Another convention of the Pacific Coast ECB has passed. How will it be remembered in the history of the Pacific Coast Slavic Baptist Association? Perhaps it is a question for the historians to give an evaluation many years later, that is if Jesus will not come back for His church.
If you were to ask me what was the most memorable at this convention, I would point out that it’s focus was on the most important: The Gospel.
The convention was very edifying, and the theme of the convention was truly practical. There were seminars and sermons about the Gospel. The Gospel has the power to bring salvation to people today, to transform, and motivate the disciples of Jesus Christ to obey the Great Commission.
It was good to remember the vivid sermons of the main speakers of the convention—guests from Ukraine, Valeriy Stepanovich Antonyuk and Igor Bandura. During the evening services, the music ministry was diverse in the performances of various choirs and orchestras. The main seminars of the convention were well-prepared. Peter Grubiy, Vadim Dashkevich, and Ivan Mileyev brought the context of the power of the Gospel in the contemporary world, in practical life of a Christian, and in the life of victory over sin.
As I was attending the seminars in various classrooms, I was impressed by their rich and interesting content. Many thanks to all of the seminar speakers – Vasiliy Stupin, Aleksey Yanovskiy, Sergey Yanovskiy, Aleksandr Pronin, Peter Grubiy, Vasiliy Khripunov, Igor Zhukov, Aleksandr Ivanov, Ilya Danilyuk, Michael Chernkov, Nina Yurkova, Tatyana Senin, Olga Drovorub, and others. The Pacific Coast Association is full of especially gifted minister and have an abundance of churches ministering to other churches. As an Association, we are unique in that regard. This year we are planning to open a new ministry department called Family Ministry. This ministry will encourage helping the parents, those in need of help, as well as families in need of being strengthen.
It’s important to emphasize a great organization of the convention, as well as the leaders who were responsible for various ministries such as the hospitality, kitchen, registration, facilities, audio, video, broadcast ministry, parking, and more. Special thanks to the leadership of Second Slavic Baptist Church, Valeriy Petrovich Brutskiy-Stempkovskiy, Pavel Tsvirinko, Inna Bondar, Aleksandr Vivsik, Sergey Yanovskiy, Olga Avetisova, Alina Pronin, and many others. The convention is a celebration of fellowship. Even though not everyone could attend it, there were enough representatives from various regions of the association, as well as guests from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Kenya, Canada, Tajikistan, and Italy.
Even though the convention was spiritually edifying, during the administrative portion of the convention, an important document for the life of the Association was accepted—the renewed bylaws. Over the course of many months, the committee, as well as the head pastors of churches put in a lot of effort into it. During the extended meeting which took place in August, the final version of the bylaws was completed for the affirmation at the 82nd convention. This document of bylaws was accepted almost unanimously with only one person abstaining.
This year the churches showed their support to the Association’s ministry in record numbers of financial support. Praise God who moves the churches to take an active part in the life of the Association.
82nd convention will be remembered for the evening presentation of the Association’s ministry leaders. In view of the video presentations, the delegates could not only see the faces of those who serve, but also grasp the extent of their ministry, as well as to hear their prayer requests and to pray together for God’s blessing upon the ministries of the Association. What is unique about the Pacific Coast Association’s ministry? There are many different developed ministries which unite many churches in mutual service. Another issue of the convention’s Almanac covered the life of different Association’s ministry. Our efforts in organizing another issue of the convention’s Almanac is worth it so that the living history of mutual ministry would remain in the memories of the future generations of Slavic immigrants in America.
In the future conventions of the Pacific Coast Association, there will always be some changes—format, amount of time for the administrative portion of the convention, program participants, speakers, days of the convention, and more. However, one thing will remain—that we are united by the proclamation of the Gospel and the obedience to the Great Commission, which is the foundation of the convention. God entrusted us with something unchangeable, something that we must entrust into faithful hands of the future generations who will have the strength to transform the lives of contemporary people.
Ivan Mileyev
The convention's website see here: https://pcsba.com/index.php/ru/news-ru/82-convention
