Prof. Richard Gurgel travelled to Sweden in January to teach seminary students of our sister churches there. Here are impressions from his experience:
Teaching in Sweden was a strange mixture of great sadness and great delight. There was sadness to see a nation that once possessed the gospel having become post-Christian in its culture. That speaks to us a powerful warning about apathy toward the gospel. The majestic stone church at the heart of Ljungby was awesome with its centuries-old marble altar and pulpit. But the grasp on salvation in Christ alone is long gone...and so are most of the people. A small sprinkling of gray heads populate its pews while the rest of the town passes by with stony hearts, seeing there little more than a quaint reminder of national history.
But there was also delight. Six eager students from our sister synod in Sweden and Norway took time away from full-time jobs or full-time education elsewhere to spend two weeks night and day immersed in the changeless doctrines of Scripture. The power of the gospel crossed cultures as a monolingual teacher marveled at his bilingual (and more!) students who grasped the beauty of what he so haltingly communicated across the language and cultural gap. Our brothers and sisters in the Lutheran Confessional Church of Sweden and Norway strive by the grace of God to hold out the light of life in the cold of the spiritual winter that has fallen on their countries. They cling to this promise for themselves, their families, and their people: God's Word does not return empty.
Richard Gurgel
