Hillsong Stockholm - welcomed by Swedish church leaders

So - a Hillsong Church has entered the Scandinavian map. Sunday was a big day for former Passion Church lead by Andreas Nielsen, when it was announced that they change their name to Hillsong Stockholm. And according to Andreas himself and people related to the church, in many ways it’s nothing more than that, a name change - an acknowledgment of them being a part of the Hillsong family, as they’ve been from the beginning.

What will be more interesting is the response in Sweden and Scandinavia.
Some might argue that the response doesn’t matter, really. And for Hillsong Stockholm, it might not matter that much, I’m sure they will do their mission to reach Sweden anyway. But the respons will matter for Scandinavia in general.

I was very happy to read in the Swedish news paper Dagen that Pelle Hörnmark, Superintendent of the Swedish pentecostal movement, was present on Sunday and acknowledged Hillsong Stockholm. Hörnmark says he believes that Hillsong can contribute to the Swedish Pentecostal movement.

Stefan Swärd, pioneer pastor at Söderhöjdskyrkan, points out important it is that the churches do reach the young people, and congratulates Hillsong Stockholm at his blog.

Others church leaders congratulating the “new” church are Richard Svensson pastoring Norrortskyrkan and Per-Johan Stenstrand pastoring LifeCenter, a Hillsong-like church.

Sweden, scandinavia and Europe is in a great need of contemporary churches. Last week Dagen wrote a series of articles about the huge amount young adults leaving churches in Sweden. Also in Finland the fact that young people leave many churches received wide attention in media last year. Of course there are great examples of churches breaking the trend, and attracting young people. But the need is so much greater.

It’s easy to make church politics about new churches, and unfortunately in Finland there have been extremely few church plants the last decades, and even fewer successful ones. Sweden and Norway haven’t been as conservative, and are somewhat better of with new growing churches, as well as some older churches turning into a positive trend.

In the beginning of the 20th century there wasn’t room for what became the pentecostal movement, in the existing denominations. In the coming decades, I believe the pentecostal churches, as well as other, will have their chance not to do the same mistake, but to embrace the new churches (not saying it’s a new movement!), and if willing, to find that the new churches brings necessary life and new thinking which will contribute to Christianity on wider scale.

It is indeed great to see Hillsong on the Scandinavian map. Congratulations to Andreas & Lina Nielsen!

Hillsong Vision Sunday 2008!!

Building a church of 25000 people is incredible.
Leading a church of 25000 people is a big task.
Empowering the body of Christ, building strong well-rooted Christians is what every spiritual leader is called to do.

Seeing the life of Hillsong Church with my own eyes is breath taking, challenging and extremely inspiring.
Seeing the sincerity of the leaders, to truly equip every Christian to live successful lives and to fulfill their calling is good for my twisted European view of what a big church is and can be about.

Today Pastors Brian and Bobbie shared the vision for year 2009 (which wasn’t just their own thoughts, but that of the eldership and leadership in the church!), mainly through a great film/multimedia presentation. And shortly put, it can be concluded with the three words: FAITH, HOPE and LOVE.

Two big new things were announced amongst many other:

- the Gift Exchange an opportunity for people skilled in an area to train others

- Hillsong Stockholm was launched! Passion Church, lead by Andreas & Lina Nielsen, has from the beginning been built on Hillsong values and has been overseed by Hillsong. So it wasn’t necessarily a big surprise for everyone, but it will definetly impact Sweden and Scandinavia.

Also they’ve launched their new website at http://www.hillsong.com

I’m personally very thrilled to see what 2009 has waiting. I believe it will be a great year when the people of God has the opportunity to draw close to him, and experience his limitless grace and abundant love, and to rise up as light in the world!

Getting under the surface - five weeks at Hillsong college

I wrote some thoughts in August when we had been 5 weeks at college. It gives a pretty good picture on some areas of what Hillsong College is about. And with two months more perspective, it’s just gotten even better.

Written 28th of August:

It’s amazing how fast time can fly. It’s soon three weeks since we started college - and almost 2 weeks since we were isolated from cyberspace and thrown into the jungle of northern Sydney. Finally able to write some posts.

Two first weeks we had two subjects as intense courses - Introduction to pastoral leadership and Teamwork. This week the actual subjects for this semester starts off.

What stands out

There are a few things that stands out already during our first weeks here at Hillsong, and the college. One of my personal concerns during times of decision what Bible College or pastoral education to attend, was not to know the actual profile of Hillsong Church never the less the college. But every day so far, I’ve found myself concluding that what I see and experience is very good.

Wisdom and balance

Hillsong is a pentecostal church, but born in an postmodern age. Traditional old-time pentecostals would ask where the shouting in tongues and all the profecies are. Traditional evangelicals might find the sound a bit too loud or the worship too enthusiastic. Or as someone put it: Too relevant. But it seems nothing is left to chance, but that things are done a certain way for a reason. And, the main reason that actually determines what is reasonable is the vision statement of the church, which is mainly based on the Great Commission.
Shortly put - the church [the people that are the church] exists for the lost and for its community, not to serve itself. That’s the cause of the church, and what ever that takes, is to be lived out through the life of the people that are the church.

Personal growth

The emphasis is - in words of the College Vice President Mark Hopkins - in both knowing AND experiencing God. It’s not so much about performing (as many would think) as about serving. It’s not so much about your gifts as about your attitude. Character is valued more then charisma. Charisma might be a good bonus, but worthless without character.

