During this trip I had the privilege to speak for two churches in the north and one in the Republic. In the north I spoke in CFC Belfast (Pastor Andrew McCourt) and in Celebration Church in Craigavon (Pastor John Scott). CFC has been going for over 20 years now and Celebration Church is a few years old. While both churches are in totally different stages of their development, they are both doing very well and reaching out effectively in their communities.

The church in the South I spoke for was Lighthouse Church in Navan. I met Lighthouse’s pastor, Jamie Corcoran, at a conference at CFC Belfast last year and immediately felt a connection. In October of last year Jamie and two of his team members came to Holland for a conference in Thousand Hills with Ritchie Miller of Avalon Church (McDonough, Georgia). So I was excited to see what God is doing in this part of Ireland.

What struck about the Republic of Ireland is that the Roman Catholic background of this country makes it really difficult for any non-Catholic church to develop. Especially in the area of Navan it is very hard to even legally use a building for church services if you’re not a Catholic church. Call that freedom of religion… And this is Europe, not Turkey or another Islamic country! And in spite of that, Jamie’s church has doubled over the last half year to around 100 people, which makes it one of the largest evangelical churches in Ireland!

As a pastor and church planter my hands are itching (sorry… Dutch expression ) to get involved with helping pastors and church planters in Ireland! I wonder what God has next for us in this relationship!

If you weren’t there the past few weeks, I really want to encourage you to watch the videos… and expect God to work a miracle in your life! You’ll see the last message in the series first.

Drink Again (“From the Grave” sermon series) from Thousand Hills Int’l Church on Vimeo.

Laugh Again (“From the Grave” message series) from Thousand Hills Int’l Church on Vimeo.

Dream Again (“From the Grave” message series) from Thousand Hills Int’l Church on Vimeo.

Believe Again (“From the Grave” message series) from Thousand Hills Int’l Church on Vimeo.

And I have some great news to share with you! The total of last Sunday’s offering and commitments was 32,931 euro (=45,000 USD)! Add that up to all the commitments from our members for what they want to give towards the building after June 2012 (over 36,000 euro), a subsidy from the city of Hilversum for our renovations, various loans from church members and a mortgage, and the thermometer is now at 740,000 euro (978,000 USD), which is only 10,000 euro away from our initial goal of 750,000 (991,000 USD).

That means that we are now sure that we are now able to buy the building late June 2012 and that we have enough finances to cover the biggest chunk of the first phase of the renovations.

Still want to participate?

If you weren’t in Thousand Hills for the past few weeks and you would still like to participate in the Heart for the House offering, you can either complete the form which we will have available during the Sunday services in the coming few weeks or wire transfer an extra offering to Thousand Hills’ bank account. Details of how to do that can be found here.

Interested in sending a building team?

If you’re a friend from Thousand Hills around the world and want to help propel our mission here in Europe, we would love for you to get involved too. Besides finances, a great way to help is to send a team over to Holland who can do one of the building related projects. Be sure to give our Executive Pastor, Klaas van Mill, a holler if you’re interested in the possibilities. His email address is klaas[at]thousandhills.cc.

As a close I want to give a big shout-out to all in our church community who have given sacrificially to build God’s house here in Hilversum and the Netherlands. Without you, none of this would be possible!

Below you can find all the conference videos we recorded, which are definitely worth the watch. If you’re interested, I also wrote some notes during the first session of that conference, which you can find here.

Missional Life & Church Conference (session 1) from Thousand Hills Int’l Church on Vimeo.

Missional Life & Church Conference (session 2) from Thousand Hills Int’l Church on Vimeo.

Missional Life & Church Conference (session 3) from Thousand Hills Int’l Church on Vimeo.

Missional Life & Church Conference (session 4) from Thousand Hills Int’l Church on Vimeo.

