Dan reflects on his time in the Netherlands…
The 24-7 Prayer conference in Rotterdam gathered people and Christian leaders from across Europe and the world. As someone from a charismatic non-denominational church background, it was great to experience some more traditional parts of the Church.
I attended a seminar held by Catholics during which I learned about different aspects of their faith and worship. I also went along to a service with the Order of The Mustard Seed (OMS) which is an ecumenical, lay-led, dispersed community. During worship, people renewed their vows to love the poor and share the gospel. It was very powerful to be part of something inspired by the original OMS in 18th-century Germany.
One of my other favourite parts of the conference was when 24-7 officially inaugurated their new CEO, Keith Grafham. They did this by getting the room to pray over him, sing the blessing and then crowdsurfing him across the room! It was joyful, it was deep, it was full of love. I loved how they have created a culture of deep reverence and holiness for God mixed with the joy, silliness and celebration of child-like faith, just as Jesus told us to be.
One thing that the 24-7 prayer movement has done well has been to embrace grief as a part of the Christian life. Many charismatic movements that I have been a part of in the past have focused more on the joy of being a Christian and the new life we have, which is great! But as I see the state of the world and struggles in my own life, I’m often left feeling conflicted because there are parts of my life where that is harder to believe. The conference taught how that is okay and that loss is a part of maturing in faith – learning to live in the space of celebration and grief at the same time just like Jesus did during his ministry. For me this was really freeing, realising that I’m not somehow failing but rather actually maturing in my ability to understand God’s heart for his people.
I ended up spending two extra nights in Amsterdam after the Gathering, which was interesting. As we explored the city it was sad to see the women in the red light district, which has no warning signs. You could feel the spiritual heaviness of the place. The next day we cycled over to Harlem and went to the Corrie Ten Boom museum. This was a very impactful and moving experience.
For me, the conference has given me a fresh understanding of how the church is called to be a family. It felt like a church weekend away because there was such a sense of joy, community and family.