DAWN Fridayfax 1995 #29

News from Finland

Finland: New Lutheran Cinema-Church in Tampere

Tampere, the second largest city in very traditional Finland, has a new attraction: a Lutheran Cinema-Church, set up by Markku Ylipää, a Lutheran choirmaster. He told us that in November 1994, God gave him "a vision for a new sort of church" which would not compete with the traditional Lutheran Sunday-morning services, but complement them and appeal to the non-churchgoing population. Research done by church-growth researcher Heikki Lassila (Helsinki) shows that 86.5% of the Finnish population are members of the Lutheran Church, but that only 2-3% regularly attend services.

Markku Ylipää grabbed his chance when a Russian businessman announced that he wanted to set up a sex club in the city's empty "Palatsi" cinema. He says: "I saw this cinema as a chance which the church seemed to be missing, so I went with my son to pray one more time that God would use this cinema for his kingdom. I and a few colleagues had already tried to rent the cinema, but the owner refused; he only wanted to sell it. A miracle occurred, though: 3 days after we prayed, the owner announced out of the blue that he was prepared to rent it to us."

The "Tampere Lutheran-Charismatic church" has been meeting there since April 1995: on Tuesday evenings is the "Rock Cafe" aimed at youths; on Thursdays there is a healing clinic, offering prayer and blessing to people in need of healing; on Sunday afternoons there is a blessing service. The "Cinema Church" does not consider itself a local church, but as an experiment in the Lutheran church, even if the responsible bishop only gave the go-ahead "with stomach ache", according to Ylipää. Ylipää is now the full-time leader of the "Palatsi-Seurakunta" (Palace Church). He says that people have reacted surprisingly positively to the new church; between 500 and 600 people attend the services, only a few months after they started. The church is financed completely through offerings.

Source: Markku Ylipää, Tel/Fax (358) 931-3410937
More from Finland

Finland: Pastor healed of cancer leads a revival movement in Nokia

There has been a revival movement in the Finnish town Nokia, according to church workers. Markku Koivisto, the leader of the movement and Nokia's Lutheran "Kirkkoherra" (head pastor of the city), told us in an interview that a prayer and blessing movement led by laypeople has started in the Lutheran church. According to one of the workers, "thousands of people" have come into active contact with the church through these meetings. Through prayer Koivisto was healed 5 years ago of liver cancer in its final stages.
More from Finland
Source: Kirkkoherra Markku Koivisto Tel (358) 941-3100730

"Whole couples" as the basis for healthy churches

The Finnish "Whole Marriage Encounter Camp" took place again from 15.-22. July 1995. It began as an initiative of YWAM's Kari Törmä and his wife Terttu in 1976 and developed into a hot tip for stressed couples and families. Around 800 people took part in this year's camp in one of Finland's largest conference centres, the Seminary of the Lutheran Church's Inner Mission in Pieksamakki in the centre of the country. The hallmark of the marriage and family camp is its "holistic" approach, which incorporates evangelisation, counselling, church growth, prayer, sexual therapy, inner healing, communication training and free time. The organisers report that again not only were hundreds of marriages helped, but that dozens of people came to believe in Christ as a result of the camp.

A previously atheist couple, irritated and angry after the first few days, wanted to leave. They telephoned their children and were surprised to be told that they should under no circumstances return home. A little confused, they remained, and to their astonishment were saved during the camp.

Kari Törmä sees family and marriage counselling as a much-overlooked key for a national grass-roots church-growth movement with the motto "healthy families as the basis of healthy Christian churches." The concept of the "Whole-Marriage-Encounter" movement has already been taken up in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Source and information: Kari Törmä, Keinutie 8 /54, SF-00940 Helsinki, Finland, Tel (358) 0-3498738

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