Equmenia, the children's and youth organisation of Sweden's Uniting Church (Equmeniakyrkan), is devoting a week to the volunteers who keep its work running, after its own figures showed the number of registered leaders slipping from 3,967 in 2024 to 3,850 in 2025.
According to Marcus Lind, Equmenia's general secretary, the shortage of leaders is the most common challenge facing the movement's local associations. In some places children are queuing to join the scouts because there are not enough adults to lead them. "It is of course important to find new leaders and to care for the ones you have, so that they carry on as leaders," Lind said.
The response is Ledarveckan, or Leaders' Week, now in its third year. Across the country the organisation is offering digital and in-person training, but the aim is wider than new skills: Equmenia is asking congregations to encourage their leaders and build a sense of community, whether by providing a meal, holding a party or setting aside the ordinary programme for one evening in order to honour the people who usually run it.
Many associations are gathering around a shared online course, turning the training into an occasion to meet, swap experience and eat together. Lind described congregations where scout leaders returning from a week-long camp are met in the car park by church members who take over the unpacking and the washing-up. "Participants benefit too when leaders get a chance to be encouraged, equipped and inspired," he said. "Then they become better leaders for the rest of the term."
(Originally published in Swedish. Summary translated by CC / Connexion.)
Source: Equmeniakyrkan / Sändaren — https://sandaren.se/nyheter/2026/10/12/de-ar-equmenias-viktigaste-resurs-nu-satts-ledarna-
