Pastor Sten Nilsson has died
 | | Pastor Sten Nilsson went home to be with the Lord early Monday morning, 10th August 2009. Over the course of his 94 years, Sten was a pastor, missionary, teacher and mentor. For many years he worked as a missionary in India and during the 1960s and 70s he led the Ashram movement in Sweden. At the start of Word of Life Church, Sten was one of the driving forces behind it, and he continued to be a mentor for the church right up to the end of his life.
Sten Nilsson, missionary, Methodist pastor and Bible teacher passed away at his home in Uppsala early Monday morning after a long period of frailty. He worked as a missionary in India for ten years where he built and established the missions station, Theodori |
in northern India. During his years in India, Sten became a good friend of the world-renowned India missionary, Stanley Jones.
“I don’t think any of us realise what Sten Nilsson has meant to the church at large in Sweden, especially in revivalist Christian circles. His relationships go back a long way – right through his years as a pastor in the Methodist church, the thousands of people he met in Ashram, and through his missionary work. I think also of his active involvement in putting many pastors in contact with the charismatic revival, not to mention of course his commitment to faith-teaching and to Word of Life”, says Pastor Ulf Ekman.
Besides being a missionary, Sten was also a Methodist pastor for many years. He served in Vänersborg and Norrköping for example, and was for a period the superintendent for the Methodist Church’s northern region. During the War, he served as pastor in Grankulla and Jakobstad in Finland.
During the sixties and seventies, Sten led the Ashram Movement in Sweden. Whilst in India he took part in Ashram meetings together with Pastor Stanley Jones. Then, when he moved back to Sweden permanently he invited Stanley Jones to come and hold an Ashram in Sweden and after that the two of them travelled to many countries where they held Ashrams together. Ashram grew in Sweden, and when it was at its peak there were over 100 such gatherings per year. Ashram is an ecumenical movement and Sten was one who believed strongly in ecumenism. He had a passionate desire that believers from all backgrounds and denominations would find one another and work together for the extension of God’s Kingdom.
When Word of Life Church began in 1983, Sten Nilsson was one of the driving forces behind it. Sten was Pastor Ulf Ekman’s father-in-law and has been there as mentor and spiritual father throughout the history of Word of Life. Through Word of Life, he has reached tens of thousands of students who have been inspired by his teaching.
“Sten has meant a tremendous amount to me, personally and served as my spiritual father, but he has also been like a Dad to me since my own died early. He has always been a great inspiration to me with his gentle, kind manner and with his prophetic insight. I’m going to miss him a great deal”, says Ulf Ekman.
Sten Nilsson leaves behind his wife Maj (94), his children Maj-Kristin, Daniel, Birgitta, Per-Ulf and Törbjörn, their children and grandchildren.
The funeral service will be held at the Word of Life Church on 5th September. | | |
