Lutheran Church in Norway and Iceland
At Trinity, we believe that Jesus calls us to love and disciple people in our local community as well as people in faraway places whom we may never meet. We sponsor several world mission projects. These projects involve spreading the Love of Jesus tangibly by caring for people and then presenting the Gospel.
This month, we received an update from the Lutheran Church in Norway and Iceland. This mission partner exists to plant and guide congregations to help adults and children grow in their faith.
Update from the Lutheran Church in Norway and Iceland | Reading Time: 2 min.
Dear friends!
It is high time to share updates. My apologies for my Norwenglish.
Dear friends!
It is high time to share updates. My apologies for my Norwenglish.
Ordination August 13 of four new pastors to serve startup congregations.
We were almost 200 people gathered for the ordination where Rev. Erik Gauss from the US participated together with the Norwegian pastors. We experienced good and significant media coverage. (Sample from one of the papers: https://idag.no/nyheter/samfunn/kristenliv/kirken-ordinerte-fire-motstromsprester/19.42305). The new pastors with 5-6 years theological training will start with a 40% paid pastor job and have to find other part time jobs in addition. They all said no to better paid jobs in order to serve.
Your help made this possible.
The funds provided from your churches have made it possible to guarantee a 40% paid position to these young pastors with families. We hope local giving in the start up congregations will pick up fast. Our experience is that it does so. The Bishop's salary will be reduced to secure break even faster.
Pastor drives 16 hours to do two worship services on a Sunday.
August 20 the new pastors had their first worship services in Trondheim, Narvik, Oslo and Ã…lesund and start up worship of a new site: Molde. The last one did not work out as expected. The pastor Kjetil Homdal of Molde lives in Oslo because he is drafted for one year to be military chaplain there. Saturday his shuttle train to Oslo airport got cancelled, so he missed the one and only one hour flight Oslo-Molde. He went for plan B: drive 7 hours Saturday, worship Sunday 11AM with an enthusiastic flock celebrating start up, followed by a two hours drive to Ã…lesund for 6PM worship service, and drive back 7 hours to Oslo. Sleep in the car in the middle of the night.
Tel Aviv, Israel, and a new immigrant wave.
A new wave of Russian speaking immigrants is arriving from Ukraine and Russia. Few weeks ago the third baptism was done in the Lutheran Concordia Church in Tel Aviv. The core is growing one by one. Worship is sometimes over ten worshipers, other times less than ten. Pastor Slava is in good spirits and is doing a Hebrew language program where he also makes friends with Russian immigrants. With Slava's higher Hebrew language level bishop Masvie and Slava now can communicate in Russian without having to use Slava's wife to translate English to Russian.
Bishop needs a new job
Bishop Masvie has a 20% position as traffic manager at the bus terminal in Oslo. After 17 years there the new shift plan will force him to work Sunday mornings. We hope soon for another 50% part time job in Oslo so that the paid bishop hours in church can be reduced and more money is available for the new pastors.
AdFontes pastor training center
The four pastors ordained a week ago come from the AdFontes program. It is a supplement program to what the students do at Fjellhaug College in Oslo and Concordia Seminary USA. We try to buy property next to Fjellhaug where our students have most of their education. We soon expect answer from municipality if we get dispensation to change a building from residence to teaching/classrooms. We will get back to you with more information if we get a "yes". If it works out we get a strategic place both for the formation of new pastors to Norway, Denmark and Iceland, and perhaps more countries. It is all about training pastors for new congregation start ups in a post Christian Europe. It will however require significant fundraising, but we believe owning a strategic pastor training center is more important than owning our own church buildings.
In Christ
+ Torkild Masvie
In Christ
+ Torkild Masvie
How can I become involved in missions at Trinity?
Pray!
Add these mission partners to your prayers. Updates on specific prayer needs can be found on the weekly eNews prayer page.
Put Your Faith into Action
Reach out directly to one of our mission partners at the link above to learn how you can support them either financially or by volunteering your time or talents.
Join the Missions Committee
If you're passionate about mission work, then consider joining the Missions Committee at Trinity where together, with other like-minded Christians, you can help further the reach of the Gospel. Email us at Missions@tlc4u.org for more information.