- "And the word of God increased;
and the number of the disciples multiplied"
(Acts 6:7)
2st Annual ITCM Conference
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HEART CHANGING CONFERENCE
In August 2012, ITCM hosted a Russian church leaders' conference, "Multiplication", exploring how, through God's grace, the gospel can be spread in Russia today. We rediscovered for ourselves an old truth - out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
On August 1, representatives from ten congregations
from Minsk (Belarus), Donetsk (Ukraine), Voronezh,
Barnaul, Tomsk, Miass, Yuzhno-Sahalinsk and St.
Petersburg met at the facilities of Neva church of
Christ in St. Petersburg, Russia to discuss the problem
of the shrinking size of congregations. The churches of
Christ in Russia are not growing, and the number of
overall congregations is decreasing. We assembled to
pray and discuss what we can do, by God's grace, to
remedy this situation.
A few years ago there were 55 congregations in Russia.
For a territory that covers 1/6 of the Earth's surface,
this is far too few. Congregational leadership has not
developed. Because of this, small congregations
become dependent only on certain individuals.
In addition to undeveloped leadership, we generally
are not taught to look further than the immediate
needs of a local congregation. This focus only on the
internal needs of a congregation ends up harming it.
As one brother stated during the conference: "The
more we are trying to keep what we have, the more
brethren we lose." At this conference we discovered for
ourselves that the real secret to preserve what we have
is to reach out, to be evangelistic, and to spread the Good News
without ceasing. We were reminded that there is no
one, except us, who can do it. This ministry now is in
hands of indigenous Christians.
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| We had an international group of teachers at the
conference. Andrey Malets is a minister in one of three
congregations in Minsk, Belarus. He also is Dean of
the Biblical department at Minsk Seminary.
Aleksander Prokopchik is a minister at one of the
many congregations in Donetsk, Ukraine. As a TV-
evangelist on the nationwide TV program "Church of
Christ,"he has had the opportunity to travel Ukraine,
teach those who write letters and plant new
congregations. Andrey Sklyarov from Barnaul is a very
well known and respected minister from a
congregation that has been training and sending
church leaders throughout Russia. Recently, he
participated in planting a new congregation in Barnaul.
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| These brothers prepared lessons and questions for
discussion in small groups. After each class we
divided into three groups and had a workshop, where
everyone was involved in discussions using the
prepared questions. During these sessions, everyone was given the
opportunity to share ideas on how to more effectively
spread the gospel. We prayed that God's spirit would
be active during our brainstorming sessions. The small
groups then shared their ideas with each other during
a general discussion time.
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Every morning and evening we had inspirational
lessons by Rich Little, a minister from University
church of Christ in Malibu, CA. His lessons on
Spiritual Formation, Spiritual Disciplines and
Discipleship were both informative and inspiring.
We asked conference participants a question: if they
were to mention just one thought from the conference,
what it would be? The answers were diverse. "I really
need to reconsider the role of fasting in my spiritual
life." "One idea from the conference that I particularly
liked was a prayerful "divine" reading of the Scripture."
One comment in particular really summed up what we
discussed during the conference: "True evangelism is a
result of a changed heart, rather than some kind of
strategy."
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During those August days in St. Petersburg, we
considered different strategies and approaches to
evangelism, but everything starts in the hearts of
people. The conference challenged us to be bold in
dreaming and acting and we pray that we can realize
this idea in our ministry. We are already looking
forward to another conference hosted by ITCM in May
of next year for the benefit of the brethren and for God's
glory.
Conference Materials here
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2011, August, Evangelism Today. 1st Annual ITCM Conference Click here
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