{"id":1254,"date":"2010-08-20T18:22:45","date_gmt":"2010-08-20T16:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boerenroem.nl\/?p=1254"},"modified":"2014-12-23T21:55:50","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T20:55:50","slug":"on-the-road-to-cape-town-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2010\/08\/20\/on-the-road-to-cape-town-1\/","title":{"rendered":"On the road to Cape Town #1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This is the first blog in preparation of the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation, to be held in Cape Town, South-Africa from 16 to 25 October. I will share personal observations and reflections on the relevance of the gospel of Jesus Christ in a postmodern, postchristian society.<\/em><\/p>\n

The brand new library of my home town Almere is a great place. Four floors of books- probably more than 100.000 of them. A study center, a caf\u00e9, multimedia corners \u2013 you name it. I love the place when I need to do stuff that can\u2019t be done in the office or at home: thinking, writing, praying. The physical proximity of books is inspiring. This afternoon I strolled around and got a grip of the vast enormity of books that are written. Always looking for a good book, I tried to locate the \u2018Christian spirituality\u2019 section. And after a good search, I found it: on the 4th<\/sup> floor, somewhere in between Architecture and \u00a0Sociology. Four rather small shelves with books \u2013 all in all maybe 200, including the Religious Sciences ones. \u00a0If the collection of books is in any way related to the interests of the general public, what does this tell us about the importance of religion in the eyes of the Almere population?<\/p>\n

Rewind a couple of weeks. While writing another article, I go online to find some current statistics on church attendance and religiosity. The actual numbers I found are interesting, but even more interesting is the fact that on this website (www.cbs.nl<\/a>, the Dutch Statistics Institute) \u2018religion\u2019 is a subcategory of \u2018Leasure and Culture\u2019. What does this tell us about the importance of religion in the eyes of statisticians?<\/p>\n

Another few months before. A colleague hands me a booklet called \u2018God is crazy\u2019. A strange title but a fascinating little book. The author confronts the \u2018rabid atheism\u2019 that he encounters in factually all the media: God does not exist, and everyone who thinks He does is retarded. The most interesting fact is that the author can be classified as \u2018one of them\u2019 \u2013 a well known, secular and (in the eyes of many) ungodly writer. Is something happening here?<\/p>\n

In the last month, 55.600.000 people searched on \u2018God\u2019 on Google, of which 823.000 in The Netherlands. On a population of 16.5M, this is about 5%, against less than 1% worldwide. At the same time: our StudentLife teams spoke with about 600 students last year, and only 3 of them decided to follow Jesus. What does this say?<\/p>\n

There is a clear ambivalence with regard to religion. Yes, religion and spirituality are hot \u2013 and yes, there are very, very few people nowadays that actually \u2018make a choice to follow Jesus\u2019, get \u2018converted\u2019, \u2018become believers\u2019. Why is that? Don\u2019t we explain it well enough? Is it too hard? Or is it just seen as irrelevant?<\/p>\n

The following months, I hope to explore some of the questions I raise here. There might be many more to come, and it remains to be seen if we can come up with answers anyhow. I hope you join me in this journey \u2013 feel free to comment, make suggestions, ask questions. I\u2019m looking forward to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the first blog in preparation of the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation, to be held in Cape Town, South-Africa from 16 to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53],"tags":[113,115,116,7],"class_list":["post-1254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-lausanne3","tag-road2capetown","tag-spirituality","tag-thoughts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Mark","author_link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/author\/admin\/"},"featured_img":null,"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"bravada-featured":false,"bravada-featured-lp":false,"bravada-featured-half":false,"bravada-featured-third":false,"bravada-lpbox-1":false,"bravada-lpbox-2":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Mark","author_link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"This is the first blog in preparation of the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation, to be held in Cape Town, South-Africa from 16 to …","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Blog<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Blog<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Lausanne3<\/a>","road2CapeTown<\/a>","spirituality<\/a>","thoughts<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Lausanne3<\/span>","road2CapeTown<\/span>","spirituality<\/span>","thoughts<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Geplaatst 16 jaar geleden","modified":"Bijgewerkt 11 jaar geleden"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Geplaatst op 20 augustus 2010","modified":"Bijgewerkt op 23 december 2014"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Geplaatst op 20 augustus 2010 18:22","modified":"Bijgewerkt op 23 december 2014 21:55"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p63Qy-ke","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1245,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2010\/08\/17\/cape-town-2010\/","url_meta":{"origin":1254,"position":0},"title":"Cape Town 2010","author":"Mark","date":"17 augustus 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"From 16 - 25 October, the third Lausanne Congress for World Evangelization will be held in Cape Town, South-Africa. I will attend the congress with a group of about 40 Dutch delegates. The next few months I hope to regularly post on several topics related to Cape Town 2010, as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/CAPE-TOWN-2010-Blogger-Button-100x100.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1274,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/12\/cape-town-2010-thoughts-on-ephesians\/","url_meta":{"origin":1254,"position":1},"title":"Cape Town 2010: thoughts on Ephesians","author":"Mark","date":"12 oktober 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The bible book of Ephesians is the focus of the Cape Town 2010 devotionals. Here is my contribution to that conversation. I once heard the story of an American general (apparently the only one) that was made POW during World War II. He was imprisoned in a Japanese camp in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/lausanne-capetown-2010-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1267,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/12\/on-the-road-to-cape-town-2010-how-to-follow\/","url_meta":{"origin":1254,"position":2},"title":"On the road to Cape Town 2010: how to follow","author":"Mark","date":"12 oktober 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, it\u2019s almost there. 4 more nights and I\u2019ll be on the actual road to CapeTown. By now, everything is ready and set for the conference. I am privileged to personally attend, but for those of you who will not be there \u2013 don\u2019t worry. Here is a list of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":164,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2004\/08\/29\/back-in-town\/","url_meta":{"origin":1254,"position":3},"title":"Back in town","author":"Mark","date":"29 augustus 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm back from Kandern. It has been a great time. I've had the opportunity to meet with a lot of people from the Agap\u00e8 European office and the Orlando international office. I am inspired in many ways to align our own ministry with Europe and the international movement. I think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "algemeen"","block_context":{"text":"algemeen","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/algemeen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":410,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2007\/03\/29\/quick-note-from-riga\/","url_meta":{"origin":1254,"position":4},"title":"Quick note from Riga","author":"Mark","date":"29 maart 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's always nice to post from different places than home... so here is a quick update from Riga. I'm staying in a hotel in the old town, which is really nice indeed, as I can see with my own eyes. I walked around a bit this afternoon through this old\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Agap\u00e8"","block_context":{"text":"Agap\u00e8","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/agape\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":184,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2004\/10\/21\/keeping-the-books\/","url_meta":{"origin":1254,"position":5},"title":"Keeping the books","author":"Mark","date":"21 oktober 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Next week we'll be in Spain for the Leader Development conference. So, today was my last day at the office this month... and Monday November 1st the accountant will arrive for the Year End Closing. Our fiscal year runs from September to September, so this is the busiest time in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "algemeen"","block_context":{"text":"algemeen","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/algemeen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}