Marc's Short Messages

Reinhold wrote a challenging post on the missional church and worship, to which I commented.

I’m in London Heathrow for a fellowship and strategy meeting with a group of 50 global prayer leaders. Good to reconnect with the GDOP and IPC teams, Donny from Australia, and others who serve the prayer movement in their region of the world. Met some new folks as well, like Mike Bickle (IHOP), and Emmanuel Vate from the All Pacific Prayer Assembly, who is based in Vanuatu. So much is happening! The main focus for the meetings was the growing partnership between prayer and missions. Researcher Jason Mandryk of Operation World was so kind to invite me over to stay in his place Bulstrode manor. A pity that I didn’t have time for a stroll in the gardens.

Jonathan of Lookscankill mailed us the first design templates for the new simplechurch.eu website, which we intend to develop as a resource hub and learning community for the simple church movement in Europe.

Erling Thu is a prophetic teacher from Bergen, Norway. He has some good stuff on his blog on being a covenant community, both locally and internationally.

Made a six-hour walk over the beach from Vlissingen to Zoutelande, and back through the dunes. The weather was great and I enjoyed a nap in the sand. Should do this more often.

Made a small trip to Flanders to meet with our artistic friend Anne from Antwerp, and then on to Vlissingen where I spent an enjoyable evening with Cees and Dolf & Firdaus. Dolf always has some refreshing theological and/or prophetic insights.

There are only a few places in our crowded country where you can still 'hear' the silence. One is the Kievitswaard, a polder area near Werkendam.

This evening three large hot air balloons landed in the meadows in front of our apartment. We ran outside to have a closer look.

Yes, I know, I shouldn't go to meetings on my birthday. But it was nice weather for a walk through the old city of Utrecht, and quite good to join the folks who started a local-regional connect meeting for emerging church pioneers in this area, and hear their stories. Ton and I had an interesting conversation with Boele, who came all the way from the north.

Had a beer with Ronald to celebrate the publication of his book 'Plant a church'. The official presentation will be next week, and is already drawing a lot of media attention. Yes, church planting is hot these days. But Ronald said he's looking forward to the day when the media will not be calling anymore, because everyone is doing it.

Soul Survivor had a day with a group of 20 pastors to interact on reaching and discipling young people, and the typical tentions between a parachurch movement and the local church. It was quite helpful, and good to reconnect with a number of church leaders.

I've been reading a lot of non-fiction over the past years, but there are some good reasons to prioritze fiction for a season, especially around bed time. I just finished Bodie Thoene's 'The Zion Chronicles', a series of historic novels (nearly 2,000 pages) on the six months preceding the birth of the state of Israel. I have to admit I was a bit sceptical first, as I'm cautious with Israel romanticism, but she's a great story teller and the historic research is also very well done.

Our topic with the church planting facilitators last Friday was 'why do church plants fail, and what can we learn from these mistakes?' Rogier gives his view here. Ronald also mentioned that three Dutch universities are currently investigating the possibility to offer a Master's degree in missiology and church planting.

Met with Cecil Stalnaker, who teaches Intercultural Studies and Practical Ministry at Tyndale, to provide an update on church planting in the Netherlands. After that I had a meeting in Hilversum with a group of 20 church planting facilitators (people who are responsible for church planting in their denomination or network). Good inputs from Johan Lukasse (ECM), Nico-Dirk van Loo (research), Sebastiaan van Wessem (Hilversum International Christian Church), and Ronald van der Molen (introducing a visual website for new church plants that will be launched this month). Inspiring to see that the Dutchies are pro-actively moving forward.

Sometimes pioneering a new community can be strugglesome, especially when you lack people with an evangelistic gifting. David reports from Essen, Germany, that after a difficult start they are now seeing conversions and had their first baptism, involving a former Hells Angels guy and an esoteric park ranger. Encouraging!

Our Connect friends Marek & Elaine report about God's work among business people in the Czech Republic. Recently 54 people came to Christ. The network they started is simple and relational, focused on discipleship in the business community.

Caught up with Petra from Finland who, together with Gabi from Hungary, represented Europe at the Global Connect meeting in Sydney this Summer. She's also preparing a nordic gathering during the Finnish Christ Day in October. In the meanwhile the Iceland roundtrip came to an end. Check out the reports and pictures.

Ronald van der Molen mailed me the final version of his new book 'Plant a church' that Ark Boeken will release end of this month. I've been one of Ronald's proofreaders over the past six months, and I'm really excited that this first handbook for church planters will be out. If you can handle Dutch, make sure you get it.