The Hellands in Holland

Testimony of a New Life “Hello, my name is Peggy. I am a single mother of three who wants to tell what God has done in my life. For a long time, I have had an on and off relationship with God. I would decide to follow him, but then disappointment would quickly set in and I would reject Him because ‘if He loves me, then why does He let this happen to me?’. I found that I was repeatedly let down by people and running to beer as a source of comfort. It would give me only temporary relief. After drinking too much I would find myself again empty and in the need of something more. I decided that I wanted to give God another chance. It was then that I got a flyer in my mailbox from this church. I really liked its name, New Life, because that is exactly what I wanted, a new life. Since coming here I have connected with God in a very real way. Now I have found a new peace and joy which I did not know before. I know that I can trust in Jesus and am so thankful to Him that He has give...

People come always before our mission or vision statements, values, budgets and our programs. Don't get me wrong, I am all for these things yet as servants (leaders) we need to keep the horse in front of the cart and not the other way around. Here is a quote that explains what I mean. For too long, church leaders have been obsessed with the search for the program, tactic, or strategic plan that delineates a goal, sets out a path, and aligns people in moving toward and realizing a predetermined future . Behind this obsession lurks the continued belief that leadership is not only about defining and shaping a preferred future but also making such a planned future happen. In this sense, no matter what words are used in regard to serving or nurturing, leadership turns into methods of controlling and manipulating others to achieve predetermined ends. In the end, people are ends to a leader's goals. (Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk, The Missional Leader. San Francisco , CA: Jossey-Bas...

This is why we start new churches... Today we had our once a month celebration where we use a school building to have a "public celebration". One woman from that neighborhood gave her testimony how she is now following God because she got a flyer in her mailbox about a church named New Life West and she said that that is what she wanted. It has been more than a year since she visited us for the first time, but to see what God has done is her life is awesome. Something else that is really cool about starting a new church is how people do things they may never do if they were just part of a traditional church. For example, I am recovering from a tonsilectomy, so my wife preached. With her a friend of mine who lives here in the neighborhood "co-preached". He thinks he can't do it, but he did great. However probably the greatest thing about today is the level of "family" that we saw and felt. Most of the people who were there have been coming for over a ye...

A man I met in the park a few months ago told me about him suffering from cancer in his bladder for four years and that in a few days he was going in for surgery to have the cancer removed. I asked if I could pray for God to heal him there in the park. Two weeks ago I ran into him at the store and he told me the doctors could not find any cancer. The man is cancer free and he really felt something when I prayed for him that day. Awesome!!

A guy who took our Alpha course now prays all the time. He has not joined our community yet, but he has grown in his relationship with God. He was driving drunk the other day when he got stopped. He started praying like crazy...The police had him take 3 breathalizer tests to see how much alcohol he had. One at the cop car (it was broken) andother at the police station (it also was broken) and a third at another police station (it also was broken). When they finally could test him, his alcohol level was normal. This guy is experiencing the grace of God in his life and seeing how God answers prayer even in some less than ideal situations.

Quotes and ideas from Dallas Willard's Renovation of the Heart. Dallas Willard is a Christian philosopher who at times is hard to read, yet well worth it when you give it a try. This evening a few of us will be gathering at a local library in Amsterdam to discuss the ideas from this book. Here I have written out some of the main points from each chapter. This book is all about people's lives being changed and that is ultimately what my job should be all about. Seeing people's lives changed through a relationship with Christ. Chapter 1 …the situations in which we find ourselves are never as important as our responses to them, which come from our “spiritual” side (14). The greatest need of collective humanity is renovation of the heart. The impotence of “systems” is a main reason why Jesus did not send his students out to start governments or even churches as we know them today, which always strongly convery some elements of a human system. They were instead, to establish bea...

The Bible is not meant to be a book used to get information transfer but for life change. --D.L. Moody "We must shift from the traditional model of 'Knowledged Dispenser' to that of model, mentor and organizer of experiences that help students grow." --Lynn Stoddard director of National Alliance for redesigning education.

Judah is now 4!!! Last saturday we had Judah's b-day party in the park. It was a blast!! Perfect weather (miracle in Amsterdam). Tons of friends. The little guy is now going to school 4 days a week all day long. Here in Holland they start young. My Little guy ROCKS!!!

