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JOEL-NEWS-INTERNATIONAL-426 * 20 JANUARY 2003 * WWW.JOELNEWS.ORG

IN THIS EDITION:

JN426-1. TYPICALLY GOD: Teenagers saved at pizza party
JN426-2. PRAYER FOCUS: Elections in the Netherlands
JN426-3. RESOURCE: Unity and city reaching in the Netherlands
JN426-4. RESOURCE: Reasons for working toward unity
JN426-5. RESOURCE: Deepening your fellowship
JN426-6. RESOURCE: On the road to collaboration

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QUOTE: "It takes a team to fulfill a dream." (Rick Warren)
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JN426-1. TYPICALLY GOD: Teenagers saved at pizza party

Ronald van der Molen is a young Dutch church planter who organises weekly pizza parties for teenagers in his neighborhood in The Hague. "Recently we had six teenage guests," he reports, "including a 17-year-old mother. We had a good discussion about Jesus and the Bible, and when I asked them 'Who wants to trust in Jesus, and start a new life with him?' they all raised their hands fast, saying 'me, me!'. We prayed for one of the boys, who then prayed for the others, that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit. Later, they said things like 'I feel so free, so happy. I sense the peace. I can feel someone else living in me!' The evening closed with drinks, and I challenged them to be baptised the following week."

"The next Sunday, we held a baptism party with around 80 people, around half of which were non-Christians. I didn't preach in the traditional sense, but simply told the story of God and explained why we baptise people. The resonance was overwhelming; many asked questions, wanting to know more, and some said 'we can tell that you Christians really love each other!'"

Dutch secular television recently reported on Ronald's unconventional methods. He travels all over Holland to encourage young people to plant churches. "I've discovered that church planting isn't exactly the hottest topic for young people between 18 and 25. But when they realise that it's not about inviting the world to the church, but about taking the church to the world, they wake up!"

LINK: http://dutchtraveller.blogspot.com

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JN426-2. PRAYER FOCUS: Elections in the Netherlands

The Netherlands are going through a period of political, social an moral crisis. In October the government fell for the second time in one year, leading to new elections on Wednesday 22 January. Like last year, these elections will be very tense as Labour and Christian Democrats are running for govenment in a close neck-to-neck race.

In May last year Transformations.NL, the platform of the Dutch prayer movement, called for 10 days of prayer and fasting for the nation. The May elections brought an unexpected victory for the Christian Democrats and serious loss for the parties involved in the previous liberal government (that legalised euthanasia, prostitution and gay marriage). Yesterday Labour announced that the mayor of Amsterdam, who confirmed the first official homosexual marriage, will be their candidate prime minister. Again the elections are a crucial time for intercessors to stand in the gap, especially as the media and polls exercise disproportional influence on the outcome.

Let's proclaim the lordship of Jesus over these elections. Pray as the Spirit leads for every voter, including the huge 'floating electorate'. Pray for a government that can lead the nation in this time of crisis in a spirit of courage and godly servanthood.

LINK: http://www.10dagenvoornederland.nl/artikel.php?l=uk&id=116

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JN426-3. RESOURCE: Unity and city reaching in the Netherlands

"Revival Yes, but hands off my church." That is in short the main conclusion of a survey among evangelical church leaders in the Netherlands. The survey 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.

The survey gives insight in two questions:
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 revival in their towns or regions?

The results might be indicative for the situation in Europe and can be retrieved by sending an e-mail to lyris@xc.org with only this command in the body of your mail:

get joel-news-international cityreaching-survey-netherlands

Source: Joel News

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JN426-4. RESOURCE: Reasons for working toward unity

Dennis Fuqua wrote an article for the City Impact Roundtable in which he lists 14 Scriptural reasons for working toward unity.

LINK: http://www.nppn.org/Articles/Article046.htm

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JN426-5. RESOURCE: Deepening your fellowship

"One of the reasons Saddleback is growing is because we've maintained a harmonious atmosphere," says pastor Rick Warren in this article. "When a church loves, it attracts people like a magnet. When a church really offers love to each other and those who are welcomed into it, you have to lock the doors to keep people out!"

LINK: http://makeashorterlink.com/?V6A145823

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JN426-6. RESOURCE: On the road to collaboration

As an officer in the Marine Corps Tom McGehee learned the necessity of collaboration in accomplishing a mission. As a Vice-President with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, he facilitated the use of collaborative processes in problem solving for major corporate clients. Recently, he has joined a new initiative of Leadership Network called Leadership Coach. This article is an interview with McGehee about collaboration. It provides insight for Christian leaders who wish to partner on a city level.

LINK: http://www.pastornet.net.au/jmm/alpt/alpt0485.htm

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COLOPHON

Joel News International is a leading special interest bulletin on prayer, church growth and revival. We offer a keen selection of the most encouraging news reports, the most challenging developments and the best resources from over 100 reliable sources in six continents. Joel News International is a great help and time-saver for thousands of Christian leaders and intercessors in over 120 nations.

Editors: Branko Bjelajac, Adriaan van der Hoeven and Marc van der Woude. You can contact the editorial office at joel-news@xs4all.nl.

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