We’re back from the Agap\u00e8 staff conference at De Bron in Dalfsen. We had a great time with a lot of good input by Jan den Ouden, Bram Krol and others, talks, and a very positive atmosphere. We made some slight changes to the regular program that made it a little more relaxed than most conferences, such as an after-party in the pub. It was quite revolutionary to hear myself say to all staff that we meet in the pub (although we were still in a ‘safe’ environment at the conference center – maybe next year we’ll meet in a real pub :-)). The kids had a great time too; Rosa and Sara were running around with friends (especially their ’twins’ Sari and Levske Blonk, who have the same age, hair color, eye color, height…) and Tomas stole the show on Sunday morning, when he handed me a candy during my sermon.<\/p>\n
The conference motto was ‘Wanted: winners’. God is looking for winners, and so are we – people to be won for Jesus, and people who want to win others to become winners for Jesus… If you read this blog last week, you’ll get the picture<\/a>. On Friday Jan den Ouden<\/a> served us with an inspirational and confronting talk about the need to start discipling others in the context of a community. And Saturday morning Bram Krol talked about the movements of God throughout the entire world – if you read this blog you’ll get the picture: a lot is going on. Bram brought these current movements into the perspective of Isaiah 66:18-20: “the time has come for the Lord to gather all nations and tongues”. He also showed a video from Congo, where he preaches the gospel in French – and in the afternoon, he turned out to be a very good soccer keeper (while wearing sandals!).<\/p>\n Sunday morning was the traditional family event, where kids performed, and Jefta Alberts turned the whole thing into a real party. I had a sermon prepared for Sunday morning, but I couldn’t possibly spoil the party with a long and boring message. So I kept it really short, but I felt pressed to challenge ourselves with a specific goal: to have at least twice as much people at the conference next year, both by growing in number of staff, and by involving our disciples and volunteers. So we better start praying and working…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We’re back from the Agap\u00e8 staff conference at De Bron in Dalfsen. We had a great time with a lot of good input by Jan …<\/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":[3],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agape","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":"We’re back from the Agap\u00e8 staff conference at De Bron in Dalfsen. We had a great time with a lot of good input by Jan …","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Agap\u00e8<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Agap\u00e8<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["thoughts<\/a>"],"unlinked":["thoughts<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Geplaatst 19 jaar geleden","modified":"Bijgewerkt 19 jaar geleden"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Geplaatst op 8 oktober 2007","modified":"Bijgewerkt op 8 oktober 2007"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Geplaatst op 8 oktober 2007 23:02","modified":"Bijgewerkt op 8 oktober 2007 23:02"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p63Qy-7Q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":418,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2007\/05\/20\/good-news-only-good-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":486,"position":0},"title":"Good news, only good news","author":"Mark","date":"20 mei 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Back after another event... this time the Rafael Almere leadership retreat. We were with some 50 people in Nunspeet for a long weekend to seek God, share vision, be trained and go out... The topic was The Great Commission, and Mira and I had the opportunity to share some (many)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Leadership"","block_context":{"text":"Leadership","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/leadership\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":360,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2006\/09\/27\/masses-and-leaders\/","url_meta":{"origin":486,"position":1},"title":"Masses and leaders","author":"Mark","date":"27 september 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I am only now becoming more and more aware of what great people we have in our movement. During the summer conference we saw and heard several Agape\/Campus Crusade leaders from around the world, with some great stories. One of those was Layo Leiva, the Campus Crusade for Christ Director\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":401,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2007\/03\/05\/preparing-for-the-staff-conference\/","url_meta":{"origin":486,"position":2},"title":"Preparing for the staff conference","author":"Mark","date":"5 maart 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, we're almost set and done for the annual Agap\u00e8 spring conference. It starts tomorrow until Thursday. This is our first conference being National Directors, so I'm a little more nervous than usual (which is 'not'). I have the privilege of being on stage a couple of times, so to\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":177,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2004\/10\/09\/great-expectations\/","url_meta":{"origin":486,"position":3},"title":"Great Expectations","author":"Mark","date":"9 oktober 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"The start of the conference was really good. Worship went well. I focused on the different expectations that people might have coming to the conference: some will have high expectations, some might have no expectations at all. The example I used was Elijah: he had extremely high expectations of God\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":283,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2005\/11\/10\/agape-uk-visit\/","url_meta":{"origin":486,"position":4},"title":"Agape UK visit","author":"Mark","date":"10 november 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Visited the Agape UK office in Birmingham today. [By the way: I flew with bmibaby.com - never heard of, but surely a good thing! Paid 6,80 for the ticket (!) and had a perfect seat.] Since we are in the middle of many changes, I thought it'd be good to\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":610,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/22\/deeply-rooted-growing-strong\/","url_meta":{"origin":486,"position":5},"title":"Deeply rooted, growing strong","author":"Mark","date":"22 september 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Back from the annual staff conference, as always held in Dalfsen. The conference center changed its name to 'Mooirivier' (Beautiful River') and had been completely upgraded and restyled. An real improvement! The conference was great. It is just amazing to see how God is bringing things together. 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