What did I learn from Peter’s input? A whole lot, but I especially want to highlight these principles that I feel are crucial if Thousand Hills wants to grow further:

• Simplify organization structures and processes. Too often we make things so complicated that it becomes hard to get things done. Let’s SIMPLIFY things!
• Structure your church or organization for double the size you are now. At Doorbrekers, they organize their church with an attendance of 2,000 as churches of 4,000 organize themselves so that they are well prepared when those new people come in. We need to organize Thousand Hills for a weekend attendance of 800-1,000 if we want to keep reaching people and introducing them to Jesus Christ.
• Be a “sticky” church, which means you do not only attract people, but you keep them! That means that: 1) the church experience needs to be attractive enough to come back for; 2) current members (not only leaders) keep their eyes open for guests and connect with them; 3) we have a good process to plug people into our Life Groups and our ministries.
• Don’t be put off by problems because they are pathways for further growth. The more your church grows, the bigger your problems will be. Accept the fact that there will always be problems and be pro-active in solving them (knowing that there will be more on the way…).

What did you get out of Peter Paauwe’s input? It would be great if you would share your thoughts in the comments section below!

And, oh yeah, be sure to join us for the next ChurchBuilders gathering on Thursday, June 21!

In case you weren’t there for ChurchBuilders, be sure to watch the videos here! The first one is the teaching session. The second one is the Q&A session.

Breaking Through the Ceiling (“ChurchBuilders”) from Thousand Hills Int'l Church on Vimeo.

ChurchBuilders with Peter Paauwe, Q&A session from Thousand Hills Int'l Church on Vimeo.

At this moment we still need to raise 79,000 euro and we hope we’ll be able to raise that by next Sunday in one-time offerings, monthly giving above and beyond our regular tithes and offerings, and loans. That money is needed so we can become owners of the building by the end of June this year and do all the necessary structural repairs. We hope that all the money will come in by next Sunday so that we can stop talking to you about this building fundraiser and start the necessary work. So it’s up to all of us to make this a success!

Any other improvements in our building, for instance in the stage area, welcome area, children’s & youth rooms, and offices are not included in this initial fundraiser and will have to come at a later time or be financed in different ways.

So what is a Heart for the House offering really?

So is a Heart for the House offering only about buildings? Absolutely not! It is much more than just a fundraiser for our building. We will be launching this (or a similar) campaign on an annual basis to raise money for causes and projects that are outside of our regular operating budgets. This year it’s for our building. Next year it could be for a missions project, an outreach project in our community, a church plant or the launch of a new campus. Every year our leadership will come together to pray and discern what we believe God is saying to us about investing in projects that will help build and expand God’s Kingdom in Hilversum and around the world.

Impact of your giving in the lives of others

So when you participate in the Heart for the House offering, I want you to see two things. The first thing is that your financial sacrifice can have a great impact in the lives of other people. This year, as you give towards the purchase of the Zuiderkerk building, you’re getting involved in building God’s house locally.

We believe that God wants to use this building as a safe haven not only for you and your family, but also for the many unchurched people around us. It’s my prayer that this building will become a healing place for a hurting world. So expect your giving to impact the lives of many people you know that would otherwise never set foot in a church building.

The principle of sowing and reaping

The second thing that I want you to see is a spiritual principle that will impact your life directly. It’s the principle of sowing and reaping. I love how the Apostle Paul explains this principle in 2 Corinthians 9:5-11 (NLT):

…But I want it to be a willing gift, not one given grudgingly. Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. As the Scriptures say,

“They share freely and give generously to the poor.
Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”

For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.

So here are a couple of observations that I want to leave with you as you read and pray over this passage of scripture:

1. v.5,7: God cares more about our heart’s motivation behind our gift than the gift itself. If we give grudgingly, it’s better not to give at all. God loves it when we give cheerfully.
2. v.6: When sow generously, we can expect a generous harvest. When we sow sparingly, we can expect a small harvest. It’s all relative. The harvest depends on the number of seeds we sow in relation to the size of our field. When God has blessed us with a big field (big income and lots of possessions), if we’re smart we will sow a lot. When God has blessed us only with a small field (small income and few possessions), we can only sow a little. But it can still be proportionate to what the person with the big field does. Often the generosity of the less fortunately exceeds that of the wealthy because they sow proportionately more. Remember the poor widow who only put two small coins in the offering?
3. v.7: we should never feel pressured or manipulated into giving, but decide in our hearts how much we will give. But don’t let stinginess take over here! Allow the Holy Spirit to tell you how much He wants you to give! And don’t be surprised if that’s more than what you feel comfortable with.
4. v.8: when you are a generous person, you can trust that God will always provide for you, even so much that you have enough to share with others.
5. v.10-11: God blesses us with resources not so that we would hoard them up, but so that we can be a blessing to others.

