Gathered by the Word: Latin Pentecostal Migrant Congregations in the Nordic Countries

Abstract

Migration from Portuguese and Spanish-speaking countries has produced over two hundred Evangelical/Pentecostal congregations in the Nordic region during the early twenty-first century. These churches attract people of diverse backgrounds, demanding ongoing negotiations to keep their distinctive existence. I argue that their existence is owed to shared interpretative practices of the Bible and migration experiences, shaping each other, and forming interpretive communities. Based on an ethnographic investigation, five significant themes characterize Latin congregations in the Nordics as interpretive communities, 1) family worship, 2) incubating churches, 3) intercultural families, 4) transnational connection, and 5) hermeneutics of prophecy. These close-knit, connected, and family-like congregations represent a form of migrant self-theologizing for a Christian witness in a pluralistic Nordic region.