Visions of Apostolic Mission : Scandinavian Pentecostal Mission to 1935

Abstract: Using methods of Cultural Mapping, Scandinavian Pentecostal publications and archival sources were examined regarding mission. Working toward “Apostolic Mission,” in addition to biblical texts Pentecostals used models adapted from the Pietist, Methodist, Baptist and especially the Holiness Revivals. Scandinavian Pentecostalism was definitively shaped by these diverse and inter-related trans-Atlantic intellectual and social currents, not only the “Pentecostal Revival” in Los Angeles. Within the cultural space created by those movements, they created diverse mission sending networks and agencies.William Taylor coined the phrase “Pauline Mission.” He influenced trans-Atlantic Holiness revivalists, many of whose writings were translated into Scandinavian languages. Scandinavia experienced Holiness mission through reverse migration, Lord Radstock, the Boardmans, the Methodists, Salvation Army, John Ongman and Sivert Ulness. Pentecostal mission to Scandinavia came through “eyewitnesses” to the Azusa Street revival including Johnson-Ek and the Hollingsworths. Particularly important for Pentecostal mission was T. B. Barratt. He became Pentecostal after conflict with the Methodist (U.S.A.) Mission Board over mission theory and practice. His congregation in Kristiania became an international model. Other mission leaders included Andersen-Nordquelle, and Seehuus (Norway), Björk, Ongman, and Pethrus (Sweden), and Plum (Denmark). Each was already an established religious leader and editor of a periodical.Growth of Pentecostal mission and demands of Colonial governments caused institutionalization of mission administration (1915-1929). Trajectories in Norway and Sweden were toward professional “Boards,” away from the earlier entrepreneurial, self-governing, self-theologizing, self-supporting and self-propagating mission models. Following Barratt’s disillusionment with institutionalized U.S.A. Pentecostalism, he and Pethrus dismantled the nascent Pentecostal “Mission Boards.” In Norway, Barratt became the undisputed leader of Pentecostal mission. Swedish Pentecostalism fractured briefly over the issue. In the conflict all claimed the heritage of the Pietist, Baptist, Holiness and early Pentecostal revivalistic mission. By 1935 the conflicts ended with Scandinavian Pentecostal mission refocused on the Apostolic “Pauline Mission”.