Ulf Ekman
Encyclopedia
Charismatic movement
The term charismatic movement is used in varying senses to describe 20th century developments in various Christian denominations. It describes an ongoing international, cross-denominational/non-denominational Christian movement in which individual, historically mainstream congregations adopt...
pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
and founder of the charismatic church Livets Ord
Livets Ord
Livets Ord, literally Word of the Life, is the largest parish within the Swedish Word of Faith movement. The parish was founded in Uppsala by Ulf Ekman on May 24, 1983, who also served as its leader until 2000. Ekman passed on the local pastorship in Uppsala to Robert Ekh that year and instead...
(Word of Life), which brought the Word of Faith
Word of Faith
Word of Faith is a family of Christian churches as well as a label applied by some observers to a teaching movement kindred to many Pentecostal and charismatic churches and individuals worldwide. The basic doctrine preached is that of salvation through Jesus Christ and what that salvation entails...
movement to Sweden.
Ministry
Ekman became a Christian shortly before graduating from high school in 1970. He studied ethnography, history and theology at Uppsala UniversityUppsala University
Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...
and in January 1979 was ordained in the Swedish Lutheran Church, returning to Uppsala University to work as the chaplain for several years. He studied for a year at Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, USA and upon his return to Uppsala
Uppsala
- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
in 1983 founded Livets Ord
Livets Ord
Livets Ord, literally Word of the Life, is the largest parish within the Swedish Word of Faith movement. The parish was founded in Uppsala by Ulf Ekman on May 24, 1983, who also served as its leader until 2000. Ekman passed on the local pastorship in Uppsala to Robert Ekh that year and instead...
. He remained pastor of the church until passing on the pastorship to Robert Ekh
Robert Ekh
Rev. Robert Ekh , born on October 19, 1953 in Sundsvall, is currently the Senior Pastor of Livets Ord church in Uppsala, Sweden and a member of the Word of Life management board...
in 2002 to focus on international work, though he recently took up the position again. He also founded Livets Ord University and Word of Life Bible School.
Through his church he has sent missionaries to Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Word of Life is also the host for the annual Christian event "Europe Conference." In the former USSR he started to preach in pentecostal churches and in stadiums. In Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
he worked closely with Aleksej Ledyaev and the "New Generation Church" where he is a pastor. In almost every big city of the former USSR a Word of Life Church and a New Generation Church was established. The number of people reached with the Gospel can be estimated to be between 250,000–500,000 people. Cooperation with New Generation Church ended in March 2004 in doctrinal disagreement.
In the charismatic church world, Ulf Ekman is considered to be mentor, spiritual father, and pastor of pastors. Rev. Kong Hee
Kong Hee
Kong Hee is the founder, honorary and volunteer senior pastor of City Harvest Church in Singapore. Kong is a Christian in the Charismatic Movement, with a philosophy of ministry that emphasizes the Great Commandment, Great Commission, and Cultural Mandate. City Harvest Church has an average of...
has claimed Ulf Ekman to be his spiritual coach, and during the years they have had a close relationship.
Theology
As many new Christian movements, Word of LifeLivets Ord
Livets Ord, literally Word of the Life, is the largest parish within the Swedish Word of Faith movement. The parish was founded in Uppsala by Ulf Ekman on May 24, 1983, who also served as its leader until 2000. Ekman passed on the local pastorship in Uppsala to Robert Ekh that year and instead...
has been criticized by other Christians, but in particular by the media. Many critics claims that Word of Life's teachings about health and economic abundance created a survival of the fittest attitude, in opposition to the Christian ascetic ideal of being poor and humble. Ekman himself and Word of Life has always responded to this criticism by saying that they strongly believe in God's promises in the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. Ekman claims that a false image has been created in the Swedish media of Word of Life as being against, for example, disabled persons, when the outspoken message was that God promises deliverance from sickness.
Ekman's theology, along with other representatives of the Word of Faith
Word of Faith
Word of Faith is a family of Christian churches as well as a label applied by some observers to a teaching movement kindred to many Pentecostal and charismatic churches and individuals worldwide. The basic doctrine preached is that of salvation through Jesus Christ and what that salvation entails...
movement, has been criticized of having gnostic
Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...
elements. A thesis written by Kent Gunnarsson at Umeå University
Umeå University
Umeå University is a university in Umeå in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present borders....
, published 2004, had this claim. The opponent at the dissertation, Professor Alexander Radler, criticized Gunnarsson's for a too wide definition of Gnosticism. Radler appreciated Gunnarsson's thesis for its rich information about modern Gnosticism, but thought that Ekman's teachings can't be seen as gnostic. Ekman's own attitude against Gnosticism is outspokenly negative.
Today Ekman rarely preaches the typical Word of Faith
Word of Faith
Word of Faith is a family of Christian churches as well as a label applied by some observers to a teaching movement kindred to many Pentecostal and charismatic churches and individuals worldwide. The basic doctrine preached is that of salvation through Jesus Christ and what that salvation entails...
teachings. He has partially criticized them, for example the Jesus Died Spiritually doctrine, but also has written and said that the ground for his preaching is the revelation in the word of God he got from first listening to bible teachers like Kenneth Copeland
Kenneth Copeland
Kenneth Copeland is an American author, public speaker, and televangelist. He is the founder of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, which preaches a “prosperity gospel”: "Prosperity gospel assures followers that the more they give including in the form of tithes to the church, the more they will receive...
, and later studying at Kenneth Hagin's bible school in Tulsa.
Ekman now seems to have broadened his doctrinal horizons with studies in patristic and church history. He has now an ecumenical approach to other congregations. In 2006 the archbishop of the Catholic Church in Sweden Anders Arborelius
Anders Arborelius
Lars Anders Arborelius became the Roman Catholic bishop of Stockholm in 1998.-Early life and ordination:Arborelius was born in Sorengo, Switzerland, of Swedish parents, and grew up in Lund in southern Sweden. He converted to Catholicism at the age of 20 and entered the Carmelites...
was invited to World of Life church in Uppsala for a public discussion. Through the Livets Ord University, which is a branch of the Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University , based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the United States, is an interdenominational, Charismatic Christian, comprehensive university with an enrollment of about 3,790 students from 49 U.S. states along with a significant number of international students from 70 countries...
, Ekman publishes a theological magazine called Keryx, containing articles from a broad, classical Christian point of view. This magazine has articles from different Christian traditions and exerts from patristic writings. But a critical analysis of the Word of Faith
Word of Faith
Word of Faith is a family of Christian churches as well as a label applied by some observers to a teaching movement kindred to many Pentecostal and charismatic churches and individuals worldwide. The basic doctrine preached is that of salvation through Jesus Christ and what that salvation entails...
movement's own teachings hasn’t been published to this day.