Daniel is a native Swede living and ministering in Bergsjön, which is a suburb of Gothenburg. This is an immigrant area with 144 nationalities and many unreached people groups represented. Daniel is passionate to reach out both to immigrants and his fellow Swedes. Daniel is serving as an elder in the church plant, Gothenburg International Baptist Church. (www.gibk.se) His ministry includes preaching and teaching the word of God, evangelism, counseling, and discipling. Daniel helps with overseeing HeartCry’s work in Sweden. He serves as a board member of Rotad. He is married to his American wife, Hannah. They have three children, Lydia, Markus, and Elizabeth.
Testimony of Conversion
I grew up in a wonderful home with godly parents who raised us well after their understanding. I’m the oldest of 7 kids. As long as I can remember I always believed that Jesus died for my sins and wanted to follow him. I was kind of the perfect kid that went to the “old people’s” prayer meetings and was very active in church from a very young age. When I compared myself to my peers I became self-righteous and legalistic, trying to make others behave like me, but I did not compare myself to the One who would reveal that I was just as bad.
In the midst of my folly I started to realize that there were some practices and beliefs in my church that did not match up with the Bible, like the prosperity gospel and emotionalism. This pushed me into a “faith crisis” where I started to question my beliefs. In God’s providence we got a new neighbor who started to share with me and encouraged me to read and search the Scriptures. In all of this searching of the Scriptures I got an awareness of my utter sinfulness and that my only hope was in the wrath-absorbing death of Jesus.
My life was changed and I got an unquenchable thirst for the Bible and a longing to live in holiness. From then on it has been my one passion to live for God and his glory. When I started to discover the Doctrines of Grace it felt like I got converted again, like regeneration. It felt as if I had a jigsaw-puzzle with a few pieces fit together and suddenly the whole puzzle came together or like turning the light on in a dark room.
Daniel’s Call to Ministry
From the end of high school my biggest interest was the Bible. After high school I worked for three years as a printed circuit board engineer and used most of my waking hours when I was not working for studying the Bible. During the weekends I used to travel three hours away to help a small church with evangelism, leading the worship, and occasionally preaching. I just wanted to serve my Lord and Savior.
Then after three years I decided to quit my job and go to Bible College. I went to a small school in Hungary so that I could be involved in evangelism and missions work while I was studying. A lot of people were asking me, “So you’re going to be a pastor?” to which I responded, “I don’t know what I am going to be, but I’m here for one purpose, and that is to get to know God and his Word and to follow him with all my heart.”
During my time in Hungary I took part in a countryside outreach where I started to preach more frequently. My burden for preaching grew, and I knew that it was what I wanted to do with my life. If I was given the opportunity to do anything else in the world, there is nothing else that I would like to do other than what I am doing right now: preaching the Word, shepherding God’s people, and reaching out to the lost.
Daniel’s Current Ministry
We are working on planting Gothenburg International Baptist Church in this very diverse and multi-cultural area of Gothenburg. Every week we have a Sunday service with expository preaching and we have two Bible study groups (one in simple Swedish that is more evangelistic and one in normal Swedish). Once a month we have separate Bible studies for men and women.
Our outreaches includes a book table evangelism (where we pass out gospel portions in 60+ languages and share the gospel with people from all the corners of the earth), one-on-one evangelism on the streets, friendship evangelism, internet evangelism, street preaching, etc. In addition to the regular duties of preaching and teaching, I also do a lot of discipleship, counseling, and training.
On top of the church plant, I’m working with a non-profit called “Rotad” which works to translate and publish gospel-centered literature. We also have a webpage called “Evangelie Centrerat” which means “Gospel Centered” (www.evangeliecentrerat.se). We translate articles and subtitled videos into Swedish from HeartCry, Together for the Gospel, Desiring God, 9 Marks etc. We hope to spread the gospel and help Swedish churches and individuals that are seeking to become reformed back to the Bible and the Gospel. I am also leading a project to translate a catechism that is put to music for spreading the gospel into families and to kids (www.songsforsaplings.com).
Finally, I’m connecting likeminded people and taking care of a network for people who appreciate the doctrines of grace in Sweden.