(Church Website: https://www.reformertbaptist.dk/)

My life prior to conversion

May name is Carsten Stampe Jørgensen. I was born on the 9th of August of 1970, into an unbelieving family. My parents practiced a very limited form of cultural Christianity, in the sense that they had my sister and I baptized as infants. However, neither my father nor my mother confessed faith in Christ and did not even attend Church at Christmas time. At one time though, I do remember my father told my sister and I, that the reason for the star on top of the Christmas tree, was in fact the star of Bethlehem when Christ was born, and the reason for the presents underneath the tree, was the presents brought to Christ by the wise men from the East.

As I grew up, I became an outwardly very kind and well-behaved guy, but inwardly, in my heart, I was full of lust and ungodly sexual desires. These lusts and desires, I would pursue in the Copenhagen Night life, as I was getting drunk with my friends. However, I was never as successful in my pursuits as I wanted to be, but now, looking back, I can really see God’s gracious and restraining hand at work. When I was in the company of my friends, I would also be the kind of guy, who would enjoy being very foul mouthed. My humour was always and consistently ‘below the belt’ and whatever bad and degradable thing my friends were able to say, I took pride in the fact, that I was always able to ‘lower the bar’ and say something even worse.

My conversion experience

On the 2nd of April 2000, I got off the train in the town of Ishøj. On my way home, I noticed that a tall, beautiful African lady came running after me. Since that did not happen to me very often, I slowed down to find out who she was and what she wanted. Her name was Florence, and as it turned out, she wanted to invite me to church the next day. I agreed to go, but the next day, when the worship service was over, I thought, “good for them, but not for me.” Florence and I became good friends; sometimes, we would meet in town and sit together to eat and talk. I remember how she would tell me about Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross. She also spoke about judgment day and the reality of hell. On the outside, I would remain calm and composed, but what Florence did not know, was that I was trembling and fearful on the inside. One day, I was going to study for my exams, and one of my majors was religion. For my preparation I was going to read portions of the Bible, like “The Sermon on the Mount” from the Gospel of Matthew. To get a good grade, I thought it would be a good idea to call and ask Florence if I could visit her and ask her some questions. Perhaps she, as a dedicated believer, would be able to give me some good insights into the Bible that might be useful for my exam. Florence agreed that I could come, and when I came, another fellow believer by the name of Peter was also there. Peter and Florence answered all my questions very politely, and when I had left, they came together before the Lord, in agreement, to pray that when I sat down to read God’s Word, it would minister to my heart.

The very next day, as I sat down to read “The Sermon on the Mount,” something entirely unexpected happened to me. The words of Jesus seemed to leap off the page and penetrate my heart. A warmth came upon me, and my eyes filled up with tears. At that very moment, it dawned on me that what I was reading was the truth. I also realized that I needed God’s grace and forgiveness as a sinner. I reached out for my phone to call Florence and tell her about my experience, but at that moment, I hesitated. I hesitated because I knew that if I called Florence, I might begin the process of ‘becoming a Christian, and I knew instinctively what that meant. It meant I had to repent and forsake my sins, and I did not want to do that yet. I still loved my sin too much, and I was not ready to abandon them right then and there. Therefore, I tried to flee from God and from the truth, much like an exposed criminal, who seeks to flee and hide from a policeman. But some months later, I got out of bed one Sunday morning, feeling very miserable, knowing I had to go to church that day. I don’t remember so much from the worship service, only that afterward, I knew that I had to get to know Jesus Christ. I went home with Florence that day and asked her if she had a Bible because I wanted to read God’s word. She gave me a Bible, and I remember asking her, ‘What is happening to me? Am I becoming a Christian or what?’ I was! I did not understand it all, but God was irresistibly drawing me to Christ, and it felt absolutely wonderful. I could not resist it, I could not stop it, nor did I want to. The following Sunday, 18th of November 2000, I knew that this Sunday was the day when I would be ‘born again.’ Because on that day, I went forward to pray the sinner’s prayer, asking Jesus into my heart. In reality, I had already been born again for a week or so. I had already been on my knees in my apartment before publicly going forward to confess my faith, but I did not understand these things at the time. God had done a work in me; I had become a new creation in Christ and my life completely turned around. I repented of my sins and began living a new life in Christ. I started walking with Him, and I have never looked back.

