By: Craig Whitney

Last week John Burke and I had the opportunity to travel through Scandinavia visiting Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallin and Oslo. In each city we met church planters who were seeing the church raised up out of the culture as people came to faith. Each of them is living out some essential qualities I spoke about in Stockhom:

• The Risk Taking Faith of Abraham – God asked Abraham to go to a land He would show him. We’ve met leaders who have left their country, their jobs, and their family to say yes to leading others to faith not knowing what the result would be.

• The Passion for People of Paul – Church attendance in some of these cities is less than 2%. Growth takes time. Many of the planters we’ve met have given 10 years to see a vibrant church formed. A passion for people who are not following Jesus is absolutely needed to stay motivated.

• The Gifts of Equipping in Ephesians 4 – In these settings, it takes a team and we’ve met some great ones. Even more exciting is seeing how church planters are reproducing themselves in younger leaders, resulting in not only growth but multiplication.

It’s been a privilege to meet and encourage them.