Amsterdam-city reverend Tim Vreugdenhil, author of the book “Opener dan ooit”

Tim Vreugdenhil is the founder of CityChurch Amsterdam and Amsterdam-city reverend. Recently his book “Opener dan ooit. Nieuwe kansen voor kerken.” was published (Open like never before. New chances for churches). The title of your book is based off the advertising slogan of Coca-Cola. Why did you do hat? In the summer of 2020 I was starting to get close to depression myself. While cycling through the city I suddenly saw a billboard reading “Open like never before”. It struck me and gave me hope. Later I discovered it was an advertisement campaign by Coca-Cola and started researching why they put such an emphasis on openness. This slogan helped me stay strong in the time that was yet to come Which other observations will you take with you from the pandemic? Which other observations will you take with you from the pandemic? The corona virus taught us all how vulnerable we are. Of course there are vaccines and hospitals, but suddenly everyone could fall ill, and at certa

“Maybe some people thought we
could do without God and that we
were invincible. But this crisis
showed us that we can’t control everything.”

At the same time this difficult time placed high expectations on us: we had to go on and stay strong. This balance between vulnerability and strength now has been given a natural position within society. Which, of course, is a subject the church has a lot to say about.