Belgian Christadelphians 2013 & 2014 in review

There can be bad and good days in a persons life. The same for organisations, companies and communities there may be moments which are very much liked and others they would prefer to forget as soon as possible.

We also were not saved from the ups and downs. The season 2013-2014 got started with lots of hope to bring more people together and presenting them many more places to come together and to join meetings everywhere in the country. The different Christadelphian groups which are already in a the minority, did not seem eager to join forces and to have their small communities able to meet with other like-minded people. The many efforts of elder brother Marcus Ampe did not succeed and for him the season 2013-2014 could have become an anno horribilis.

Our World New Name for Christadelphian World since 2014 March 14

Our ecclesia suffered a lot from the trials to unite the Christadelphian brethren in Belgium. Many subscribers to our magazines and websites left us in the cold. But we did not leave it by that and we held meetings to come up with solutions. Because lots of Christadelphians from abroad asked us to take away the notices about their activities on “Christadelphian World”, not able to offer much Christadelphian news any more we dropped the name “Christadelphian” and baptised the site “Our World”.

Notwithstanding the problems we encountered in Belgium and on the net, even a blockage for some days, we also got some positive news, people now having more trust in our community. The openness of our problems on the net made that more people got confidence that we are not a sect, but a normal Christian community with its own good and bad things like any community.

Strangely enough, what the censuring people wanted to reach, silencing us, made that on Christadelphian world, now changed in Our world, we got more viewers in relation to the amount of writings than before.
We managed to build up its views to 118.747, receiving most viewers from the United States (27.138), Rusland (18.331), followed by Ukraine (16.065). Belgium on the 5° place with 7663 viewers and Holland with 4032 behind France which could bring us 6289 visitors, though also there there were less articles published than in the previous years on the two Multiply platforms (Bijbelonderzoekers & Christadelphians).

To make it clear that we were not constricted to one singular controlling organisation we added the “Free” to our name and presented ourselves from 2014 as Vrije Christadelphians or Free Christadelphians. To our public we want to make it clear that we do not have such a structure like in the Catholic Church, with a pope who would be infallible and directing everything, or like with the Jehovah Witnesses where there is the so called faithful slave directing everything and where all kingdom halls have to present the same material in the same way. We act totally independent, and the tumult of the previous season did not change that, except that we made our position much more clear to the outside world. Though this does not have to stop us to work together with our English and Dutch brethren of which we do have a good relationship and still keep joining forces for the distribution of Christadelphian material, magazines and books.

Guestspeaker's 1° article 2014 March 26 — Guestspeaker’s 1° article 2014 March 26

Our preaching-work continues and we are not afraid also to let other minded people say their opinion. For that reason we also started a new Lifestyle magazine new to the one transferred from Xanga to WordPress. Our youngest attribute on the internet, hoping to reach more non-Christians and showing them ways of living, is “From Guestwriters“. We would have loved to have different Christian readers, Christadelphian and from other Christian denominations joining forces over there to show the world the beauty of God’s Creation. Unfortunately we must admit that we have failed to rouse multiple writers for our preaching project. We had not expected for it to be so difficult to get more writers willing to write now and then or to post now and then a photograph or an article to show the wonders of this world and to give ideas about how to come to a better life.

Looking at our planet we as children of God are sincerely aware of the task God had given to man to take care of the world, the plants and animals. In From Guestwriters we would have loved to present also articles from writers who knew more about global warming, safeguarding nature, etc. and who would be willing to share their insight on nature. It even did not have to be Christians, because also atheists can have the right idea about how to live in this world without bringing to much damage to nature. The only matter is that they should know we also present articles from our Christian point of view and select material from other writers, also from other denomination, because from our Christian background we do find that they can contribute to a Christian lifestyle.

In its first 9 months we managed with the small handful of writers to bring already 228 articles which got viewed 3,100 times in 2014. Though it does not seem too bad, we do hope we shall be able to attract more viewers and also more writers in 2015.

On our site with the more difficult subjects we only managed to place 156 new articles over the year 2014 which got viewed 5,300 times in 2014.

Belgian Christadelphians Google mainsite - Google Hoofdwebsite van de Belgische Christadelphians — Belgian Christadelphians Google mainsite – Google Hoofdwebsite van de Belgische Christadelphians

On our Google main-site Belgian Christadelphians we only got 8,505 page-views from 5,540 visitors, but that we do find normal because we present our most articles on the WordPress Ecclesia site.

Bijbelvorsers Openingswoord Nov. 16 17.15 - The opening-text for the association for Bible-scholars: Bijbelvorsers — Bijbelvorsers Openingswoord Nov. 16 17.15 – The opening-text for the association for Bible-scholars: Bijbelvorsers

The Bible-scholar association website Bijbelvorsers Webs only got a miserable 270 pageviews from 116 visitors. That site shall therefore also be closed in the near future, because there were not enough Bible Scholars willing to join the association and to take actively part in the working of it. Because of not having enough views per article we also did not invest time in presenting articles over there, because the WordPress publications offer better results.

Our Flemish Google site got 145 users in 2014, with 159 page views.

The Flemish Brethren site on WordPress which got 6,900 views in 2013 with 43 new posts that year, got 2.400 views less in 2014, when lesser articles were published, because of all the time lost in our effort to bring people to co-operate with each other.

Broeders in Christus - Brethren in Christ — Broeders in Christus – Brethren in Christ

For our daily work and our presentation as Christadelphians we consider the WordPress ecclesia site and Broeders in Christus (or Brethren site) our most important presentation platforms. Together we managed to reach 19.500 views on those two WordPress sites. For us this is a thankful proof those against us did not succeed in silencing us. We are also very thankful for those readers who clicked on the ‘Like’ button or who referred to one of our writings on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks such actions we may feel encouraged by those readers and do feel what we are trying to do is worth the effort.

Each visitor can also contribute or help us to become better known. You do not have to do much. Giving us a “like” is already very nice and encouraging us. We are honest, which person does not like his work to be seen and to be appreciated? We are no different. Getting reactions on our postings, receiving more followers, are elements which encourage us to continue our preaching work. Every person coming along one of our sites also can give us some Breath to teach and an opportunity to be heard.

We do hope to find you visiting one of our sites again this year and in the further future.
In the meantime we wish you a healthy 2015.

Christadelphian Ecclesia Brussel-Leuven - About-Over Nov. 14 11.45 — Christadelphian Ecclesia Brussel-Leuven – About-Over Nov. 14 11.45

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt of the 2013 report:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Here’s an excerpt of the 2014 report:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

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