What Is the “Poldermodel” in Your Church?

One of the terms that is often used with respect to Dutch politics is “poldermodel.” It might be a little overused,  but it is a good illustration of how things sometimes work in the churches here in the Netherlands.

In 1982 at the Akkoord van Wassenaar employers, labor unions and the government agreed upon a decrease of salary in order to stabilize the economy. This agreement was made using the Dutch “poldermodel” (consensus model) where different parties discuss a certain topic to come to a consensus. From that day on the term “poldermodel’” was used, but the consensus model had been used long before that.

A “polder” is the piece of land created by building dikes around it and pumping out the water. This was needed because the water would rise from time to time and destroy everything accomplished by hard work. The only way to construct these polders was by working together, by finding consensus between the different parties involved in it. And through the years the “poldermodel” has become very popular in Dutch culture.

Being a child of this culture, it is difficult to define it and notice how it affects church life. Being married to a husband who is from a different culture and ministers in my culture, has opened my eyes to this. He gets frustrated from time to time because Dutch church members will hardly keep their criticism to themselves, and they often want to have a say in things and feel offended if they were not asked.

In the same way, every church will be affected by its culture somehow. Of course the influences of the “poldermodel” on the church can be fruitful as well as frustrating. But most of the time we are not even aware of the influence. Did you ever wonder what the culture of Christ looks like? How is our “normal” ridiculous or rude in the culture of His kingdom? And I do not mean the obvious sins of the Western culture. I mean our everyday customs, ways of thinking and interacting. Where does the influence of our culture facilitate our sanctification and where does it hinder it? These seem important questions to me.

Is our church shaped mainly by our own culture or by the culture of Christ?

by Lara Mohn

 About Lara Mohn:
Lara was born in a Dutch family in 1984. In the Netherlands she graduated from high school after which she decided to spend a year at EuNC for personal spiritual development. During this year she met Dennis, who was in his first year at EuNC as well. She graduated with a certificate of spiritual formation and left EuNC as planned. Lara moved to Rotterdam where she studied psychology at the Erasmus University. She recently graduated with a M.S.  in clinical psychology. Dennis and Lara moved to Zaanstad after Dennis started working there in the church. Now Lara is working at the psychiatry department of the local hospital. She is busy with psychodiagnostics and treatment of people with different psychiatric illnesses. Lara also serves as a youth leader at the local youth group.

Her husband, Dennis, grew up in a pastor’s family in Germany after being born in 1981. After graduating from high school he went on for an apprenticeship as a car mechanic. During these four years of education, he accepted Christ while attending a youth camp and he experienced a calling for pastoral ministry. His calling is to guide and help people get to the point where they will have a similar authentic experience with God as he did in 2001 at that camp in Germany. After finishing his mechanical studies, Dennis went on to study theology at EuNC with an aim to graduate with a B.A. in religion. In 2006 he left EuNC and married Lara. They moved to their first apartment in Rotterdam. In January 2007, Dennis started serving as youth and associate pastor in the Church of the Nazarene, Koog aan de Zaan. Since January 2008 he is also serving as district youth pastor, coaching and mentoring the local youth leaders.