The Stan Marinussen Interview

The radio podcast Calvary Scandinavia Update has interviewed pastor of Calvary Chapel Cross Culture in Amsterdam, Stan Marinussen, who is one of the guest speakers at the upcoming Scandinavian conference.

With hopes of becoming the Dutch version of Chuck Smith, a 29 year-old Stan Marinussen left Southern California in 1993 and moved with his wife and kids to the Netherlands, his country of birth where he hadn't lived since he was eight. But their first attempt of a church-plant failed after years of trying to introduce Calvary Chapel to the Dutch people, and it left the Marinussen family with frustrations and a desire to go back to America.

However, in the midst of the frustration and restlessness, God gave Stan orders to stay, and during what seemed like an eight year dry spell God changed the focus and the heart of Stan Marinussen until one day he found himself called to start a new church just outside Amsterdam. With his focus now fully on Jesus Christ (and less on Calvary Chapel) and suddenly surrounded by a team of young people willing to serve and share the love of Christ, Stan Marinussen saw a fresh work take off as Cross Culture Calvary Chapel became an established church, which today - six years later - is the home church of about 60 people, most of whom are serving actively alongside each other to the glory of Jesus.

In an exclusive interview with the podcast Calvary Scandinavia Update, pastor Stan tells the inspiring story of how Jesus lovingly and patiently removed Stan's primary focus on Calvary Chapel and replaced it with a pure focus on Jesus Himself, thus paving the way for a fresh work of God near the Dutch capitol.

During the interview, Stan shares the lessons he has learned during the 20 years he has now spent in the Netherlands. He reveals how persistance and an unwavering dependence on Christ is essential to planting and pastoring a fruitful ministry in secular Europe, where the mission's field is so hard that it will slowly but thoroughly break anyone trying to plow it on their own strength.

The 40 minute interview is available now on the Calvary Scandinavia Update podcast which you can download or stream via iTunes or on calvarychapel.fi.

Click here to hear the exclusive interview with Stan Marinussen and click on the short video below to hear Stan express his expectations for the upcoming Scandinavian conference where he will be among the guest speakers:

Calvary Stockholm reaches out to Sweden's capitol

On Sweden's National Day Calvary Chapel Stockholm took to the streets to reach out to their part of the capitol with a big-scale outreach event. Many came by to hear the gospel message through music and one-on-one conversations.

"We'd been planning it for months together with a few other church-plants, so it was really great to see it all work out just as we had hoped and prayed for. We got to talk to a lot of people, and it was great to see our whole church involved in reaching out to the city. It was great team work and it really did knit us together even more," says pastor of Calvary Stockholm, Joel Wickström.

Calvary Stockholm's own worship team were among the bands that played at the event as were worship leader Aaron Pratt from CC Finland who came over to play and help out at the event.

In the weeks following the event, the reactions have been positive from many.

"I have talked to many people who came to the event, and they were touched and blessed. We even had one girl come to our church service yesterday because she had gotten a flier at the event and had been thinking about the message," says Joel.

In addition to the event on Sweden's National Day, this summer has been one with several new opportunities to evangelize for Calvary Stockholm. This past week, for instance, a sudden opportunity came upon the young church as four non-believers walked into Calvary Stockholm's church facilities by mistake after a church service. They fell into a conversation with several members of the church fellowship and two of them ended up receiving Christ as their Savior, walking out the door with each their own new Bible and a desire to follow Jesus!

Below is a brief video report from the outreach event on Sweden's National Day: