What an experience in Iceland! As I have mentioned before, the generosity and kindness we received was overwhelming. Hopefully there will be a time in the future when we can reciprocate the experience for our friends as they venture over the “pond” to America.
Before we began our journey, we were asked to come up with a question or two that would help us focus our learning while in Iceland. My question centered on the current economic conditions facing Iceland is facing and how this crisis is affecting the Icelandic Church in regards to funding of programs and outreach. What I learned was far more involved than just the current economic situation. Iceland’s church structure is far different then what we are accustomed to in the United States.

In Iceland, the Evangelical Lutheran Church is the “established” church of Iceland. The current funding arrangements between the State and the Church were originally established in 1907 and reviewed in 1998. What was set forth from this agreement was the State gets the churches property in exchange for the State paying for 139 pastors’ salaries. Because of this arrangement, pastors are ex facto State employees. In addition to this, each church receives 600 kroner per member per month from a tariff collected by the state. This monthly amount pays for church operations and other similar expenses.

Because of this tariff, offering is not collected during church services. This lack of offering raised some concerns for me as an individual. It is my opinion that offering is an integral part of one’s faith practice. Offering is a disciplined, intentional act of giving back a percentage of what God has blessed and bestowed upon us as individuals. Even though there is a collection of offering via the tariff it runs counterintuitive to what I believe to be an integral part of one’s faith practice. But regardless of my opinion, the system works for the Icelandic Church.

On a completely different note, I want to take this time to share a difficulty of mine during this journey. So often we are accustomed to giving that the thought of receiving goes by the wayside. But sometimes one needs to learn how to accept overwhelming and unearned generosity and kindness. This is exactly what occurred to me on this trip to Iceland. The kindness we received cannot be explained in words. There were those who opened their homes to us for two weeks, fed us more then we could eat, explained the customs of their homeland, and taught us the fellowship of brothers and sister in Christ. This is one of the unexpected outcomes of this trip for me.

Gracious Father,
I thank you for the experiences and friendships that have come from this two week journey. It is an experience that will last far longer than two weeks. I pray that the ideas we shared between us will help to strengthen Christ’s church in Iceland and America. May our brother and sisters in Christ continue to learn from each other and the ideas and experiences we gather and share be used to bridge gaps between nations.
In your blessed name we pray, Amen.