A few years ago the CEO of the company where I worked told me a little story to illustrate the conversation we had. He told me that his wife always cutted the edges of the ham when she was cooking. He told me that one day he asked her why she did this and that his wife replied that her mother always did that and that her mother made the best hams on earth. So they decided to call her mother to ask. Her mother said that her mother always did that. When they called her she said that she did that because her pan was too small so she had to cut the edges.
This story illustrated the fact that you develop a lot of habits in your life from which you do not know the origin. And that those habits can have all sorts of (negative?) influences in your life. That you can only really change your behaviour if you understand why you do the things the way you do them.
The funny thing was that the big tv-preacher Joel Osteen (which I was watching yesterday) told exactly the same story but then for a stadion full of people. It was so surprising to me that the non-christian CEO of the former company where I worked and Joel Osteen are related! Maybe that's hard to believe, but would they have spoken each other? Probably not... Would the both have gotten the story somewhere else? We will probably never know...
Anyway, Joel used it to tell us that we have to come loose of our past to become who we can be and not be limited to our heritage. He thinks that as long we hang on our past that God cannot create us into who he wants us to be. In my opinion he is right that we should try to loose burdens of our past in our life, and that God wants us to be well. But we should not be too overly focused on what God has planned for our greatness. It is good to strive, but at what cost? There's always to sides to the same coin. In this sermon this means that you can be so busy striving that God cannot touch your heart and show His greatness because you are looking for all the greatness God had planned for you. We should not forget that God has not made humans for greatness or to be served. That is why all the big stars in the world have so much problems maintaining themselves and that is why people who do not know God feel deep down disconnected in their life. God has made humans to be servants to God. That is where we really feel at home, in His presence, in relationship with Him, praising him and being in awe for His greatness.
maandag 9 juni 2008
maandag 21 april 2008
The sound of Silence
Unfortunately I did not have a lot of time to write last months but thanks to Eric Asp I am feeling obligated to write today. I am preparing for marriage, rounding up study and working for income. So I had to set priorities and writing time got low. But it is not that less has happened.
During eastern we had a great night of bible study organised by Jesus Freaks Amersfoort. After that we had our first official Jesus Freaks Netherlands meeting which was a great evening of sharing experiences with each other and learning from one another. I have visited ECPN-meeting in Portugal for ECPN western europe. Max spoke a week later for ECPN eastern europe about our experiences with 7 years of Peacedog with 'connecting to alternative youth cultures'.
One of the interesting things of ECPN, next to a great learning community, interesting christian emerging churches, developments and people, was the time we got to spend with De Zolder. We have been investing in a good relationship with them for a long time allready, but spending a midweek together really helped to build our relationship. We kept contact after ECPN and yesterday a group of both organisations joined to have dinner together and to connect. We had a good meal, good conversation, it was a great first step in further exploration.
Further at this moment the groups are working towards summer season. This means that group developments are slowing down but festival preparations are getting started. We are looking forward to hosting the Jesus Freaks International tent at Freakstock again this year and now already my mailbox is filling up with people who are enthusiast about going to Freakstock. You'll also sure be able to meet us at Flevo Festival and Opwekking, we are looking forward to a long, nice and shiny summer....
During eastern we had a great night of bible study organised by Jesus Freaks Amersfoort. After that we had our first official Jesus Freaks Netherlands meeting which was a great evening of sharing experiences with each other and learning from one another. I have visited ECPN-meeting in Portugal for ECPN western europe. Max spoke a week later for ECPN eastern europe about our experiences with 7 years of Peacedog with 'connecting to alternative youth cultures'.
One of the interesting things of ECPN, next to a great learning community, interesting christian emerging churches, developments and people, was the time we got to spend with De Zolder. We have been investing in a good relationship with them for a long time allready, but spending a midweek together really helped to build our relationship. We kept contact after ECPN and yesterday a group of both organisations joined to have dinner together and to connect. We had a good meal, good conversation, it was a great first step in further exploration.
