Оn August 22, Slavic Baptist Church of West Sacramento hosted a meeting of head pastors and the Committee members of the Association.
The local church’s senior pastor, Igor Antonovich Verstak, gave a welcoming statement at the beginning of the meeting. There was an introduction of all the meeting’s participants (who represented almost 100% of the Association’s churches located in the Sacramento region), as well as a few pastors from other states who participated through ZOOM.
The first seminar was presented by the pastor of Grace Family Church, Dmitriy Zherebnenkov and was on “What the True Gospel Is”. He emphasized the unique characteristics of the true Gospel, its power, as well as the danger of distortions that are tolerated in the minds of some Christians.
The second seminar was on “Organizational Leadership and Pastoral Ministry” and was taught by a guest who is a doctor of philosophy, and a founder of the Hodos Institute, Aleksandr Negrov. Over the course of an hour, he unpacked a tremendous meaning of the understanding of leadership in the pastoral ministry. Both theory and practice demonstrate the necessity of intentional approach in forming the right biblical foundation for leadership.
The third seminar was on a sensitive topic: “Why Does the Second Generation of Christians Leave the Slavic Churches?” and was presented by pastor Denis Gerasimov, who was himself from the second generation. He noted that it is not so much the language and the culture that is a factor, but the spiritual conditions that are a problem. What’s more important is the quality of spiritual food, opportunities of spiritual involvement in the church life, the care and support of spiritually mature disciples and leaders, the awareness of the goals and the vision in the life of the local church, and finally, the calling which is much more important than the temporal pursuits.
The seminars were recorded on video and are available on the YouTube channel.
During the business portion of the meeting, two new departments leaders of the Association were introduced – the Missionary Ministry and the Youth Ministry. Igor Zhukov and Peter Makletsov talked about their visions for the ministry of the churches. Ivan Mileyev talked about the current issues in the life of the Association’s churches, gave an evaluation of the completed goals and tasks for every local church over the course of a few years in the context of fulfilling the general vision of the Association.
There was also an update on the ministry of Sierra Pines Camp and Pacific Thrift Store. Nikolay Alekseyevich Bugriyev talked about the camp and for churches to take advantage of this opportunity to go there for family camps. It is a wonderful place, and being out in nature could be a wonderful blessing for all of the churches of the Association. Vasiliy Stupin talked about the ministry of the Pacific Thrift Store which has been a wonderful blessing and support for many missionaries in various parts of the world.
The meeting went by very quickly and was a great encouragement for all. There was also time for fellowship and the reception. Many thanks to Igor Antonovich Verstak and the church of West Sacramento for their hospitality and good organization of the pastors’ meeting.
Ivan Mileyev
