The silver birches were a welcoming lemon-yellow as we flew into Stokholm- Skavsta at the invitation of the ERCS. They wanted help with ordaining a pastor and a ruling elder and also to see if they could become part of the EPCEW presbytery in the UK.
The work of the ERCS is confined to a single congregation of about 40 people at Tranas, about 3 hours SW of Stockholm, and a small group of serious-minded believers in Stokholm.
The work got under way with the arrival in 2,000 of Rev. Gary Johnson, a PCA missionary, and Rev. David Bergmark, the present Swedish pastor, who trained at RTS, Jackson. they hire the local Methodist church for services and have a suite of offices on a local housing estate, from which they run operations.
The Swedish state is very secularized and the indigneous Lutheran church a shadow of its former self. The group at Tranas seem to be the only one of its kind in Sweden, where prejudice against the reformed position is strong. Yet these are people with perseverance and vision. They are looking to extend east toward Linkoping, where Gary had access to the Methodist church, and Stokholm, where a group meets regularly for Bible study.
As primitive as the situation is, this group has thought things through and so far succeeded in resisting the populist tendencies often found in emerging causes wanting a quick fix. I especially liked their serious ecclesiology and approach to worship, putting God first and themselves and seekers second. They also have a small translation and publishing enterprise, with one of their latest offerings Sproul's work on the Holiness of God.
Definitely worth praying for and supporting!
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