The Zolder...

I've decided to join a church in Amsterdam called Zolder. Zolder means "attic" in Dutch and (I think) it refers to where the church used to meet when it first started out: in an attic. Well probably not literally in a dark, dusty, low-ceiling attic, but at least in the upper levels of a house. At present, the church meets in the basement of a house. But they've decided to keep the name of Zolder. For sentimental reasons (I dont really know....).

Anyways, Zolder has quite a different concept to how church is structured and run. First of all, the church itself is set up like a cafe. There was a stage area running by the length of the room, and then couches right in front of the stage, followed by coffee tables. Behind the coffee tables was a walk way, and then there were those small round tables that you find in bars. I have to take a picture of it sometime. But yea, no pews, no chairs set about in rows, no pulpit. When I entered, I thought the place was run commercially as a cafe during the week.

The whole layout of the church really gave it a relaxed, informal atmosphere to the place. And I think it also reflected the dynamism of the church itself. Another cool thing they've done is to make a church plant. Not in a different area, but at the same location! At the same time! Instead of meeting every Sunday, the church meets every two weeks. And so each congregation meets up fortnightly. Personally, I'm not a big fan of Sunday church services and I think it was a great idea. Someone told me that changing it from weekly to fortnightly, stressed the importance of homegroups as opposed to Sunday services. I thought it was brilliant.

After service, I was invited to have dinner at one of the church member's house. To get there, I was given a ride the back of Gerard's bicycle. I had to hold up the bike light since it had broken off (I broke it the first time I got on). i didn't have any gloves, my hands were freezing cold. They had never been that cold before. In fact, they went numb after a while and I was seriously (and paranoically) afraid that I had gotten frost bite. I didn't. However, I did have a good time at dinner getting to know some of the other people from church.

The following Wednesday I joined a home(bible study) group and it was really good. I already knew two people from that group, and the rest of the people were really easy going too. We had an interesting discussion on pre-destination (don't get me started) that night. However on the whole, I know its a group that I can get involved with and be actively serving in. I'm really thankful that its only taken me 2 weeks to find myself a church that I can be involved with.