Yesterday was a good day. I had the privilige of celebrating with the community of The Well in Brussels. The Well is CA's church plant in Brussels - except that the word church plant no longer applies. The Well is now officially recognized as a church by a Belgium network of churches, A-net.
It's like a 'coming-of-age' for a church plant. CA plants churches that we hope will one day become mature, self-governing and self-funding entities. We are not a denomination in the sense that we maintain a level of control; we are an association based on friendship.
The Well is really not even just one church: it is a network of smaller churches ('expressions') that meet in a variety of places. In the picture above Carlton (team-leader on the right) is introducing the leaders of these different expressions (picture taken with iPhone).
I visited Brussels with a research team many years ago to investigate if CA should plant in Brussels - and what such a church plant should look like. Then Carlton and Shannon moved there and started The Well. So exciting to see that The Well is now running and impacting the city - and I really mean impact: from Brussels Serve The City has now spread to 43 cities world-wide!
UTRECHT
But there was more that excited me. Some of you will remember that last year I had the privilige of assisting the Dutch Reformed Church of the Netherlands in a church planting project. That project actually resulted in two church planting projects. One of those projects was already off to a good start, but the other was was struggling and for a long time I was not sure it would get off the ground. But yesterday it too had it's first event - and reports were good!
Below is a video (in Dutch) they put together for it. In it, various people from the city of Utrecht are asked what they expect of the future. Well done to Charissa, Egbert, Theo, Jenny and many others: you were in my prayers. I am excited to hear good news from you!
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