Huge Progress on the Sanctuary Floor! 

After many, many hours of hard labor by a small, dedicated team of volunteers, the foundation and flooring is taking shape in the “new” old church in Narvik, Norway!

The video shows the amazing progress!   All of the people you see working in this video are volunteers.  One of the gentleman was just recently baptized!  Praise God!

The volunteers include a couple from Narvik.  Then there are two men from Oslo who are of Islandic origin.   Next, there’s a woman from Stavanger, Norway, a man from Tromsø, and one Russian Orthodox man who recently moved to Kirkenes from Narvik.   Kirkenes is a long way away from Narvik and is located in the far northeast corner of Norway, adjacent to the Barents Sea.

All of these young men and women, many of whom are students, paid for their own tickets to get to Narvik and spent many weeks helping out this summer.  One of the guys from Oslo was there for over 3 weeks and a woman who has worked with tiling was there for 3 weeks also.

The individual from Tromsø – 3.5 hours north of Narvik – had watched one of the renovation update videos and was inspired to help for 4 days.  After 4 days, he liked the team and the fellowship so much that he stayed for 1.5 weeks and them came back two days later to stay for another three days!  He then also put another week of volunteer time in August, before going back to Tromsø!

The Holy Spirit certainly has been busy inspiring and moving ordinary young individuals to share their time and skills!   May God continue to bless this renovation and the people involved!   And may He continue to provide willing and able volunteers to take up the challenge!

If you are interested in helping out, please email us at [email protected] and we’ll pass your information along to Pastor Snellman.

Please consider donating to support this building renovation, so that the Gospel can be heard in the warmth of this wonderful church.

Donate as an individual.

Donate as an organization.

Progress is being made on the new church in Narvik!

The pastor and a small volunteer team are working hard on the sanctuary floor. They’re cutting the very large rocks into smaller sizes that can be carried and placed elsewhere, as needed. They’re trying to make a level surface on which to build the floor. But this is tough, slow work for the small team of volunteers working on site.   Please keep Pastor Markus Snellman and his volunteer team in your prayers as they continue to face many challenges! Thank God for their faithfulness and may He bless their efforts!

If you wish to donate money needed for additional building supplies, please click on the donate button at the top right of the header on this page. Your help would be greatly appreciated!

The new “old” church renovation has started! But as you can see in the video, the small group of loyal followers in Narvik could use quite a few more volunteers! If you are interested in volunteering with the renovation, please email Pastor Markus Snellman, who is organizing work team schedules. His email address is [email protected]

Go alone, or invite some friends to join you and form your own team!

The renovation has started!  But as you can see in the video, the small group of loyal followers in Narvik could use quite a few more volunteers!  If you are interested in volunteering with the renovation, please email Pastor Markus Snellman who is organizing work team schedules.   His email address is [email protected] .  Go alone, or invite some friends to join you and form your own team!

If you are not able to physically help, your financial assistance is just as important!  Construction materials need to be purchased before work teams can get started.  So, if you could, click on the donation tab at the top right.  Then make a donation or, if you can, a recurring donation.  You can make a difference in how quickly the Lutheran Church in Norway can get the Navik church open for worship!  Praise God for this opportunity to further His kingdom!

The new “old” church renovation has started!  But as you can see in the video, the small group of loyal followers in Narvik could use quite a few more volunteers!  If you are interested in volunteering with the renovation, please email Pastor Markus Snellman who is organizing work team schedules.   His email address is [email protected] .  Go alone, or invite some friends to join you and form your own team!  

Watch here for information coming soon about volunteer work party opportunities to travel to Narvik, Norway and to help with the renovation of the “new” church that has just been acquired!”

From Bishop Torkild Masvie

Dear friends!

Our congregation in Narvik has one hour ago bought a former Methodist worship site in downtown Narvik, close to the university for USD 96 500, according to today’s change rate. The congregation borrowed money from other of our congregations: 3 years interest free rent and no down payment before 3 years. It allows this congregation to organize fundraising and bring in volunteers. The congregation has rented worship sites in various places, but never got a permanent lease. The small congregation is very excited. You will get a prospect of our “dream church” from our architect later. 

