Diaspora churches in Sweden, Evangelisk Fokus
The so-called diaspora churches have become an important part of Swedish Christianity. In recent decades, around 300 churches have been planted here by people from a non-Swedish culture or nationality, mostly – but not exclusively – in larger cities.
One of the most striking examples of this is Nigerian denomination Redeemed Christian Church of Godwhich globally has around 6 million members and currently approx 40 church plants in Sweden. And there will probably be more, as the vision of this denomination is to plant worshiping communities just 5 minutes apart – all over the world!
From Nigeria There are also a number of churches in Sweden from denominations such as Deeper Life Bible Church and Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries.
There are missionaries who have also been sent from other parts of the continent, such as Ghanaian The Pentecostal church, so far with a handful of congregations in our nation. The worship language is English, Ghanaian and Swahili. In addition to Ghana and Sweden, they are represented in approximately 130 different countries. They have now officially joined the Swedish Evangelical Alliance as a member church.
The examples can be multiplied. International Missionary Church, with connections to Chile, gathers almost 1,500 people for their Sunday services in Stockholm. For Sweden, this is a very large church. There are also many congregations with Ethiopian, Eritrean, Iranian or Afghan connections which are generally closer to the established Swedish religious communities by collaborating with and/or being linked to them.
The general pattern, however, is that the connections between the “new” and the “old” churches are weak. Most of the current church facilities already belong to their own denominations, often much larger than our Swedish counterparts, and we must therefore work to build relationships with each other without making “ownership claims” or trying to recruit each other into our particular community.
This is also something that I, as the leader of Swedish EA, have taken to heart. We have already had several meetings with representatives from both Swedish and diaspora churches, and it has been a great joy to get to know each other and to pray together. Pastor Tillarh from the Redeemed Christian Church of God is one of my new friends in this community, and I look forward to connecting more with him and other missionaries sent to Sweden in the coming years!
Olof Edsinger, general secretary of the Swedish Evangelical Alliance. This article was first published on the website of European Evangelical Allianceand republished with permission.