A vision planted

The vision of the church was born in the heart of John and Ineke van Dinther in 1991 during their sabbatical year in Pasadena, California, where John was studying at Fuller Theological Seminary. Previously they had been involved in church planting in Asia through the ministry of YWAM Sweden (Youth With a Mission).

John and Ineke had expected to move back to Asia on a long-term basis, but at that time that the Lord re-directed their steps to Sweden to plant a church that would be relevant in the city of Stockholm.

Carried in prayer

They spent time praying and thinking about the kind of church they would like to plant in the inner city of Stockholm, and described it in a visionary document. Their conviction was that they should not plant an independent church, but rather wanted to belong to ÖM, (Örebromissionen - charismatic Baptists) one of the older denominations in Sweden. This network of churches welcomed them to become part of them, and that’s how the initial stages developed.

A team effort

During the Christmas season of 1991 the van Dinthers moved to Stockholm where they prepared and prayed for the development of a team committed to plant a (bilingual) Swedish church with a strong international profile, geared in its approach towards the younger generations. A team was brought together as John and Ineke prayed, and in the summer of 1992, the 15-member church-planting team from six different nations (including seven Swedes, three people from the Philippines, one from Portugal, two South Africans, one Japanese, and three Dutch people) moved to Stockholm to start preparing the church plant. During the autumn of 1992, the foundation for the new church was laid through intercessory prayer, and the church finally opened its doors for public worship services on the last Sunday in January 1993.