Bosse in Stockholm

Stockholm is a city of almost 2 million people.  James Lauderdale, my co-worker, and I are here learning as much as we can about Stockholm and a group with which we’d like to partner. We were told that the Stockholm of today is significantly different than the Stockholm of 20 years ago. Over 35000 immigrants each year settle in Stockholm. Most of the Swedes aren’t attending any church at all.

Bosse is a retired architect who gives his time to New Life Church. He started attending New Life two years ago after his wife died of cancer. He wanted to make a new start, so the EFK (Evangelical Free Church of Sweden) church he was attending blessed him and sent him to New Life to serve this Swedish church with a strong international profile. Bosse says, “I have a new life at New Life!”

We attended the coffee house they have on Monday nights at the rented facilities where they meet. It’s how they welcome new people to their community. It was exciting to see how this group of about 30 (primarily Russian speakers) were encouraging each other.

New Life is a church of about 600 people representing about 50 different countries. They have a vision to start 10 more churches in the Stockholm area in the next ten years. James and I are hoping to learn a lot this week.