A Swedish missionary and pastor who has spent his life moving between Sweden and Ecuador has issued a sharp warning to churches in the global North: rising nationalism within Christianity is not a legitimate option but a cautionary tale that must be actively resisted. Petter Hermansson, who grew up as a missionary child in Latin America and later served as a sent-out missionary himself, spoke with Sändaren’s podcast on the future of the church from Ecuador. He described nationalist expressions of Christianity as a “horror example” and called the church to serve instead as a global point of connection at a time when borders are closing and nationalism is growing.
Hermansson argues that the church must be a counter-movement — a space where Christians refuse to shrink their identity to the national and instead live with an awareness of belonging to a worldwide body. Drawing on his experience of living between two continents, he observed that no single cultural expression of church is the right one, and that God works through different forms of worship and community. He challenged Swedish churches to hold together both traditional, quiet liturgical hymn-singing and more spontaneous, joyful expressions, not in separate groups but under the same umbrella where people genuinely meet and learn from each other.
What has most shaped Hermansson’s thinking from his years in Ecuador is not worship style but the profound trust in God he has witnessed among Christians facing economic and social hardship. He recalled the 2016 earthquake in Ecuador as a formative example: amid chaos and uncertainty, people instinctively organised to load food, carry water, and serve one another. That readiness to step forward rather than withdraw continues to challenge his thinking about the church in Sweden, where society is more stable but the posture of turning to God in everything and living for others must, he insists, be taken just as seriously.
(Originally published in Swedish. Summary translated by CC / Connexion.)
For free church formation resources including this topic, visit Worldwide Evangelical Seminary.
Source: Equmeniakyrkan / Sändaren — sandaren.se
