What is the gospel to young people who already have everything? It tells them nothing at all, discovered Rev David van der Meulen. As a missionary pastor, he works in Amsterdam-Zuid among well-educated 20s and 30s with a good income. He learned to listen and discovered by trial and error how the church can share something of God's love with these people. And he published a very practical book about it in May: Welcome to the Limbo.
An unknown world
Very many young adults have not been taught the faith, have never come into contact with it and do not know any Christians themselves. Pastor David, as he introduces himself, noted with surprise that his highly educated neighbour had no idea what Easter is about. And that neighbour was not the only one. "I discovered that it didn't sink in, it was never there. For these millennials, church and faith belong to a world they do not know and do not understand.
Young people are preoccupied with making a career, realising their potential, fulfilling their dreams. Deep down, of course, they have social, emotional and intellectual desires, but that is more subconscious. We can interpret that as a deficit, but if we only want to talk about that, we are therefore on a completely wrong wavelength and we are not doing justice to these people either.'
Learning to listen
Reaching socially successful people with the gospel seems an impossible task. Van der Meulen discovered that this huge gap can be bridged by connecting with the questions and needs of millennials. 'We are used to mainly broadcasting, telling our message. Me too, but I have learned by trial and error to just listen first. The moment you discover their wavelength, by consciously choosing to be there for them, you can mean so much to them.'
Meeting each other
Van der Meulen compares the public space where church and society meet to the temple's forecourt, the large square where believers and non-believers met. 'The temple, where worship took place, and that forecourt were inseparable. To me, the point is that together as a church, you build not only the temple, but also that forecourt. And that doesn't even necessarily have to be a place, lol! The forecourt already starts when you meet that same neighbour every morning and are trimming the hedge together on Saturdays. So how can you be there for that other person? How can you share your life with each other?'
Getting started in three steps
The ten short chapters of the book are designed to help people with that missionary desire get started in creating a forecourt. As a reader, you are first of all defined by what drives you. Is it the love of God? Why these people? The second step is about how you then work with people in their twenties and thirties. What are they doing? And finally, you look at what you will do next. 'Conscious with those three steps: do it together, find the right tone and do it with God. I like people to read the whole booklet. Automatically you go to the last chapter on concrete action, but it starts with the question: is that desire embedded in a desire to dwell in the love of God and in his truth ourselves? If that is our basis, we can discover together, listening, where the other person stands ánd connect with what God is doing in the other person.'
Ordering
Welcome to the Forecourt by David van der Meulen is published by Ark Media. The book can be ordered from any bookstore and at www.indevoorhof.nl, where practical examples can also be found.
