ARISE

What if the Western world isn’t post-Christian?

I was sitting in the Helsinki Airport, bags packed, heart full, and body tired in the good way that comes after two weeks of teaching at ARISE Finland.

I was headed home, but before I left, Mikael reached out. I told him I had a couple of hours before my flight, so he made his way to the airport just to sit and talk.

Mikael is a Finnish church planter, youth director, and ARISE graduate. As we talked, the conversation naturally turned to the challenges of gospel ministry in Finland and across Western Europe. Secularism. Suspicion of institutions. A generation shaped more by algorithms than altars.

At one point, I said something that felt obvious to me: “Finland has a post-Christian culture.”

Then Mikael paused and gently asked a question that stopped me in my tracks. Quoting a friend, he said, “Is the culture post-Christian, or is it pre-revival?”

Sitting there in that airport coffee shop, I felt his question reframe everything for me. A shift in perspective opened a door I hadn’t been looking for.

What if what we often label as decline is actually preparation? What if the absence of inherited faith is making room for authentic encounters? What if spiritual hunger hasn’t disappeared but has gone unnamed? — Angelo Grasso, “Post-Christian or Pre-Revival”

Read Angelo's full devotional here: https://lightbearers.org/blog/post-christian-or-pre-revival/

If you think God is anti-fun, maybe you need a new picture of God.

What if God is better than you’ve been told?

Though Trygve was raised a Christian, faith felt like a cultural trapping.

There were moments when he heard the Spirit speaking at camp and other church events. Ultimately, though, faith seemed to boil down to a massive list of rules he wasn’t capable of keeping.

Most Christians he met seemed unhappy, as though religion were a necessary evil—like taxes.

After finishing school, Trygve planned to move to a ski town to pursue life on the slopes. In 2024, however, when another skier ran into him, he suffered a serious concussion.

During his months-long recovery, disappointment buried him like an avalanche. What was he supposed to do now? Why would God take away the thing he loved?

As summer approached, he heard that a couple of friends were planning to attend a program called ARISE Finland in the fall.

Trygve couldn’t convince himself that God wasn’t real, so he decided to give Him a chance by applying to ARISE. — Ty Gibson, “Impacting Lives: Trygve’s Story”

Read the rest of Trygve’s story here: https://lightbearers.org/blog/impacting-lives-trygves-story/

Being “called out” doesn’t mean being different or weird for the sake of it. We are called for a very specific purpose.