Starbursts in Scandinavia & The Baltics

March 2010 Update
Mission is much more meaningful when done with dear friends. Many years of “relational mission” in the East of England is now bearing significant fruit in Scandinavia and the Baltics.

We have great works emerging in those nations. God is speaking about businessmen relocating to plant churches in Northern European cities and starburst rockets being launched that will open up regions in a number of nations.

We have a history in Copenhagen, over many years. Under the supervision of Goff Hope from Norwich, Copenhagen is emerging as a significant hub of operations to model our values. We will be using their new building as a gathering and training base for emerging leaders across Northern Europe. It will also be a base from which we can strike out across Scandinavia and the Baltics.

There are a growing number of small works in several nations: Malmo and Rockneby in Sweden, Smiltene in Latvia and Valga in Estonia. While they are not large strategic cities to break into new nations, they are proving strategic to model relational mission in cultural contexts where very few such models exist.

Early last year, Keith Hazell prophesied a Starburst of church plants. “The picture is of a starburst rocket and it went up and then it burst and there were stars falling all around on the ground around and I believe God says there are some starbursts rockets that he wants to release in the whole area that are going to cause attention to come to that area. I believe that you are sitting at the gateway of another instalment. It’s like God has been closing one chapter and God is opening a new chapter to you and that chapter has new churches in it and new visions in it… and I’m convinced that even as you start, you begin to catch a vision for another wave of church planting, that God is going to send you people who want to stand alongside you to do the job.”

As a consequence, we are seeking to develop multiple-church planting initiatives from a number of hubs in different nations across North Europe. Part of that will be a number of strategic cities in Scandinavia and North Europe that God is putting on the hearts of different people. We will be working over the next year or two to gather interested people and shape strategy for planting into Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm, Riga and beyond. If you are interested in hearing more about any of these plants, please contact Mike Betts (mbetts@lcc-lowestoft.co.uk).

God has also spoken about business being the door through which we may enter a number of cities in Northern Europe. If you are relocating for business, or would like to do so, in order to be part of a fresh church planting initiative, please let us know!

Please pray for
Copenhagen Community Church building to emerge as a significant base for training and church planting.
Our current churches and plants in Sweden, Latvia and Estonia to grow significantly.
For teams to emerge to plant into Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm and Riga.

Article written by me for Newfrontiers Newsletter