There's always something when Connect Europe meets. The past years we mainly encountered floodings, but the closer we come to the Middle East, the hotter things get. When we came to Istanbul in May, there was a big fire at the airport, delaying many flights. Since then there have been some bombings in the touristic sector, and the whole controversy around the pope's quotes and his planned visit to Turkey. Now the BBC reports that a Turkish airplane was kidnapped en route to Istanbul with on board four beautiful misses who just paraded on the catwalk in an international contest. It's not sure why the hijackers surrendered. I assume they preferred Misses Singapore, Malaysia, India and Philippines within direct reach over the promised virgins in terrorist heaven...

Tonight I'll travel to Istanbul for our Connect Europe 2006 gathering. We'll be there with a group of 17 reformation-wired leaders from 7 nations. A Gideon's army. Would appreciate your prayer support.

In chapters 10 and 12 of their book 'The Shaping of Things to Come', Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost state that "pioneered organizations should always be designed as (1) organic, (2) reproducible, and (3) sustainable learning systems." I can understand the first two, but still struggle a bit with the third one, as it seems to imply that things you start should have a structured time-span beyond your own life. Looking at the various churches and ministries that keep going (are sustainable), even when the initial anointing has left, I'm not sure to what extent I would want to pursue this. Isn't sustainability more an issue of leaving a continuing impact in the lives of people, rather than ongoing support structures? Maybe I'm still short-sighted here.

It's good to be back in Istanbul, a thriving oriental city bridging Europe and Asia, where you can easily spend weeks just wandering the streets without getting bored. It's Ramadan now, the Islamic month of fasting, which means there are a lot of festivities going on until late at night (Muslims fast during day-time and throw a party at night). Around the Blue Mosque there's a fair, with lots of temporal little tea houses and restaurants where they sell kebab, baklava, and other treats.



Yesterday we had our team preparation day and today most people went on an excursion to the Topkapi. Because I've been there already in May, I took a boot trip to one of the Princess Islands in the Sea of Marmara. In the afternoon I paid a quick visit to the Basilica Cistern, also known as the 'Sunken Palace', constructed by Justinian in 532 to supply water to the Byzantine palace.

J. is wearing his 'Somebody's gonna die' t-shirt. He believes that for any significant Kingdom breakthrough, people have to lay down their lives. Perhaps it's also symbolic that we're literally meeting in an underground space, the kid's playground of a bookshop in Taksim, paved with carpets. The church as a radical, underground Kingdom, accessible for those who want to become like children. Living room spirituality, or as Andi calls it: 'corporate learning around the Head/Jesus', not a conference format.

Today we spent the whole day praying, sharing stories and learning about following and sharing Jesus in the M. world. My T*rkish friend E. shared his remarkable journey, how he found Jesus, how this transformed his life and that of his close friends, and how he introduced hundreds of young people to the Lord, organizing them in small groups. He's currently working on a drama series of 52 episodes about the week-by-week life (the ups and downs) of a house church in the T*rkic world. The series imparts the DNA of following Jesus, the Kingdom of God and real community, including Acts-style miracles and persecution. A more long-term vision is to see thousands of indigenous simple church planters trained for the T*rkish speaking countries along the Silk Road.

Fair enough, we can't blame Constantine for everything. Ben from the UK even thinks he was a pretty good chap and that it's unfair to judge him based on today's insights. However, the Constantinian legacy is a serious issue in today's church (see my earlier posting here), and this morning we introduced this topic on the terrace of our youth hostel, overlooking the Aya Sofia. We focused especially on the Council of Nicea of 325, that was presided by Constantine. It was the first synod of the early church, at which 300 of the 1800 bishops attended, and three things were decided upon for the whole church:

J. took us on an excursion to Aya Sofia and Yedikule, a fortress were the ambassadors of European nations were emprisoned and tortured by the sultan, and where we prayed for boldness for the church in Europe to proclaim Jesus instead of being intimidated by the forces of isl*misation. We finished at the impressive F*tih mosque, named after Mehmed the Conqueror. Of course the ladies had to wear scarfs here, and they look so cute...

This morning I expressed what we felt as a team during the weekend: Istanbul 2006 was our last Connect Europe gathering in this format. Over the past two years we've provided 'vital space' for reformation-wired people across the continent to build friendship and learn from each other. Now it's time to move on in a different mode. It's like the drummer in the Sigur Ros movie - there was a time to beat the drum and mobilize the tribes, but now it's time to cast the drum aside, run uphill and jump off the cliff. If we're not careful, the good can become the enemy of the best.

This afternoon I met two brothers from another part of the world who started a prayer house in Istanbul, as part of a vision to see intercession raised up in 12 different power centers of the world. The coordinator of the initiative told me that every time they pray for the M. world, God leads them to repent for the Constaninian legacy first. He said he believed that in order for the church to be effective in reaching M. people, we have to 'clean house' first and turn away from Constantinian models of church. Interesting.

Btw, I uploaded some pictures of the Connect gathering in Istanbul.