New-Reformation in English

Welcome to 2017!  I hope you made it well into the New Year, and that you have a lot of reasons to be hopeful for the future. 10 years ago we celebrated our first New Year’s Eve in Sweden. We had just moved here from Germany in order to develop new ideas and approaches for the church of the future, and coming from a tiny Bavarian village it felt as if we actually went into the future. But today I’d like to present to you ten things that did not exist 10 years ago - or at least hardly anyone was aware of them. Ten things that nowadays are a regular part of our daily life. Let’s go! 1) YouTube Actually, YouTube was already founded in 2005, but in my part of the world nobody really noticed it unit 2007. Today it’s nearly impossible to imagine a world without this video sharing site. Tutorials, trailers, vacation memories everything and way, way more is available around the clock. 2) Spotify A true Swedish invention from 2006: Music, music, and even more music. CD’s a...

The Western European Advancement Team has taken a closer look at what used to be Staff Conference and then became Connect. This big annual tradition has to serve many purposes: training, teaching, fun, international missionary relationship building, holiday/vacation, a time for supporters and board members to meet staff, in-house communication, inspiration and soul care, networking among nationals, recruiting new people to the CA “tribe”, kid and youth ministry — just to mention a few. As we considered all of the purposes we are trying to fit into a single box, we quickly concluded one single event cannot serve every single purpose well. So, we challenged ourselves to think outside the box. And we began to imagine some possibilities. What about a slimmer version of Connect that is simpler and cheaper with focus on intentional community, spirituality, and learning from each other? What if we allowed the growing annual Leadership Summit to cover some of the original purposes of Connect? ...

William, Musician

Douglas, Project Coordinator

Every month our sending church in Ingolstadt, Germany receives a short clip with a specific prayer request. They would show it in their service and then pray for our ministry. Here is the clip that has been showed today. Since the prayer request for October is a sad and important one I would like to ask anyone to pray for what Rob is sharing. Thank you!

Did you know that ”flesh” and ”meat” is the same word in some languages? The German word Fleisch for instance. When I read, ”the word became flesh” I could also read ”the word became meat” – an interesting thought as we think about the meaning of “taste and see, this is my body…” isn’t it?! Anyway, this wordplay made me think about Christmas. With so many gorged bellies in mind, we can clearly see that Christmas has a lot to do with meat, doesn’t it?! At the same time, Christmas is very closely linked with flesh. After all, Christmas is the incarnation, Fleischwerdung in German or becoming of meat , pardon, flesh. But that sounds a little like butcher’s language, so let’s stick with incarnation. The incarnation is the ultimate prerequisite to the salvation of the entire creation – as it were all flesh doomed to rot.  No incarnation - no crucifixion; no crucifixion - no resurrection; no resurrection - no New Creation; no New Creation - no hope, no hope - no gospel. It’s more tha...

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Never forget: Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

H2O wishes a merry and worshipful Christmas and a peaceful 2015!

There are only very few Americans in H2O, yet American Thanksgiving has become the biggest and most important H2O-event of the year. Since we don't do potluck food but "the real deal" we only can welcome 55 guests at our H2O-center. Usually there are always some new guests, some "Thanksgiving-only" and of course committed H2O'ers. We could easily get together a group twice that size, but we want it to keep a family atmosphere, especielly for new guests. The highlight of the evening is, next to the food, our thanksgiving round. Our whole point with Thanksgiving is making gratitude a spiritual exercise in times of overflowing properity, when it comes much more easy to people to whine and grumble than to give thanks. So everyone is supposed to introduce him- or herself and pick something you are very grateful for today. A very much appreciated exercise. We usually finish with an open mic time where people can sing, play, or show something. Once the ice is bro...

One thing that won't change despite of my new role is leading a group of about 15 students here in Gothenburg that are being trained as leaders and pastors at one of Sweden's leading Bible academy. My role here is preparing them for their life as leaders and pastors, whereas the courses train them academically. A great chance to invest in their lives and to shape the future of future leaders. Beginning of a new semester: Every September Swedish students gather from all over the country. I'll also teach some lessons in missiology, theology and culture.

