I’ve never particularly thought much about flags, and that’s mostly because in the UK where I’ve lived most of my life, you hardly ever see them. Not so in Sweden. Here they love them. In the small village in which I currently live there are more flagpoles and national flags than in a city fifty times its size in England.

The presence of the flag says something, it communicates a pride and a belonging to a people and a nation. Perhaps in the UK that’s not important enough, perhaps in other countries it’s too important. Whatever we think about national or civic pride, as Christians a different banner has been raised and on it is a dead animal. A lamb. Slain. That says something too.

I’ve always wanted to be fluent in another language (a fact hidden from those who’ve heard me speak French) and so the opportunity to learn Swedish fulfils a life ambition and goal. However there’s a big difference between fluency and being bilingual. I may, in time, become fluent. My children, and especially our youngest, will be bilingual. They will, in time, be as natural and at ease in either Swedish or English and will be able to swap between the two without much effort.

Often as Christians we are mono-lingual. Able to converse in the language of the church but not of the culture, able to speak to and communicate with believers, often powerfully, but can’t say two clear words to someone who doesn’t believe. At other times we lose the language of the church but as we do so we can become disconnected from that which makes us who we are, our connection to Christ. What is needed are bilingual believers.

“Sweden is not a religious country. At all. In fact, it is often described as one of the most secular countries in the world.”

Yet in Sweden, the government (who in any country are never really experts on the subject) recognised a new religion. Kopimism is all about file sharing and they have clothed it in the language of a church and gained official recognition. Thankfully as Marcus Cederstrom says,

“The acknowledgement as an official religion in Sweden is similar to incorporating a business. It’s an important step, yes, but it has a way to go to supplant the already established religions in Sweden.”

For those interested in learning some Swedish his post has some Swedish religious vocabulary.

Yet over in Norway, a different story has surprised secular observers; the Bible it seems is still a really popular book. For whatever reason, faith still has the ability to surprise. Perhaps in Scandinavia there will be some more faith stories that surprise in the future.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,500 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 58 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

It’s an interesting talk, although there are a number of aspects I disagree with. I’m not nearly as content as Paas seems to be with small church on the margins, although I take his point that there’s more to the church than simply getting bigger. Still if you’re interested in church planting in Europe then the conference and the talk are worth taking note of.

Perhaps even more helpfully there’s a 26 page pdf of annotated bibliography on church planting which is a really helpful resource.

“With my lessons I get very aware that when I’m doing a topic where the gap between what I already know and what I am trying to learn is too big, it can get frustrating and I need to go slow.

Then there is the guilt when I’ve not done my homework properly and don’t have a good reason, and the desire to make sure that the homework isn’t just going through the motions, but is a learning activity that I can make progress with. I find that I can easily be a lazy learner and not put enough hard work in outside lessons.

These are all things I want to bear in mind when I teach- how the students feel, their frustrations, guilt, also their laziness sometimes…

The other thing though is the massive sense of achievement I get when I realise I have learnt something new- a new phrase or rule- and I can use it in conversation! And be understood!” Read the whole thing here

It’s also important to remember that when people join a church it can often feel like they have to learn a whole new language too! There’s no need to dumb anything down but learning to communicate effectively is essential, especially in a culture that is losing its memory of Christianity.

I’ve totally borrowed these facts from the Swedish blog, so all credit to them for this. But here are 10 facts about Sweden and its politics for you:

1. As Head of State, the King opens the Riksdag session every year in mid-September. This service takes place in Storkyrkan and the members of the Riksdag, the Royal family and invited special guests are attending.
2. There are currently eight parties represented in the Riksdag: the Moderate Party(Moderaterna, M), the Christian Democrats (Kristdemokraterna, KD), the Liberal Party (Folkpartiet Liberalerna, FP), the Center Party (Centerpartiet, C), the Green Party (Miljöpartiet de Gröna, MP), The Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterna, S), the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna, SD) and the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet, V).
3. In the general election of September 19, 2010, Fredrik Reinfeldt (Moderaterna) became the first conservative prime minister to be reelected. When he became Sweden’s prime minister back in 2006, he ended 12 years ruled by the Social Democrats.
4. Since the 2006 election, the Riksdag set a world record for female parliamentary representation, with women making up 47 percent of its elected members. Sweden remains in the lead after the 2010 election, with 45 percent female representation in the Riksdag.
5. To vote in Sweden, you need to be 18 years and a Swedish citizen. 7 million people in the country are entitled to vote.
6. The Riksdag makes the decisions and the Government implements them. The Government also submits proposals for new laws or amendments to laws to the Riksdag.
7. A party must receive at least 4 percent of all votes in the election to gain representation in the Riksdag, a rule intended to prevent very small parties from getting into the Riksdag.
8. Sweden was the first country in the world to introduce freedom of press, in 1776.
9. Sweden is one of the largest contributors to the United Nations and one of the few countries to meet the UN’s aid target of 0.7 percent of GNI. Sweden became a member of the UN in 1946.
10. Sweden was one of three EU countries not to join the European currency. Swedish voters rejected it by a clear majority in September 2003.

“The Swedish looks. Blonde. Blue eyes. Tall. Beautiful. It seems to focus on women, but men are also included in this one.

There is the utopian society that suggests that every beneficial service is free and that the government takes care of your every whim.

How about the polar bears in the streets of Stockholm? Or the fact that Sweden is actually Switzerland?

The sing-songy language infamously stereotyped by the Swedish chef and his “Bork, bork, bork!” (That’s not Swedish by the way. Not at all.)”

Since going public and then actually moving here, I’ve heard them all. Especially that last one.

But the closing point is a good one and well worth remembering about whoever it is we’re building relationship with…

“So many people tend to stereotype because it’s easy. It’s easier to say that all Swedes drink. All Swedes are blonde. All Swedes are shy. That way we don’t have to think on an individual basis.  It’s an understandable reaction. The challenge is of course to overcome that and to not let those stereotypes define who we meet.”

What stereotypes have you heard about the Swedes? Most importantly the Gospel rejects easy stereotypes because everyone we meet is made in the image of God unique and uniquely valuable.