This week we are running a ‘roadshow’ for the Agapè staff at several places in the country. ‘We’ is Henk Veltman, Hans Pruis and I, being the new Direction team. Together with the National Leadership Team, we wrote down our vision and plans for the next [...]

It was my turn to speak in church last Sunday. We have covered the bible book of Ephesians this last year, and are almost to an end. My topic this time was the last two pieces of the spiritual armor: the helmet of salvation [...]

The last speaker at the LD conference was David Wilson, National Director of Agape UK. David is a popular speaker, and I also like him a lot. Must be his Brethern background…
Anyway. His topic for the day was ‘The Holy Spirit and planning’. Interesting stuff. He started out with a little bible study on [...]

Finally the great little man arrived: Javier Garcia, the coming European Director. He’s been around already since the beginning of the LD programme. The first time we heard him speak two years ago, he read his lines from paper, and even then he was very hard to understand because of his poor English language. This [...]

Jo learned us about mindmaps and concept maps. Already familiar with mindmapping, I used this time to do some real work with the help of Mind Manager (www.mindmanager.com). Wouter was doing something similar, so we had a very productive morning

What does determine the actual effectiveness of learning? Jo shared 6 dimensions of learning [...]

Hans Pruis’ devotional this morning was on Ezechiel 34. The main subject of this chapter is whether the jewish leaders were feeding or eating their sheep.
He shared about a Finnish church, where he saw a painting of a famous legend. Once a ruler asked the church to come and show its treasures. The [...]

We discussed differences between left- and right hemisphere orientation: linear and global thinking. A little test showed that our group was actually quite well spread: some strictly linear thinkers, some pure global thinkers, and some somewhere in between. Funny to see that some on the extremes are together in one team. It might work great [...]

Today and tomorrow Jo Bowden, former Agape UK staff member and now educational specialist, teaches us to think for learning. Mmm, sounds complicated.
The idea behind it has something to do with this old saying about giving someone a fish, or learning him to fish himself. New generations need to be self-learning, to be able [...]

Horst Reiser shared some very useful insights. He has been responsible for the Swiss administrative organisation for a long time, and he is now the European director for Finance & Development.
His principles for personal growth, derived from his own development:
1 The Lord has paid work [...]

The central theme of this conference is ‘Leading free agents’. We live in an post-postmodern age, where people grow up to be independent, free thinkers – not bound by systems or traditions. This goes for Christians as well – for example, new generation Christians [...]