John van Dinther
This blog are the personal reflections of me and do not necessarily express the position of New Life Church although the website of the church links to this blog. I guess, as a pastor and leader you cannot separate your convictions, theology and values from your “personal life”. Is there something like a “personal life?” This might be one of the problems we face as leaders and pastors compartmentalize their lives! How can we put certain things in the “private sphere” and others not?
Anyway in June 2010, I have finally taken the decision to call this blog “John van Dinther and friends” because different people have asked me to blog in my own name and not “hide” behind the name “Synergistic” which I called my last blog. The reason I added “friends” is that I have asked some of my friends to write on this blog (at times) to pass on their viewpoints on issues and things.
I am married to my wife Ineke since Dec. 12, 1975. I was a Dutch citizen, but became a Swedish citizen in March 2006. Our family (which includes four adult children) has travelled around the globe but has found a haven (and mission) in Sweden. I am the founding pastor of New Life Church in Stockholm, and I am also involved in the planting of New Life Church in Gothenburg.
I have passion for God and people. I have strong convictions about justice and to help those who are marginalized. I want to be an advocate for church planting throughout the world and would love to see at least another 20 churches planted through New Life Stockholm in the greater Stockholm area by 2020 (and other churches in other parts of Sweden and our world!).
I will fight against different forms of injustice that will come my way to the best of my ability (many such encounters come my way). I try to be trustworthy, as I believe that I have to practice what I preach to derive authority as a leader. But first of all I’d like to identify myself as a child, a child of God. My prayer is that I will always have a child-like spirit; open to learn, open to be taught, open to be innocent enough to believe that miracles do happen today!
I have written this blog in English since I have the responsibility to share some of the things I write about to an international audience.
LET THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE NOT KEEP YOU FROM RESPONDING AND COMMENTING THIS BLOG IN DUTCH, GERMAN OR SWEDISH… I will read your comments but will give a response in English, the main language of this blog.
GOD BLESS YOU,
John
The brilliance of Stew’s comments can only be partially compared to the many-facetted extrapolations of universal human longings unexpressed over untold aeons (eons?) of time whose cathartic/elliptic Zeitgeist and joie de vivre/tuna-fish sandwich and-or post-Bono-esque musings would reveal themselves as merely pretensions to proto-surreality (taken, of course, as a holistic monolith)–which is why hope is possible!
GOD BLESS YOU JOHN!!
I THANK GOD FOR SUCH PEOPLE AS YOU !!
YOUR FRIEND ELSA
Hoppas allt är väl med Er och att The Tour leder till stor välsignelse för församlingsplanteringsarbetet i Stockholm och Sverige.
John,
Many Thanks to you. Thank you for hearing God’s calling and being obedience. Thank you for your time in Whittier. Thanks for sharing and your words of wisdom. And thanks for being my friend. You are always welcome in our home.
Your brother in Christ. -Jim
Hello John,
Greetings from Holland.
John van Dinther
amongest other things i’ve heard you say through your preachings a little this year and a bit last year, this one is just a core of it all for me ” I want to be an advocate for church planting throughout the world…”
i appreciate the way you approach a simple topic (last week sunday @10am service). I heard God speak to me, telling me that i should distinguish myself from others with the type of faith that i have, not that i’ll be better than then (for we do not strive to be perfect, but we strive to set a trend that others can follow), i heard the topic of faith being restored back to life in my spirit.
I would like to learn fron you, ofcourse we’ve never met, o r even conversed, but i have that desire to learn from you.
I’m Bongani Samuel Skosan
from South Africa
Thank you