Nearly two thousand years ago, when Jesus told the disciples to go and be witnesses to Him "in Jerusalem, in all Judea & Samaria, and to the end of the earth", Scandinavia was one of the areas on our Master's mind - among other Gentile outskirts. And on July 31st, the latter geographical part of that threefold commission to go to the end of the earth was revisited with extra focus as the annual Calvary Chapel Scandinavia (CCS) Conference 2013 kicked off with studies through the second half of the Acts of the Apostles under the theme title "To the Ends of the Earth".
Serving as an appropriate venue for a conference with that title, a former castle from the 1700's by the Swedish village of Rimbo near Stockholm, Sweden provided the fittingly remote surroundings - for the fifth consecutive year. With nearly 160 people involved in the conference overall, this was the most attended gathering in the 15 year history of these annual gatherings.
Acts chapter 2013
From Wednesday night to Sunday morning five experienced guest speakers taught alongside local ministry leaders from Scandinavia as the regional congregation went through Acts 13-28 in 11 main sessions (typically three per day), with a series of topical workshops added on some afternoons. The fellowship was high-spirited and circled around heartfelt worship (led by Aaron Pratt from CC Finland and Brenton Collyer from Calvary Monterey), prayer meetings, Bible studies, mealtimes, fika (a Swedish term for socializing around café servings), a marriage ceremony (!), four baby dedications, and various fun sports activities, incl. the sixth edition of the Viking Games.
The guest speakers this year were pastors Bil Gallatin (CC Finger Lakes), David Guzik (CC Santa Barbara), Stan Marinussen (Cross Culture CC Amsterdam), Jeremy Foster (CCBC Europe), and Nate Holdridge (Calvary Monterey). God spoke pointedly to many of the conference attendees through the studies in His Word and during the many prayer sessions that followed.
"I think this conference encouraged us all, because it became clear that Scandinavia is the paper on which the Holy Spirit is writing Acts chapter 2013. There is a real sense of that. God's work through the ministries represented here is fresh, unique, and long-term. It may be slow, but it's promising, and I think these conferences help people realize that," says Theis, one of the four conference organizers.The conference video
More photos, videos, and reactions will be shared on this blog in the coming days. The teachings from all the sessions at this conference will be available online soon (at which point it will be announced on this blog). In the meantime, you can click here or on the video below to see some visual snapshots from this year's conference:
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