Freedom in the Wide Open

Well, I thought I would take a few blogs to give you some highlights on my trip to Sweden! Sorry this isn't in real-time... I was not quite as diligent as my students!

Nine of us flew all night from Chicago to Stockholm... Six students and three professors. Jay Phelan and I are the co-teachers for an exchange course with THS, our sister seminary in Stockholm. The course is designed to build connections between the Covenant in the US and Sweden. In addition, our students are challenged to consider how leadership and mission in the church are uniquely shaped by cultural contexts... particularly the United States and Sweden. In the United States we considered the Willow Creek movement as well as the Emergent Church movement. In Sweden we looked at the Pentecostal movement and the former state church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden.

During a conversation with the Lutheran Bishop of Stockholm (who seemed like an amazing woman!) one of our students asked about church planting and church growth. The Bishop didn't have much of a response. Many students assumed that this demonstrated a lack of concern for evangelism on the part of the Lutheran Church. While this may be true, it is a simplistic response to the issue. What is evangelism in a country where just a few years ago everyone was automatically a member of the church upon birth? What is church growth when 70% of the population attends confirmation? How is ecclesiology different in a system that developed as a state church versus the free church market economy of the United States?

I have been re-reading By One Spirit, the history of the Covenant Church in the United States (I know... this is difficult for many of you to imagine!). It has been so interesting to see how the Pietistic renewal movement in Sweden and the revivals that took place at the time changed into something different when translated into the U.S. context. In particular, a movement that emphasized freedom in Sweden developed a denominational structure in the United States. When there were strict boundaries, the emphasis was freedom. In the wide-open context of the United States, the emphasis was structure and connection.

I think about this idea often actually... I grew up in a family with relatively few boundaries. No curfew, few rules. They weren't really necessary. With all that freedom, I created my own boundaries, pretended to have curfews, held myself to pretty strict moral guidelines. Not all kids react this way, but I did. I meet a lot of young people who grew up with relatively strict boundaries. As they get older, they try to push those boundaries and draw them in different places. I have close boundaries in an expansive world. They try to draw expansive boundaries in a closed in world. Often the conversations about these various boundaries lead to judgements of sinfulness or self-righteousness. Context... context is key. As is community... and communication... a love for one another that allows these discussions to focus on the good of others rather than our own needs.

And so, our time in Sweden starts with the need for context, community, and communication.