"Our time, effort, energy and focus must be on houw the gospel is spread and how disciples are being made... It's a lot easier to build buildings, fill them up, and have special events than it is to pour into the lives of people and make multiplying disciples. But it is the only thing that will really work. " -Bob Roberts Jr. The Multiplying Church

Never Work A Day In Your Life. (This story comes from Mark Albion's book Making a Life, Making a Living.) I actually found it in John Maxwell's latest book Leadership Gold. "A study of business school graduates tracked the careers of 1,500 people from 1960 to 1980. From the beginning, the graduates were grouped into two categories. Category A consisted of people who said they wanted to mae money first so that they could do what they really wanted to do later--after they had taken care of their financial concerns. Those in category B pursued their true interests first, sure that the money would eventually follow. What percentage fell into each category? Of the 1,500 graduates in the survey, the money-now Category A's comprised 83 percent, or 1,245 people. Category B risk takers made up 17 percent, or 255 graduates. After twenty years there were 101 millionaires in the group. Once from category A, 100 from category B. The study's author, Srully Blotnick, concluded t...

(Pastor Alejandro & Mayra Lopes in a conference in Costa Rica) Yesterday I visited a Hispanic church here in Amsterdam which was celebrating the opening of its brand new temple. Iglesia El Encuentro con Dios was founded 18 years ago by Mayra Lopez, the wife of Alejandro Lopez who is now the senior pastor. Their new church building has cost them more than 2 million euros (3 million dollars). It sits in the middle of a commercial/factory zone, so you don't expect to find a building packed with 400 Latin Americans worshipping God in their native language. It is an unbelievable story. Pastor Alejandro has planted churches in the other major cities of Holland as well as in New York and the Domican Republic (his native land). What I did not expect is that yesterday he called me and two other missionary families to give us awards. One award was to an elderly American missionary who led his wife to Christ 18 years ago. I mentioned to her that she was the spiritual grandmother of so m...

I found this example of a brief gospel presentation by Tim Keller. It is written to speak to what our expressive individualistic culture in Western Europe looks for and that is things such as"True Freedom", "Community", etc. Why we are here. The one God is a community – a Trinity of three persons who each perfectly know and defer to one another and love one another and therefore have infinite joy and glory and peace. God made a good, beautiful world filled with beings who share in this life of joy and peace by knowing, serving, and loving God and one another. What went wrong. Instead, we chose to center our lives on ourselves and on the pursuit of things rather than on God and others. This has led to the disintegration of creation and the loss of peace – within ourselves, between ourselves, and in nature itself. War, hunger, poverty, injustice, racism, bitterness, meaninglessness, despair, sickness, and death all are symptoms. What puts the world right. But th...

"Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves--on the town heap, at the crosroads--so cosmopolitan that they had to write His title in Hebrew and Latin and Greek." "The Son of God was crucified at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, where thieves curse, and where soldiers gamble. Because that is where he died and since that is what He died about, that is where Christians can best share His message of love because that is what real Christianity is all about." -quoted by T.L. Osborn

Here I sit in my back yard in Amsterdam discussing some Lessons from the encounter Zacheus had with Jesus.

Why I am green! I took a test on the internet the other day which told me I am very "green" or (environmentally conscious). The real reason may be because I am cheap, but also because I find being a good steward of everything we have (including the environment) all over the Bible. Here are just a few verses however. Genesis 1:28 God gives Adam and Eve the charge to care for all of the animals and all of the earth. They are to rule over it and subdue it. In other words care and protect it in the same way God protects us. Romans 8:19-20 Creation is groaning under bondage and waiting for God's sons (true righteousness) to be revealed. Hosea 4:1-3 Because of lying, murder, adultery, lack of love, selfishness and other sins the earth is dying. The fish of the sea, the birds of the air and animals are dying. The earth is mourning. Isaiah 24:4 The earth is dying because of its peoples sins. But...there is hope 2 Chronicles 7:14 promises that when people turn back to him he w...

