In July 2014, on the hottest day of the year, Jo and I and our four daughters packed up our car and drove from Brighton (on the south coast of the UK) through four countries to arrive in Amsterdam.
At that point Liberty Church consisted of the six of us. Others were moving from elsewhere in the Netherlands and the UK to join us but for the first two weeks it was just us. We began to set up camp, acclimatise and get to know our new home & city and over the coming months we welcomed new arrivals to our team (who have since become the closest of friends).
Sundays
In October 2014 we began meeting in our apartment in Watergraafsmeer (in the east of Amsterdam). Our gatherings consisted of a short service where we’d study the bible and worship together. Our kids squeezed into one of the bedrooms and each Sunday we’d all hang around and share lunch together, including some of the best home baking you can imagine.
This continued every week up to April 2015. At that point we began to meet monthly at Groenburgwal 42, the home of Christchurch, in the city centre.
On the 25th October 2015 we decided to start meeting every week at the Mirror Centre in Amsterdam Oost. This was a big step for us. Though it was definitely feeling cramped in our apartment, we could have probably continued there longer. However, we began to realise that for the church to take the next step forward, we needed to take a big leap forward.
Snails pace
At that first Sunday (just over a year ago) there were, if I recall correctly, 25 people. Over the first few months we had regular visitors with us and we began to grow but slowly. I mean, snail’s pace slow (a geriatric snail).
Some weeks it was encouraging, and other weeks just frustrating. In either January or February (the date has been erased from memory) – four months after starting in the Mirror Centre – I preached to 7 people. Now, 7 people isn’t even a small church; 7 people is a small community group. In some parts of the world 7 people is a small family…
Of course, church isn’t all about numbers but it’s kinda tricky to describe yourself as a church when there is no-one in it. And, to reach this great city we need people.
Only by prayer
And then something happened. I’d love to unveil some great strategy or a mighty preach but no such thing took place. Actually, what happened was we began to pray.
We’d been in the habit of meeting every Wednesday evening, sharing a meal together with some prayer bolted onto the end when time allowed. At the end of January we decided to shake things up – no food, no fellowship – we were just going to pray. I wrote to our team:
‘Only by prayer will this church be planted. The only thing that will change this city is an enduring and steadfast commitment to prayer. If we want the church to be the heartbeat of this city, then prayer must be the heartbeat of the church.’
And that’s what we did, for the next few months we just prayed every Wednesday and we began to grow. Not straight away (I think our lowest Sunday was actually after we made this decision) but little by little we began to see God answer our prayers (I’ll tell you about our Bakfiets on another occasion).
We soon had to multiply from one midweek group to two, and then from two to four. And just a few weeks back, on the 30th Oct, a year since we moved to the Mirror Centre we had 59 people at our church service.
Who
What’s been most encouraging, far beyond any statistics, is who God’s been gathering to us. We have, at the last count, people from at least a dozen nations with us, which is important considering Amsterdam is one of the most international cities on the planet with 180 nations represented.
We’ve also got a big, strong core of passionate, faithful men and women with us. It’s a real joy building community with them, learning our city together and taking the first small steps to bless and serve Amsterdam.
Thankfully, the story doesn’t end here and in another blog post (in the next few weeks) I’ll write about some big news we have to share.