In conversation with Leen Koster
A life rewritten by grace
On radical transformation and the power of unconditional love.
Today I’m visiting Leen Koster. I’m warmly welcomed at his church in Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel, after which we have a candid conversation in his office. I didn’t know Leen personally yet, but I’d already read a lot about him and knew he leads a growing congregation. I see in him a sincere man of God; someone who builds his congregation with heart and soul—not in his own strength, but driven by the Spirit. That was exactly why I sought him out for a heart-to-heart conversation.
Raised without God, without a father
Leen Koster does not come from a Christian background. His grandfather was a Jewish man who had turned his back on the synagogue after everything he had experienced during the war. He had escaped the Germans by diving into the reeds and staying completely silent, while bystanders saw him but said nothing. So those Jewish roots were always there, but there was absolutely no religious life in Leen’s childhood. At home, he was given a clear message: God does not exist.
His biological father was an alcoholic and left when Leen was only six months old. Later, he got a stepfather—also addicted to alcohol and “blessed” with a violent temper. His mother, whom he affectionately calls “sweetheart,” had a tough time. She endured everything: from verbal abuse to physical violence. Leen remembers images that are burned into his memory. For instance, his stepfather could fly into a rage out of nowhere. When his mother, for example, didn’t spot the jam right away, he’d grab the jar, twist off the lid, and pour the contents right over her head.
Leen grew up in Crooswijk, Rotterdam. A true working-class neighborhood: outspoken, nothing wrong with that, but also an environment where you learned early on to fight back. He played soccer in Feyenoord’s youth academy and competed at a high level, but there was never anyone on the sidelines to cheer him on. No father to clap. Sometimes his sister came to watch, but that was it. That absence ran deep, though he didn’t fully realize it at the time.
He saw his real father only three times in his entire life. The aversion ran so deep that he had even replaced the last name Koster on his report card with that of his stepfather. And you certainly couldn’t bring up God with him.
An Encounter in the Night
Married for five years, no faith, no God—and then, in the middle of the night, a figure suddenly appeared in the doorway of his bedroom. A bright light shone, like nothing he had ever seen before. He nudged his wife, hoping she would wake up and see that bright light too. She didn’t stir, however, and remained fast asleep. Because of the bright glare, he pulled the comforter over his head, convinced he was dreaming. But when he dared to look again, the figure was still there. Then the words rang out: “You must preach the Gospel. By my stripes you have been healed.”
Leen didn’t understand a thing. He didn’t even know what the Gospel was. The next morning he asked his wife, “Do we actually have a Bible in the house?” She looked at him in utter amazement. Eventually, he found an old copy with a purple cover in the attic, behind a partition—a remnant from her school days. He had never held such a book before. When he opened the Bible, his eye immediately fell on Isaiah 53:5. There they were: exactly the words he had heard that night. He completely broke down and began to cry. Something inside him—those Jewish roots, that people, that story—touched him to the core.
A remarkable detail: the street where he lived that fateful night leads directly to the street where his church building now stands. That has always stayed with him.
The Encounter with His Father
Shortly after he came to faith, his sister called. Their biological father was dying in Rotterdam-Schiebroek. Would he come? In the past, the answer would have been a resolute “no,” but now he decided to go.
He knocked on the door and opened it. When his father saw him, he said softly, “Is that you, Leentje?” It was the third time in his life that Leen had seen him. And for the first time in his life, he replied, “It’s me, Dad.”
His father was “clean” at that moment; he hadn’t had a drop to drink in months. As he lay there quietly in bed, he suddenly began pointing at the wall and said repeatedly, “Look, look, just look.” Leen saw nothing, but his father muttered, “I see three crosses. And that man in the middle—he’s giving off light.” Tears rolled down his cheeks, and he whispered, “If only I’d known sooner.”
Leen knew immediately what was happening. Just as had happened to him, the Lord appeared to his father. They prayed together, and on his deathbed, his father gave his life to Jesus. Shortly afterward, he passed away, but not before saying with a smile and a tear that he was going to heaven.
“What struck me most,” says Leen, “is that my hatred was gone. Completely. In that room, a father-and-son relationship was formed in an instant.” That encounter also turned out to be his own healing.
The church: before the start, first a praise night with one visitor
On November 14, 1999, Leen started his own church. His wife initially wanted nothing to do with it. “Just do it on your own,” she said. That hurt, but in hindsight he sees God’s hand in it. He himself still had much to learn about pride and arrogance.
One evening, even before the church’s launch date on November 14, a praise night was organized. People in the neighborhood had handed out flyers and put up posters that also included Leen’s name. A short while later, his name turned out to have been crossed out everywhere. It was never clear who had done it, but it didn’t bother Leen much. That evening, he stood on stage with the band, ready to begin. There was exactly one visitor. One man.
They played the entire service for that one man and carried on undeterred. After that, the church became a reality and began to grow steadily. From biweekly services in a rented hall to weekly services in a daycare center, until eventually the current building came their way. According to Leen, the key to this success is threefold: calling, obedience, and hard work. But calling is the foundation. “If the Lord does not build the house,” he says, “then forget about all the hard work.”
