Recently I attended a meeting in Amsterdam ~ how fun is
that! Getting back home to
Antwerp, a friend asked “so how did you like Amsterdam?” I giggled, since all I saw of Amsterdam
was the central train station, and the streets that I quickly walked down in
order to arrive on time. Oh, and I
did meet a few friendly Amsterdamers (is that what we say in English for
someone who is from Amsterdam...or maybe it’s Amsterdamites?) who helped me
with directions since I was trying to save the tram money and get some exercise
and got turned around (ergo: lost) in the process! In any event, I sure wished
that I had had time to enjoy Amsterdam but wow, I learned so much from the
meeting.
Bottom line:
God is at work. In many
places, among many peoples, using His followers to bring the hope of Jesus to a
world that is quite hopeless and lost.
At a conference like this, there are many people from many
organizations sharing many ideas.
I felt like just a simple worker sitting in the presence of some of the
biggest and best organizational leadership….so, like, what did I have to
offer? (At one point, when they
needed a secretary to take notes to report back to the larger group, it was
decided that since I was the one person at the table who had a computer, I
could take the notes and turn in the report….perhaps that was my offering to
the meeting!) The statistics were flying around, Skype brings a whole new
perspective to any meeting, and then there was the panel discussion on
organizational reset.
Organizational reset???? What does that mean? A basic understanding that I gleaned was
that mission organizations are having to rethink how to do missions, which is a totally good thing! In the
end, it wasn’t so important for me to take notes on all the organizational
resets (or is it resetting?) going on in the world. What I did take away from the meeting was this concept: from time to time,
organizations/individuals/ministries have to take note of what’s going on, and
think outside the box about new approaches to ministry and life. We have to creatively reconsider what’s going on. “If you keep on doing what you’re
doing, you’ll keep on getting what you’re getting” was a point well taken
during the course of our two days together.
So, journey with me as Steve and I participate in an
organizational reset in our ministries here in Antwerp (it sounds so
impressive, don’t you think??!) We
want to be reflecting Jesus in all of our worlds: at AIPC, in the community, at
the center for asylum seekers, at the grocery store, in the halal butcher
shop. If you have ever
participated in an “organizational reset”, either professionally or personally,
I would love to hear from your experience. I sense that God is going to ask more and more of us, which
is good, because we want to know more and more of Him and to stay focused on
His direction in our lives.
Okay, just so you know....I cheated with this picture! This isn't Amsterdam, it wasn't even taken in the Netherlands or Holland or any of those gardens up north where there are lots of tulips (actually it's from a tulip garden here in Belgium). It's the wrong season for tulips in Belgium just now, but I figured windmill, tulips, Amsterdam...
