A Fresh Start in Rotterdam

I would like to share part of the history of our church in Rotterdam, as well as the history of my family, and me as pastor of this church. It isn't as much history as it is part of the journey we are taking as we try to listen to God's voice and respond to His call to serve.

The Church of the Nazarene in the inner city of Rotterdam was established in the late 1970s under the leadership of Cor Holleman, founder of the Church of the Nazarene in the Netherlands. After growing to about 150 members, the church started to decline in the 1990s, coinciding with the decline of the neighborhood. As membership dropped, income dropped and internal problems arose.

In 2007 there was no permanent pastor and the church had no clear direction to go forward.

It was evident something needed to change if the church was to survive.

The new pastor search committee concluded there were three options:

1. Acknowledge that they had become a regional church and to move to a location away from the inner city.
2. Become a city church and focus on the people in the immediate neighborhood, the poor, and the immigrants.
3. Do nothing, which most likely would lead to the extinction of the church.

During a church meeting in September 2007, the church chose to become a city church and focus on the people in the immediate neighborhood. This is where my family's history crossed the history of the Rotterdam church.

By the spring of 2007 my wife, Eunice, and I lived in the city of Amersfoort (approximately 100 kilometers from Rotterdam) with our two sons, where we served the Nazarene church as volunteers. I worked as a psychologist, while studying to become a pastor. At this time my wife and I started to feel God calling us to something new. Somewhat familiar with the situation of the church in Rotterdam, we felt God had put this city on our hearts.

We prayed about it, and decided to start visiting the church. After about six months I was surprised by the call from the church to become it's pastor. In the summer of 2008 we moved to Rotterdam, and I started as pastor. Around the same time a group of about 15 people from a small church that had ceased to exist joined our congregation. This gave the work of the church an incredible boost.

Membership was rising, and people from the outside were joining in the mission of becoming a city church. God was proving faithful! When I started as the pastor, our family moved into the church neighborhood. This was one of the most impactful decisions we could have made. By living in the neighborhood, we connected with other people from the neighborhood and something started to happen.

Slowly we became a real church of the neighborhood.

For some time, our church has housed a food distribution for needy families in the neighborhood. Weekly, around 90-100 families pick up food packages prepared by the Rotterdam food bank. We organize coffee and tea for the families and serve them a warm meal twice a month. A group of church members also collects secondhand clothing for needy families. This has grown into a large clothes distribution center for many disadvantaged people in the city.

Over the past years, our church has organized a spring feast where people from the church and neighborhood can sell secondhand items. Children also have several fun activities in and around the building. All of this helps us make connections and build relationships with people of the neighborhood.

As a pastor living in the neighborhood, I came into contact with the neighborhood committee, which was interested in people who wanted to invest in the neighborhood. Together with this committee, we organized an outdoor Christmas Eve service in a park near the church. In freezing temperatures, several people from the community sang Christmas songs and listened to the gospel of peace through Jesus Christ side by side with members from our church. A new church and neighborhood tradition was born! We also met a Christian woman who was looking for a place to give art classes. Some of her students visited the Alpha course and started attending our church.

Becoming a church of the city also confronts us with many problems that are too great for us to solve. For about two years now, a group of about 15 Bulgarian immigrants has been visiting our church regularly. They left their country in search of jobs and live in extremely poor conditions. However, some of them have found a spiritual home in our church. We do what we can for them.

As our church is finding its way forward, we have learned a few things.

• First of all, we have learned that "during the renovation the sale continues." Our inclination is to wait to minister until we have everything internally well organized. It is my experience that inner renewal sometimes comes as a result of focusing on the needs of others.
• Second, we have learned the importance of formulating and living out a common mission. The mission of our church is to reach the people of our neighborhood. This gives us unity and identity in all our activities. We know why we do things. We want to reach the unchurched in our neighborhood with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Third, but in fact most important, we have discovered the power of prayer. Prayer has been the most powerful method of evangelism. God has been answering our prayers as people from the neighborhood have been visiting our church and recommitting their lives to God. No evangelism activity is as powerful as steadfast prayer.

Though we have only just started on our way, we are confident the grace of God will continue to do great things in our city. It is my deepest longing that churches everywhere rediscover their calling to reach out to the lost of their cities.

Stephen Overduin is pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He lives near the church with his wife and two sons.

Holiness Today, November/December 2011 

Please note: This article was originally published in 2011. All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at that time but may have since changed.