You also, like living stones, are being built into a
spiritual house... that you may declare the praises of him
who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
(1 Peter 2:5,9)

Greetings from Amsterdam!  We’re enjoying the relaxed pace of the summer season, and we hope that you are too.  This month’s prayer letter focuses on some recent developments with our new ministry center… and, ironically, on the efforts of our community to minister in just about every kind of environment except for a ministry center!

At any rate, you probably haven't noticed it nearly as much as I have... But it's been a loooooong time since I've really had anything to say about our church's relocation process.  Believe it or not, our “temporary” period of homelessness has turned into a ten-month ordeal.  Although we were initially very excited by the prospect of a new ministry center on the historic Herengracht, the road to actual occupation of the facilities has proved to be a bumpy one.  Over the last six months, in fact, we've undergone an agonizing ordeal of business negotiations and legal positioning as the situation with the “H88” facility went from complicated and difficult to more complicated and more difficult...

In particular, we encountered significant issues with the renovation costs (which, at one point in the spring, had been inflated to approximately three times the original estimate under which we signed the contract) and with the maximum attendance allowance by the fire marshal (although the contract explicitly stipulated an allowance for at least 120, the initial permission granted by the fire marshal—after all of those expensive renovations—was for only 81 people).  Indeed, there have been times over the last several months when the situation with the new facility seemed truly impossible.  We and the building owner stood at the brink of a court case on a number of different occasions.  It was a very intense (and seemingly impossible) situation.

Thus, it was incredible surprise when, about a month ago, we finally reached an agreement with the owner of the H88 that should have us meeting in there relatively soon!  Despite the odds, we and the owner settled on an agreement securing permission for at least 120 people and distributing responsibility for the extra renovation costs.  Of course, in the give-and-take of business negotiations, we—like the owner—had to make some concessions to reach this agreement; however, the final agreement has still kept us within our means, and it has definitively provided for eventual allowance of at least 120 people (and maybe even as many as 150, now that they’re going to have to put in a second fire exit after all).  The actual timelines are still working themselves out, but at any rate—we are now moving forward again!  Hallelujah!  Please keep praying, with us, for the conclusion of our relocation process…

In the meantime, even while growing excited to have a more “permanent” base of operations for our ministry in the city, we’re actively working to keep our church fluid and flexible—not dependent on the classical elements of ministry (like a ministry facility) that can sometimes take the focus away from our basic identity as the Body of Christ in Amsterdam.  So much of our reason for moving here was a hope that we could make a difference—serving as a very different kind of church, challenging people’s expectations and creating a fresh sense of who God is and what the church can be.

To accomplish this, we’ve learned that we must be very deliberate in conditioning ourselves to be a church “outside the box.”  One of the most intriguing  ways that we’ve kept ourselves flexible and fluid over the last couple of years is to deliberately shake up our schedule during the summers—particularly in the month of August.  Instead of the typical worship gatherings (with worship music and teaching from the Bible), we’ve planned a number of different activities to practically remind ourselves of the fluidity and flexibility of what it means to “do Church” (or “be Church”) in Amsterdam.

On the first Sunday of the month, we’re meeting in the Vondelpark (a big, beautiful green space right in the middle of the city), actually reprising an event that we've been doing for three years now.  In this, we desire to take our church to the people of Amsterdam, rather than waiting for the people of Amsterdam to come to our church… That is to say, on a sunny summer Sunday afternoon in Amsterdam, most Amsterdammers are in the Vondelpark!  So we take the church to them!  And again, by "church" I don't mean the building (obviously) or the worship gathering per se... We take the Church.  The people of God.  The Body of Christ.  And we bring God’s presence with us to the Vondelpark.

In the second week of the month, we’re organizing a scavenger hunt that serves to introduce people to our church’s home groups.  The following week, we’re sponsoring a party on a canal boat (an iconic Amsterdam experience) to which people can invite their friends and introduce them to the Zolder50 community.  And in the final week of August, we’re hoping to christen the H88 facility with an “Open Mic Night” in which we can showcase some of the amazing artistic talent in our own community, while simultaneously hoping that God will use the event to bring new people into contact with His Church (since there are a lot of different budding artists in the city, and they're all looking for venues in which they can get their stuff out there!).

Perhaps this all sounds crazy to you—and in a sense, it is!  Yet we don’t just do this to be “different” or “cutting edge.”  We do this to allow ourselves a greater opportunity to influence the city.  As we’re out and about, we’ll have people asking who we are and what we’re doing—thus, we’ll have opportunities to introduce other people to God in a non-confrontational way.  Also, with events like what we’re having in the coming month, the people in our community have an ideal opportunity to introduce their friends or family members to Church in a way that totally subverts their expectations and stereotypes.  Furthermore, if we really believe that Church is more than a building… or a meeting… or a model… or a good to be consumed, then this is a way to live that out.

So now you know the latest from Amsterdam.  Thanks, as always, for your prayer and financial support.  We’ll continue to be in touch…

Eric