"So you're kind of an international church, then?" a friend asks.

"Mmm, kind of. But not really," I say.

"Well, didn't you just say that you have people from all different parts of the world that are involved with your church?"

"That's right. But you know, we're not an 'international church.' We're a... well, umm... I don't know how to describe it... You know, we've got people from all different parts of the world and all different kinds of backgrounds who worship God together... But, you know, we're more of an Amsterdamse church, with like 50 percent of the people Dutch and 50 percent everything else... You know what I mean?"

"Umm... Sounds to me like you're an international church."

I don't know what else to say. It seems ludicrous to deny the obvious use of such an appropriate adjective for our church. But for years now, I've avoided the phrase "international church" as a way of describing Amsterdam50. I never really sat down to figure out the reason behind this semantic aversion -- but I think it had something to do with "sustainability" and "indigenous development" (which are regular subjects of discourse in the fields of international missions and church-planting). In having this conversation with my friend, however, it dawns on me that my avoidance of the phrase "international church" has a specific association in my mind which is not just about sustainability and indigenous development. It's about inclusion and accessibility.

In my mind, "international church" feels like it's strongly associated with the expatriate community: people who are largely Anglo-Saxon, highly educated, fairly affluent, and decidedly short-term. They work for large companies and rent large, furnished apartments in the southern neighborhoods of Amsterdam. They're great people -- and I have absolutely nothing against developing relationships with expatriates, and even contextualizing the Gospel for the expatriate community. As a matter of fact, I often feel that I fit in better with Amsterdam's expatriate crowd than many of the other kinds of "international" people living in Amsterdam! However, the trick with the expatriate community in Amsterdam is that it's a relatively closed community. Their socio-economic status, their linguistic preferences, and their unique trans-continental lifestyles don't usually allow for expatriates to relate particularly well with the local population, or with other sorts of international people in the city (i.e. ethnic minorities, long-term first- and second-generation immigrants, refugees, illegal immigrants, etc.). And honestly, an intentional focus on the expatriate-international demographic -- which is what automatically pops into mind if we would be consciously identifying ourselves as an "international church" -- has never felt like a group to which God has called me.

But then again, I remember that a signficant part of the reason I moved to Amsterdam -- out of all the other possible places to live and minister -- was to be in a strategic, international location which served as a point of connection to all different cultures and countries around the world.

So in a sense, I did come to Amsterdam to help establish an international church -- but hopefully a more inclusive kind of "international," with people from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe -- as well as the "expatriate-international" people from North America and Australia and other parts of Western Europe. We deliberately focus on Amsterdam's city center because that's where the various subcultures of Amsterdam intermingle. We try to live and minister in such a way that we can constantly be "sowing seeds" -- in a dandelion kind of way -- whether people are involved with our church community for years, months, or just days. We conduct our Sunday worship gatherings in English, because English has a broader global reach than Dutch. But we also encourage people to interact with their various subcultures in their own unique ways as well... And in so doing, we try to keep ourselves multi-layered and mindful of all the different kinds of "internationals" in the city of Amsterdam. In so doing, we hope to contextualize the way that Jesus conducted his ministry among varying strata of society (as we can see in Matthew 9:9-13 or Matthew 25:31-46).

I don't know why this felt like such an epiphany to me -- to realize these two different expressions of being "international" -- but somehow it has given me a fresh sense of what I'm here to do: going into the world, and making disciples of all nations... In essence, building an international church. But, you know, not an international church. :-)