Some notes on hopeful directions, foundations and practices

This is for those of you that (like me) are looking for ways to navigate as, in (or even out of!) a flawed and struggling church in post-christendom.

The excerpt is from a book called "The secret of the strength: What would anabaptists tell this generation?"

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"I am the way and the truth and the life."

To the Protestants, the Bible was the manifesto, an end in itself. Once they
reached an agreement on how to "properly" interpret it, they revered it and treated it with gallant devotion.
They preached and persecuted and fought mighty wars in defense of the Bible and its doctrines.
To the Anabaptists, the Bible was simply the book that took them to Christ.

The Protestants found the "key" to Bible interpretation in the epistles of Paul.
But the Anabaptists found it in Christ and his Sermon on the Mount.

The Protestants saw in Paul a great theologian, the expositor of the doctrines of faith and grace. The Anabaptists saw in Paul a man who forsook everything to become a "fool for Christ's sake." They found community with him in his martyr's death.

The Protestants lived to obey their authorities. They spoke much about "Godordained authority" and held their princes and church leaders in highest esteem.
The Anabaptists lived to obey Christ.

The Protestants worked en masse and waited until "everyone was ready" to make
changes in religious practice.
The Anabaptists did, on first opportunity, what they thought Christ wanted them to do. If no one else joined them, they did it alone.

The Protestants followed a logical course. Theologians, princes and educators planned what to do in a way that made sense.
The Anabaptists followed Christ without making plans. That did not make sense. But it was the secret of their great strength.

And it led them . . .

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Many of the convictions, offices and practices of the church that we hold in high esteem, perform and find solace in are seriously hampering it´s witness.

How do we "get it right"?

We might find some good help from those radical christian groups during the christendom-era who never won the popular vote. One such group was the anabaptists who in its genesis rediscovered healthy practices of discipleship that the reformers failed (or dared not?) to find. (Eventually, hampered by persecution, the anabaptists scattered).

I recommend those of you who do give a damn about "church" and it´s place in contemporary society to read this compelling book by Peter Hoover! Available as a pdf-file here.

And why not read Frank Violas and George Barnas "Pagan Christianity" to take a serious look at the real historical foundations for some current practices of the contemporary church and ask your self the question - Is this the way to do it?

For a primer on the issue of being "church" in post-christendom, and in investigating hopeful ways of "doing it", I suggest you read "Church after christendom" by Stuart Murray.

Right and wrong

This post by Graham on the Leaving Münster blog connects in an interresting way to my previous post on laying foundations/planting a church, and the core values connected to this practice.

He´s actually writing the post out of a re-examination on the issue of restorationism provoked by a reading of "Pagan Christianity", by Frank Viola and George Barna. (A book I´m looking forward to reading myself!)

A paraphrase...

Here´s a long one for you!

Recently this post (from United in Copenhagen), on churchplanting strategies and leadership, appeared on the blog for the leadership and church growth conference hosted by United . Some good stuff there. Some that culturally just wrooms past me...

And so to the churchplanting and leadership post...

Without any undue disrespect for my fellows in the faith, and without saing that their choice of methodology for "doing church" is necessarily one to disband completely, I want to leave this paraphrase here in order to, let´s say, highlight an other way of building "from scratch". One that is equally rooted in the gospel story i think!

Here we go! (and remember: This is a paraphrase, so read the original post first!)

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Starting a new fellowship often means: Big vision, lots of enthusiasm and low budget. There are so many things you need to invest in: Paying hostel rooms for homeless people, buying clothes and food for them and paying staff to ride around in cars dispersing the stuff three days a week. You might even need to rent some facilities where we can store up some of the stuff, and eventually hold meetings in.

We have learnt that caring for the needy (among ourselves and in the city) is high priority!

Here are some practical tips on how to start building up a thriving ministry for the poor in your churchplant from day one.

