House Church
Wednesday, October 2, 2002
Johanneskyrkan is built on "house churches" -- in the U.S. we would usually call these cell groups. The entire church meets together on Sundays, but during the week these small groups get together. As the groups grow, they split into two groups so they don't get too large.
Each group is apparently a bit different. Most, like the one we attended, will have three "normal" weeks, and then on the fourth week they have some kind of social activity. Our first week happened to be one of these social weeks.
We met at a park -- Rydskogens motionscentrum. A "motionscentrum" is something like an outdoor exercise center. There are a couple of sports fields, and several kilometers of trails through a forest area for people to run or walk along. We met the rest of the group, and went on a walk along a 5 km trail (about 3 miles). Along the way, we occasionally stopped and somebody asked the rest of the group a multiple choice question. Apparently this is a common Swedish thing for school groups and things -- usually there are questions prepared ahead of time and each person marks the answers on a piece of paper. I think they are usually related to nature -- like what kind of tree a particular tree is. There are three choices for each answer, numbered 1, X, and 2. (I don't know why it isn't 1, 2, and 3.) In this case, the walk was apparently pulled together a bit quickly, so no questions were prepared -- some people just made some up as we went. The rest of the time we just walked and talked with different people in the group. After our walk we stopped at a picnic table and ate sandwiches and talked some more. Eventually we closed with prayer before going home.
There were about half a dozen people besides us. They were all pretty young -- mostly in their 20s. It was a pretty even mix of guys and girls. A couple of the people are married (but not to each other; their spouses weren't there this week). Most of them are students at the university. All of them were from Sweden, although most are from other cities. They all spoke English very well, although when they are just talking to each other they speak Swedish, and they also generally spoke Swedish while praying.
The following week was a "normal" week. We met at somebody's house (just a few minutes walk from our apartment). The time started with fika -- drinks and food and fellowship. Then there was a time of worship. Afterwards we made a brief recap of this week's sermon, and then discussed some questions about it. This is a good opportunity to think some more about what was preached on Sunday, and discuss how to apply it to everyday life. At the end they took prayer requests and prayed for each other. Overall it was pretty similar to our Bible studies back home.
The group this week was a bit larger. In some ways it is similar to our Sunday school class back home -- most of the people were studying to be either doctors or teachers. The girls outnumbered the guys a bit this week, but it was still a good mix.
Most of the worship was in English -- I'm guessing that it is normally more Swedish but that he picked English songs for our sake. The discussion was mostly in English as well -- impressive since they were reading off of the Swedish sermon text and translating as they went. Sometimes it took a couple of people to figure out the right English word, but they really did very well. They explained that the textbooks at the university are all in English, so since they are mostly students they are generally used to English, but have a bit more trouble with some of the religious words like "reconciliation", since you don't see that much at school. Some people prayed in Swedish, while others prayed in English. We were glad to have a mix -- we don't want to force everybody to speak in English all the time just because we are there.
Overall it seemed like a good group, and I think we will continue meeting with them. It was interesting to see some different perspectives between Sweden and the U.S. In particular this week, we were talking about who we look up to, and this led into some discussions about humility. Of course in the U.S. the culture says that you should always try to be the best at whatever you do -- which can cause some conflict with being humble. In Sweden, people want to take the middle ground -- you shouldn't be the best or the worst, you should just fit in the middle with everybody else. As one of our books on Sweden says, the Swedes won't fight over who is first like we do in the U.S.; they will fight over who is second or third. Of course, the issues would appear to be similar, since in this culture the "best" position to be in is the middle, so the humble person wouldn't be making a big deal about being in the middle. I guess that's one reason why I like "humility" to be defined as having an accurate view of oneself -- not trying to make yourself out to be better or worse than you really are, but acknowleding that God is the one that gave you all of the talents and abilities that you have and allowing God to use those abilities through you. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what other cultural differences we find along the way.