How will you participate?

So how will you participate in the Heart for the House offering this coming Sunday? Will you sow generously so that God can use our church as a whole to be a blessing, not only to the people inside our four walls, but to everyone in the community and even the rest of the world?

When you take a step of faith in the area of your finances, know that God will supply for your needs and enrich you – financially and in other ways – so that you can even be more generous in building his Kingdom in the future and reaching out to the poor, the needy and the lost.

May you reap a generous harvest as you take that step of faith!

Now you may think: it’s not about numbers. In one way, it’s not. Every single person matters to God. In another way, it is all about numbers: numbers of lives changed, marriages restored, people healed, etc. The more people we can reach, the more God’s glory will become visible in Hilversum and ‘t Gooi.

The water baptisms last Sunday proved to me what amazing things God is doing in our midst and the great number of lives he is impacting through us. Eleven people had indicated they wanted to be baptized… but after extending the invitation to everyone else who wanted to follow Jesus and make that public through baptism, ten more people came forward and were baptized too. Among them were many young people!

What made the Easter weekend great?

But what made this weekend so great? Here are a few ingredients I was able to identify:

• Prayer, prayer, prayer. Not only our individual prayers at home, but also the involvement of our Hour of Prayer group.
• Inviting. Many of you have invited your friends, family and neighbors maybe to witness your baptism or just so that they could be part of an amazing Easter service. Thank you! Keep doing this for every service and event in the church!
• Great leaders and volunteers. You know who you are! You’re making a big difference in the lives of others!
• Outreach. There was an amazing outreach to the poor and needy in our area on Saturday. When we care for the people God cares about, he will bless us!
• Expectation and faith. When we challenge ourselves to believe God for greater things for our church, our families and our lives, God will honor that. I noticed the spiritual thermostat last Sunday was turned up higher than ever before. It is because you came full of faith and expectation.

So thank you if you served last weekend! Thank you if you invited others! Thank you if you took that bold step to be baptized and make your faith public for all of us to see!

I have already heard some rumors that there were more people who are seriously considering water baptism after witnessing the baptisms last Sunday. I already know of one young guy who wants to take that step. So we’re planning our next baptism services on Sunday, June 10, and believe for many more people to join him. We’ll do baptisms in both our services.

Next year Easter?

So what about Easter next year? Yes, we’ll do water baptisms. Again, I believe it’s going to be an amazing weekend.

So today I met with our Pastoral Lead Team and I asked them the question: how many people do you believe God for in 2013? And the numbers that we felt God was giving us were quite a bit higher than last weekend’s numbers. In fact, when those people will actually come (and I believe when we believe God for that, he will surprise us with even more) two services won’t even be enough.

Here’s the challenge: there seems to be some kind of universal “prime time” for church services, which is between 10:00 and 12:00. Our English service is a prime time service because it starts at 11:15. But there is no way we can fit another full service in in prime time. And the English Easter service this year was already bursting out of its seams…

So we need extra services… we probably will need three services in total… but apart from that 11:15 service they can’t be held during prime time. We will have our regular 9:15 service time for the Dutch service, so if you understand Dutch we’ll be quite intentional in asking you to consider attending that service.

Why would we ask you to do such a thing? And why would you be willing to put up with this inconvenience? I believe that if you do, you make room for new people to come to the “prime time” service so that they can hopefully start a relationship with Jesus or at least come one step closer to knowing him. Are you willing to be inconvenienced so more people can find Christ?

And what’s a good moment for that third service? We’re not sure yet and would value your input! I’d also like to hear from you what you believe God for for Easter 2013. Be sure to leave a comment below!

Did you miss our Easter weekend? Be sure to watch the sermon videos (English first, then the Dutch one). At the beginning of those sermon videos you can see the video with the testimonies of the people who were baptized (the ones who signed up beforehand).

