, 2005
Walking in things prepared
Had dinner with Margreet and Caroline of the house of prayer in Utrecht, to catch up on some developments. It's so encouraging to realise that we can just walk in the things God has prepared for us. No need to make stuff happen, really, just be attentive and discerning. God is revealing things in prayer, making divine connections, and taking things on a higher level when the time is ripe.
He arranged for them to meet with a key person in Brussels who is battling the powers of freemasonry in the European Union; the corruption and manipulation that is going on in these circles is quite incredible. Prophetic versus Empire spirit. It was also good to hear that a new house of prayer will be opened in Rotterdam, on the exact location of what has been the gateway for Jews to America. Thousands of them found Christ there. Lots of things are moving in relation to the Jewish issue. A north-African intercessor who lives in the Netherlands has been invited by the Israeli government to speak to the Knesseth, because they want to know why as an Arab believer he loves the Jewish people. An amazing opening.
The smallest church is mobile
October 02, 2005
The post-evangelicals
My friend Matthijs Vlaardingerbroek, who calls himself a post-evangelical, started a weblog and kicked it off by openly questioning the canon. Daring guy. I remember that three years ago I had an interesting discussion with Parush Parushev, dean of the IBTS in Prague, and Brian McLaren, one of the writers in the emerging church movement, about this issue. I had raised a question that I would normally not raise in evangelical circles:
"We accept that Paul's apostolic letters are part of the canon, which we consider the inspired Word of God. But in what sense was the revelation that Paul received different from the revelation that modern-day apostles (or Spirit-filled Christians as such) receive? It's the same God, the same Spirit. Is it right to assume that God stopped giving his children foundational revelation after John died on Pathmos? In other words: is the revelation I receive from God different from the revelation Paul received from God?"
I won't answer this question here, because it's still very much an open question, but it was interesting to see that Parush and Brian were stretching the boundaries, even beyond my own comfort-zone. I believe discussions like this one on opensourcetheology.net are very important. Many in the church are hungering for a safe place to express their questions, doubts, and insights without being branded 'liberals' or - worse yet - 'heretics'.
Preparing for Rapture
Also funny:
Christian 'looters' destroy sex shops in New Orleans
