Rebuilding Faith in Norway’s Empty Churches

Faith Facts

• Norway reports some of the world’s lowest regular church attendance rates, between 2 and 7 percent.
• Only a handful of Churches of Christ remain active in a nation of 5.6 million people.
• Young adults and immigrant communities are showing renewed interest in the Gospel.

Stavanger, Norway, is home to a striking copper sculpture known as the Brutt Lenke, or Broken Chain. Three massive links rise from a windswept slab of rock overlooking the North Sea, one of them snapped. The memorial honors the 123 lives lost when the Alexander Kielland oil platform capsized in 1980.

Despite the cold mist rolling in from the sea, a woman and her children played nearby with their dog on a recent Monday. A couple of local women walked toward the shore, unfazed by the breeze. One of them smiled when a visitor called the weather windy. “This is a light breeze,” she replied.

Norwegians have a saying: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.”

After twenty-five years reporting for The Christian Chronicle, I finally reached my ancestral homeland. More than a century has passed since any of my relatives walked these fjords. Norway’s rugged beauty is matched by a spiritual climate that remains cold and largely secular.

Europe can be a tough mission field, and Scandinavia may be the toughest of all. Church attendance across Norway, Sweden, and Denmark sits among the lowest in the world. Yet signs of change are appearing. Some church leaders in Sweden report growing interest among young people. The arrival of refugees from the Middle East and Ukraine is reshaping the continent’s religious landscape.

I came to Norway after the European Vision Workshop in Romania, thanks to a friend with a spare bedroom. Stephen Maddux, a Texas native and Oklahoma Christian University graduate, works for Halliburton in Stavanger. We first met in Singapore last year. Stephen hosted dinner for the small group of believers in the area.

Among the guests were Colin Beharie, originally from Jamaica, and his Norwegian wife, Reidun. She became a Christian through the work of missionary Richard Walker and trained at Sunset International Bible Institute. Emmanuel Azebeokhai, a student from Nigeria, joined us as well. The group often worships together on Zoom with another Nigerian family in Oslo.

Azebeokhai noted that interest in the Gospel exists beyond the immigrant community. Community churches are finding spiritual seekers among Norway’s young adults, and charismatic movements are expanding. Stavanger once hosted a thriving Church of Christ with about one hundred members. Like many congregations, it has struggled to pass the faith to the next generation.

Those gathered agreed that Norway needs godly men and women who speak the language and understand the culture. They must also be willing to endure wind, rain, snow, and winters when the sun sets at three in the afternoon. Fixing the broken links in Scandinavia will not be easy, but little worth doing in this life is easy.

It is time for believers to wrap themselves in the Holy Spirit, who alone can show the way. After all, there is no such thing as a bad mission field, just bad clothes.

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