On February 27, Second Slavic Baptist Church hosted the Association's pastors conference. The conference was attended by over 30 church pastors and provided multiple seminars.
The first seminar was dedicated to the establishment and design of small groups, and was taught by Aleksandr Ivanov, the head pastor of House of the Gospel Slavic Baptist Church in Fresno. He was presenting what was practically happening in the life of their local church. The small group ministry involves about 80% of the church members and was instrumental in uniting the Russian-speaking and English-speaking congregants. This seminar is a great practical resource for all of the Association's churches.
The second seminar was taught by Ivan Mileyev focused on the theme “Leader surrounded by growing murmur”. He also emphasized the danger of increasing discontentment, as well as the necessity to truly see and work towards resolving the «future problems» that would benefit the church. Constructive criticism can be a blessing for the leader because it presents an opportunity to improve the life of the church that the leader is not aware of. The seminar focused on the example of Moses who was serving while being surrounded by a great multitude of unhappy people, including those who were his ministry companions.
The meeting also covered the Radio Ministry and its leader, Igor Voronov, as well as Sierra Pines Camp and Pavel Tsvirinko.
The closing message was given by Vasiliy Stupin. This time of the conference was a huge blessing and went by very quickly. Many thanks to the leadership of Seconds Slavic Baptist Church, Valeriy Petrovich Brutskiy – Stempkovskiy for a great organization, refreshments, hospitality, and media support for the conference.
Ivan Mileyev
Seminars video recordings are available here (in Russian only):
