Why is it so difficult to be a Christian in Norway?

On 5 May, Dagen again published a previously published article with the title: “One in four active Christians believes it is difficult to be a Christian in Norway.” In the article, among others, a former missionary is interviewed. She can recount several episodes from her daily life, where communication has suddenly stopped as she says that she has worked as a missionary.

She is probably not alone in having such and similar experiences. When my husband applied for a job in the municipality, everything seemed to be going very smoothly, until, during the interview, they came to ask questions about leisure activities. When he told them that he sang in the choir at Frikirken, the only comment was that they feared he might become a party stopper. So there was no job, either.

When I moved to France in 1992, I quickly joined an evangelical congregation where quite a few missionaries and other “visitors” from various corners of the world had gathered. Many of them belonged to the Navigators.

I was also relatively quickly drawn into one of the congregation’s ongoing conflicts. The pastor was very active with evangelism in this harsh, run-down town I had ended up in. Every day he went from door to door in these tall suburban blocks. On Saturday there was an evangelistic stand in Drabantbyen’s shopping centre. Much to his dismay, the Navigator Missionaries would not stand for this.

Photo: Private

And when he tried to get me to join him in a door-to-door campaign in the neighborhood, my new American Navigator friend gave me the strongest warning. “If you join this, you will lose all the natural opportunities you have in your everyday life to bring your new friends to Jesus,” she said.

I got into a real squeeze. Who should I listen to? I loved to evangelize. It was something I was looking forward to most about moving to France! Surely it couldn’t be God’s will that I should stop going on door-to-door evangelism?

A few weeks later the congregation’s annual meeting took place, and again the pastor expressed his despair that no one had been saved and added to the congregation, through the congregation’s evangelistic work, during the past year. The wife of an elder whispered to me: “But through the Navigators’ Bible group work, many new people have come to the congregation.” And the Navigators worked in a completely different way. They simply invited to Bible study groups. People who had never picked up a Bible here discovered Jesus in the Gospels, almost “on their own”.

I myself had the experience of seeing people, who started by opening a Bible for the very first time, gradually, and completely in their own rhythm, discovered Jesus, and slowly but surely came to the realization that “yes, Jesus must be God’s son, and I want to invite him into my life”. But this was by no means a quick fix. From the time a person opened the Bible for the first time, until he or she wanted to call himself a Christian, several years could pass.

In the meantime, these Bible groups were now gathering, for everyday and festive occasions. Some went on holidays together. Simply spent time together. But they were not invited to the church. The risk was too great for that. A nascent curiosity about faith and Jesus could quickly be reversed, if the pastor pushed a little too hard by inviting them to pray a “salvation prayer” ahead of time.

Precisely for this reason, because the pastor knew there were several Bible study groups going on, with people who did not go to church, he felt he had to take action. He simply asked the Navigator missionaries to leave the congregation. He did not agree with their way of doing evangelism. Despite the fact that this was the only thing that created growth in the congregation.

I realized that too eventually. And perhaps over the years there has been a little too much street evangelism and door-to-door campaigns with a little too much ongoing evangelists in this country as well? Maybe it will be easier to be a Christian if we leave it to God to lead people to him?

A couple of Sundays ago we heard the parable of the leaven in our churches. When we are Christians, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. It actually says so in God’s word. Then God also wants to guide us through his Spirit. By building trust in people we meet, showing an interest in who they are and perhaps starting friendships, it is possible to eventually talk about prejudices they may have against Christians, or other difficult things that stand in the way of God. But maybe not right away. Maybe not for a long time.

God longs for every single person he has created. And it is so much easier to approach God when you have a safe, patient, Christian friend. A friend who prays. A friend who has all the time in the world. And who allows themselves to be led by the Holy Spirit.

Finally, to add some nuance, I must also admit that I myself have met street evangelists who have spoken prophetically into my life, and been a great blessing from the Lord in the situation I was in then and there.

Because things are rarely black and white in God’s kingdom. God works in so many ways and on so many levels all the time. Both because we are different, carry with us different baggage and different wounds, we humans need to be met in so many different ways. But the Spirit is the same.

Let us just continue in the finished works of the Lord. And always let us always be led by the Holy Spirit.