Here, you can find a number of helpful links, to explain more about the past, present, and/or future of our ministry in Amsterdam:

Zolder50 (www.amsterdam50.nl)

Our church in Amsterdam

In its own words: Zolder50 is a Christian community of people who come from many different countries, religious (and non-religious) backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles. It is a forum where people can seek the deeper meaning of life and investigate spirituality. We are connected as brothers and sisters through our common belief in the God of the Bible and His son, Jesus Christ. No matter where you are at in your spiritual journey, you are welcome here, as a friend and fellow seeker...

Great Commission Ministries (www.gcmweb.org)

My employer since 1999

In its own words: GCM creates church communities for the next generation, mobilizes missions worldwide, and provides leadership development opportunities. Their purpose is to help fulfill Jesus' Great Commission by creating and networking churches for the next generation around the world…

h2o – Bowling Green (www.h2ochurch.com)

The church in which I was involved when I first really started to follow God; one of the two "sending churches" which helped to establish Zolder50 in Amsterdam

In its own words: h2o is a university organization and church designed for college students on the campus of BGSU and in the city of Bowling Green. We seek to creatively communicate the timeless message of the Bible that has changed millions of lives over thousands of years. Whether you are thirsty for a college church or searching for answers to spiritual questions, check out h2o and experience the Living Water…

Great Commission Europe (http://www.gceweb.org/)

The European-based association of churches with which Zolder50 is affiliated

In its own words: GCE currently has churches in 8 European countries... 

Great Commission Association (http://www.gcachurches.org/)

An international association of churches and church-planting movements, which includes Great Commission Ministries, Great Commission Europe, and a number of other organizations from around the world who all share a common history and vision for reaching the world.

In its own words: The Great Commission Association (GCA) is a ministry of Great Commission Churches to international churches and ministries. In the Book of Acts, the leaders in Jerusalem provided leadership and oversight to churches in their country Judea and provided the right hand of fellowship to Paul as he ministered to the Gentile nations. Similarly, Great Commission Churches provides leadership and oversight to member churches in the United States and the right hand of fellowship through GCA to international churches and ministries...

Evangelisch Contact (http://www.ecamsterdam.nl/)

An informal fellowship of evangelical churches in Amsterdam

In its own words: Het Evangelisch Contact Amsterdam (ECA) is een vereniging van kerken en christelijke organisaties in Amsterdam die zich kunnen vinden en elkaar herkennen in het geloof in de drie-ene God en het gezag van de Bijbel, zoals dat in de beginselverklaring van de Evangelische Alliantie onder woorden is gebracht…

(English translation:  The Evangelical Alliance of Amsterdam (ECA) is an association of churches and Christian organizations in Amsterdam which would recognize themselves and each other by their common faith in the triune God and the authority of the Bible, as stated in the charter declaration of the original Evangelical Alliance..)

Serve the City - Amsterdam (www.stcamsterdam.nl)

An annual large-scale coordinated service project, originally initiated by Zolder50

In its own words:  Serve the City is a charity movement that wants to contribute to the well-being of Amsterdam by serving the people of this city in refreshing and practical ways.  Serve the City inspires, motivates, and mobilizes people to carry out constructive charity work...

There are four primary ways that you may be able to get involved with our ministry in Amsterdam!

First and foremost, we would greatly appreciate your prayer for our family, for the work of Zolder50, and for the city of Amsterdam.  Check our Prayer Letters for all of the latest news and prayer requests, or check the Prayer Points for more succinct bullet-point prayer requests.  In addition, you can download a high-resolution copy of our most recent prayer card (as seen above), which we hope will help you to remember us in prayer.

Secondly, we challenge you to consider how God might want to use you as a missionary to a different culture.  A brief review of Our Story shows that God can use ordinary people in extraordinary ways, if they're willing to follow Him.  Perhaps you would like to help organize a short-term missions trip, helping your church to partner with our church in Amsterdam.  Perhaps you would like to plan for a more informal visit to Amsterdam, just to get a first-hand view of God's work in the city.  Or perhaps you're thinking about a career in full-time ministry and/or international missions.  Jesus said that "the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few" and then instructed us to "ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers out into his harvest field."  So if we can help you think through this, please let us know!