Further at this moment the groups are working towards summer season. This means that group developments are slowing down but festival preparations are getting started. We are looking forward to hosting the Jesus Freaks International tent at Freakstock again this year and now already my mailbox is filling up with people who are enthusiast about going to Freakstock. You'll also sure be able to meet us at Flevo Festival and Opwekking, we are looking forward to a long, nice and shiny summer....
zondag 27 januari 2008
Dutch Emerging Gathering
Last week there was a spontaneous gathering at the house of the Graf family from Christian Associates in Amsterdam. They have a really beautiful home which is most suited for these kinds of gatherings. The reason for this spontaneous gathering was that Andrew Jones was spontaneously visiting The Netherlands. Next to meeting a lot of people it was good to get an update on the discussion about the emerging church.
As for the development of the emerging church it are interesting times. My main conclusion is that the term is surfacing (coming to the surface from the underground). Two signals make me come to this conclusion. The first is that the emerging church is discussed a lot by Dutch magazines like CV Koers and Nederlands Dagblad. But also the more neutral newspaper Trouw is starting to pay attention to emerging church. On top of that a growing amount of diverse initiatives is identifying themselves with emerging church. But, on the contrary, Andrew Jones, who has been discussing about the emerging church since the start of this century gives a different signal from the core of the emerging church conversation. He told that every year he asks people in the emerging movement how they think about the term and about using it. He told that people from the inside have not been as negative as they are now, that the score was fifty percent pro and 50 percent contra. To him this indicated that the term emerging church has outdone its use and time.
The reason for this development is exactly because the term emerging church is surfacing and by that attracting a lot of attention. The surfacing creates use and attention in much broader perspective and very much different ways. This leads to at some point that the definition of what emerging church or emerging movement means becomes so unclear that the term becomes unusable. The danger becomes that everyone puts the term in its own use, which makes the term useless. The reason why this happens is because the term itself becomes the center of the attention and not the values / intentions that were initially associated with it. So maybe it is time to focus on new, still unknown terminology that indicates the values and intentions again and has not yet become the center of attention on its own right.
As for the development of the emerging church it are interesting times. My main conclusion is that the term is surfacing (coming to the surface from the underground). Two signals make me come to this conclusion. The first is that the emerging church is discussed a lot by Dutch magazines like CV Koers and Nederlands Dagblad. But also the more neutral newspaper Trouw is starting to pay attention to emerging church. On top of that a growing amount of diverse initiatives is identifying themselves with emerging church. But, on the contrary, Andrew Jones, who has been discussing about the emerging church since the start of this century gives a different signal from the core of the emerging church conversation. He told that every year he asks people in the emerging movement how they think about the term and about using it. He told that people from the inside have not been as negative as they are now, that the score was fifty percent pro and 50 percent contra. To him this indicated that the term emerging church has outdone its use and time.
The reason for this development is exactly because the term emerging church is surfacing and by that attracting a lot of attention. The surfacing creates use and attention in much broader perspective and very much different ways. This leads to at some point that the definition of what emerging church or emerging movement means becomes so unclear that the term becomes unusable. The danger becomes that everyone puts the term in its own use, which makes the term useless. The reason why this happens is because the term itself becomes the center of the attention and not the values / intentions that were initially associated with it. So maybe it is time to focus on new, still unknown terminology that indicates the values and intentions again and has not yet become the center of attention on its own right.
zaterdag 19 januari 2008
JFNL in Der Kranke Bote
In the january edition of the Jesus Freaks Magazine an article from my hand about what's happening in Jesus Freaks Holland. It 'll be a good exercise of reading the German language, since it is the only language in which the article has been published...
woensdag 2 januari 2008
JF Video
Visit this Youtube site where all JesusFreaks video is gathered: http://youtube.com/user/jesusXfreaks.
Unfortunately a lot is still in German, but do not let that hold you back...
Unfortunately a lot is still in German, but do not let that hold you back...
JF Utrecht
Happy New Year, At 11 Januari 2008 there will be the second gathering of JF Utrecht, for anyone near Utrecht who wants to join / visit (suit your purpose...), please feel welcome and see www.jesusfreaks.nl or contact me (herman@jesusfreaks.nl) for details.
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