Believe Again (“From the Grave” message series) from Thousand Hills Int’l Church on Vimeo.

Geloof opnieuw (“From the Grave” message series) from Thousand Hills Int’l Church on Vimeo.

I flew into Anchorage last Friday night. I had a 10 hour flight from Amsterdam to Seattle, then had to wait for almost four hours until I could catch my last flight for the day. I was wiped out. Saturday was pretty relaxed day. I had to get some things done to upgrade my laptop and spent the rest of the day with Howard Hansen, the youth pastor of MCA Church, which is the church that had invited me to speak.

Yesterday I preached three times at MCA Church. They have two morning services that are both quite similar, so I preached a message about growing into a deeper relationship with God in both services. In their evening service, I preached about how all of us can help to build a stronger church for the community around us. Not only did I have a great time in the services, I really enjoyed some great Alaskan hospitality.

As some of you know, I am a part-time missionary and help church planters in Europe with advice and practical support. I have been raising support to be able to keep doing that, which is not an easy job because most people still don’t think Europe is a missions field…

But Kent Redfearn, Lead Pastor of MCA Church, announced by video that MCA Church will make us part of their monthly missions giving. I didn’t expect that and I am so excited and deeply thankful that they are taking this step. It is making a big difference! So thank you, MCA Church, for helping me make a difference in Europe!

So today is another rather relaxed day. I still have three hours until my first appointment. I’ll be having lunch with Bill Welch, who is the Superintendent of the Alaska Ministry Network, which is basically the Alaskan Assemblies of God. He is a great guy with a big heart for Alaska and I am curious to hear what God is doing all across the state.

Alaska is not an easy place to pastor a church or to plant one and many villages are so small and remote that it is hard to even have a sustainable church there. I have been hearing, though, that internet technology is a key to build sustainable ministries in those remote areas. So I am curious!

After my lunch appointment with Bill I will be meeting with Mark Zweifel, who is the director of youth ministries out of the Assemblies of God in Alaska. Mark is a great guy who moved to Alaska a couple of years ago from Las Vegas where he was on staff of an amazing church. Imagine the temperature differences he and his family had to overcome… It seems like there are many kids here in Alaska who are pretty fired up for God!

Tonight I’ll fly out of Anchorage to Dallas to be part of the All Access Conference of the Association of Related Churches, which will be held in Gateway Church (Pastor Robert Morris). I won’t be there alone. There will be thousands of people, mostly church leaders, at that conference and it will give me a great opportunity to reconnect with our Europe Advance Lead Team and church planters and with many American pastors.

There will be a big delegation from Greg Surratt’s church, Seacoast Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and MCA Church will be there with 19 leaders! Kent Redfearn, their Lead Pastor, will be there as well. He wasn’t here in Anchorage over the weekend because he had to be in El Salvador. I am excited to see him again!

The All Access Conference doesn’t only feature great speakers and some great worship. It’s also a great networking opportunity and gives me the opportunity to raise awareness for Europe’s big spiritual need. Our Europe Advance Lead Team will be hosting a short meeting on Wednesday (11:45-12:15) for everyone who is interested in hearing more about what God is doing in Europe. If you’ll be at All Access, join us in room 1C, which is downstairs in Gateway Church across from the Cafe.

Anyway… I am going to sign off. It’s now 9:22 and you’re up-to-date now! I hope to be able to write another post in the coming few days.

Why do you need an attractional strategy?

Why would you need an attractional strategy – in other words: to offer the best possible worship experiences on your weekends? Here are two good ones: 1) to present excellence to the Lord and 2) take away any barriers for your friends to find Christ. So: an attractional strategy is always needed! However, many voices in the church today are downplaying the importance of having an attractional strategy. They do have some good points, but we need to guard against throwing away the baby with the bathwater.

What does Seacoast Church’s attractional strategy look like?

1. Plan
2. Pray
3. Do
4. Review

There is a big danger if you only focus on having a good attractional strategy and putting up a good show. That danger is that you feed into consumer Christianity. It is no longer is about bringing your friends, but it becomes only about you and how the church meets your needs.