The building is today only a shell, completely empty inside, but it is one of the oldest buildings in that town. Enclosed are pictures showing what part we bought. With an architect friend, and with volunteer help from Norway and other countries they will turn this place into a beautiful church.

This is an opportunity for the support congregations who want to send congregation members on a “mission trip” doing construction work August 2025.
Contact Pastor Markus Snellman ([email protected], and copy me) if this is something you consider interesting. We need help 🙂

Narvik is above the arctic circle. ( To compare: further north than Point Hope Alaska). Sunlight for 18 hours in August and light all night.

Looking forward to hearing from some of you.

On Thu, April 3, 2025 at 9:55 AM Biskop Torkild Masvie <[email protected]> wrote this concerning an article that featured The Lutheran Church in Norway (LKN) in one of Norway’s most prominent daily newspapers:

Dear friends,

We may be heading towards a storm in Norway for not being politically correct. Pray for us that we may be able to handle the media attention in a way that will provide further church growth.

The Lutheran Church in Norway is today on the front page of Aftenposten daily newspaper, Norway’s most prominent paper. We become the example of a church with segregated activities and discrimination.

The issue is, among other things, that our church has “segregated” activities. There are occasional private women’s gatherings in homes and private men’s meetings in homes in the Oslo congregation. Those are the only segregated activities that exist in our church.

Our discrimination is that we only have male pastors. That is enough to get the authorities to keep an eye on us.

I’m providing a link to the website of the church where we present a statement about the article. Use google translate for better understanding.

https://lkn.no/2025/aftenposten-skriver-om-lkn-statsstotte-og-regjeringens-merkelapper/

Aftenposten writes about LKN (The Lutheran Church in Norway), state aid, and government labels.

In Aftenposten’s cover case on April 3, 2025, three journalists write about state aid to various religious communities, based on a recent report. The journalists point out that every fourth religious community in Norway has stated that they have limited equality within the congregation, and that the real figure is somewhat higher. LKN is highlighted as one of the churches that talks the truth about themselves.

Government’s labels

Several labels are used in the case, including state aid, discrimination, and segregation. The labels come from a form that all registered congregations must fill out when applying for state funds. These are the three questions that Aftenposten bases the case on:

1. Does the religious or belief society practice restrictions on access to their own activities, governing bodies, positions, or positions related to one or more discrimination in the Gender Equality and Discrimination Act?
2. Has the belief or belief community segregated services?
3. Did the belief or life-belief society receive a total of NOK 50,000 or more in contributions from one or more donors in a country other than Norway?

The label discrimination is thus used on LKN, because the priesthood is reserved for men. The label segregation comes from the fact that members in some congregations organize male evenings and women’s evenings. When we also call “state aid” a label, it is because this word overlooks the fact that it is a church tax the state collects on behalf of all denominations. The politicians have chosen to do so in this way, and decided that the tax rate should be calculated based on what is granted to the Norwegian Church. It is therefore not a support from the state, but a scheme that will ensure that the church tax share comes to the religious community the individual citizen belongs to-and not to the Norwegian Church. The term “state aid” indicates that it is the state’s gracious support to those who follow the authorities’ ideology.

A call to confess Biblical teaching

God’s word is life. If we let go of it, we lose our eternal salvation. Losing reputation in society, state aid, the right to gather, or whatever else it may be, is nothing against losing our part in eternal life. Jesus says, “For what does it benefit from a human being if he wins the whole world, but is harming his soul? For what can a person give to remuneration for his soul?” (Mark 8:36) Therefore, we must continue to confess biblical teachings.

Torkild Masvie, Bishop

Sakarias Ingolfsson, Vice Bishop

FOLCIN notes:   It appears that the Norwegian government uses the questionnaires that are linked to government support as a way to keep an eye on LKN and other religious organizations. 

It would seem that many religious organizations have not answered honestly, and the newspaper article uses LKN as an example of a church that answers questionnaire questions honestly.

LKN receives about $20,000 USD a year from the government.   If the government drops LKN’s funding because of the “offenses”, Norwegian donors won’t be able to claim the same tax benefits of donations to LKN.  Only donations of up to $2,000 USD a year could be claimed.

Please pray that the unsolicited attention from the press will attract more people to the truth of God’s Word.  Pray for the generous support of LKN  to continue during this potential crisis.