Atmosphere and expectance

Atmosphere is highly valued - and not without reason. Starting from when people enter the parking area, everyone will know they are valued and important - not only through words, but through how they are met. Also at College I sense an attitude of respect, warmth and care that seems very genuine.

Depth

During our first lessons in Introduction to Pastoral Leadership I was taken by the insight shared by the pastors from all the different departments. It was easy to tell that these people had really put thought into their specific age-group or area of responsibility, to understand their task not merely on a theological or typically pastoral, but also on a sociological level which looks into the situation in the community and the everyday lives of the people that are to be reached, won for Jesus, and discipled.

Observe that these are just a few points that covers some areas that stood out the very first weeks. Much more could be said about the contents of the teaching itself etc. But will be for a later post.

Sex, Love and Relationship seminar

“More of bed into church and
more of church into bed”

Ed & Lisa Young from US visited Hillsong this week. They teached at the S-L-R seminar and preached throughout the services during the weekend.

The seminar was good - perhaps  light weight but still with lot’s of insights and important truth.

One thing Ed talked about was the importance of continuing to date you partner also after getting married with him/her, and especially when having kids. He said that the best gift you can give your children is a healthy marriage during their upbringing - setting a great example for them to follow.

He tought that the “education” for the children to learn what a healthy marriage looks like actully starts at a very young age, when mum and dad goes on a date - on their own. The biggest fear of a child is separation from his/her parents. But when going on a date and yes - leaving the child with a baby sitter, telling “mummy will come back”, and the child learning that mum and dad always do come back when they go on a date for them selves - THAT teaches the child the importance of nurturing the relationship of husband and wife, and is the beginning of understanding how to build a healthy marriage.

Ed and Lisa also taught on subjects like

- Defective dating

- How to commit adultery (what things to avoid, in other words)

- The ten commandments of purity -a great tool to protect your marriage.

Ed and Lisa had a great way of teaching on a message often not even mentioned in churches and christian gatherings.

The porn star in church…

On Sunday Ed preached at Hills, and told about a Hollywood producer (for a major TV show in US) having seen him in TV teaching in a bed about sex. The producer had to watch the teaching to its end, and contacted Ed, asking him if he would want to do a talk show together with a porn star discussion their different points of view on sex. They would do the filming at his church. Having consulted his wife and some other people he actually agreed - for one reason, to share the gospel to this young woman. He went on telling how this woman arrived with her boyfriend/manager/former porn star to church (not during a service though). The producer started of with one single question, and they discussed sex, pornography, marriage, Jesus, the gospel, the love of God, for 2 - 3 hours. His very first mentioning early on in the discussion of the love that God has for this woman, and him telling her that nothing she had done, or could do, would make God love her any less or any more, gave tears in her eyes. Putting a long story short, having went through a long discussion, she left saying to his boy friend: “What if he (Ed) is right about all this…”

The show will be on TV in November. Some anonymouse people made a guess that it could be Oprah… who knows.

The whole initiative of the S-L-R seminar is great. The foundation of society is a healthy family - and the foundation of a healthy family is a healthy marriage. And a healthy marriage starts with great role models starting from child hood, and a healthy atmosphere where all related issues can be discussed.

Hi from my iPhone & Hillsong Life

We’re still out of internet, and it sucks… BUT - iPhone does miracles - AND I got mine finally this Monday after having been subject to Apples marketing tricks… Such as having people to wait for their iPhones several weeks to get the buzz about it. They “didn’t have it in stock” for three weeks… and then suddainly the shops say that there isn’t any shortage of iPhones anymore at all… right.

Anyways, college life rocks. Last couple of weeks we’ve started to get settled and more into the everyday rythm. We joined the connect group (also known as cell groups) training for new CG leaders. It was not very thorough, but did indeed give some more insight into the life of Hillsong.

Most people around the globe seems to associate Hillsong with it’s music and doesn’t see more than hipp concerts, cool music, CDs and DVDs. And while relevant music is indeed an important part of Hillsong church, it is still only A part of it. The part that has put Hillsong on the map, yes. But what is less obvious is the real life behind the scenes. What the CDs doesn’t tell, is the basis that made them all possible. That is, a deep desire to build Jesus’ church, based on the Bible, for a time as this. A church with a true desire to see people saved, discpled and empowered to lead “in every sphear of life”.

“The big show”
What many pastors (at least in Europe and Scandinavia) seem to react on, and movements such as “emerging church” critisize is churches that put effort to building a great Sunday service. I’ve heard so many times said that it’s not about the church building, but about the people that are the church, and that it’s not about Sunday, but about everyday life with Jesus. I used to say so my self. BUT, who says having a well working, great looking church building works against having great, Jesus-loving people in that church? Doesn’t a rugged church reflect a neglecting attitude towards the place where the people of God meet?
And who says having an inspiring well prepared and up-lifting Sunday service would take anything away from living a great life with Jesus through out the week?! Quite in contrary. Doesn’t a cool state-of-the-art Sunday meeting witness that Jesus IS relevant also for a generation that is brought up by MTV, Britney Spears and Pearce Brosnan. I think it does.

What it seams like, in a European context, is that one thing outrules the other, that great Sunday services outrules great Jesus-based life throughout the week. But why would it?Only if there is a culture of “living the christian life” just on Sundays. And that’s a matter of creating a healthy church culture.

Well, much more could be said. And will so be, but later!