Empowerig Leadership: Avoiding Making Leadership a "Bottleneck" Today I heard a story that supposedly comes from the Kaballah (Jewish Mysticism). There was a poor uneducated man who prayed to God in his own simple way. But then a very spiritual man came to him who told him he was praying incorrectly and that he needed to pray differently. Later on the "spiritual" man came back to see how the man was praying. He answered, "I am not. Praying correctly is too difficult and the way that I used to pray is not good enough, so I just stopped." The "spiritual" man then told him to pray his own way because that was good enough. I have been working on a new membership course for New Life West, our church in Amsterdam. However, my slogan has been KISS: KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID . I want to empower people to worship God and do church in a way that is highly reproducible and sustainable. I want to equip people with the basic essentials so that no one wi...

Lessons from the Movie Freedom Writers. Freedoms writers is based on a true story which took place in LA. Some lessons that can be learned from this movie include: 1) Cross-cultural issues.. Many people who live in the inner-city live in a war zone where survival is all that matters and race has much to do with your chances of survival. 2) Life Changing Power of Community - Hilary Swank in this movie changes the life of her students by creating a multi-cultural community where everyone feels safe and accepted. 3) Importance of Personal Boundaries - Swank keeps no boundaries to safeguard her time with her husband. She get a divorce. 4) The Power of Stories- The Diary of Anne Frank captures the students attention because it is so related to their lives. The Bible, a book full of stories, can be used to show that God's story and his people's lives are just like ours. 5) Replicate your victories- Erin Gruwell, the name of the teacher upon whose story this is based on, went on to...

Check out this video about the Church in China. This is pretty amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYuCFIQ2M1w

Baptism & July Update After we returned from the States we had our first baptism service! The woman that was baptized had come to know the Lord Jesus and after taking the Alpha course (which introduces people to Christianity) and really wanted to be baptised. We organised a barbecue by the lake and had a time of praise and worship and a time of sharing the Word. The lady who was baptized had invited a bunch of friends and relatives. After she was baptized she started sharing about the Alpha course and right there 3 girls said that they wanted to join the course that will start in september. Praise the Lord for this testimony of this baptism! Grace Lately, the Lord has really been teaching us about the concept of grace. Many people think that they need to have their life totally in order before they accept the Lord in their lives or even in order to accept the Lord. This is such misconception. We take non-believers or ‘new-believers’ through stories like the story of Zaccheus and ex...

Remaining Outward Focused It is very important for us to not just talk about reaching out to the lost; but actually spend time doing it. A weakness of people who have been Christians a long time is that they no longer have any unchurched, non-Christian friends. Jesus said that “the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10). If we are not placing a priority on befriending and loving people who are lost, then we are not really following the example of Christ. An example of a person who lives focused on reaching the lost is Charlene West (see photo). West could have retired more than a decade ago, but she continues ploughing ahead. Recently, she told me how she was handing over her church she had planted to another pastor. When I asked what she was going to do next, she replied, “Plant another Hispanic Church in another city.” The church where she came to Christ in Ponca City, Oklahoma as a small girl is closing down so she decided to use this opportunity to ...

Thoughts about Zaccheus (Zac) and Jesus. (Luke 19:1-10) 1) Some of Jesus best followers were outcasts or despised members of society. Bad people really do make great soil for the gospel. -Zac would be like a top drug dealer today. He got his wealth by oppressing the poor. He was despised by most Jews for being a tool of Rome. Everyone despised him. -Mary Magdalene, first to see Jesus resurrected, had 7 demons cast out of her. -Gadarene demoniac (1,000s of demons in him) became evangelist in 10 cities. -Samaritan Woman by the well was very inmoral yet she brought all of her friends to Christ. -One of my good friends was a gang banger in East L.A. and is now passionately following Jesus. His life is as radical for Christ as it was in the streets of LA. -Some of the most radical followers of Christ I know today, used to be really bad people. (aren't we all without Christ?) 2)Religion kills, Jesus Heals and Changes lives. -Verse 7 says that all the religious people looked down upon J...

First Baptism Service Here you have a video of our first baptism. It was a very exciting time!! As you watch, you can see a bunch of the people who were present. Also, at the end Anneke shares a little about the experience. I apologize for my son's screaming by the camera, but if you listen well you can hear what she has to share. There waas rain forecasted for that day. Well we had perfect weather until everyone left. Then you can see us doing a small interview under the trees. This was a great celebration last sunday!!

Here is a phenomenal article by Tim Keller on Decontructing Defeater Beliefs and leading secular people to faith in Christ. http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement/issues/2004/oct/deconstructing.html