Henk de Roest
Protestant Theological University, Leiden

A pastor tells, and I quote:  ‘She brings up a present that she got from me and has given to someone else since she considered it a good thing to do so. A little cross that she had asked for earlier, while she added that she did not believe. And then, all of a sudden,  when we are about to say goodbye: ‘Can you give me 10 Euro?’ ‘No’, I say slightly surprised. And while we look at eachother she continues: ‘You should say: No, bitch!’ We burst into laughter. Then there is silence. ‘What do you have for me?’ she asks. ‘Nothing at this moment’, I say, but I add: ‘A blessing’. (I have not done or said anything like this to her, because she once told me that she does not believe in ‘God nor in any commandment’. ‘Ah, yes, yes, that is something you had to say’, she says with a sigh, laughing again. I take her hands in mine and hesitating, with the blessing of St. Patrick at a distance, I say: ‘If there is a Spirit, if there is someone, a Present Being, a God, Someone who sees us, let It be here, and let it be with you, going before you as a Light, a Perspective, let it be above you as a protecting Hand on your head, under you as a solid ground under your feet, behind you as a support in your back, besides you as you are yourself a fellow neighbor to others. So be it.’ She hugs me. We thank each other, she for the conversation and I for the reprimand.´ End quote. 
This encounter demands a common withdrawal in a safe place, in order to continue one’s journey. This moment does not bear a sharp publicity, but asks to be guarded. We hear biblical language, there are no general phrases about the divine, but the pastor names God who surrounds a vulnerable human being, gives support and indicates direction. The pastor does not speak about God but out of the connection with the God who expresses himself in Scripture.  

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Dr. A. de Kock, Protestant Theological University (PThU), The Netherlands

Paper presented at the conference “Being surprised by God: embodied ecclesiology in local contexts”, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 21 – 24 June 2010.

About the author
Dr. A. (Jos) de Kock is an education expert and theologian. He worked as researcher, consultant, teacher and senior policy advisor in higher education. His specializations are in the area of curriculum development, educational innovations, professional identity, religious identity, catechesis, and `religion and society´. Now he is head of the master program Learning & Innovation at the Christian University for Teacher Education Driestar educatief, The Netherlands and senior researcher at the Protestant Theological University, The Netherlands. Dr. De Kock is engaged in research on faith learning and catechetical learning environments in church communities, and is leading a research program on religious identity development among orthodox Christian and orthodox Muslim youngsters.

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1. Introduction

One of the characteristics one might apply to local church congregations is that these are communities of believers. A community implies togetherness among participants: they share more or less their time and life spheres with each other in the local context of the church, both in and in the environment of the church.

As a result of a rapidly changing religious and cultural landscape, local churches in The Netherlands are challenged in their ‘ being a community’ . This is especially true when it comes to Christian youth participating in Dutch churches. The religious identity development of Dutch youth is not merely connected to one local church community anymore and is highly fragmented nowadays.

Not only youth identity development is fragmented, also the local churches become more and more fragmented in what they offer as religious formation. Churches seem no longer to be ´learning communities´ but religious organisations offering a variety of disconnected activities in which both youth and elder people can learn more on diverse religious issues. This tendency is also observed in how catechesis is organised in nowadays Dutch churches and the roles ‘teachers’ and ‘learners’ have in catechesis practices.

Against this background, The central questions in this paper are:

1. How may in the modern context of The Netherlands at the beginning of the 21st century religious identity development of Christian youth and the functioning of the institutions of the church, the family, and the school with regard to religious formation of youth be described?

2. What challenges are the institutions of the church, the family and the school facing when it comes to the formation of religious identities of Christian youth?

3. What consequences have these observations for catechesis practices in churches in terms of educationalist approaches?

4. Which of the educationalist approaches fits best the church´ ambition of being a community?

5. What is the outline of a research framework for empirical research on learning in catechesis practices in relation to the church ambition being a community?

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Daniel T. Nel

Utrecht, 23 June 2010

The main theme of the conference, “BEING SURPRISED BY GOD”, amazed me at first sight. I found it astounding that the hosts were organising an international theological conference with a spiritual theme. One of the questions introducing the theme, namely “Can we discern God-in-action?”, reminded me of a remark my son made after returning from a charismatic church service. “Father”, he said, “they are staging the Holy Spirit!”

However, I claim to be a missiologist, and the central theme of missiology is, after all, the missio Dei – God in action! The second part of the theme, “Embodied Ecclesiology in Local Contexts”, suggests an attempt to discern the missio Dei in local contexts. In this regard, the questions introducing the theme struck a resonant chord as I focused on them in my doctoral thesis (Nel 1988):

· We are specifically interested in ontological and epistemological questions.

· What methods facilitate a combined empirical and theological approach?

· How are theology and the social sciences related when they focus upon the church in local contexts?

In this paper I aim to illustrate how issues such as these have influenced my journey in bridging the divide across philosophy, theology, social sciences and spirituality.

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Worldwide migration is not a new phenomenon but there are new processes. Similarly in the Netherlands migrant churches are not new but there are new types and the scale of their numbers has increased dramatically over the last twenty years. The social value of migrant churches in Rotterdam was estimated in 2008 at 437,000 euros and in this paper I want to focus upon their identity. This will be done from the position of the insider or actor (anthropologically, the ‘emic’ approach) and of the outsider or observer (the ‘etic’ approach).

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