Weekly Word: 2008 Archives
• European leaders came to an historic agreement in Brussels last week to limit co2 emission levels to help save the environment.• Just a few days earlier, Christian scientists and philosophers met to discuss the relationship between faith and science at the...
This week the world is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights-and rightly so. As an international Magna Carta, it's authority and influence has been unparalleled. It has set a global standard for...
Luther would have been amazed at the efforts of the Vatican today to put the Bible back into the heart of the Roman Catholic Church. In October, bishops from around the world were called to Rome for a three-week synod...
It was one of the best experiences of his life, one quiet Scandanavian exclaimed at the close of last weekend's gathering to restart the work of Youth With A Mission in Italy. The broad participation and excited anticipation took us...
For over twenty years, holistic care of body, soul and spirit has been the driving vision behind the Klinik SGM Langenthal in Switzerland, one of three recipients of this year's Hope Award presented last week. In 1987, the SGM (Stiftung für Ganzheitlichte...
The realisation dawned on me as I stood with a group of young students outside the St Nicholas Church in Leipzig, East Germany: their generation, now coming into adulthood, has no living memory of the dramatic events of autumn 1989...
No-one had planned it this way, but last Friday we found ourselves driving into Martin Luther's town of Wittenberg on Reformation Day itself, October 31st. This was the anniversary of the day Luther had nailed his 95 theses on the...
Bendy buses snaking through London's streets carrying the message, 'There's probably no God' will help promote discussion about God, some Christian leaders believe. The bus adverts, planned to start in January, urge the public to 'stop worrying and enjoy your...
Three recent events have prompted me to reflect back over the past century. One, the Russian invasion of Georgia and certain parallels with the outbreak of World War One. Two, the current global financial crisis and obvious comparisons with the...
The birth of a Caucasian girl last week in an Amsterdam suburb has made me reflect on our rapidly changing Europe. Her parents' apartment overlooks a Muslim elementary school. Their Muslim neighbours are celebrating Ramadan. This little girl will grow...
Since Christians began praying daily for the Muslim world during the thirty-day season of Ramadan in 1992, many stories of Muslims meeting 'Isa' (Jesus) through dreams or encounters with true 'Isa' followers have come to light from various corners of...
I have been reading Political Visions and Illusions by David Koyzis (IVP 2003) in preparation for the YWAM consultation on government I wrote about last week. I promised to unpack some of the author's insights about today's political ideologies, as...
It's that time of the year again when YWAM leaders from around the globe gather for annual strategy meetings. As we are a decentralised mission, with no world headquarters, these events happen on various parts of this planet. Last year...
The first reports of Russian tanks moving into Georgia came over my car radio as I drove through the killing fields of World War One in northeastern France. The day before, the world had watched the breathtaking Olympic Games opening...
Alexander Solzhenitsyn's funeral last week deservedly received much media attention in Russia and around the world. Regrettably, events over the past days have pushed further reflection on the dissident's life and writings out of mind. Even before the outbreak of...
Churches and Christian volunteers play a crucial role in creating social cohesion and integration in Rotterdam, and save the city up to €130 million each year. That is the conclusion of research commissioned by the city council, conducted under the...
Millions worldwide watched on television as the pelaton swept into the Champs-Élysées last Sunday on the final sprint of the Tour de France. Many would have recognised the familiar orange-and-blue costumes of the Rabobank team, hot in pursuit of the podium honours,...
Brazilian YWAMers battling for the basic human rights of indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin have just won a major victory that could save hundreds of young lives. At a hearing of the plenary session for the Human Rights Commission...
The literal highpoint of the Heritage Tour this year was arriving at Caux, one thousand metres above sea level. As we drove through Montreaux at the eastern end of Lake Geneva, it was too early in the day to be...
Sunday, July 6, was the Festival of Jan Hus. For on that date in 1415, the Czech reformer was burnt at the stake as a heretic during the Papal Council, held in Constance on the Swiss-German border. Everyone knows Luther...
The name is derived from Mars, the Roman god of war, yet has been long associated with a popular peace-loving saint born in today's Hungary but forever associated with the French city of Tours. Martin was born around 316, very...
A FREE SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN LONDON prior to a speaking engagement gave me opportunity to wander along the Thames Embankment opposite the London Eye Millennium Wheel. It was not just a casual walk. I was looking for something specific. Two...
Yes, the photo's upside down! Actually, that's how it appears on the cover of a recent book by the most influential atheist over the past fifty years. So-called 'new' atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have stood on his...
