Alarming Trends in Swedish Christianity

Alarming Trends in Swedish Christianity

Today in Sweden approximately 5% of the population regularly attends a Christian place of worship. Downward trends continue in the Swedish Mission Church, where there has been a loss of 5,000 teenagers in the o... Read More

Chuck Colson sees "A Hope Filled Trend" in Europe

Chuck Colson sees "A Hope Filled Trend" in Europe

Chuck Colson asserts in his contribution to The Christian Post that there is a "hope filled trend" taking place in Europe. We strongly agree and can affirm that many conversions are taking place in ... Read More

A Call to Action - Sweden Needs the Gospel Now!

A Call to Action - Sweden Needs the Gospel Now!

This is a call to action for concerned Christians world-wide. With your help we can equip the Christian Church in Sweden with a modern and innovative communication platform. Our first of many objectives is to f... Read More

The latest statistics

The latest statistics from 2007 have been published.  The Swedish Mission Church has lost 5,000 teens and tweens in their youth programs in just 2 years. The Pentecostal Movement currently serves 12,000 young people - compared to 80,000 in 1980.

During the last 5 years the number of children in the Swedish Lutheran Church's "barntimmar" program have decreased by 45 percent.

The number of Swedish missionaries in the Pentecostal Movement was 631 in the year 1995, 251 in 2005 and only 150 in 2008.  Sweden is the country in Scandinavia where this trend has been the worst.
 

Spiritual Climate in Sweden

As contradictory as it may sound, Sweden is a very rich country, yet there are small remote churches that don’t have the money to buy evangelistic and Sunday school materials.

This is not altogether surprising, because while most Swedes are Lutheran (about 85% would claim to be linked to the church), active faith is found in a much smaller number than this; for instance, only about 5-7 % of the nation attend church at least once a month, and it is reckoned that while most people own a Bible, few people will actually read it.

Sweden is therefore in many ways as typical western and secular nation with a Christian past. The Lutheran Church is no longer the state church and people tend to be members of the church in name only.

One of the great challenges for the church in Sweden is to reach young people who, as a result of the decline in church attendance, have had no meaningful exposure to the gospel.

Missionary outreach in the past from Sweden has been very strong, yet the number of missionaries has declined recently and a new vision is needed among young Christians.
(Text from European Christian Mission International)