18 posts tagged “crossroads”
Ken Costa will be speaking to the Crossroads community on Wednesday evening, October 15th, on faith in the workplace. Ken has been in the thick of the investment banking world in London for 30 years,and is Chairman of Lazards International [http://www.lazard.com]. He is also a prime mover in the Alpha Course [http://uk.alpha.org/] internationally and at HTB church in London [http://www.htb.org.uk/].
VENUE:
Pinkstergemeente Keerpunt Amsterdam
Arent Janszoon Ernststraat 302 [MAP]
1082 LT Amsterdam
(Buitenveldert)
TRANSPORT: Tram 5, Metro 51, stop: A J Ernststraat
TIME: 19h30
sign up: space is limited - please e-mail ronel@xrds.nl
Having launched a the 'You Are Here' series yesterday at Crossroads by exploring what it means to 'Get Some Help', I went home with the idea of God saying 'let me help you...' ringing in my ears. Then this morning I sat by the river at Ouderkerk to pray, and came across these words from the prophet Isaiah:
“Come now, let us argue this out,” says the Lord. “No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you as white as wool. If you will only obey me and let me help you, then you will have plenty to eat. But if you keep turning away and refusing to listen, you will be destroyed by your enemies. I, the Lord, have spoken!” [Isaiah 1:18-20]
So I Let yesterday's message speak to its author, and spent some time asking where in my life God might be saying 'Let me help you...'
I wonder of this is one of the most hidden aspects of our journey. God says 'let me help you' and we hear 'let me hate you...'
Don't know about anyone else, but I'm up for the help!
We have been thinking a lot lately at Crossroads about vision, and how to capture the 'essence' of the kind of church we are trying to be. Our history lies fairly close to the 'seeker' movement of the 1990's: if you ask long-term Crossroads people what kind of church we are, many would use terms associated with seeker sensitive ministry and the passion to reach unchurched people. But we have also been wrestling with questions of depth, clarity and discipleship and, like many seeker churches, with the challenge of resourcing not only those who seek but also those who find! We have many seekers coming to our services, but we also have many finders... and they are hungry to grow in their faith and explore engagement in mission. In the hunt for a new paradigm that captures, in a single phrase, our response to this dillemma, our best effort so far is 'Transforming Church' (or 'transformational' if it makes more sense that way). Why transforming? Because the journey of faith, whether you look at it from the perspective of first steps or the vantage point of many years expereince, is a journey of inner and outer transformation. We are changed by our encounter with God in Christ, and through that change empowered to change our world. As we have been saying at Crossroads for a while: 'changed people change people, and the people they change change the world'...
This is very much a work in progress, an attempt to put words around the we see way God moving in this uniquely international city. No robots, no intergalactic war, but an army of transformers being changed and bringing change...
Well its been a while... My last post was dated Jan 14th, and here we are almost half-way through February. Wow. It's been a frantic month, not least because we've gone at Crossroads from running two services each Sunday to running three, and the transition has been a lot of work. The fruits, though, are so far tasty and wholesome. All three of the new services are well-attended, alive and dynamic. It is a joy to be part of such a vibrant faith-community, and to see so many people taking the opportunity to engage with God.
I'm not sure its going to get much quieter in the coming few weeks, so the posting may be slow for a while yet: and we're in the process of building a new blog to be integrated with the Crossroads website when it goes live in a few weeks.
In the mean-time, J and B Scotch have caught up with our choice to capture the concept of Christian mission as a mirror-ball. Their global 'Start a Party' campaign is a great follow-up to the 'Missio Dei' series. What an invitation to us all - to start a party that will really change the world...
This is the drawing from Hugh MacLeod that we chose as a key 'Christmas image' this year:
This great image of the Crossroads mirror-ball is made up from all the visuals we have used in the past year. A full-size version , on canvas, now hangs in the Ministry Centre. Click on the image to catch more of the detail. Thanks to Jurjen for working on this!
Great news that a group of Christian artists and media professionals in Amsterdam - some of them from Crossroads - have begun to meet to talk about a 'shared space' for creativity in the city. Calling themselves 'Pekel' (Salted), the group want to work towards a Chrtistian 'broedplaats' - literally a breeding ground for creative projects and ideas. Amsterdam City is looking to be known as a creative capital on a world scale, and there is a possibility of redundant industrial and commercial space being made available to collaborative groups.
The dream of 'Pekel' is that such a group could be formed from amongst the city's churches, providing a working environment for artists and craftspeople, as well as space to meet; collaborate; exhibit; talk; eat; work and pray.... The space would not 'belong' to any one church or group, but would be be a hub for creative professionals from many different churches.
Most of the information available so far is in Dutch only, but there are plenty of English-speakers involved, and the group will be to some extent both meta-national and multi-lingual. More informastion can be found on myspace here and you can request information by e-mail here. There will be an information evening on Monday evening December 10th in the 'Living Room' - the basement of the Dwaze Zaken (Foolish Things) Cafe, address here.
