City Reaching in the Netherlands - A survey
"Revival Yes, but hands off my church"
By Pim van Arnhem and Marc van der Woude
"Revival Yes, but hands off my church." That is in short
the main conclusion
of a survey by Dutch church growth organisations Joel Ministries
and Impuls,
together with the Dutch National Platform of Pentecostal and Full
Gospel
Churches, among (mostly evangelical) church leaders. It shows that
in 75% of
Dutch towns and regions, some form of inter-church collaboration
has begun,
but without taking off properly anywhere. A large majority of leaders
believes that God can and will send revival, but they think their
own church
boundaries ought not to be taxed too much.
In an increasing number of Dutch towns, some co-operation is growing
in the
areas of prayer, unity and evangelism. In some places this is going
well, in
others things are stagnating. To Joel Ministries (publisher of Joel
News)
and Impuls (an organisation for church development) it seemed a
good idea to
send a questionnaire to evangelical church leaders from several
towns in the
Netherlands and ask them about two things:
1. What do church leaders think of revival, prayer, unity and leadership?
What are their convictions and tenets?
2. How much inter-church prayer, unity and evangelism is actually
taking
place? What are the most important results and difficulties? What
concrete
steps are leaders taking to create an environment for spiritual
rebirth in
their towns or regions?
FIRST RESULTS
The enquiry turned up some interesting information. First of all,
in the
Netherlands we are only at the beginning of city-wide co-operation,
as far
as depth and impact of this process are concerned; but in itself,
city-wide
co-operation is a familiar phenomenon. At least 75% of church leaders
replies that some form of co-operation had started, which includes
mostly
evangelicals, charismatics and reformed churches. The three primary
results
of this process are:
1. church leaders get to know and respect one another;
2. church leaders pray together and/or inter-church city prayer
has come
into being;
3. there is a growing form of co-operation (e.g. for evangelism,
although
usually at a 'safe distance').
FOUR FACTORS FOR SUCCESS
How can churches develop a common strategy for saturating their
town with
the gospel? The church leaders mention four factors they see as
crucial:
1. praying together;
2. learning to accept/respect/trust/love each other (growth in relationships
and friendship);
3. building unity among many leaders/churches /types of church (unity
in
diversity, keeping your own 'smell');
4. developing a common vision for the town/region (i.e. an overall
evangelistic plan).
FOUR OBSTACLES
But we also see serious obstacles for unity looming. The four biggest
are:
1. churches are inward-looking and still think in terms of rivalry
with
other churches (safeguarding their own segment of the market);
2. lack of time/priority. In practice, own church activities are
put higher
on the agenda than city-reaching initiatives. Many church leaders
do not
basically choose to break through this pattern, so city-wide initiatives
languish;
3. differences in theology and disagreements on doctrine;
4. lack of vision, faith and communication. Here we in fact see
the
necessity of prophetic and apostolic leadership, even though church
leaders
do not use these terms. We have observed that it is usually prophetic
leaders who communicate vision, and apostolic leaders who get the
'city-wide
church' (the whole group of Christians and churches in a city/region)
to
move.
The church leaders are optimistic about their ability to understand
the
leadership of the Holy Spirit (and to obey it rather than their
own agenda'
s), their compassion for people outside the church and their readiness
to
develop and release young leaders. They put these area's at the
bottom of
the list of possible deficiencies.
THREE VIRGIN TERRITORIES
So while some initial steps have been taken, the survey shows that
there are
areas of inter-church unity where almost nothing has as yet been
achieved.
The most important are:
1. reconciliation between leaders and churches who have gone through
splits
or that have spoken critically of one another;
2. contacts with secular government (city councillors and mayor,
local
politics, police and other services);
3. exchange of ministries among churches (exchanging pulpits, sharing
or
lending out staff, facilities, programmes, etc.).
It is striking that most church leaders say they do not need more
information, training or help to build unity and shape a city strategy
in
their locality. Their reactions seem to say that they think they
have come a
long way once they have started praying together or have some services
together, while in fact that is only the very beginning. They seem
to be
content with small steps, and lack the drive to carry the whole
process onto
a higher level and give it the necessary depth.
FIFTY STATEMENTS
To find out what church leaders think about revival, prayer, unity,
leadership and evangelism, and to test their ideas for practicality,
we
offered them fifty statements. They could indicate on a scale of
1 to 5
whether they agreed or disagreed. This revealed some interesting
facts.
...ABOUT REVIVAL AND CHANGE
It turns out that their is a great longing for revival and transformation
in
evangelical/charismatic circles in the Netherlands. More than 85%
of these
leaders believe that:
- God wishes/can bring a great revival in my locality;
- there will be no revival without constant, united prayer;
- social transformation is a legitimate goal (i.e. the gospel is
meant to
influence all parts of life and society).
"But," the same majority say, "such a revival is
almost entirely unrelated
to change of church structures." In other words: "Hands
off my church, we're
doing fine, we don't have to change to cope with revival."
We think this has
two implications:
1. church leaders see little need to prepare their churches for
the harvest
time they are expecting;
2. they think God will change the world around them without first
transforming them and their churches.
If our assumptions are right, these are two serious underestimations.
We do
not think the church as it is now, will be able to disciple the
world. At
this moment, we see the opposite happening. The world is 'discipling'
the
church.
...ABOUT EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
The survey shows that most church leaders believe God has a plan
for their
locality, and that they have spiritual responsibility for their
locality.
But at the level of the local church and the 'city-wide church'
(the whole
group of local churches) these thoughts are not implemented.
The city-church needs its own leadership team, most church leaders
agree.