The " Watchword of the Year " is a German phenomena. Started by the Moravians, a Bible verse is drawn like a motto for each year (by the way, for each month, week, and day as well). I guess this week you'll hear a lot a lot about 2013's watchword in German churches, which is Hebr 13:14: For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.  Outside German territory you don't hear anything about it. So I took my Bible and meditated a while on Hebr 13. I found this particular verse compellingly missional, for in its contexts Hebr 13:14 sounds to me like this: Out, church folks! What are you waiting for inside your temple buildings? Are you polishing your halos? Are you still waiting for the world coming to you and your nice Jerusalem? Don't you know where your master is? He's outside in the midst of fallen life and brokenness, where loneliness is ruling and man is desperately looking for love and appreciation. So...

It's interesting how Jesus starts talking about the false prophets immediately after naming the broad and the narrow path, isn't it? "Be careful!" he says. As if it were those false prophets that would keep people from wandering on the narrow road. We recently discussed that passage at "impressions", our bi-weekly gathering, and we noticed that "prophets" always want to talk on God's behalf. After all, prophets make God's voice known or speak in His name. And immediately we got all the stories. Stories about Swedish pastors in recent times that have exploited people or misused their position. Stories about (non-Swedisch, in that case) catholic nuns who behaved like maniac. I remembered stories of my friends wehen we still lived in Bavaria, a still pretty catholic state of Germany, how they got ringing slaps in the face by the priest because the children couldn't sit as still as they were supposed to in an completely non-understan...

"The broad and the narrow road", a German painting from 1866 seems to appear a little spooky nowadays, but it was a presentation about that very painting that led me to start following Christ in February 1982. "Narrow is the road that leads to to life, and ony a few find it" (Mt 7:14). One could say a lot about how to interpret this statement of Jesus - for instance how his original hearers up there in the mountain must have heard it. But one thing is for sure: In a post-Christian Europe there will be only a few indeed who'll find the road to life. Reason number one for this fact: disinterest. "Church? I've been there. I don't need it." "Jesus? Oh, yes, I know. No, thanks!" "Resurrection? I remember. That was this religious talk from former times. Nowadays we have different topics." For everyone that finds the small road in Sweden there are many, many more who leave it again - plus all these old, faithful believers who...

Serve the City Sweden has applied for a grant of 20,000 kr that will be given by a bigger company to a project of "sustainable social work". We literally applied last minute, but we got in. The bad news is that the jury will pick the "winner" by looking at the popularity of their application in the social media. The good news is however that Serve the City Sweden placed 13 out of all projects within only a couple of hours. But we still need more clicks. Would you PLEASE help us? Simply go to http://stipendium.weleda.se/ansokningar/tjana-stan and "like" it! THANKS!

(These words are not mine. I found them in a devotional for the end of this day. Yet these thoughts are mine. This is exactly how I feel.) You are probably believing God for something to come to pass in your life. If you look, you will find evidence of a small seed, perhaps only a little, tiny seed, something that causes you hope. It is a sign of greater things to come. When you despise something you regard it lightly. You count it as nothing and don't take care of it. But if you don't take care of what God gives you, you will lose it. You need to be content during the small things. You know the Lord in the Author and Finisher (see Hebrews 12:2). What He begins, He completes (see Philippians 1:6). Don't curse your seed by complaining or proclaiming negative things over it, Instead say, "Lord, this is only a little thing, but thank you for giving me some hope, something to hold on to. Thank you, Lord, for a Beginning." (From the book "Ending Your Day Rig...

Source: Göteborgdaily ( http://www.goteborgdaily.se/news/every-fifth-gothenburger-born-abroad ) More than every fifth Gothenburg resident is born outside of Sweden. The number of foreign-born residents has increased by 18,000 people since 2007 and Iraqis are now the city’s largest immigrant group. Iraqis (11,384 people) are closely followed by Iranians (11,250) and in third place comes the Finns with 7,140 people. Somalians, Chinese and Romanians are among the nationalities that have increased the most in the last five years. The number of Gothenburg residents born in China has increased from 1,755 people in 2007 to 2,841 in 2012. Many are students at the city’s universities and live in the Krokslätt and Johanneberg area. Otherwise, most of Gothenburg’s foreign-born residents live in the north-eastern parts of the city. “The newly arrived only have access to a small part of the housing market,” says Professor Roger Andersson at Uppsala University to Götebor...