My life after conversion

At the beginning of my Christian walk, however, I would try to get together with my old friends, as I used to, but when I did, I found that the foul-mouthed guy I used to be, I no longer was. Also, I no longer had any desire at all to get drunk, and no longer desired to pursue the opposite sex in Copenhagen’s night life, as I used to. Consequently, I fairly quickly lost all my friends. One friendship has since then been restored, though.

Around the time of my conversion, as I was enjoying and cherishing the revelation of Christ as my Lord and Saviour, another revelation also came to me: Florence was indeed the one who was to be my wife. Thank God she agreed, and we got married on the 27th of July 2002. Praise be to God for transforming a foul-mouthed fornicator into a ‘one-woman-man’ whose desire it would soon become, to expound God’s pure word.

In 2007, a month before our son David was born, we left the charismatic church we had been attending for a long time. What happened was, as I began to read and study my Bible much more intensively and draw nearer to God in prayer, asking and pleading that I may know Him more and that He would lead me into all truth, He faithfully began to open my eyes more and more to the truth. Time and time again, as I would read through a book of the Bible, I would stumble upon a verse, that had been preached on in the church, and often I realized that it wasn’t actually saying what had been taught from the pulpit. I began to realize that the church was not really very committed to the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified, but rather to the preaching of the prosperity gospel. This concerned me a great deal and I began to ask questions, which unfortunately got me into conflict with the leadership.

One day, it came to the point where the senior Pastor and his wife, called my wife and I to the office. We were confronted and was given the choice to either submit to the teaching of the church or leave. We chose to leave, and over the course of the next two years, a series of events made it so that we got in contact with a new network that was forming in Denmark called “Back to the Bible.” Through this network, we were exposed to reformed theology for the first time, and little by little, we started realizing that these doctrines were both biblical and true. Christ, our good shepherd, in answer to our prayers, had led us to where the pasture was no longer trodden down, and the water was no longer muddied (Ez. 34:19). He had led us to greener pastures and the still water, and we have made our abode with Him there.

My Call to Ministry

Right from the very beginning of my Christian walk in the year 2000, I remember how I would imagine myself preaching to many people. However, my imaginations were very immature and naive at that point, thinking God would use me to do all sorts of miracles. Fairly quickly, my pastor at the charismatic church where my wife and I attended, began to recognize that I had a zeal and a passion for the work of ministry. He, therefore, also quickly began to give me responsibilities, such as leading the worship service and a cell group. Before God began to open my eyes to see the errors of the word-faith prosperity gospel, I was also given the opportunity to preach a few times. That all came to a halt, of course, when I began to raise concerns and ask questions in regard to some of the doctrines taught in the church. But as God continued to open my eyes more and more to the truth, the inner desire, and the call to the work of ministry, only seemed to grow stronger and stronger.

When we finally left the church and were looking for a church to attend, another pastor who had recently planted a church wanted us to come and join his church. One of his main reasons for asking us was because he himself was not much of a preacher, but had heard me preach at our former church, and he thought I could be a great blessing to his church. It went very well initially, but since my wife and I were on a journey away from the teachings of the Charismatic Movement and the prosperity gospel, we quickly grew apart doctrinally. We also realized that sin was rampant in that church, and the pastor did not believe in church discipline. So, for several obvious reasons we had to part ways.

While we were at that church, God connected us to a new network in Denmark called “Back to the Bible.” It was led by an Australian brother called Cameron Buettel, and in 2009 we had our very first conference / Bible Camp. Cameron, who is an excellent networker, had managed to get into contact with Paul Washer. So, for our first Bible Camp, we managed to feature Paul Washer and Charles Leiter as our leading speakers. What an impact it made and what a turning point it would turn out to be for the church in Denmark. Paul Washer is for sure one of the kindest, most gracious, and most generous men of God I have ever met, but in his last session at the camp, he gave us a much-called-for and very necessary beating. I will never forget how he challenged us! He told us that the fact that we wanted to evangelize and preach the true gospel in Denmark, was all well and good. But as he said, you are also telling me there are no biblical churches in Denmark, where people can be properly discipled. Then brother Paul asked us a very searching question at the top of his voice, a question that is still ringing in my ears and my heart to this day. He asked: ‘So tell me, WHERE ARE THE MEN who will plant the biblical churches? Many men who were present that day felt a great conviction in their hearts, that this word was for them, and they needed to take on the task of planting biblical churches in Denmark.

