Wednesday, February 26, 2014

A Perspective From Holland: Fellow Author Marian Baay

Many years ago as a teen, I had a chance to visit Holland as a member of a touring concert band & choir. I still have fond memories of Amsterdam and staying with a family. Discovering that fellow Helping Hands Press author, Marian Baay, lives in Holland, I wanted to talk with her. I'm sure there will be more guest posts coming. I'm always fascinated by other cultures and points of view. In keeping with that, this post isn't about writing, sorry. I was interested in discussing Marian's experience living as an Evangelical Christian in what appears to be an increasingly “Post-Christian” Europe. I hope you find this as interesting as I did.



Mark: Thanks for joining me, Marian. Let's get right to the conversation. What is your experience as a Christian living in the Netherlands? 

Marian: There are very few Christians left. Even people attending church are hard to find, especially in the cities. In the countryside are more churches – even growing churches. I guess that is due to the fact that Christians in the city are moving to the countryside to escape the city’s non-Christian atmosphere.

To be honest, I do not believe things are worse in Holland. In Belgium are very little Protestant Christians. Likewise for Germany and England. I did not investigate it, but I think there used to be more Christians in Holland – especially Protestant. But today the decline is notable compared to the other European countries.

Mark: Is the trend of church closings more indicative of mainline Protestant and Catholic Churches or is it across all denominations, including evangelical churches? Is the Dutch evangelical church strong?

Marian: Both Protestant and Catholic churches are closing. Evangelical churches seem to grow some, but they are far from strong – partly because people from all Christian backgrounds AND former non-believers go to Evangelical churches, resulting in little stability in the doctrine (a mix of Reformed-, Baptist-, and Pentecostal doctrine). Sound Evangelical theology is hard to find.
There are Evangelical Bible schools, but they suffer the same fate as stated above concerning the doctrine. Some American Evangelical books are translated into Dutch, but unfortunately not the best. Also, there is little coherence in the Evangelical churches. People move from one church to the other to escape issues in the former church, hoping to find something better. But after having changed a couple of times, they often do not go anymore at all because they are hurt.

Mark: Do you see a reversal in the secular trend within the Netherlands? If so, how are evangelicals involved and/or driving it?
  
Marian: No, Holland is getting more and more secular. It is very hard to talk about the Lord Jesus and the Cross. Being a (New Age) believer is okay, but do not mention the One Real God, or you will find grim faces and rejection.
Evangelical churches (what I have heard and seen of them) are trying to win people with music, dance, etc. But there is little interest and time left for what really matters—the preaching of the Cross and study of the Bible.

Mark's Note: I found Marian's comment: "People move from one church to the other" very interesting. It appears that church hopping among European Christians is just as prevalent as it this on side of the pond. The website beliefnet cited a study from the Barna Research Group that found one out of every seven adults changes churches each year.  But that's a topic for another post.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, Marian. I know we'll visit again. 

Please check out Marian's book on Amazon.






Heaven is not Far

13 comments:

  1. Mark thank you for having Marian on today and Marian thank you for giving us some insight into what it's like in Holland. It's very sad to know that the same thing that is happening in US is happening there. The scripture in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 comes to mind that tells us in the last days there will be a great falling away. The only hope there is in this situation is Jesus is Coming Soon!!

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    1. Thanks for dropping by, Teresa! You are so right saying we live in the last days and there will be a great falling away. Jesus is coming soon indeed. Let's look forward to that!

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  2. Thank you, Mark, for having me on your blog! :)

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  3. It was my pleasure, Marian. I'm glad Jessie is doing much better. I had a purebred Red Siberian Husky a few years back that we had to put down. It was a very hard time for me.

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    1. It's always so sad to say good-bye to our beloved animals. I'm glad Jessie is doing much better and I hope and pray she will be around a while longer.

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  5. It's nice hearing your perspective, Marian. I have spent a short amount of time in Holland and Germany in 2000 and lived in France for a summer when I was in high school. That was some time ago (the 80s) but there were very few Christians in France even then. But it did seem to me that the few that were around tended to be loyal to their churches. Sorry to hear that the church hopping you described is going on...

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    1. According to our pastor, Holland was a good Christian country before WW2. The Dutch hid many Jews and went against the Nazi laws - this was considered a good Christian deed, because the Jews are God's chosen people. The new generation - that was born shortly before and during the war - started to leave the church and it has only gotten worse since then.

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  6. It was interesting albeit sad to hear about the state of the churches and Christians in Holland, Marian. It's unfortunate that what most people find progressive is actually regressive in the sense of the stability of society and their happiness.. And unfortunately also, it's a trend all over the world. But we can continue to pray and be a light in the darkness until He comes. Thanks for this interview Mark and Marian.

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    1. Thanks for dropping by and reading this post, Noela. Is it a bit about the same in Australia?

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  7. Enjoyed this alot and will pray too for the churches there and here. The World is in a sad state .
    Hugs
    Linda Finn
    Faithful Acres Books
    faithfulacresbooks@gmail.com

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  8. I am glad people found the post interesting. For me, what I thought was pure hyperbole on the part of some in the US, Marian attested to with her own experience. That truly surprised me.

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