1. Divide the total amount of monthly income that you have within the core group, and divide it in to slices.(after rent, food and other running costs are accounted for.) Of the "cake" that is left give: 50% directly to the needy (including renting storage facilities), 35% to other mission-initiatives (local and global), 15% to staff/personell costs and 10% for miscellanious costs or, possibly, savings.
2. Have a board of advisers to help you set and decide what in any given situation should be the minimum % given directly to the poor and to missional work. (50% is just my advice here. The church of the first two centuries roughly spent some 70-90% of their income directly on the poor!)
3. If you pay staff: Pay well, but never fall into the trap of clericalism that so seriously have distorted the ministry of the church in christendom. (Meaning: Never, unless necessary, have full-time staff. Have people work bi-vocationally so that you can invest your money straight in to the poor and missions. Your way of spending money and how you disperse the "ministry" into everybodys hands and feet has to mirrior a holistic view of how the church can express the "good news".)
4. Who should you put on salary first? A more open question than many may think it is at first. If you put someone on salary, my suggestion is that it does not necessarily have to be a "senior pastor" or the leader of the team. It could just as well be the peeps working the closest to the poor, or the ones with the largest home (= can fit your gatherings and supply food). It could be a youth worker or someone setting time apart visiting the elderly in your neighbourhood. Talk it through, mine the gospels for guidance, pray and be creative!
5. Never hire people fulltime unless your missions work or your ministry among the needy eventually requires it! We all "do the stuff". Paying people to comit to a ministry can release creativity and time to do great things, but can just as easily turn people into "experts" thus detering others from regarding themselves as being in "full-time ministry"... which we actually are, everybody, all the time.
6. Take care of the needy! I say it again ´cos it does you no harm to hear it again: Take care of the needy! And take care of those who work the hardest for the kingdom among you, whoever they are and during whatever season in your life as a community it may be! Treat them, and each other, as if they are precious family too you - which they are! It´s hard to succeed in living the life of discipleship without a family/deep relations, so make sure that you care for each other!

Well, this is where the paraphrase ends!

In no way do I suggest that this is "the way" of doing it (It is, at best, a rough draft!). I´m not claiming that this is "the truth" on this particular bit of laying foundations for a new church but, as I wrote earlier, it is equally rooted in the gospel story! I agree that there are many ways of "doing church" that are valid given the context they are in, but at the same time we must be open for critique!

My position for this particular criticism (in the shape of paraphrase) is not one of clerical power or one based on a theological or ecclesiological splitting of hairs, but rather a humble and slightly uncertain one from the margins. No one needs to listen to me! I am not part of a rapidly growing or "successful" church, rather one struggling in many ways to find out what it actually means to be followers of Jesus together. I have experienced the struggle of being a church leader in a "new church", relating on a personal level to people we may describe as needy and have had some real battles in trying to grapple how I, my family and our church community can connect and serve everyone in our surrounding commuity, especially the poor and needy. I have done this without carrying a salary (bi-vocationally), and have found this a great experience of growing towards a holistic view of "ministry" and church leadership. So it is possible...

I have to acknowledge, of course, that much of the above probably is true for anyone doing church, but the text that I chose to criticize here, in my humble opinion, lacks some essentials in expressing that reality. A reality any church, anywhere is called to represent - The kingdom of God where the poor, the needy and the socially disadvantaged are due for great attention, financially as well as any other way.

What are your thoughts on this?

So this is happening

Well here´s how it´s going to be!

As of today I have two blogs.

This one remains, but more rarely updated.
The other one, in swedish, will be my main outlet. Welcome there!

As for increasing my activity (as I hoped to do) I´ll have to admit that under current circumstances I won´t have time for more activity than a couple of posts/month, at least for a while longer.
Things are happening in life (and I´ll get back to what is happening in future posts!) that will take up energy and time for the rest of spring.

Thanks everyone for helping me out by voting and suggesting!

A brief update and a reminder

I have pledged to fast from blogging until early march, and only break this temporarily to remind any reader to vote on the issues raised in this earlier post. Please do!