Thirdly, we need people who will partner with our ministry financially, to allow for us to be involved in full-time ministry in Amsterdam.  For the last decade, our ministry has been generously supported by a grassroots network of individuals, families, and churches who give regularly to Great Commission Ministries, on behalf of our ministry in Amsterdam.  However, costs for ministry in Amsterdam continue to rise, and we must continue to trust God for the funding of His work in the city.  Some people give $5 a month; some people give $500 a month -- and anywhere in between -- but we like to ask people to consider giving somewhere between $50 and $100 per month, as this is an amount which seems manageable for many people while still providing a huge help for our ministry.  If you're interested in helping in this way, you could download a printable giving form.  Or you could even give on-line through Great Commission Ministries' on-line giving technology (search for "Eric Asp" in the yellow box).  In any event, however you might choose to give, we would greatly appreciate your involvement in this way!

And finally, you could help us by connecting us with other people who might be interested in hearing about our ministry in Amsterdam.  Maybe you know someone who is interested in international missions, or in youth work, or in European issues... Any of these types of people could be helpful in pulling together the entire team that we need to effectively minister in Amsterdam (through the aforementioned ways of getting involved).  Our circle of acquaintances is limited, so if you know anyone who we could talk with, please pass along their name and contact information, via the e-mail address below.

If you are interested in joining us and Great Commission Ministries, through partnering with us in any of these ways -- or even if you're simply interested in finding out more about it, please email me at eric.asp@amsterdam50.nl.   Thank you for your prayerful consideration of personal involvement with the work of God's Kingdom in Amsterdam.

I never had a burning vision to be a "church planter."  My general involvement in church leadership can be credited more to a sense of incidental availability than a natural desire of my heart.  And well, to be honest, personal involvement in long-term "overseas missions" was never an aspiration of mine...

Yet here I am, serving as a pastor, helping to develop a fledgling church in Amsterdam's city center.

How did this happen?  Well, up until the early part of this decade our family was involved in a student ministry called h2o at Bowling Green State University (in northwest Ohio).  Around that time, our church had grown and solidified to the point where we felt compelled by Jesus' instruction to "Go and make disciples of all nations" and thus consider starting another church elsewhere -- someplace with a lot of young people (since our experience was in ministering to university students), someplace with opportunities for strategic influence (we wanted to influence a city that could in turn influence entire people groups and create inroads to other parts of the world), and someplace with a need for churches.  In the process of considering our options, God led us to team up with another church in Colorado (to which we were connected through mutual involvement in Great Commission Ministries), and eventually Amsterdam became a particular point of intrigue -- aligning quite astonishingly with our search criteria:  a city of 1.5 million with approximately 400,000 between ages of 18-30... An extremely international community (the population is roughly half Dutch and half international, with 140 different languages spoken in the city)... And less than three percent of the population living as evangelical Christians.

We decided that we had to check it out for ourselves.

In May of 2001, my wife and I were a part of an exploratory trip to Amsterdam, with a team of 35 people on assignment to get the counsel from any Christians we could find in the city and talk to the average "person on the street" as well, in order to gauge the spiritual vibe of the city.  Every church and ministry leader that we talked to urged us to come.  Furthermore, in interacting with random strangers in the parks and pleins and cafes -- asking for a sampling of opinions about God and about church -- we were shocked by what we learned.  In all of our random encounters during the course of that trip, we did not meet a single person who had ever even visited a church before!  Even so, there was a tremendous sense of curiosity and openness that seemed to beckon us to choose Amsterdam as the location for our eventual church plant...  And after much prayer, discussion, and consideration, that's exactly what we did.

Our family landed on the Continent in January of 2003, and since then we've seen God do some pretty amazing things.  In a Western European context, where church growth is typically measured in terms of dozens of people over decades of time -- our ministry has actually seen over 200 people become involved after just a few short years as a church community.

And, believe it or not, we feel that the best is yet to come.