- Iselin Nylund, worship-leader in the Hangö church-plant.
Hangö is situated at the tip of the Hanko peninsula on the Baltic Sea, in the very south of Finland. Hangö has 9700 inbitants. This church-plant was officially started in January 2010 by Mikael and Iselin Nylund. Similiar to the project in Kokkola, the Hangö church is a re-plant of an old Swedish-speaking Methodist parish. Officially the Hangö church is not an independent church, but part of the ministry of the Ekenäs (Tammisaari) UMC-parish.
- We started with prayer, vision and leadership nights every Tuesday, Mikael says. It was (and is) an open group where anyone that wants to be a part of building the church can participate. People can come up with ideas, hear the vision, get trained and present their own thoughts. We still work with this and it helps me to see who really want to be a part of building the church. At the moment we are around 7 people.
Mikael defines “church” like this:
- We call our church “the living-room”. With that we want to communicate that we are a relaxed place where everyone is welcome. We are a community of God-loving people sharing life together. We want to be a place where people can be themselves and work with and through their gifts, but with a common vision.
- Our vision is to build a large, relaxed, Jesus-loving church, a community of love and hope. We want to build a place that people can call their spiritual living-room. Not just a Sunday-room but an everyday room where people want to belong. We want the church to be a non-religious place where people can be themselves and where they don’t have to pretend anything, a place where people can try to use their gifts, fail, stand up again and continue pushing forward. We try to mainly reach out to young people, middle-aged and families. We are, in practise, bilingual already. Swedish and English are the languages we use (translation to English). And we are open for any language groups.
I ask Mikael how he trains leaders for the present and future needs and he says:
- We have 3 strategies. 1. Leadership, prayer and vision nights. This is the place where I share the vision and my heart for the house. I try to get people to see the big picture. 2. Active involvement and serving in Sunday services. Before and after the service I gather the team to communicate the vision and give feedback. 3. Personal relationships. I often take key people out for coffee to share life with them, to get to know what’s on their hearts, what they see happen in the church and what they want to do. I like what John C Maxwell says: “People don’t care how much you know, before they know how much you care”.
- I think our church is a relaxed placed, Mikael says. The worship is modern. The people have completely different personalities but somehow we get a long, have fun together and share Jesus. We often have some snacks before the service (pre chill), then a simple service and afterwards fellowship.
Where does Mikael get his own fuel from?
- My key source of inspiration and input is coming from different preachers. I listen to 4-5 podcast sermons every week. Some of my favourites are Erwin McManus, Brian Houston and Joyce Meyer.
Camilla Klockars