Recently a number of people have sent me social media posts claiming that faith in Christ is rising in Sweden. Even that revival is underway. Everyone knows Sweden has been secular for so long, and I appreciate people wanting to send me encouragement.
One of the most popular is this video from Christian TV channel CBN and associated article.
Or there’s this post on X.
Headline: “Christian Revival Sweeps Sweden” while the text highlights the Jesus Conference which was featured in the CBN video. The post then cites some figures from the Church of Sweden. Justin Brierley also shared these figures on Facebook and mentioned them in his podcast episode on ten reasons the rebirth is alive and well.
Is it true?
For context I personally know some of the people interviewed and featured in the CBN video and they are bullish but they’re not claiming revival, yet. I’ve planted a church in Stockholm and we’re planting another one. I think I’m current with the statistics and what I’m hearing anecdotally.
It’s worth noting that the title on the video, “massive revival”, is not exactly what the Swedes in the video claim and the article only says ‘spiritual awakening’ which is a far vaguer claim. I don’t think Christian organisations should engage in clickbait but there you go. The video is more vibe than facts. There are some encouraging developments but what do these actually add up to?
The Jesus Conference is an encouraging event. The 2026 version will take place in mid-October and will again gather somewhere around 3,000 young people to worship Jesus. This is a good thing. But. The evangelical church in Sweden is small but it’s not non-existent. Gathering this many young Christians is not especially new, not unheard of, nor in context shockingly large. Yet it is a good thing. I’m all for it.
Recently there was a nine-hour long praise and worship gathering, called Sverige Tillbe Jesus (Sweden worships Jesus) in the centre of Stockholm that gathered as many as ten thousand people throughout the day. Really encouraging. But again, not a sign of revival.
But what about Visegrad24’s church attendance claim? Has the share of young people attending religious services really doubled from 17% to 34% as the SOM Institute reports? Well, sort of. That claim can give the impression that young people are flocking to churches. But what that 34% means is showing up at least once per year. Encouraging? Yes. Meaningfully different? Not yet.
Remember that means 66% of young people in Sweden didn’t go to church at all that year. If around 4% attend regularly, which is roughly the national average and lower in Stockholm, then the other 30% went once or twice.
The same SOM Institute survey also found that belief in God among young Swedes rose from 20% to 34%. That is worth paying attention to. It might be the more significant finding.
What about baptisms in the Church of Sweden?
Again this is both true and not the whole story. The Church of Sweden conscientiously records its statistics so no reason to doubt the increase. They have seen an increase in the number of people choosing to join the church and the number of people choosing to be baptised.
But…around 43,000 chose to leave the Church of Sweden last year and 38,000 chose to leave the year before. So more people are choosing to join but not yet nearly enough to matching the number of people choosing in the other direction. And as that doesn’t include decline through death the Church of Sweden is still on a path of terminal decline.
The free churches of Sweden aren’t doing much better. The latest statistics reveal 900 fewer churches over the last 25 years, fewer and older Christians in those churches and a decline in the number of new churches being planted and surviving. In the last five years 219 free churches closed, while only 77 new ones started.
There was an uptick in churches in a few places (including Stockholm) that was a result of immigration but that growth has now stopped after the Swedish government has radically reduced the number of migrants moving to Sweden. It’s slightly ironic that the parties many Christians voted for have been responsible for stopping the growth of the church.
What is encouraging?
Just yesterday I spoke with a young Christian man in his early 30s who recently visited the Swedish-speaking part of Finland. He and his wife had been invited to speak at a few churches at a small-ish town of around 50,000 people. At every meeting attendance was at record high levels. There were some genuinely remarkable testimonies and my friend said that he had never experienced anything like it. Something really encouraging there but not yet seen here.
There are encouraging signs in both Norway and Finland, which interestingly are largely more conservative theologically, but not so much in Denmark and Sweden where the churches are more liberal and the countries more secular.
I’m regularly hearing from pastors who are sensing an openness to the gospel that they have never experienced before. They’re also sharing more stories of conversions from people encountering God outside the church and then coming to church. Some social media accounts, including the one in the video, are reaching a growing share of young Swedes. I know some of the people behind them. Encouraging. The vibe does seem to be shifting. Sweden is not quite as secular now as it was.
There are churches that are growing, some growing strongly. Depending on your view of their theology, this is mostly pretty good news. But it’s still more than offset by the decline in other places.
So, for now, the claim about revival is simply wrong. There is no revival and what we’re seeing is not ‘massive’.
Here’s the short version: no revival but there are reasons to be hopeful and to keep praying.
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