Langham Live January 2026 with Jacob ‘Jaap’ Haasnoot, Coordinator of Langham Partnership Netherlands
Event Transcript
Welcome from me, John Libby, privileged to be National Director of Langham UKI, speaking from Carlisle, where our international service centre is. And it’s a pleasure and a privilege to welcome Jacob Haasnoot, friend and colleague from the Netherlands. And I’ve got Jacob’s permission, as ever, to use the more familiar ‘Jaap’ during our conversation. But yeah, so really good to welcome you here. Tell us where you’re speaking from.
I live in Ede, which is sort of in the heart, the green heart of the Netherlands, between Utrecht and Arnhem, so that area.
And you’ve got Miriam, your wife. And you used to have at home four sons, but they’re now dispersed. Just curious, how dispersed are they?
Oh, not that dispersed. I mean, the Netherlands is a small country anyway, but they all are in the Netherlands. Two sons who are married and have our grandchildren as well live in Ede. So all our grandchildren live very close to us. Our oldest son even lives 400 meters from where we live. And our grandchildren, twins, you know, seven years old. And they come by themselves to visit grandma and granddad. So that’s a new phase for us. Well, and then we have two younger sons. They studied in Delft, at Delft University. One is living in Delft and the other one is living in The Hague.
Yep, you’re the trailblazer in our latest round of Langham Expansion International: Langham Partnership Netherlands. And for most people will know, but just to repeat the fact that Langham operates internationally, we’ve got seven international partners now that Jaap has arrived with the Netherlands and we’ve got two more on the sort of slipway for thoughts and prayers, and that’s in South Korea and Indonesia. So we’re really looking at quite a development. And Jaap has spent the last couple of years having been identified and gone through all the loops that Peter Kwant, known to many and myself, have put together to make the appointment as National Director of the Netherlands. But your experience of Langham goes back before that, doesn’t it? Can you recall your first association or your first information about Langham?
Yes, that’s not too difficult. I knew about John Stott, but of course, that was my first link with Langham and I was privileged to meet him when we lived in Ethiopia. We did mission work in Ethiopia and once he came there to visit one of the churches there and he also preached in the Anglican Church that we attended. But I also taught in South Sudan for five years at a theological school and I was assigned to order the book grant, order the books for the book grant of Langham. And we had, I’m afraid to say, a typical library there of maybe a huge amount of books, something like 2000, all donated, all Western theology and you know I’m Dutch so I can be pretty direct. All pretty useless for the context of South Sudan.
When I arrived there, there were two books with Systematic Theology of Wayne Grudem, American that were used the most by, when students looked for topics like the spirit worlds or a big issue was there. How do you do a Christian funeral? How do you do Christian funeral rites? There is nothing in Grudem about these kind of questions. So ordering the books through Langham gave us African Christian theology, African Christian ethics, the African Bible commentary and lots of books that were way more contextual than all the donated books we were given. So that was a real blessing and that was my very concrete experience of Langham.
The African Bible Commentary, which is the granddaddy of all the Bible commentaries, the big ones that Langham produces. We’ve just revised that and I think you’re making that available in Europe, aren’t you?
Yes. I have people complaining already to me now they know I am with Langham because they say I ordered a book from the UK and guess what, I had to pay duty on it. Anyway, we won’t go into that topic. But that is, I mean just to—but in that, that was the main, one of the main things that was driving Peter and my consideration of wanting to open a European, an EU Langham, the other side of the tariff barrier to the UK and so that book distribution, distribution, printing and distribution could avoid that 20% or more hurdle.
Is that proving?
Yeah. So we have now 50 Langham titles available here in the Netherlands through a Christian distribution centre. So Peter Kwant, he arranged for that and they have quite a number books of the African Bible Commentary 2nd edition in store and we’re about—they, they are going slowly and I’m campaigning for people to buy it especially for people to get to know another perspective on interpreting and reading the Bible. Yeah, whatever. If you’re preaching, teaching or even engaging in personal study, these one-volume Bible commentaries written we encourage in heart language and then translated into English or whatever. They’re available in Arabic and we get one, we’ve got one coming out soon in Chinese. We’ve got in Ukraine and Russia produced, you know, so they’re worth having a look at but to people to be aware that you’re looking at a book that’s about half the size of a breeze block, you know, so they’re very useful if you’ve got doors that insist on closing that you want here, but yeah, there you go.
Yes. Two thousand pages. And have you finished reading it yet?
So there’s book distribution, which is a commercial, but as well as a profiling communication resource that we’re trying to make through EU.
And you came across that in the Sudan, I think you said, and one of the things on your heart is the Books for Bible College project and what about tell us a bit about that, which is very Langham inspired.