A short drive from where I live, just outside of Zwolle, is a leafy gladeon what the Dutch optimistically call a mountain. The Swiss would not evencall Mount St Agnes (Sint Agnietenberg) a hill, but here on this 'mountain' was...
A significant piece of church history is being written in Vienna this weekend as the European Football championship kicks off. Different denominations were planning their own individual outreach activities-until the Catholic council of bishops proposed that all the churches work...
Before sailing around the shoreline of Holland's old Zuider Zee with my three sons last week, I packed a suitably nautical book in my kit called 'The Plimsoll Sensation', in case we got becalmed.The book had caught my eye in...
Not only in Stockholm and Amsterdam, but also in London, thousands of Christians have taken church out onto the streets over Pentecost with festive presentations of the message of Jesus. Totally independent of the events we reported over the last...
Christians in Amsterdam this year are grasping Pentecost as an occasion to reach out across cultural and religious borders, as they seek the welfare of the city. Under the motto 'Get the Spirit', they have initiated a nine-day city-wide festival...
Sweden doesn't usually make headlines for its spirituality. But on Saturday records were broken when 15,000 Christians formed the largest crowd ever to fill the Kungsträdgården (King's Garden) in the centre of Stockholm, the nation's capital, in a multi-cultural Jesus...
Maybe it does sounds pretentious. But the calling of those who name Jesus as Lord is nothing less than to help shape the future. We are not simply to let the future happen, fatalistically shrugging our shoulders and mumbling about...
How bleak is Europe's future? Can Christianity survive today's challenges? Will Europe's cities soon be re-populated by Muslim immigrants? Will her cathedrals be replaced by mega-mosques? Or will Europe simply implode from moral failure? Last week we wrote about the two-week Heritage...
If you have never visited Prague, you owe it to yourself. If you have, you will want to return. So why not this summer? Prague is a vital link in the story of the making of Europe, and thus in...
You don't have to be a believer to recognise the unique role of the Bible in shaping Europe. Arch-atheist Richard Dawkins freely admits that 'without knowledge of Christianity and the Bible, you just can't understand European history'. French President Nicolas...
Around the fireside over the weekend, several of us gathered to discuss one of the oldest questions in the book: why do bad things happen to good people? The immediate occasion for this discussion was the tragic death in Africa...
Midnight has just passed and Easter Morning was still at its darkest. The phone rang, stirring me out of deep slumber. The voice on the other end told me they had tragic news. Close colleagues had just heard that their...
Palm Sunday, Como, Italy: We had arranged to meet our friends at the Piazza Duomo at 10am. But on arrival, we discovered that we were not the only ones gathering around the great marble cathedral at that hour.Crowds of the...
Our planet has been wrongly named. That was the opinion of a science reporter I once read in a German airline magazine. And flying across the mighty Pacific and then the North Atlantic on a 12,000 kilometre trip back to...
Kiwi culture is something I have to readjust to everytime I visit my land of birth. New slang and expressions demand translation and explanation. christians often have had a name for running behind the times. Many of us grew up...
The Archbishop of Canterbury's recent lecture addressing the relationship of Islam to public law 'touched several raw nerves in our culture', commented the popular evangelical Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, at the London School of Economics last Thursday. When that...
A miracle is unfolding in Amsterdam's infamous Red Light district, following the prayers and actions of many in recent years. Supported by two-thirds of the city's inhabitants and all but two of his city council, Mayor Job Cohen is driving...
Thirty-four years ago today, I left the shores of my homeland for the first time. I suddenly recalled this personal benchmark during a special lunch today with family and friends back in New Zealand, to celebrate my mother's 85th birthday.As...
In the last of three short articles, YWAM's International Director of Urban Missions, Tim Svoboda, challenges the mission's leadership to strategize for effective urban outreach. His challenge can be adapted by other missions and denominations. Tim led the YWAM urban...
Here is the second of three short articles by Tim Svoboda, YWAM's International Director of Urban Missions. This comes to you as Romkje and I are travelling to New Zealand, returning to Europe early March. Tim led the YWAM urban...
Over the next three weeks, I will be sending on to you short articles from Tim Svoboda, YWAM's International Director of Urban Missions. For two reasons: one, Romkje and I leave this weekend for New Zealand to be with family...
'Hope' seems to be bubbling up all over Europe this year as a theme for national strategies, city-wide evangelism and inspirational events. Young evangelical leaders in Poland, for example, are spearheading an initiative they pray will gain momentum across denominations...