By Wilke den Hertog
As a missionary on leave, I visit all kinds of churches, preaching from left to right and in the middle shall we say. Besides some things that my wife Marlies and I notice in the Netherlands and in the churches, which we sometimes find less positive, I would like to share something else in this story, something that makes us happy and hopeful.
Indeed, what I also notice more and more in the Dutch churches is how in all these different churches (from left to right and centre) we encounter more and more brothers and sisters who respond enthusiastically to stories about mission and being missional. Many of them are also looking for how to be missional themselves. For instance, we came across a church where 25 people from outside participate in the Alpha course every year. In other churches, they seek out people in need to help them and also bring them the gospel. In yet another place, street evangelism takes place every fortnight and there is huge openness to the gospel!
I wonder a bit if all these Christians and churches know that about each other? Whether they realise that throughout the churches there is a desire among various brothers and sisters to go out with the gospel!
I therefore wonder more and more whether God might be preparing the churches in the Netherlands for something new, a step outside!
A few years ago, I read a booklet I had had on the shelf for years. It is a booklet by a V.U. professor of Missiology from 1941, Professor J.H. Bavinck. The booklet was reprinted again in 1961. It is called 'Alzo wies the Word'. I think there are few books that have unjustly disappeared from view again so unnoticed. His big point is that the church should no longer be on the defence, but on the attack! That was what the early church did, she went on the attack! She stepped out.
Anonymous missionaries, people with no theological training, with very ordinary professions, came to faith in Jesus and naturally started sharing the Word in their own environment. In their homes arose the churches we see in the New Testament. Much also went wrong, but these people were powerfully used by the Holy Spirit to 'wash (grow) the Word'.
A man like the apostle Paul was used by God to steer in this movement, but what Paul did not do was frustrate this movement and try to stop it. On the contrary! Paul saw how God's Spirit was working in this movement of 'ordinary' believers and how thus the kingdom was being expanded.
Could it not be that we are once again at a point where we as a church may and should 'go on the attack'? Shouldn't we give free rein and encourage this desire that Marlies and I encounter in churches? Even if things might go wrong here and there?
Are we giving the Holy Spirit enough space in our churches to engage people in His mission? Do they feel stimulated and encouraged? And are our pastors given enough opportunity not to frustrate this, but rather to be able to make full and grateful use of it? By equipping, coaching 'ordinary' believers perhaps?
After several years on the mission field, my hands often itch when I am in the Netherlands, what tremendous opportunities are now before the churches! And what enthusiasm among certain brothers and sisters! I would like to share in a few more columns some of the ideas I have from the mission field, which we find very normal there, but which for some reason we find so difficult to apply in the Netherlands.
I don't have the wisdom of course, but couldn't we try some? Just as in the early church, mission was spontaneously 'tried' by many anonymous people and blessed by God? What do we have to lose?