India, a Snake Bite, and a Miracle
In addition to his work in the church, Leen devoted himself heart and soul to missions. He undertook countless mission trips and visited India regularly. He also preached the gospel in many other countries. During one of those trips to India, a remarkable miracle occurred.
Through a dream of an Indian pastor—who saw a white man with a fire that set churches ablaze—they came into contact with one another. The Indian brother recognized Leen immediately upon their first meeting. This man had come to the Netherlands for a conference and was led to visit the church in Nieuwerkerk. Leen was initially hesitant, but ultimately accepted the invitation to travel with him to India to hold evangelistic campaigns.
Since 2002, he has been a regular visitor to India, and partly through his work, 22 new churches have been established there. One story has always stayed with him. During a campaign in the jungle, a woman was laid before him on a stretcher. She had been bitten by a king cobra. Her leg was purple and severely swollen; she was deathly pale. Leen prayed for her, but he’s very honest about it now: he didn’t have a shred of faith at that moment. “There’s nothing I can do about it,” he says matter-of-factly. “I’m not embellishing the story here, but that’s just how it was.”
The woman disappeared back into the woods, and he assumed she would die. The next day, eighty kilometers away at another campaign, he suddenly saw a woman dancing exuberantly in the crowd. It was the same woman. She told him that she had gone home to lie down and felt life draining from her, when suddenly an enormous strength returned to her. She knew immediately that she had been healed and had hitched a ride eighty kilometers on a tractor with a trailer to thank God. When she stood before him, she rolled up her pants. Only two small dots from the bite were still visible.
“I had no faith, and neither did that woman. She also thought she was going to die. So who healed her? It was the Lord Himself.”
On forgiveness, depression, and honesty
Leen has forgiven his stepfather. Something he says he could never have done without Christ. The will simply wouldn’t have been there.
Yet he himself has also gone through deep valleys. There was a period when he lost consciousness several times behind the wheel due to immense pressure on his chest. One day he even found himself lying on the asphalt of the highway. A paramedic who didn’t know him looked at him and said, “You shouldn’t tempt God.” Those words struck a chord. A two-year period followed in which he struggled with severe anxiety and no longer dared to go outside. He could no longer bring himself to go out on the street and was forced to leave his car at home. He even told his father-in-law that he no longer wanted to live.
Eventually, he confessed his sins—a term he says has almost become a “dirty word” these days—and brought everything to the cross. The deliverance was so complete that shortly afterward he drove to Spain with his family. He was free again.
Leen has since changed his preaching. For example, he now thinks differently about the prevailing doctrine of healing and “proclamation.” “These days, people are often blamed if they aren’t healed; they’re told they don’t have enough faith,” he explains. “But look at the paralytic at the temple: he didn’t have a shred of faith; he just wanted alms. Yet he was healed. It didn’t depend on his faith.” Leen has returned to the foundation of grace and still believes in God’s healing! That return to the foundation has also cost him people, but he would do it all over again tomorrow. The peace and balance he now experiences, including in the congregation, is worth everything to him.
Funeral director, singer, and grandfather
In addition to his work in the church, Leen is a funeral director throughout the Netherlands. “A person is not a number,” is his motto. He takes the time to build a relationship with the bereaved. He is also present at secular funerals, where he is sometimes not allowed to speak about his faith. At first, he struggled with this, but he learned that bearing witness isn’t always about words. You can recognize the tree by its fruit.
His singing career began almost by accident. A recording made as a surprise for his daughter turned into a CD that reached number one on the Dutch Gospel Top 10. He didn’t seek that attention, but he did see the fruit of it. A man from Limburg came to know the Lord through his music and attended a church where Leen was speaking. Later, when Leen was on Bonaire, that same man called him from his deathbed to thank him. Twenty minutes later, he passed away. “For that reason alone, that CD was a blessing,” says Leen.
And then there’s being a grandfather. He has six grandchildren—actually seven, because Destiny died in his daughter’s womb due to a chromosomal abnormality. Leen had fervently believed in a miracle, but her little heart stopped. “I’m looking forward to seeing her now,” he says quietly. As David said, Leen says: “She can no longer come to me, but I can go to her.”
Being a grandfather means a lot to him. Because he never walked hand in hand with his own father when he was young, he resolved to do things differently later on. Now he is fulfilling that promise: what he himself never knew, he is now passing on, by walking hand in hand—first with his children and now also with his grandchildren—with pride. As soon as they walk in, everything else takes a back seat. Leen Koster’s life is a series of fractures that have healed. Of hatred that turned into love, and of that one visitor leading to a thriving church. Not because he himself is so great, but because he has learned that it does not depend on him.
“Humanly speaking, I still don’t understand that I am allowed to serve Him,” he concludes. But perhaps that is exactly the point.
Volle-Evangeliegemeente Het Kruispunt
@wimvanputten