European Priorities

There are about 180 delegates in the conference coming from 16 or 17 different countries. I guess the average age is somewhere around 50. Interestingly, one the most used terms this conference was ‘paradigm shift’ – basically meaning that we need different strategies, resources and people to reach Europe in the coming decade. I am very glad that virtually everybody agrees on this, and that more and more emerging leaders find their places, enforcing a different spirit in the movement. Encouraging to know that this is not only happening in The Netherlands but in several other countries as well. Still, I am afraid it will take a lot of time before this paradigm shift has really taken place everywhere – although, if we move in the right Spirit, we don’t have to worry.

The vision that was set out is: Movements everywhere, so that everybody knows somebody who truly follows Jesus. That is a challenging and exciting goal, and I believe this week has really contributed in understanding deeply what it means to reach the world for Christ.

The national team meeting was a lot better today; we decided to go for a walk, and ended up in a café somewhere downtown, where we spent the remaining afternoon.