Norwegian Christians have more to learn from immigrants

When Christians from other countries come to Norway, they may be surprised at how busy Norwegian Christians are to avoid unrest. If you come from a country where it is controversial to be a Christian, yes, perhaps downright dangerous, the contrast is great when you see how socially adapted Norwegian Christians are on the whole.

It is of course not a goal in itself to create unrest or noise. On the contrary, the apostle Paul writes about “living a quiet and peaceful life with godliness and dignity in everything”.

For Norwegian Christians, it seems that immigration to Norway represents such a reminder.

This must not be understood as meaning that it is a goal for Christians to lie low or not to fly the flag. The gospel is controversial in its nature. It was by no means only in the time of the early church that it was both criticized and harassed. If the gospel does not meet with opposition, it is probably because the gospel is not preached. Because where the gospel is preached, it should lead to self-examination in everyone.

In this country, we adorn ourselves with a thousand years of Christian history. And there are numerous good reasons to be happy about, among other things, the introduction of Christian law, for which we are marking the thousandth anniversary this year. Nevertheless, history must not lead to us living today undermining the responsibility every generation has to actively pass on what we ourselves have been given.

For Norwegian Christians, it seems that immigration to Norway represents such a reminder. This was recently made visible at the leadership conference that the Lausanne movement and the Norwegian Council for Mission and Evangelism were behind.

There, the participants were reminded that it is not in line with Christian ideals if cultural traits are allowed to prevent Christians from carrying out their mission. Again, there is no aim to make oneself a laughing stock or to seek controversy for controversy’s sake. But it is a natural goal for a Christian to live as a follower of Jesus Christ in all areas of life.

One does not need to be a professional theologian to assume that the old Norwegian unitary society, where almost everyone was a member of the state church, has given Norwegian Christians a sense of convenience that can seem paralyzing. When we hear about the persecution of Christians in other countries, we cannot escape the fact that the stories we hear differ significantly from the everyday life most of us know in this country.

But that is precisely why it is interesting that the increased immigration to Norway in recent decades has also had the effect that we have had Christians from many different countries among us. By volume, Polish Catholics are a large group. With the war in Ukraine, we have also received many Orthodox Christians from there. We don’t yet know how many will stay, but probably quite a few.

In Protestant Christian Norway, it is the Baptist Church in particular that has succeeded in integrating immigrants into the community. At the national meeting of the Baptists, a significant proportion of the actors are people with an ethnic origin other than Norwegian. This is also seen in the members of the executive board.

However, it is also a challenge for the Baptists that even if the membership is composed, you can end up in a situation with parallel structures. This means that people from different ethnic groups meet each in their own congregations or each have their own services.

This reminds us that good development usually does not happen by itself. It is necessary to make conscious and wise choices with regard to the future. One such choice is to listen more to Christians from other countries, and to be willing to learn from each other.