sweden day 2 and 3

Gustav, PA, Olsä, Jay (North Park President), Benj, me, Mark, Marcia, JoAnn, Illeana, Phyllis, Katie.

well, we are all doing great here in Sweden. Today (Sunday) we went to a few different services. Our class time has been great and we have been having some amazing discussions. We met with the bishop of the Lutheran Church, which was formally the church of Sweden up until 7 years ago. That time with Bishop Carolyn was super interesting. I asked a question about church growth and new innovative ways to do church to reach the swedes, and she basically had no idea what i was talking about. The issue is that up until this point, the Swedes have been just assigned to the church automatically since they were born here. Since it is no longer the state church, people can now choose if they want to be members or not. instead of everyone paying a tax, now an annual fee is charged. I wish I had about 5 more hours with her. We have spent a fair amout of time at the Covenant's largest Covenant church in Sweden called Immanual kyrkan. They have about 5 services on sundays. We went to their innovative service tonight. This morning we went to Filadelfia Kyrka, which is the largest pentacostal church in all of Europe, I believe. We met personally with the new Sr. Pastor, who left the Swedish Covenant Church is Fiskabek (where I will be later this week with Aaron). In all, I am emotional, tired, reminded of my love for my church, being challenged and strengthened, and having an amazing time in community with friends I haven't spent enough time with this year.

The last two pictures are of JoAnn (the dean of North Park), Marcia, me and Katie and then a picture from the Filadelfia Church from this morning.