Yeah. So that goes back to that experience I just shared. So I’ve seen the impact of, you know, biblical books, evangelical books, contextual books for colleges, in my case in Africa, East Africa. And so I’m sharing this message also in the Netherlands for people to assist. And our aim for this first half year is to get 25 book grants paid for by Dutch people. So we’ll see how that goes.
How many euros provides a book grant? It’s not huge, is it?
No, well, we use €400.
Okay. And that’s one book grant?
But it’s amazing, you know, the colleges can order something like 15 books and they are sent to all those places. Again for people’s edification. We do supply over 700 majority world theological colleges with books through that grant program. And the €400 gets access to a trade catalogue which has a huge number of Langham books and stuff there. And not only that, but we discount that as well. So €400 in cash terms relates to a huge opportunity to spend on significant books.
And in fact, if you were to drop in at the Langham Service Centre over the next few weeks, we’ve started already, we’re just into this year’s distribution there. So if you came up through the doors here in Carlisle, you’d be given a cup of coffee, I’m sure. But you might be ending up picking books off shelves and putting them in cartons. So be warned, but be invited.
So that’s a bit of the role that Langham Netherlands is fulfilling in Europe and then also trying to develop a profile with Dutch potential donors into that campaign.
I guess you’re fairly unique amongst those of us who are national directors of the Langham partnerships in that you’ve had experience in the field as well in mission and ministry. You’ve alluded to some of that from Sudan, but is there anything particular that you feel that you’ve gained there that gives you a bit of an edge and understanding, you know?
Yeah. In total, I spent 18 years in Eastern Africa in two periods. Yeah. And I really—I’ve learned a lot from brothers and sisters there, many experiences. I’m telling people here also to shock them a little bit, but it’s—it’s the truth. And I’m saying the five years in South Sudan so far, I’ve only done one and a half with Langham, so. But the five years in South Sudan have been the best years of my life so far. And then people can’t are amazed because they know only South Sudan because of war and conflict and big problems, which of course is true. But for me, those five years were about, you know, training pastors, investing in people, and lots of things disappear. And of course, also people, you know, die and things happen. But, you know, it’s a privilege, really, to invest in people.
We had the privilege and opportunity to go back to Kajokeji, where we lived, my wife and I, last year. And then I see former students who are now all, you know, church leaders. It’s an Anglican church, so they are, you know, leading the church. And it’s amazing to see. And also what I especially tell secular people here, because they think religion is something private, the church is something small and private. But in Africa, especially in South Sudan, amidst so many problems, the church always continues. You know, that’s amazing.
I’ve also seen people fleeing to the refugee settlements. The UNHCR, they were still organising things. The church had set up their structure again within three weeks of arriving there. And they were teaching children under the tree. Yeah. So in the midst of so many problems, you know, you find people still continuing, having faith, finding faith to continue. And that’s quite amazing.
How have you brought that experience to bear, do you think, in setting up a new charity and all the kinds of things that you need to do to bring to birth a new institution or whatever? Give us some ideas of what you’ve had to do, particularly over the last 12 months, and how that’s all going.
Well, in itself, when I hear stories from other countries like South Korea or Indonesia, I think the Netherlands is not—I mean, when we look at rules and regulations, not that bad. But of course, things take time. So when you start a charity, you first need three board members. If you start any foundation, you can do with one. But for charity, you need three. So that was my first assignment. And then going through the process of registration, we are very privileged to have five board members at the moment. And they are people of good standing and with many networks and contacts in the Netherlands.
And then to also register for charity, which in the Netherlands means people, when they do donations, they can get a tax reduction. So that’s very important. That also is an extra process that comes after you have done your registration as a foundation. So, yeah, there was a lot of paperwork involved. I started in October ’24 and April ’25 we were registered. Other people tell me that it’s not that—it’s quite fast when in the midst of it, I felt things were going slow. Now we’re very thankful. So since April ’25, we are officially registered in the Netherlands.
And I think you had your first board meeting in November with five members or around about then.
Yeah, ’24. So that’s—and then maybe I can add in November ’25, we sort of officially launched Langham Partnership in the Netherlands with Chris Wright. He came to the Netherlands and we had four events where he was speaking and sharing about Langham Partnership. And that was a privilege and there was quite a bit of interest.
I think that must have been quite an exciting and stressful time because I know that both you and Peter Kwant, who was there then, took about a week or two to recover from illness and depression. But it seems to have been a very exciting time. What’s the next steps, looking forward?
I mean, on your behalf, I’ll invite anyone that’s listening who has friends and contacts in the Netherlands or whatever to touch base with Langham Netherlands. But what, from your perspective, are the next key agenda things?
