Amsterdam is:

• Historic: The Netherlands is a country situated in Western Europe, bordering Belgium to the south and Germany to the east. To its north and west is the North Sea. Although the Netherlands is the country's official name, people often call it Holland. Amsterdam was founded in the late 12th century as a small fishing village, and has grown to become the largest city in the Netherlands with a population of about 750,000 inhabitants. Amsterdam is the financial and business capital of the Netherlands and one of the most important cities in Europe in which to do business. The Netherlands was a founding member of the European Union.



• Cultural: Amsterdam is the most important cultural and artistic centre to the north from Paris and between London and Cologne. The Netherlands was home to Rembrandt and Vincent Van Gogh, and houses museums dedicated to both artists as well many other museum collections around the city.



• Tolerant: Amsterdam embodies a very liberal world-view and legal system: legalized prostitution and drugs in the Red Light District (an article in the French paper Le Monde in 1997 found that 80% of prostitutes in the Netherlands were foreigners and 70% had no immigration papers, suggesting that at least some were victims of sex trafficking and forced prostitution.); legalized euthanasia from the age of 12; a legal age of just 12 for consensual sex; and legalized gay marriage.



• Diverse: The city of Amsterdam includes 177 different nationalities, making Amsterdam the most multicultural city in the world. The main ethnic minority groups are from Surinam, Morocco, Turkey, the Netherlands Atilles and Aruba, and China.



• Secular: In Western Europe, fewer than 2 out of 10 people attend church at least twice a month. Amsterdam is no different. On any given Sunday morning, less than 2,000 people attend all of the historic Dutch Reformed Churches put together. 47% of city dwellers say they never attend church. Timothy Garton-Ash of Oxford University calls Europe "the most secular continent on earth."



• Muslim: Islam is the fastest growing religion in Europe, doubling in population in the next 15 years. 55% of all foreigners in Amsterdam are Arabic. The New York Times reported that Europe is in a "complicated wrestling match involving secularism, Christianity, and Islam."



• Conflicted: Amsterdam is finding that it's liberal world-view and tolerant values are being pushed to a tipping point. In the wake of the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic extremist in 2004, the country, once thought to be an exemplary multicultural society, began to question how well its Muslim immigrants have been integrated. Very recently, on October 21, 2007, disturbances broke out for a sixth successive night in an immigrant quarter of Amsterdam when four cars were set on fire. The unrest started after police shot dead a Moroccan man who had stabbed and injured two officers.



• Spiritually hungry: Italian Senator Marcello Pera said "Europe is losing its soul. Not only are we no longer Christian; we're anti-Christian. So we don't know who we are." His statement describes an attitude in Europe that pervades Amsterdam: a rejection of the old expressions of Church, God and faith. However, a sincere hunger for personal and cultural identity, empowered and relevant spirituality, and honest and vibrant community remains. We believe that the people of Amsterdam are ready to find meaning, ready to find Jesus, and ready to find community.