Church planting among teenagers
"I was at a local house church conference with eighty others today - how to
share your lives, prophesy to each other, baptise people at home and so on.
In the evening, we had the practical part: Pizza party! Do you want to know
what happened?" asks Roland van der Molen, a young Dutch church planter, on
his home page dutchtraveller.blogspot.com. "That evening, we had six
teenage guests, including a 17-year-old mother. I asked 'If you could ask
God two questions, what would they be?' They came up with some good
questions: why is God invisible? Why do demons exist? Is God a man? A
woman? We searched the Bible for answers, following which I asked them 'Who
wants to trust in this Jesus, and start a new life with him?' They all
raised their hands fast, saying 'me, me!'. We prayed for one of the boys,
who then prayed for the others, that they would be filled with the Holy
Spirit right from the beginning. Later, they said things like 'I feel so
free, so happy. I sense the peace. I can feel someone else living in me!'.
The evening closed with drinks, and I challenged them to be baptised the
following week. Two wanted to be baptised right away. Last Sunday, we held
a baptism party with around 80 people, around half of which were
non-Christians. I didn't preach in the traditional sense, but simply told
the story of God and explained why we baptise people. The resonance was
overwhelming; many asked questions, wanting to know more, and some said 'we
can tell that you really love each other!'"
"If the world won't come to the church, we'll take the church to the world"
Dutch secular television recently reported on Ronald's unconventional
methods. He travels all over Holland to encourage young people to plant
churches. "I've discovered that church planting isn't exactly the hottest
topic for young people between 18 and 25. But when they realise that it's
not about inviting the world to the church, but about taking the church to
the world, they wake up!" And who is this Ronald? In his own words: "Most
of the time, I do three things: I give presents, tell stories and hold
parties."
Source: Ronald van der Molen, dutchtraveller.blogspot.com
and www.churchplanting.nl