At the beginning of the year during the meeting of head pastors of the Association’s churches, I. Mileyev introduced a plan of spiritual growth. After much deliberation, all of the association’s pastors unanimously supported the plan in attendance. Half of the year has passed since then, so it is fitting to remind the pastors and inform the church members of the content of the plan.
The plan consists of five areas:
- Formation and development of small groups in a given church (the year-end goal is to include 25% of church members). Special attention must be given to young families with small children.
- Prepare the necessary number of leaders for small groups keeping in mind that one group should not exceed 15 people.
- To train and support those who are called by God to ministry (ordination). The candidates should be brothers ages 30 to 40. One potential minister can be trained to oversee 150 church members. Healthy churches produce, train, and support new ministers for service.
- The head pastor should invest into discipling at least one potential church pastor (for example, a youth leader).
- Identify one candidate to get trained in an American Baptist seminary. The candidate should be fluent in two languages.
At the end of the year, we will summarize the results and give thanks to God for His help to accomplish these goals realizing that without His help we cannot do anything.
Pray for this plan so that it would not just stay on paper but would be implemented by the local churches of the Association.
Ivan Mileyev
