Yesterday I visited one of my favourite cities of Sweden, Malmö. I had the great privilige to speak at Malmö International Church where Ingmar and Tina Aronsson is pastoring. Ingmar started the church from scratch quite some years ago and is still keeping up the good work.
It is quite successful church plant in Sweden. During our dinner after the service we touched on the subject church planting. We both agreed about the desperate need of new churches in Sweden. I heard someone say not so long ago that a new started church are between 6-8 time as a effective in reaching out with the gospel than any older church. The enthusiasm and passion in a newly started church is contagious. It rubs off!

I don´t think the one and only answer is megachurch, huge extremely influencial sometimes even draining smaller churches of their members. Of course I believe in megchurches, they have their place.
But also smaller churches, neighbourhood churches should not be despised at all. They can have a tremendous impact in their neighbourhood. We need lots of small neighbourhood churches all over sweden. I believe its time to rethink some of the ways we think church.
A church with 100 members might not have the strength to send tonnes of missionaries overseas, but they can impact their neighbourhood strongly. Faithfully bringning out the message of Jesus to the people around. In our suburbs and small towns we need hundreds of such a churches. With pastors faithfully serving year after year giving testimony about Jesus Christ.
I want to thank and honor all those pastors who year after year faithfully serve in their churches. Maybe no one will ever give them recognition or they might never be bestselling authors and world famous preachers. But that is not the calling either, but it is to make Jesus known to every man and women on the planet which includes our neighbourhood as well.

Matsjan