I’m guessing you’ve never heard of him, right? I hadn’t, either, until I began studying the religious history of the Netherlands.

A few years back, I was struck by a statistic: in the Netherlands, only 17% of the population identifies as theist, 25% as atheist, 31% as agnostic, and 27% as ietsist, a Dutch word for “something-ist,” somewhat equivalent to our “spiritual-but-not-religious.” I began to wonder how the seat of the Dutch Reformation became a place where more people hold unspecified beliefs about an undetermined transcendent reality than believe in Christianity or nothing at all.

Tracing back the religious history, I discovered Saint Willibrord, a 7th-century Benedictine monk remembered as “the Apostle to the Frisians” for his pioneering evangelistic work in northern Frisia, what we call the Netherlands.

Willibrord was born in Northumbria, in Ripon, in 658 and moved to the Abbey of Rath Melsigi in Ireland for training at age 20. He was ordained to the ministry and set off to evangelize the pagans in Frisia at 33. He worked out of Utrecht for many years before completing his ministry in Echternach in Luxembourg.

Historians write of Willibrord’s calm demeanor, nobility and friendliness, and faithfulness to gospel proclamation. He started churches all across northern Frisia, traveled into Denmark to evangelize the Vikings, and convinced many Irish monks to help him in his work, all within a Catholicism much different from what we see today; his was the Church of Anselm, Augustine, Patrick, and Bernard of Clairvaux.

Willibrord died on November 7th, 739, in Echternacht, where he is buried. Through the faithful ministry of St. Willibrord, the light of Christ came to a dark corner of Europe.

Our sabbatical itinerary is based on following the life-path of Willibrord, from Northumbria to Ireland to the Netherlands, where we settle for the majority of our time away. In the Netherlands we plan to connect with orthodox, evangelical pastors and gospel ministers to learn how they faithfully witness to the gospel in a world with a rich history of Christianity where the vast majority find Christianity to be simply unattractive.

A generous portion of the grant is budgeted for congregational activities! We’ll start with a decommissioning service for Pastor Joey and his family on May 23rd.

While Pastor Joey and his family are gone, our pastors and guest speakers from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (our denomination’s seminary) will teach on the importance of sabbath rest, renewal, and spiritual rhythms. We’ll supplement what we’re learning with Grow Classes and special podcast interviews on the topic.

When the Woestmans return we’ll celebrate their first Sunday back with a reception featuring Dutch treats like poffertjes and stroopwafels. And to cap off the sabbatical, we’ll host a church-wide celebration on November 7th – St. Willibrord’s traditional Feast Day – at which we’ll hear from all three Woestmans about their experiences, memories, and lessons learned.

Pastor Joey plans to take much of what he learns on their sabbatical and turn it into discussion papers for the elders, curriculum plans for our GROW Classes, and multiple sermon series for the whole church. We’ll learn about rhythms of worship, how to remain faithful in an unfaithful world, and mission-oriented ministry in a pluralistic context.