I´ll just use this space to also mention some reviews of our latest Plunge album "Refreshingly Addictive".

Both of them are from All About Jazz and written by Budd Kopman and Eyal Hareuveni respectively.

Israeli Hareuveni in particular seems to have been caught by some "deeper and more mysterious terrains" that the music seems to venture into, and draws some interresting spiritual parallels only possible due to his own cultural and religious heritage?

Hope from The Margins

"... we should watch the margins and discover the activity of God in the inner city, on the housing estates, in the prisons, amongst refugee groups... the (-se) movements (anabaptists, waldensians, the celtic churches etc... my addition!) that were marginalized by the prevailing powers of their time that seem to offer alternative perspectives for a post-christendom society.

Similarly, we may need to look less to North America and more to the Two-Thirds world for partners, who have already moved out from under colonial patterns, and who can help us understand our own culture and discover more fitting patterns for our society.

The emphasis in the coming years must be on contextual missiology and ecclesiology, whisch involves careful listening to those beyond the church walls, and to those prophetic voices on the margins of church life.

Above all, regardless of the shape of new forms of church, we need to refocus on centring the life of the Christian community on Christ.

Jesus was born in poverty and obscurity, and spent much of his life challenging the social pressures to use existing power structures. His way challenges the focus of our attention... we live in a society that is heartily sick of Christianity and the institutional chrurch but that has yet to encounter the radical Jesus. New ways of being church need also to be new ways of telling the story of Jesus and helping people to encounter him...

... It may be that the teaching, relationships, values and character of the Jesus of the gospels will be the crucial point of contact with contemporary culture.

What way of being church will reveal this Jesus to our society?"



Stuart Murray and Anne Wilkinson-Hayes in the closing notes of "Hope from the margins". Find it here or here (in swedish).

The shape of The Blog to come

Some notes on publishing ratio and comments on this blog.


One of the reasons I don´t publish stuff that often on this blog is obviouisly the fact that english is my second language. Since most people that read this blog are swedish, and therefore in the same seat as me, not many comments are made nor many discussions held. An obvious result!

An other reason is a slight bent from my side towards crafting articles or short essay:ish material rather than material suitable for an open forum discussion. This takes some time for me and might also, unfortunately, deter people from giving their views.

A third reason is the fact that I´ve had long periods since launching the blog where I simply have not had the time to just produce material or engage properly in making this blog into more of a forum... and I´d really like to!

So...

I´m going to try and make some changes to this during winter.

- One aim is to simply publish more short stuff with a rougher edge to take some of the pressure off and enable response and comments. (Brief comments/reflections on my own musical work, brief stories from the journeying of our small community of Jesus followers, brief quotations from other blogs or writers etc...)

- Another aim is to publish some longer stuff (essay:ish material) as open inviations to an online discussion.
This will probably include some longer reflections on Jesus Sermon on the mount and the possibilities it opens up for mending vicious cycles in our lives and in our western culture.
(Probably focusing on conflict solving, non-violent activism and Gods generosity breaking "the myth of scarcity" that rules us more than we know or want to admit!)


- ... of course all of this needs to coincide with me having more time to publish things, and that remains to be seen! It is my sincere ambition though!


This leaves me with the hardest decision. The language!


Lately I´ve been a a bit keen on switching to swedish since this would enable me to work a lot faster and make it simpler for the readers that speak my native tongue to connect and leave comments.

This is where I need some help! What do You think? Switch to swedish or stick to english?

I´m taking a break from blogging january/february (a planned one this time!), so there´s plenty of time to respond! Please do!

Peace!

The art of not ducking the responsibility and joy of obedience

A brief quote.

"We have listened to the Sermon on the Mount and perhaps have understood it.

But who has heard it aright?

Jesus gives the answer at the end (Matt. 7:24 – 29).