How do you recognize consumer Christianity?

How do you recognize consumer Christianity? Here are some ways in which it manifests itself:

• When people only come when one particular preacher preaches.
• When people say they are “shopping” for a church.
• When people think it is all about their family’s needs and not about the needs of the community around them.

Even though Seacoast Church was reaching a lot of people, Greg sensed things had to change. Maybe in America you can reach 40% of the population with great Sunday services. But you won’t reach the remaining 60%. And that last percentage is even much higher in Europe, maybe 90% in Holland and close to 99% in other countries.

A different strategy is needed!

So how do you reach the remaining 60%, or 90% or 99%? You’ll need a different strategy!

The triangle on the right gives us some insight and is based on Luke 6, the chapter where Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, came down to select his disciples and then ministered to the crowds. The relationship with God the Father is the “Up” relationship. The relationship with other believers is the “In” relationship and the relationship with the unchurched is the “Out” relationship.

We need to balance those three relationships to be healthy disciples. And even our churches as a whole need to balance those relationships. Many churches are lopsided towards “Up” (great worship) and “In” (great fellowship among believers). But what about the people outside the church that God loves so much? How do we reach them?

So the people who make up the church need to be healthy, missional disciples that have those three relationships in balance. And with those disciples we can build healthy missional communities. And a few missional communities together make up a missional congregation. And a number of missional congregations make up a missional church (possibly in multiple locations).

How do you make missional disciples?

How do you make missional disciples? How do you create a discipleship culture? It’s important to know who you are before you figure out what you’re going to do. That’s where this other triangle helps us.

Our relationship with God the Father should form our identity and out of an identity that is rooted strongly in God, we need to follow Him in obedience. Too often, though, it works the other way around. People obey God and out of that obedience flows their identity.

Slaves versus sons

Note the red arrows. When obedience comes before identity, your faith will become very legalistic and based on rules. You’ll become a slave. On the other hand, when you go the other way and follow the green lines, identity is formed through your relationship with God and will automatically lead to obedience. You’ll become a son or a daughter of God. That’s the opposite of legalism and it is called grace.

A church that wants to be a healthy missional church on the long haul needs to get a grip on this. Obedience should follow identity, not the other way around.

Creating a healthy identity

So how do you create a healthy identity that will lead to obedience? Check out this triangle on the right. In Matthew 28:19 (the Great Commission) Jesus says this: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (NLT).

When we are baptized we identify ourselves with God, who reveals himself in the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). And the Trinity is what gives us our identity as believers. God the Father makes us part of his family. We become sons and daughters of God when we start following Christ and accept Him as our Lord and Savior. That’s the first part of our identity: we’re family members, because he’s our Father!

The second person of the Godhead, Jesus, came to serve but he also came as Lord. So the second part of our identity is that we are servants. Then the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, came to give us power to be his witnesses. So the third part of our identity is that we’re missionaries. As a church we are a family of missionary servants. That’s what God is calling every person to be!

In the video below, Pastor Greg Surratt will expand on what I wrote above. From the 35th minute, Pastor Chip Judd talks about our identity and the importance of getting our identity rooted in God the Father. You will love his input as well! It’s well worth watching!

This time, Steve Warren, Pastor of C3 Church in Amsterdam, was our guest speaker. He shared seven qualities of servant leaders. Servant leadership is the type of leadership we model at Thousand Hills and we take every opportunity to learn more about it.

Steve highlighted some principles from a story that can be found in Genesis 18. Abraham, an extremely wealthy and influential leader in his day, did everything he could to be hospitable to a group of strangers passing by, not knowing that these strangers were actually angels who had a message from God for him.

So what are the seven qualities of servant leaders that we can learn from the story? Well… watch the video below.. but let me list them at least for you without expanding on them:

1. Willing
2. Striving for excellence
3. Swift
4. Respectful
5. Humble
6. Hard working
7. Unselfish

How can you see those qualities at work in your own life? In which area do you struggle? In which area are you doing well?

Want to have the full story? Check out the video of Steve’s talk below: