Participants:
Series Code: MTS
Program Code: MTS002705A
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00:19 Community-run urban Center of influence
00:21 in Bulgaria, 00:23 a pioneer Seventh-day Adventist missionary 00:25 to Argentina, 00:26 and a church part in Madrid, Spain, 00:28 all this and much more coming up next. 01:09 Hello, and welcome to Mission 360. 01:11 I'm Gary Krause. 01:12 Today's program is coming to you 01:13 from Amsterdam in the Netherlands. 01:16 When people think of Amsterdam and the Netherlands, 01:18 they think perhaps of windmills and tulips 01:22 and clothes and cheese. 01:24 But this city is really known as the Venice of the North 01:28 because the number of canals, 01:30 some more than 160 canals stretching for 62 miles. 01:34 And you see boats going up and down the river 01:37 and it's a place where tourists love to come. 01:40 Well, first up, we're going to be looking 01:42 at Mission in Bulgaria 01:43 and a Center of influence operating there. 01:47 In the still dark and early mornings, 01:50 flour and water meet, 01:52 they rise with yeast and are shoved in an oven 01:55 to be transformed by heat. 02:01 The aroma fills the air 02:03 sending an irresistible invitation 02:05 to mouth-watering delights. 02:08 One by one people come to order to socialize and laugh. 02:13 Every day people of all ages and different ethnicities 02:17 line up at this bakery eager to savor delicious bread. 02:28 Making bread takes time and patience. 02:32 It takes loving hands to mix ingredients 02:35 and press them together 02:36 until the dough is ready to rise and grow 02:39 so it is with people. 02:41 It takes time and patience 02:43 to cultivate trust and friendship 02:46 to warm their lives 02:47 and invite them to follow Jesus. 02:50 At the Tpane3ata Global Mission Urban Center of Influence 02:54 in Bulgaria staff members offer visitors 02:57 more than food. 02:58 Here people find room to interact and participate 03:01 in a variety of courses and activities. 03:04 As they make new friends, 03:06 visitors are invited to become volunteers themselves. 03:09 This way they can give back and help others too. 03:15 Dimitur is a regular volunteer 03:18 who found purpose in Tpane3ata by tutoring math. 03:24 There are good people here 03:25 and I developed good relationships 03:27 with different people. 03:29 So I want to give my best to others. 03:31 I feel a strong desire to learn more about God 03:34 and the Bible. 03:36 I have this idea 03:37 that I have to help and if I can, 03:39 I'm going to do it. 03:41 I am not a math teacher, I'm an engineer. 03:44 But here I help kids with math. 03:46 Dimitur travels 10 kilometers every day. 03:50 Sometimes he comes on foot. 03:51 He started as a customer, 03:53 then he became a volunteer 03:55 and now he is a baptized Seventh-day Adventist. 03:58 Like Dimitur many people who come to Tpane3ata 04:01 find the bread of life. 04:03 The owners of Tpane3ata 04:05 have seen how centers of influence 04:07 like this can work as a platform 04:10 to engage the community and form friendships. 04:14 God gave us this place to keep us close to people. 04:17 God showed us that we needed a place 04:19 where people felt accepted and at home. 04:22 That's why we established a bakery 04:24 because it smells like home. 04:25 In Bulgaria, people eat a lot of bread. 04:28 This is how Christ worked. He was close to people. 04:31 He offered them the bread of life. 04:33 He healed them and took care of them 04:36 and we want to do the same. 04:38 The leaders at Tpane3ata invite you to pray 04:40 for this growing group of new believers. 04:42 Please pray for this urban center of influence 04:45 and many others around the world 04:47 that find creative ways to introduce people to Jesus. 04:51 Thank you for supporting urban centers of influence 04:54 through Global Mission. 05:16 My guest is Pastor Rudy Dingjan 05:18 who was the leader of church planting 05:21 and church growth here 05:22 in the Netherlands for many years. 05:24 Rudy, thanks for joining us. It's okay. 05:26 Now can you tell me please 05:28 describe what the challenge is of mission 05:31 here in the Netherlands? 05:32 Well, though we have the name to be very Christian nation, 05:36 Christianity has moved to the margin. 05:39 And to many people, 05:42 it's a true fact that they only go to church 05:44 if there's a funeral of someone they know 05:46 or somebody gets married who is churchy. 05:49 But for the rest of it, to be a pastor, 05:53 to be a Christian, 05:56 it's almost like 05:57 some negative aspect of your life. 05:59 Right. Yeah. 06:01 So the number of people 06:03 who would actually attend church is minimal? 06:07 Yeah. Yeah. 06:09 They are not many left now. 06:10 But the ones that go to church, 06:11 they are the bold ones, 06:13 otherwise they would have left already. 06:14 Right. 06:16 Now what about the Seventh-day Adventist Church? 06:17 How would you describe the Adventist Church 06:18 in the Netherlands? 06:20 Well, we are a community of about 6,000 members 06:23 in a population of 70 million. 06:25 Wow. 06:27 And we are struggling to reach the people around us. 06:33 As we used to be evangelists of other Christians, 06:37 now it's important to learn 06:38 to be an evangelist to non-Christians. 06:42 And that's a completely different game. 06:44 Now tell me about that game 06:46 because I know that you focus very much on church planting? 06:50 Why did you have that focus? 06:51 Well, we have this hard time of reaching people. 06:55 And then Peter Humefelt 06:58 who was our division church growth leader 07:01 at that time, 07:02 took us to Australia 07:04 to see how church planting worked 07:06 because evangelism itself 07:08 didn't work in the '90s anymore. 07:10 And then when I came back, 07:13 I was full of enthusiasm 07:15 because there it was possible to touch communities, 07:18 touch cities by planting new churches, 07:22 though they sometimes were very small. 07:24 And we try to do it in Holland, 07:25 but we didn't have enough pastors. 07:27 We couldn't set free a pastor to start church planting, 07:30 so we said, well, let's do it with members. 07:34 So teams of members started planting churches. 07:38 And not all of them were a success, 07:41 but the ones that did succeed 07:44 the people that started it stayed. 07:46 Yes. 07:47 And the problem with pastors is they often get moved. 07:49 Right. 07:51 And then the project now is spoiled. 07:53 And working with lay members has been very, very good thing. 07:58 Wonderful. 08:00 Now, several years ago I traveled with you 08:02 to visit some of these church plants. 08:04 Can you describe for our viewers 08:06 some of these initiatives? 08:08 What did they look like? What did they do? 08:10 Well, we find that it's very hard 08:15 for new churches to stay new. 08:17 Right. 08:18 It's very easy to become settled 08:21 once you are an organized church. 08:24 But it's a great joy to see 08:25 how new church 08:27 is now already planting new churches. 08:30 Yes. 08:31 So they become not only mother, their mother church, 08:34 but it's going to be a grandmother. 08:36 Wonderful. 08:37 And to keep that moving, it's a lot of work, 08:40 but it's the way. 08:43 Now I remember there was one group 08:45 that was basically just running 08:47 children's activities on Sabbath morning. 08:50 Do you remember that project? I remember that project. 08:51 Yeah. 08:53 Now, some would say, well, 08:54 in church you should actually be 08:56 sitting in a pew worshiping God, 08:57 but this look totally different? 08:59 Oh, yeah. 09:00 And then they're many more totally different church plants 09:02 also in the past and present 09:04 because it's no way to have a select service 09:08 with all kinds of songs and music, 09:10 they should go very well. 09:13 But they've only used self there, 09:15 it's not the object. 09:17 We have to learn to touch the community, 09:19 to learn to touch real life. 09:22 And that's where projects are a success 09:25 when they really itch, you know, how to say. 09:29 They stretch where it itches. That's right. 09:32 They say, well, there's a need here we can help. 09:35 And it's not only that we help people 09:37 we want to reach, 09:38 often it's the way by asking others to help us 09:41 to do something good for community. 09:45 And then the ones who are helping us, 09:46 they are the target group 09:48 that gets to learn to know Christ. 09:50 I remember that, because I remember your, 09:53 at least one of your daughters was at university 09:54 and they were doing 09:56 some sort of a community activity 09:57 and she stressed 09:58 that the important things we involve non believers 10:01 in what we were doing. 10:02 Yeah. They asked their friends. 10:04 Please help us, we're doing this 10:05 or we're doing that. 10:06 And by doing that, 10:08 they got into contact with one another 10:10 and you start talking and you can invite them 10:12 to something more biblical, but it takes time. 10:15 Right. 10:17 You first you have to find trust 10:18 to get to know the community. 10:21 The community you experienced 10:25 when you are a family of God together. 10:27 Yes. 10:28 Rudy, give me an experience of somebody 10:31 whose life was touched through church planting? 10:34 Well, I remember a guy who was a student, 10:37 who was very atheistic 10:38 because his mother had had very bad experiences 10:41 with Christians. 10:42 She had divorced 10:44 and that was in an age when you didn't do that. 10:46 And he was a marathon runner. 10:51 Oh, yes. And... 10:54 We were... 10:56 My daughter's prayer project of doing things for others. 10:59 They were running on a track to get sponsored 11:04 to pay for a meal for homeless. 11:06 And a friend of his asked him, "Why don't you run for us?" 11:10 "Oh, I will run." 11:11 And that was his first contact with the church plant. 11:17 But when they said we are going to cook it 11:18 now that meal, you want to join us? 11:20 Now he was going to join, he liked it. 11:23 He got to learn another girl, he got engaged. 11:27 Together they started coming to the church plant, 11:31 though he was a non-believer. 11:34 Then he went to the alpha course 11:35 in other church, 11:37 but kept on having contact with a small group. 11:41 And during time he became believer, 11:43 he realized, suddenly, I am a believer. 11:45 You know, 11:46 there was no altar call whatever. 11:49 It came so far and he was baptized. 11:51 But the first contact was him stretching, running. 11:55 That's his stretch for a good cause 12:00 we were organizing. 12:01 Wonderful, great story. 12:03 Rudy, thanks for sharing with us. 12:04 You are very welcome. Appreciate it. 12:05 Our viewers at home, 12:07 please pray for the Netherlands, 12:08 pray for Europe in general. 12:10 In some ways, 12:12 Europe represents our new mission field. 12:13 For many years they serve the world 12:15 sending missionaries around the world, 12:17 they still do some. 12:18 But we see the growth of secularism 12:20 and post modernism, 12:22 and church planting 12:23 starting new groups of believers 12:25 is a wonderful ways to start, 12:27 to help build the kingdom of God 12:28 here in Europe. 12:29 We'll be right back after this break. |
Revised 2020-06-11