Soon thereafter, a 1689 Reformed Baptist Church called Kristuskirken was planted in Bjerringbro in Jutland. I was very convicted too, so my wife and I, and a couple from the Faroe Islands attempted to plant a church in Copenhagen. I thought my time had come. I thought this was my time to plant a church and to be an elder. However, it soon became evident that my time was not yet. I realized I was not as mature as I thought nor as equipped theologically as I needed to be. This was a very needful and extremely humbling experience for me.

After closing down our church plant, we began to attend a church in the outskirts of Copenhagen, in a town called Glostrup. It was a brethren church consisting primarily of precious grey-haired people from the Faroe Islands. However, there was also one grey-haired elderly Danish gentleman with whom we had already become acquainted at our Bible Camp in 2009. His name is Ernst Haahr, and today, he is my fellow elder at Copenhagen Reformed Baptist Church. We quickly began meeting with him and the Faroese couple privately, and we began to have bible studies together at our home. Ernst is a man who have walked many years with the Lord and a man who really know the word. Studying together with Ernst greatly enhanced my understanding of scripture. At that time, I was still licking my wounds from the failed church plant, so to be honest, I was very content for a while to simply sit down and listen and learn.

But not long thereafter, Ernst recommended me to the elders, and he told them that he believed my preaching would be a blessing to the church. So, I was asked by the elders to begin preaching the word roughly every six weeks. I agreed to do that, and the elders and the congregation received my teaching and preaching very well. While at this church, I began attending London Reformed Baptist Seminary, led by Dr. Peter Masters, at Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. It is an online seminary that seeks to educate pastors and deacons theologically and practically and prepare them for the many challenges that church officers face. It took me four years to complete, from 2011-2014, earning me a Diploma in Theological and Pastoral Studies. During that time, I would regularly travel to attend the Metropolitan Tabernacles School of Theology conference, which they host annually in London. The seminary had a very healthy emphasis on the importance of the local church and the importance of being a worshipping church, a praying church, a sanctified church, a working church, and an evangelistic church. Those years were of tremendous importance to me in terms of preparing me for the work God would call me to.

My Current Ministry

In 2014, at Back to the Bible’s annual Summer Camp, we met quite a few families and individuals who had either been thrown out of apostate churches or had come into disrepute in their church, both because of their solid stand on the gospel, as well as their growing reformed convictions. We agreed with these people to begin to meet once a week, with the aim to plant a 1689 Reformed Baptist Church. To find out if we were all on the same page, we spent one hour studying the book of Romans and one hour studying the 1689 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith. After completing our study, we agreed to begin the work, and in the spring of 2015, we began to meet for Sunday Services at the house of one of the families. In 2017, we began renting some adequate and spacious facilities in the very heart of Copenhagen, which is the capital city of Denmark.

At the beginning, we did not have any elders and we had no sending church that could appoint any. We were, however, regularly sparring with a 1689 reformed Baptist church in Jutland and with Pastor Jeremy Walker, from Maidenbower Baptist Church in London/UK. At this point, we were still in the process of getting to know and discover one another’s gifts and talents. Therefore, as our Sunday sermon, we would listen to an online sermon from a reformed Baptist church in Jutland. However, due to my former experience in preaching, I was the first one who was given the responsibility of preaching and teaching the Word on Lord’s Day. Sometime after this, my ministry was evaluated by the church, and the congregation expressed that they were delighted with my work and wanted me to continue. As time went and we got to know one another’s gifts and talents a lot better, I was given the responsibility of preaching every second of Lord’s Day. Every other Lord’s Day would then be divided between Ernst and those other men, who were also gifted to teach.

Planting our church was a prolonged process, but eventually, the church came to the point where we all wanted to appoint two elders for the church. By vote on the 17th of February 2019, Copenhagen Reformed Baptist Church unanimously decided to appoint and call two men to this office. The two men were Ernst Haahr and myself. For many years, I had this deep desire and inner yearning to do this work. I had spent many years preparing, aspiring, and striving for this noble task (1 Tim. 3:1). But now, there also was an external calling from the Church, a recognition that God had called me for this high office.

Since I began serving as an elder at Copenhagen Reformed Baptist Church, my ministry’s focus has mainly been to serve God’s people as a teacher and preacher of God’s word. However, being a small church and due to our limited human resources, I have also been doing a lot of translation work into English. In Copenhagen, the ministry of translation is particularly important, because Copenhagen is a city, where a lot of foreigners come to work and study, and since the very beginning of our church plant, we have consisted of both Danish- and English-speaking members. We have had members from India, China, Brazil, USA, Philippines and of course Denmark and we have, and have had Christians who were new in the faith as well as more seasoned and mature Christians. The church consists of a mix between families with children and singles and what has brought this church together is not geographical nearness, but our common commitment to Christ and to the faithful expounding of God’s word. Our challenges though, are many. A common challenge facing all churches in Denmark, is the hardness of the soil. Denmark is spiritually a very dark place and due to many years of neglected evangelism, we are realizing that hard work is indeed needed. We need to plow, to sow and to water, in order that we by God’s grace may see a harvest and an increase. In Copenhagen particularly, there is also the challenge of being very few workers. Many Christians, especially families, choose to move to Jutland, simply because life in the Copenhagen area is so expensive and it is next to impossible to live here without two incomes. Foreign Christians who join the church, are often here for temporary job or educational opportunities and are therefore very rarely here to stay. This makes it difficult to build a solid core of members and fellow labourers, for the work of the gospel.

Because of our very limited resources, I had been praying earnestly and have sought the face of the Lord, concerning being able to serve Him full time. However, I did not see how that would even be possible, but at a point, I was told by a dear pastor-friend from Finland, that HeartCry Missionary Society was aware of my existence and after the COVID-19 pandemic had subsided, HeartCry sent a team to visit our church. This was in August of 2022 and at the conclusion of the visit, they asked me, what it would mean to me, if HeartCry supported the church, with the amount needed, for me to serve full time. I replied that it would mean everything to me. This is what I had been praying and hoping for and by February 2023, by God’s grace, it became a reality.

What a difference it has made. For 17 years I had been working full time as a prison officer. It was a work that required a lot of my time as well as my mental strength and resources, and needless to say, it could not help, but to take away from my devotional life and my capacity, not only as a Pastor, but as a husband and a father as well. As a pastor, it has first and foremost meant, that I am now able to devote much more time to prayer and the study of God’s word and I can testify, that this has enhanced my ministry in every way. Being supported has also meant, that now I can do some of the things that had been neglected to be done, in regards to visiting and meeting with church members, and to carry out street evangelism on a regular basis. Since becoming a full-time pastor, I have been able to conduct street-evangelism twice a week on different locations in our vicinity. This is an answer to prayer.

(Church Website: https://www.reformertbaptist.dk/)

My Family

I am married to Florence, who came to Denmark from Uganda as a refugee in 1993. Florence has in many ways been a tremendous blessing to me, first and foremost because she was the one witnessing to me about Christ and the gospel back in year 2000, and thus was instrumental in my conversion. Secondly because she married me on 27th of July 2002. Thirdly, because on 26th of July 2007, she gave birth to our only child, David. Florence is a modest and quiet woman, but the amount of practical work she is doing behind the scenes, to make everything run effectively, both in our home and at church, cannot be exaggerated and appreciated enough. She is also a woman who has endured a great deal of suffering in her life, yet, through it all, she has remained thankful to the Lord, which has been a great testimony and blessing to me. Our son David has been born with a very low IQ. This has made it extremely hard for him to follow and understand what is being read and taught from the scriptures, and it has forced me to work very hard at explaining difficult things in a very simple way, which undoubtedly has helped to make my teaching much clearer in general. David’s cognitive disability has also caused both my wife and I, to rely much more on God for his salvation, than anything else we would otherwise have looked to. It is our prayer and hope, that God will once again demonstrate, that He has indeed chosen the foolish to confound the wise, and that salvation is not of a man’s intellectual capacity, strength, striving or running, but of God who shows mercy.

In regard to my family, it has meant a world of difference to be supported by HeartCry. My presence at home has greatly increased and this has been a great blessing to our family devotion, which is much more consistent now, not being interrupted by evening shifts at the prison. It has also provided my wife and I lot more time to pray and study God’s word together, as well as time together with my son, teaching him the gospel and what God’s word says about all areas of life. Even though he is not converted yet, he loves daddy’s new job, because he gets to spend a lot more time with me.