Bön och bröd

It’s another way to help make the church relevant in our modern day.

Open the building.

Open the building and pray together.

Open the building and pray together and eat a bowl of soup.

And because we’re in Sweden, open the building and pray together and eat a bowl of soup and drink a cup of coffee.

We are the church.

Not the building.

Though the building is a helpful gathering place.

In January 2019, we began meeting on Mondays at 12.00 noon for “bön och bröd’.

Literally translated, this means prayer and bread.

We opted to keep it simple.

Just open the church doors, pray together, sing together, and round out our time with a bowl of soup (and bread) and a cup of coffee.

Keeping it simple.

So, after 4 months now, here are a few observations…..

1.     Our group continues to grow.  We started at perhaps 8, now we’re regularly 11-12, and if we count everyone who has stopped in on a Monday to pray, our numbers go up to about 14 or so.

2.     But it’s not the numbers that are important.

3.     Nor is the soup so important.  Or the coffee….even if we are in Sweden!

This week I was struck by the words that we read together at the opening moment of our bön och bröd:  “Jesus Christ is in our midst.  In His name we will pray.  Now it’s God’s time.  Here in his house He closes us in with warmth and light.  Now it’s God’s time.  Now His word will lead us right and help us to believe.  Now it’s God’s time.  Now we want to pray and receive that which God has to give”.

It’s the repetition of the phrase “Now it’s God’s time” that struck me first.  So, on a busy Monday morning, when the week stretches out in anticipation before us, we take time and it’s God’s time.  His time to speak to us.  To teach us.  To lead us.

The other phrase that struck me was “Now we want to pray and receive that which God has to give”.  Do I come to a Monday midday “bön och bröd” meeting in anticipation of receiving what God has to give to me??  I sat in silence as the others continued with praying the Lord’s Prayer together.

May I find time every day to sit with God and receive that which He stands ready to give to me.

One final observation: 

The way that Sweden organizes the week, each week begins with Monday and ends with Sunday.  So what we say at Wesleykyrkan now, since January when "bön och bröd" started, is that we end the week with prayer and worship (Sunday services) and begin the new week with prayer and worship (Monday bön och bröd).  What a great way to live out our faith!

Fill your church again, we pray!