He does not allow his hearers to go away and make of his sayings what they will, picking and choosing from them whatever they find helpful and testing them to see if they work.

He does not give them free rein to misuse his word with their mercenary hands, but gives it to them on condition that it retains exclusive power over them.

Humanly speaking, we could understand and interpret the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways.

Jesus knows only one possibility:

... simple surrender and obedience, not interpreting it or applying it, but doing and obeying it.

That is the only way to hear his word. He does not mean that it is to be discussed as an ideal; he really means us to get on with it."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (from the opening of Eberhard Arnolds book "Salt and Light". Download the free e-book here!)

Beatitudes of buylessness

A song lyric fitting the season that is fast approaching...

Beatitudes of Buylessness

"Blessed are the Consumers, for you shall be free from Living By Products…

Blessed are you who stumble out of branded Main Streets, for you shall find lovers not downloaded and oceans not rising.

Blessed is the ordinary citizen who holds onto a patch of public commons, for you are the New World.

Blessed is the artist who is not corporate sponsored for you shall give birth to warm fronts of emotion and breakthroughs of Peace.

Blessed are you who confuse “Consumerism” with “Freedom,” for you shall be delighted to discover the difference.

Blessed are the advertisers and commercial celebrities, for you are waiting for the remarkable restfulness of honesty.

Blessed are city neighborhoods that people have flown from in fear, for your children shall return to illuminate the dark economy.

Blessed are the workers in the supermalls, for the town your employers’ killed shall come back to life!

Blessed is the breadwinner with out-sourced dreams who sits in the SUV stuck in a Christmas from Hell, this year a gift will set you free

Blessed are the young women in sweatshops, for the things you make will fly you like magic evening gowns to the City of Light

Blessed are you who disturb the customers, for you might be loving your neighbor."

words:bill talen
music: william moses (From the motion picture "What would Jesus buy?" featuring Reverend Billy)

Ko Htike

Check Ko Htike´s blog out for dissident reports from inside Burma!

Burma

Recent events in Burma will not have escaped You I´m sure!

General Than Shwe`s government decided on the 15:th of august to increase the price of fuel... big time!
Petrol and diesel prices doubled and the price for compressed gas used to power public transportation buses increased fivefold!

Public transportation prices rose inevetably...
A grim knock-on/domino effect also upped prices for rice and cooking oil...
The cost of living in an allready poor country now not only grazed the border of the absurd, it crossed it!

People were pissed off, obviously, and on the 18:th of august main city Rangoon saw the first protest march which numered 400! The largest demonstration in the military regime for nearly twenty years!
More demonstrations followed and also the inevitable quelling of protests from the regime with police arrests.

However, demonstrations continued on a smaller scale throughout the country. After a peaceful rally was broken up by force on the 5:th of september and a small number of buddhist monks were hurt the monks began participating in large numbers, effectively making them the moral leadership of the growing protests against the regime.

Lately the violence against the protesters has increased and the ugly face of oppression and brute force has uncovered itself... it is an ugly one!
Also, the five main monasteries have now all been sealed off in an attempt to quench the leadership of the clergy and diminish the thrust of the protests aiming to "wipe the military dictatorship from the land of Burma".


What are we seeing here?

Violence! Batons cracking heads, bullets fired from close range at japanese journalists, monks taken hostage and beaten.

Oppresive action! The increasing prescense of miltary forces, sealing off monasteries, scare tactics, firing bullets over head and dawn to dusk curfews... not to mention the price increase that started everything!

No one ever said that peacemaking or marching o the streets for justice would get you friends in high places!

The longing for freedom and the peacful marching of people in protest can create nothing but unrest for the Burmese government because it threatens the status quo that it wants but ultimately can never have. The government knows this and acts/reacts accordingly... grabbing hold of what it thinks it owns with the means of guns, threat and censorship.

This is one true face of evil...

Also: What the monks have shown us is in many ways (part from the odd way of taking government officials hostage on one occasion!) the essence of what moral leadership is - Its about leading the way through action and practice. In this case by heading up the demonstrations and displaying the cost of freedom and justice with their own wounds!

That sounds familiar.

Who made that example with his own life?
Who made that the ultimate way of life and action for anyone where justice and freedom is lacking and violence and oppressive action are commonplace?

It´s a bit odd that buddhist monks (my prejudice was that they were "politically" passive!) and ordinary burmese people in the midst of a violent crisis so powerfully reminds me of the way of Jesus.

Yes, a bit odd, but their courage energizes me!

And...

Tonight, presenting the third night of the KOPAFestival, I´ll be wearing red!

Than Shwe! The world is watching!

Odessa and Kopasetic

The following weeks will be busy indeed.

Tomorrow (as part of a group of five) I leave for Odessa in the Ukraine to support and serve some people bravely trying to be followers of Jesus there, far away from their native swedish culture.

When we get back next week the KOPAFestival gets going where I´ll be doing a solo performance as well as a concert with Plunge and Bobo Stenson.

Breakfast in bed as sustainable consumption

I recently celebrated my 32:nd birthday and was woken up at 6 a.m by lovely Anna in a fashion fitting a disipline of consumption we´ve been trying to consiously embrace since this summer.

This lovely woman served me a delicious chocolate cake from Barista and also gave me a grey sweater from Uma Bazaar (imported through Kuyichi). A café and a store that both attempt to make fair trade and organic food/clothes more commonplace.


I call this a "discipline" for two reasons:

- First: The somewhat "negative" sense of "restraint of trade" and conscious behaviour in the word is a true one. We have found it difficult at times not to buy the often cheaper (and commercially more accessible) products that we enjoy and crave. Buying the more realisticly priced fairtrade and organic products limits our possibilities to consume and therefore asks serious questions to a society and cultur that is largely driven by consumerism. Questions that I suggest might have to to with the justice apparent in what Jesus calls "The Kingdom of God".

- Second: "Discipline" and discipleship are, in a deep sense, related words. Being a follower of Jesus (a disciple)means taking on disciplines that transform You and reveal a healthy and sustainable way of life. A life reflecting this "Kingdom of God" in our everyday lives.

The most reasonable way to live in any circumstance one might say.

My wife reminded me of that while celebrating my birthday with a chocolate cake breakfast in bed

Dr King said it well

"... My ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that He died for them...There will be no meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know these people and hear their broken cries..."

Some core sentences from Dr Martin Luther Kings speech on why he was opposed to the Vietnam-war! It is almost 40 years old and has its context in the USA, but still speaks straight in to any conflict of man on any scale with painful truth and clarity.
Hearing Dr Kings confession of foundation and point of reference for action, I can be nothing but astonished and humbled.

And only one thing can be suggested for action wherever there is violence, opposition and war.

Not the politics of neutrality or flip-floping
Not the agressive politics of war.

... But only the costly embrace of the enemy and the recognition of their brokeness. The embrace of the soldier, the bully, he/she who is a thorn in your side, the strangers whom we demonize...

This is love

The urging to love our enemies is not about gaining a sentimental affection to people we don´t like - or even hate. It is an urging to be like Jesus, to embrace his vocation and to walk the walk of life His way.

Offer to serve your enemy!

Dr King knew this and he embraced it and faced pain of his own.
Being a follower of Jesus, he counted that as a privilege.

I hope I can someday reach that maturity as a man.

At one with the tide

The fruits of gigging and recording with Niklas Hegfalk are now available on his My Space site (Titled "At one with the tide).

Take a listen to his heartfelt and sincere music... and check out that (slightly less than) virtuoso drummer.

More Bergman and cocoa related hope

Some more on the passing of Ingmar Bergman and the Italian moviemaker Michelangelo Antonioni. Read Gareth Higgins blog on God´s politics that deals with spiritual growth and artistic expressions while musing on the artistry of theese two movie icons.

Also: Being finally moved to action through experiencing the chasm between the raw deal for Ivorian cocoa farmers and the just rule of God (see a previous blog), me and some friends are moving towards some kind of microfinance enterprise in the Ivory Coast.

So please:

Pray for us to be able to sustain this idea into action.

Encourage us to do it. Urge us even...

Cocoa related hope

This morning i saw a short documentary on BBC World called "Bittersweet" . And it did indeed leave me with just that mixed taste in my mouth.

The short recap of it is this:

The Ivory Coast is the single largest export country for cocoa beans in the world. The demand for cocoa products has steadily increased since the 80:s but the money paid to the farmers has stayed the same thus creating a huge gap between demand and salary. With increasing demand, cocoa farmers are getting poorer and the working conditions are getting worse - many working for minimum or no wages and many are child laborers forced to work and away from school to support their families. In 2003 there was approximately 103.000 child laborers working in hazardous conditions on cocoa farms in what has been described as the worst form of child labour.

In 2001 a bill was passed in the US congress obliging the chocolate industry not to use child slave labour in the process of harvesting cocoa beans. The result has so far been poor or none.

About the mixed taste then:

A bitter taste - coming from the (in many ways unvoluntary!?) sad numbness of the big corporation (Nestlé ,Cargill) ceo:s and the middle men (those who buy and sell the unrefined product), the hunger for profit disregarding the suffering of others (minimum or no-wage workers in the cocoa plantations) and the fact that I, as a consumer, for so many years never realised that my sweet tooth was being pleased by and through someone elses slave like labour.

This, using the language of theology, is - evil!

It is proof of a broken world

More on taste now:

A sweet taste - from the fact that there are congressmen and faitrade company ceo:s that want to make a change even if it will end up doubling the retail prices for our favourite Twix-bars and M&M:s. A sweet taste also from the fact that my knowledge of who my "neighbour" is allows me to participate in a change. A change and an activity (You might even say way of life) that Jesus calls "The rule of God" . (or The Kingdom of God/heaven)

This rule is about justice.

The kind of justice that operates on behalf of the poor and powerless (or slave-laborers on cocoa plantations) and opposes the numbness and greed that put them into that kind of life. This justice - and the way of life it is significant of - creates an opportunity for me and you to buy chocolate (or tea, coffee, rice, sugar, fruit, clothes etc) that provides decent wages, decent education and freedom to people that are now on minimum or no-wage and risk staying there the rest of their lives.

However, we might think of an opportunity as something that we make a buck out of rather than ending up paying doubled prices for our favourite choc-bars.

It´s a matter of identity.

Jesus speaks about neighbour love, and when he does that his focus is not on me (suprise?). It´s on my neighbour and on how God sees him/her. I can only be my true self if I stop "reflecting on me" first, and instead take on the identity of a generous, neighbour-loving God and see to my neighbours needs.

So who is my neighbour in a globalized world, a glocal village?

If God´s rule is about justice, then I´m pretty sure one of my neighbours must be that 10 year old boy harvesting cocoa beans for no wage, missing out on a proper education.
My opportunity then, to promote the just rule of God (read: In this case decent wages, educational possibilities etc) is to stop and to start!

Stop buying stuff that is not fairly and ethically traded!
Start buying stuff that is fairly and etichally traded and start looking for opportunities to promote justice in your global neighbourhood. Why not write some letters to the ceo:s of Nestlé and Cargill?

Those are the basics!

Basics folks...

Further steps might include:

Getting your group of close friends, your church or company to start or support microfinance enterprises. Taking a decision (and this is "mandatory" for churches only...) on spending 50% of your money on work among, and on behalf of, the poor and powerless in and outside of your local community.
Actually it seems that the church of the first two centuries largely did that in one way or another ... well actually they seem to have spent far more than 50%, but let´s start somewhere managable shall we?