Well, a big one is just simply making ourselves known. You know, there’s still the older generation. They know John Stott. They know of John Stott. Most of John Stott’s books have been translated in Dutch, actually. I think maybe all of them. But that’s really the older generation even, I’m sorry to say. I noticed that Chris Wright is also, you know, it’s mostly an older generation that knows Chris.
Right.
So we can build a little bit on that. But we still have to work hard to make, you know, Langham known. It helps to have the books, to have something, you know, tangible. But a lot of people ask, you know, what is Langham about? I’ve never heard it. They also are very surprised. You know what, they also ask, where does that name come from? Langham? What is the name? But anyway, I explained about Langham Place.
Yeah, but that’s right. I say that John Stott was in his study or in the church and was thinking what on earth he was going to call this thing and he saw Langham Place on the street name and whatever. I have a difficult thing up here because in the borders many will know there is a place called Langholm. And so people, when I talk about Langham, they think that my weird English accent is mispronouncing Langholm.
And also it is useful in some areas of the world where Langham operates, as I’m sure Jaap found us. You know, it’s useful not having Christian Mission agency stamped on the title that there’s not much that it says on the can. So we can genuinely operate under the radar in certain areas and we don’t immediately sight authorities or whatever in those areas.
What would you like us to pray? And you’ve given us some things that will be in our indeed are in our chat box now. So when we go into our prayer groups, you’ll have those to hand. But Jaap, I wanted to ask you personally, you’ve kindly shown your heart for Langham Netherlands and that. Is there anything for you and your family that you’d like to add to that list personally or any particular things to give thanks for or anxiety over what your agenda’s looking like for the next few months?
Thank you. Yeah, you could pray for me. You could tell that this is really well rehearsed, folks. Can’t you know, that’s fine. That’s what we like.
Yeah. If you want to pray for me personally for wisdom, how to divide my time, I give two, two and a half days to Langham. The other time I spent on working on a PhD research project which I could also tell about, but there is no time for that.
Just give us the title.
Well, it has to do everything what I’ve been talking about, contextual Bible interpretation with a focus on South Sudan. So how do people, ordinary people in South Sudan, read the Bible? And how does that compare to a Western academic way of—
Do you have a target date to defend that?
Well, that’s my prayer point because I really want to finish this year and I’m working hard towards that. And I’ve also written it in our Christmas letter. So now everybody knows that I must finish this year. So please pray for that.
Okay, great. And also the work with Langham is that there’s always more to do, but I think more people will recognise that there are many opportunities. So I just wonder, just before we go into the groups, we were chatting before that Lina Toth, those are runs our global Scholar program was with you Netherlands, because I think you said we have 12 Dutch scholars in that program, which is quite a high proportion. That gives you a bit of a springboard as well into networks.
Yes. So five of them are living in the Netherlands and we’ve three of them were also involved in a meet in the launch meetings we had in November.
Well, one reason I think for it to be such a high number is that, relatively it is very cheap to do a PhD in the Netherlands. So there are quite a few people scribbling at that point. So expect a few more applications.
Yeah, no, but that’s a privilege too. And last Tuesday, I met a few of them who are not living in the Netherlands. They came for their PhD colloquium week. And it was also very special to have one person from Russia there and one person from Ukraine.
Oh wow.
You know, we were in the same room. They were both communicating with each other in Russian and we were praying together and I thought that that in itself was already very special.
Well, we can pray for that extraordinary cross-cultural country context to ministry that Langham has through the network. Thanks so much indeed for speaking so candidly.
Points for Prayer
Please use the following points for prayer:
- We thank God for our dedicated board members in Langham Netherlands, who all work in missions, theological education and youth ministry. Please pray for an additional board member with expertise in marketing and communications.
- We are grateful for the launch meetings held in Utrecht at the end of November with Chris Wright. A number of Langham Scholars studying in the Netherlands also participated. Please pray for this seed to take root and for more people to engage with Langham’s work.
- We are currently promoting the second edition of the ‘Africa Bible Commentary’ in the Netherlands. Please pray that we can effectively communicate that we have much to learn from our sisters and brothers in the Majority World.
- We are launching a fundraising campaign for the ‘Books for Bible Colleges’ programme. Please pray for wisdom in communicating this need clearly, and for people to respond to this opportunity to support the growth of the Church in the Majority World.
- Concerning the wider situation in the Netherlands: We thank God for church planting initiatives and for stories of growing faith among Gen Z. Pray for churches in the Netherlands to seize the opportunities in what some describe as a ‘post-secular society’.
Thank you again for your support and please remember to pray for the global Langham family by signing up for our monthly prayer email.