Charismatic and evangelical currents appear to be having a strong impact in Norway, according to an article in Charisma magazine (January).
There are growing charismatic ministries in the nation that are especially finding a following among Norway’s youth. A movement known as the Jesus Revolution is just two years old but the group has drawn crowds of up to 16,000 to its rock and dance concerts. The ministry uses high-tech rock concerts to break the ice among youth, and often conclude with an hour of “no-nonsense preaching about sin, holiness, heaven and hell, condemnation and salvation.”
Charismatic churches are reporting an influx of teens reached through Jesus Revolution concerts. The ministry is taking a page from the Mormons, forming what it calls a “Jesus Revolution Army,” and training young people in evangelism in Norway and eventually the rest of Europe.
Another ministry, New Generation, reaches high school students and has grown to 2,500 participants in two years. Popular revival preacher Ludvig Karlsen, pastor of the Pentecostal Berea Church in Oslo, the fastest growing congregation in the country, heads a nationwide ministry, the Gospel Center, that has gained government support for its work among drug addicts, alcoholics and the homeless. This fairly high receptivity to charismatic Christianity (at least within Europe) is attributed to Norway’s social climate.
The prime minister is a Lutheran pastor who has formed a cabinet with close to a dozen evangelical members. “…with a minister education advocating school evangelism; and with a minister of health encouraging doctors to pray for the sick, charismatic evangelical Christianity cannot be ignored in Norway.”
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