Amsterdam is world-famous for reasons quite diverse—the city’s ancient history that dates back to 1100; the scenic canals that give it the name “Little Venice” and attract tourists from all over the world; and the notorious Red Light District and legalized drugs. In this post-Christian, secular city, less than three percent of the citizens attend church. But it is in this setting that many reformed churches from several different denominations are seeking to plant new churches in order to renew Amsterdam and draw its citizens to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Vision is Formed
Five years ago when church planting was a little-known endeavor in the Netherlands, Martin de Jong, began the “Amsterdam on the Move” project. According to de Jong, “Since 1992 we knew about Redeemer and its vision to renew cities through church planting, but church planting did not exist in the Netherlands at that time.” Beginning in 2000 it appeared that God was bringing different groups together, “At that time two denominations, the Christian Reformed Church and the Reformed Church-Liberated, collaborated to plant a church in Amsterdam. The people involved did not really know each other, but they had the same vision. For us it was God’s hand that started to bring things together,” recalls Martin. In order to share ideas and information, the two denominations invited yet a third group, the Dutch Reformed Church, into regular meetings to discuss specific initiatives. These discussions resulted in “Amsterdam on the Move,” a project committed to creating a church-planting movement in Amsterdam and the Netherlands.

The Need
The initial group of pastors felt they were real pioneers in the field of church planting within the Netherlands. In 2003 Martin de Jong came to Redeemer to ask for help. "We wrote a letter to Redeemer Church Planting Center to ask if they were willing to lend us a hand. By 2003 we already had five church-planting initiatives underway, but we desperately needed help in coaching and training. We came to Redeemer and talked through all the details of our movement, its goals and vision for the next years. The following day Redeemer informed us they would come to Amsterdam to provide ongoing training and coaching, and our partnership began." recalls de Jong.

Amstelveen Project
One of the projects of the Amsterdam Movement was a re-plant in Amstelveen, a section of Amsterdam, with pastor Tim Vreugdenhil.

Tim Vreugdenhil was 25 years old when he began pastoring the church in Amstelveen, a small local church whose membership had steadily decreased during the past 20 years. The outlook for the diminishing congregation was not good but they were happy with Tim as their pastor. Reflecting on that first year, Tim recalled that, “I made no mistakes in that first year, because I did nothing at all. I simply had nothing to say. I made visits to all the members, listened to them, tried to build relationships and organized two very traditional worship services every Sunday. Each service was attended by 35 or 40 people, just as had been done for more than 40 years.”

Disorientation
The next year, however, being guided by God, Tim realized that he probably would be the last pastor in this church. Membership was still decreasing and even more problematic was the enormous spiritual poverty hovering over the church. For Tim the ministry had been the beginning of powerful discoveries into the weakness of human beings but also into the profound love and power of God. The more he began to preach and teach out of this powerful discovery, the more he felt he was losing his congregants, “People couldn’t follow me on this path, not in theology and not in practice. Most of these people had been in the church for many years with many unresolved quarrels between them.” Fortunately, during this agonizing time, Tim was also learning the power of the Bible as a book about the ultimate truth over the human heart and realizing that the situation was not hopeless.  

In his third year as pastor in Amstelveen, Tim wrote several papers on his vision of reforming the church and preached from this perspective. The goal was twofold: 1) to start a process of spiritual renewal within the community and 2) to create more openness to the needs of Amstelveen as a city. All attempts to discuss these topics with the whole congregation failed. Every plan, every sermon caused quarrels and pain. At the end of that year, Vreugdenhil used the summer season for prayer and reflection: “What did the Lord want me to do? Did He want me to stay in the midst of this difficult situation? God steered me away from my own wisdom and ‘action steps’ and toward the simple action of love – love for the city of Amstelveen and the desire to work on behalf of its people. From that moment on, I committed myself to find a strategy for proclaiming the gospel in the context of Amstelveen”.

Steps in Replanting

• Beginning in Boldness. Step one in the process was the bold decision to break up the church as it presently existed. In September of 2004, Tim, with the support of the church authorities, announced to the congregation that the church would close. On the last Sunday of October, they celebrated their last worship service in a very emotional and tear-filled service.
   
• Communicating the Vision. Closing a church was one thing; creating something new and vibrant was something altogether different and more difficult. In fact, Tim and his peers did not know where to begin. The only thing they knew to do was to talk to other people to process, plan and fuel the vision of re-planting a church that would be well-equipped to reach the Amstelveen society. These discussions led to the most exciting period in Tim’s life: “I met so many people, all of them willing to support me, most of them from my own denomination, but also beyond it. Three Christian businessmen decided, after a very frank talk about my plans, to try to support me in fundraising and organization”.

• Working and Waiting. The unique situation of re-planting a church meant that time was of the essence for reconvening and re-establishing a viable congregation. The possibility to rent a wonderful location in the heart of the city quickly emerged, and four weeks after the final worship service of the previous church, a new replanted church was launched. The support was immense; the day of the first service the auditorium’s 250 seats were nearly filled! “That night we spoke about the vision and prayed for a biblical, vital and relevant church,” recalls Vreugdenhil. This re-planted church has been meeting for several months now with more than 150 people in attendance every Sunday night.
   
• Going Forward. Tim’s vision for the future includes establishing a cell group ministry and planting daughter churches. On small-group ministry: “It’s my conviction that a small group or cell group is the best and perhaps only place to apply the gospel in one’s life. So the decision to start a cell group ministry is not difficult but organizing the ministry is. We need to learn how to recruit and train cell group leaders, as well as how to promote the groups within the community.” As part of the overarching desire for a church-planting movement in Amsterdam, the new replanted church is already considering the planting of daughter churches. According to Pastor Tim, “Every area needs a vibrant, relevant and gospel-centred church, and we are currently considering when might be the right time to begin planting a daughter church. It is a testament to the grace and power of God that such a church as the one in Amstelveen could go from spiritual lethargy to functional death to viable replanting and on to the amazing work of planting its own daughter church!”