And this calls especially for people with apostolic gifting. Interestingly,
about 40 % of church leaders see themselves in this role. That is
rather a
lot, when we consider that generally speaking, leaders with evident
apostolic gifts are rather thin on the ground. If 40% of church
leaders
actually had these gifts, 40% of the Dutch churches in this sector
would be
showing forth strong growth, and an equal percentage of city-wide
initiatives would be developing in a healthy manner.
Practically every church leader states that leadership is more
to do with
relationships than with position. Yet only half of them are taking
time to
train and coach young leaders.
...FROM OBSTACLES TO UNITY
On the subject of unity and co-operation, there are several things
church
leaders cannot easily get to agree. Is it necessary for successful
citywide
co-operation that all churches and congregations in a locality are
included?
Is the relationship with leaders and churches in my locality more
important
than my denominational affiliation? Should I sacrifice some of my
own goals
and desires for the sake of the process towards unity? Should my
church help
in practical ways or financially, if other churches in town have
difficulties?
These are hard questions. No wonder only 25% of city-wide co-operation
platforms have formulated a common vision.
Theological differences are becoming less important. Most church
leaders
share the opinion that their church does not have a better theology
than
other churches in town. And 70% sees no insurmountable objections
to
co-operation with Roman Catholics. But that does not lead to actual
pulpit
sharing. Of all church leaders, 20% have preached in other churches,
but
these are mostly of the same denomination. It is still quite exceptional
for
a free church pastor to preach in a reformed church and vice versa.
...ABOUT PRAYER AND SPIRITUAL MAPPING
In the area of prayer and research, a large majority of church
leaders agree
with the following four statements:
1. Satan currently has more influence in my locality than Jesus;
2. the church is called to battle demonic powers in this place ('spiritual
warfare');
3. collective and historic sins (of the city or the church) are
still quite
relevant today; we should confess these inherited sins;
4. intercessors are useful (it is good to cooperate with them).
Most church leaders see the use of spiritual mapping, but fewer
than 20%
have done or asked others to do it for the spiritual and social
situation of
their locality.
Half of the church leaders pray for their localities daily - the
others don'
t. In a little more than half of all localities, pastors have begun
to pray
together.
...ABOUT EVANGELISM AND THE GAP
Almost 80% of church leaders affirms that there is a gap between
the church
and the world, which is the reason why the church seems more or
less
irrelevant to people who do not yet know God. Most church leaders
also say
they understand why people are disappointed in the church. In spite
of this:
- most church leaders hesitate to change church organisation;
- only 30% of the churches know what their calling is and have developed
a
strategy to implement their calling;
- only half the church leaders agree that "the church's primary
reason for
existence is for its non-members";
- fewer than 10% of churches try to equip businessmen/women for
their
ministry in the business world;
- fewer than 40% structurally co-operate for evangelism with other
churches
in their locality.
By far most leaders do not believe big evangelistic events like
Impact World
Tour and Sonrise are effective for reaching their cities. Fewer
than 10%
choose for this method. Ready-made 'foreign' evangelistic concepts
are no
longer popular.
Just over half of those who responded believe it is a good idea
to start new
churches, including specific churches for young people, which is
remarkable,
because interest in church planting has diminished lately.
CONCLUDING
Generally, we might draw three conclusions from this survey:
1. church leaders want revival and know what is needed;
2. they think they're not doing too badly;
3. but when you dig a bit more deeply, there is little to show.
Inter-church talks and prayer or a service together from time to
time gives
pastors the idea that they are co-operating nicely (and of course
it is a
good start), but it is all very tentative and has practically no
impact for
non-believers. There is insufficient strategic thinking and effective
action.
What can we do about it? Judging from transformations and city-wide
co-operation in other countries, we can point to three key issues:
1. To bear fruit, the grain must fall in the earth and die. This
is a
spiritual principle. Do we dare to ask God to 'crucify' our own
strength and
ambitions, so that his power and passion may be manifested? At the
moment,
many Christians are experiencing such a process of dying to themselves
and
their work. It is necessary to become deeply dependent on the Lord,
so that
He can use us the way He wants.
2. The most powerful weapon in the heavenlies is a covenant. If
we make a
covenant with God for our city, Satan cannot easily drive us apart.
Let us
decide to devote ourselves completely to God and his plan with our
locality;
in prayer, in consecration, finances, time and passion. That sort
of
consecration is an open invitation to God to powerfully work with
us through
his Spirit.
3. It is crucial to learn to discern God's times, people and anointings.
That means we no longer start things in our own strength, but wait
till they
are born from the Holy Spirit, at God's time, with the right people
in
place, and with God's visible power. This is a secret we are only
just
learning.
Also, the results described above offer a number of points where
the process
of unity and city strategy can be strengthened.
SOME ADDITIONAL FACTS ABOUT THE SURVEY
We have sent out several hundreds of questionnaires, of which 70
were filled
in and returned. There were open questions and there were a number
of
statements to react to. Because the survey was not very large, and
the
questions were not formulated according to proper academic procedure,
we
have purposely not given any exact percentages, but rough indications
instead. This means that this survey is no more than an indication
of what
those who responded (a cross-section of evangelical church leaders)
think.
When we speak of a 'large majority', this means at least 85%. A
'majority'
is at least 70%.
Definitions:
- church leader: a leading person in a local church (pastor, minister
or
elder/deacon/evangelist).
- city strategy: the process whereby local churches in a city grow
in unity,
evangelism and social action in order to develop a common strategy
to
'saturate' their city in all its branches and pockets with the message
of
the Kingdom of God.
- city church: the total number of all Christians and churches in
a given
locality.
Source: Joel News
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