The Belgian Christadelphian ecclesia sites 2015 in review

On the 2nd of January 2016 the WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

This summary and the one for our Brethren site may give you an idea where we stand in the world of bloggers, were lots of words get much more viewings than ours, but where we try to touch a more difficult subject and look at a person many name when something goes wrong, but no one is interested in at other times or in normal life.

Luckily, when we look at the graphics, we may, for the ecclesia site, see an increase of visitors since our start in 2010. Most visitors seem to enter our site by the Home Page (8132) and most of them seem to live in the United States of America (9689). For the Low countries, the region were we are based we can get 1435 views from the Netherlands and 1130 views from Belgium. 2015 was the year when we placed our 500th post on this ecclesia site.

We get in a certain way weird ‘search terms’ bringing people to us, like ‘dag van de kanker‘ on the first place with 11 requests followed by ‘cyc ozone park‘ with 9 searches. ‘Lord’ and ‘Joodse wetten’ are normal search terms which we are happy also bring some people to our sites. On our Brethren site ‘anabaptisten‘ brought 6 searchers to that site which managed to have 3009 visitors in 2015.

If the Brethren site were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry the 4,500 people it reached. On the Broeders in Christus (Brethren in Christ) site we published less articles and as such could reach not so many readers and saw for 2015 some inclination in the amount of viewers (in 2014 still good for 3095 visitors). If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, our ecclesia site would take about 6 sold-out performances for the 17,000 people to see it.

For our ecclesia site we got 148 new posts published in 2015, growing the total archive of this blog to 630 posts. Our sister site Broeders in Christus only had 44 new posts added, growing the total archive of that blog to 254 posts. There the Dutch writings got the most viewers, from people in 47 countries in all and had most visitors from Netherlands (1826). The United States (1567) & Belgium (587) were not far behind.

After the problems with the man from the North we had to endure the attacks from some fundamentalist Christians and from some Christians who do if they are connected with the Jewish community and against the papal institution and Babylon the Great, but who are fervent trinitarians who did not shun to use awful words against us. their reaction and misunderstanding of our relationship with Jesus Christ made us to start with a new blog.

On February 10, 2015 we presented our opening article on “Messiah for all” (M4A). It might have been a “A beginning with many false starts” after we put our foot firmly on the starting-block we got on our way being pleased to find that the new blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 28 trips to carry that many people.
In 2015, there were 76 new posts, not bad for the first year! The M4A site got visitors from 66 countries in all! Most visitors came from The United States (1048). United Kingdom (111) & Australia (82) were not far behind. Belgium with 62 visitors was here before the Netherlands which brought only 16 visitors to this site which explores the position of Christ in the Creation of God.

At “Messiah for all” we wanted to start from the beginning, looking at the Adonai, Elohim Hashem Jehovah and His creation and how we are placed in this work of God. Also at our Brethren site we continued to look at Genesis and the different books of the Bible.

In these times where there is much general blindness and colour blindness with many people not willing to see the road-code, lots of people do not see a difference between certain Biblical characters and between alpha and omega or not being aware of the plan of creation.

The son of a minister of the German Evangelical Synod of North America, Walter Brueggemann, who is called “the foremost Old Testament theologian alive today” by Graham Bidois Cameron,

asserts that a key function of any empire is to convince its citizens that there is no future, no evolution, no development. The empire needs its citizens to believe that it and they will exist forever in the status quo. The empire endures where all else may fail. {New Zealand’s 2015: the year we hid from a world in need}

In 2015 lost of people may have become scared and do not see the situation which we can see today being part of God’s Plan, because most of them seem not to know what the Plan of God is and what the previous prophesies are. Mentioning the best intimate relation to look for we in our messages try to show people that everything in this world is not about personal salvation but about a bigger Plan. The disobedient man has to come to listen to God’s promises and has to see that there is a Divine Plan or God’s purpose in creation, though we daily may be confronted with the (at present) imperfect creation.

Several people today looking at the Neo-liberal capitalism and the rise of corporate empires may want to stick to the same playbook, convincing that our existence and life requires unending growth and that all potential threats and risks can be managed to ensure that will happen.

Obviously the climate conference in Paris is the latest event of corporate solidarity in defense of the empire: governments assured each other they would do nothing to affect their economic growth and admired the technological solutions that corporations told them will resolve climate change but require no retooling of countries and economies. The Paris climate conference was another opiate to the masses. {New Zealand’s 2015: the year we hid from a world in need}

Plans for 2016

In 1995 we started trying to build a Christian community in godless Belgium and got started on WordPress publishing our articles in 2010. When after some years at last we seemed to be on a good track, the man of the North destroyed everything we had so far accomplished.

Last year we had to look at our very very tiny community and at the division in the Christadelphian community and at the different church denominations in Belgium who lost more and more people, leaving their parishes and stopping to believe in God or going to the growing Muslim community which got about 25% of the Belgian population active in their communities.

We too looked with the English Christadelphians at the lowering numbers in our community. We are pleased we are not staying alone in our search for truth, and you do not to have to be alone either. When you are not seeing or not finding a Biblically sound church you are always welcome to join us. This looking for a Biblically sound church was the main subject on this site for 2015. In 2016 we do want to continue to look at the reasons why the church keeps losing it’s grounds.

The world may look at different means of creations, we at our different websites and especially on Messiah for all, Broeders in Christus (Brethren in Christ) and this ecclesia site continue to show the world the Works of God and His Words He has given to the world so that we could understand the creation purpose and warranty.

In 2015 we presented you 3 reasons why you should go to a small church plus four pressing needs in rural communities and how the church should respond; and this starting year we want to continue on that track and look at those small churches and how we can create a church according to the Will of God. We shall also try to give you encouragement to start a small church or to build up a community of lovers of God.

Together with our English Brethren we looked at the big conversation, recognition and refocus, the antagonists, and are convinced that we should not be frustrated and having a depressing small church mentality. The opposite, we, though part of a small congregation, are part of the bigger Body of Christ.

Today we call also unto you to be a co-walker on our path to ‘The Way‘, striving to conform to Jesus his image.
Walking together we all should keep to that one masterwork of a library God has given us. In 2016 we shall continue our series which we started on the 29th of December with the Bible – God’s guide for life #1 Introduction.

For 2016 we shall continue to write in the hope we shall be able to reach more people showing how we human beings are placed in this world and have to fit the whole picture.

Are you willing to join us and/or follow us?

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 17,000 times in 2015. 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.