You can find a Global Exchange document on the situation in The Ivory Coast, on child labour, fairtrade and the chocolate industry here.

Random musings on pike-fishing and the sad passing of a director

What to do?

It´s been a long time since I last blogged and I stand before the choice of giving a full account of my summer so far or simply picking up where i left off. I´ll do the latter... primarily.


Yesterday swedish moviemaker/director icon Ingmar Bergman passed away, and the world is a poorer place for it. Allthough his art never became a huge direct influence on me, the indirect influence has surely been noticeable. Not the least the way many of his films reflect the struggles of coming to grips with the morally strict and legalistic upbringing provided by his father Henrik who was a christian minister. This has informed many discussions on faith and the structured chruch that I´ve had. Moreover, Bergmans view of the church and, given by that, the character of God has helped form the debate and cultural climate in an increasingly post-christian sweden more than many may think.


To put it simply - Bergman arrived at the fact that God could not exist because of all the evil, all the moral uptightness and the lack of passion for the creative that he faced in/through his own father and this, allthough far from exclusively due to Bergmans influence, has become a popular image of christians. They are people of lacking and negative responses: No passion, no foul language, no movies, no theatre, no abortions, no, no, no...

This saddens me.

I allways thought that followers of Jesus would mend wounds not cause them! I thought that "church" ment a group of people sharing the mission of being good news in any given community and culture and time. Good news for the poor, the opressed and marginalized, the sick.

I thought "church" reflected Gods love through caring for the poor, the opressed and marginalized by sharing its life with them and speaking on their behalf. I thought that "church" ment spending time with the sick, caring and praying for them and even seeing some healed beyond the expectations of scholastic medicine.


I thought that "church" had to do more with saying yes to God and the work of love he wants to see than no, no, no...


I thought that "church" was passionate about that... saying yes to God!

What if Ingemar Bergmans dad had been like that? Would the world ever have seen a master-director from Sweden portraing the death of God and the dissolution of "church"? Or could the world have seen a man, imitating his dad rather than distancing himself from him, giving his life to be with the poor, the outcasts, the marginalized and the sick? It is likely (but not necessary!) the latter option would have left him without the Oscars and the artistic acclaim, but which is the most beautiful?

You decide.

What about the part of the summer that has not been blogged about then? Does that exist?


The two weeks we spent in Kalix? - They were lovely simply because nothing happened! Nothing? Well, we did some pike-fishing and read some books...











And what about the 10-day concerttour of the american midwest, and the week of meeting other Jesus followers and leading seminars on "The post-christendom church" at the Nordic Vineyard summercamp? - I´ll return to them in future blogs, directly or indirectly. Promise!

Politics of terror and politics of peace

As Mr Tony Blair now officially has resigned from his position as british prime minister and Gordon Brown has stepped in, I feel an urge to restate some thoughts published on this blog in early may. The questions posed there seem all the more urgent regarding the terror-related events of late in britain.

Read the blog here

James

One year has passed since James died. It was a death too early, too tragical and too surprising to really grasp at the time. We’d just met the day before and James, being low and uncertain about some work decisions, wanted to talk about things and pick up some additional advice on what to do. We parted, hugging, aiming to talk the next day and perhaps meet up for a coffee. We ended up not getting in touch, as sometimes happens, and two days later James older brother phoned me to let us know that James had died. At that point me and Anna had already left for my parents some 1600 kilometres away from Malmö, making the early stages of grieving a very surreal experience.

I miss him so much!

I miss a good and loyal friend
I miss an honest and truth-telling man.
I miss a gifted poet.
I miss a passionate Jesus-follower.
I miss a man critical, in word and practice, of a nauseating “christendom-culture” too often prevalent in contemporary churches.
I miss a man whom I did not always agree with, in thought or practice, but someone I never feared loosing as a friend on account of that.
I miss a man who dared criticise my life decisions and dared take criticism himself.

I miss the man who hugged me and said “- See you later then…”

Yes, see You later James!