27 June 2011 Kopaonik, Serbia [Igor Bosnic, tedNEWS] More than six hundred fifty members and pastors from Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro came together in the ski resort ‘Sunny Peaks’ on the mountain Kopaonik in Serbia, from 14-19 June 2011, to participate in a Mission Conference with the theme ‘In Action for Jesus’.
The main objectives of the conference were threefold: spiritual nurture of the members and their further understanding of how to use their spiritual gifts to serve other people, modeling different outreach ministries especially church planting and rebooting the mission spirit with powerful Biblical teachings. In this beautiful setting of the famous mountain Kopaonik, the conference participants, apart from getting spiritual refreshment, had an opportunity to fellowship together and gain physical rest in these beautiful natural surroundings.
The main speakers were pastors Jonas Arrais, Associate Director of the Ministerial Association of the World Church Headquarters, USA; Janos Kovacs- Biro, Evangelism Director at the Trans-European Division (TED) based in UK; Garry Blanchard, Church Planting Co-ordinator of the Northern Texas Conference, USA; and Adrian Bocaneanu experienced evangelist from Romania.
Sharing her enthusiasm about the conference, Sofija Ninkovic, a member of the Belgrade Central Adventist Church, pointed out that “the training was done by very spiritual, humble leaders of the church who brought their expertise and personal experience into the reality of teaching and sharing with the participants. It motivated me very much to go back to the mission field in my community and start connecting with people with the purpose of bringing them to Christ.”
On the bus ride back home the church members from the Northern Serbian Conference expressed their full satisfaction about the meetings saying that this was a very inspiring week; being on the mountain they felt closer to God and realised that mission is possible. “Now I know what to do and I want to continue working for God in my church, impacting people’s lives and extending God’s kingdom”, said one of the members. “Church planting will be much more intentional as a strategy of the Conference, since this is the best way to make
the church grow” added Pastor Robert Erdeg, Conference Treasurer.
“It has been a great blessing to me to see so many members and pastors united in vision and action. I just imagine what will happen when they go back to their churches and share the principles and methods learnt, inspire the rest of the members and start being involved in God’s mission. I envision lots of new church plants starting in the near future; they can really turn this region upside down!” says Kovacs-Biro.
Serbia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro comprise the South-East European Union based in Belgrade, Serbia. The union has 10,000 baptised members including children and youth. The Mission Conference was organised by the evangelism department of the union led by pastor Laslo Galus. To know more about the work of the church in this part of Europe please visit their website: www.jieu-adventisti.org [tedNEWS]
tedNEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
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