Days of Open Doors Press Conference in Varna

When the year 2008 was announced as the Year of the Bible in Bulgaria, it drew many churches and organizations in a common attempt to present a unified evangelical strategy. Accordingly, many of the opponents of the evangelical movement in Bulgaria used this as an opportunity to attack the evangelical churches calling them “sectarians” and “heretics.” The attention which the general media gave to this anti-evangelical wave in the media reminded of a similar wave which took place in the early 1990s in Bulgaria. This time, however, the evangelical churches were prepared and ready to resist these unacceptable media attacks which restrict religious freedom and oppose the pluralistic values of the democratic society. In a typical puritan matter, a number of evangelical churches have organized acts of peaceful protest and media events to counteract the false accusations and establish anew the truth about Bulgarian evangelism.

One of these acts was the Days of Open Doors organized by the evangelical churches in the Black Sea port city of Varna on the Day of Reformation. Our team was also invited to participate as cofounder of the Institute for Bulgarian Protestant History. One of the many events which took place during the Days of Open Doors was a press conference which was given in the Varna Press Center. Side by side with the Assemblies of God and the Methodist churches, we were able to represent our Church of God denomination in partnership with the Institute for Bulgarian Protestant History in a powerful media event, which put a start to a national PR campaign on behalf of the evangelical churches in Bulgaria. Similar campaigns took place in Sofia, Bourgas, Lovetch and just recently in Silistra on the Danube river. We were also able to publish a commemorative brochure dedicated to the important role of Protestants in the Bulgarian national history.

Revision of the 1940 Bulgarian Bible Published

Twelve full years have now passed from the day we published the first Bulgarian online Bible in the fall of 1996. The text which we then used for the task was a computerized version of the 1940 revision of the Bulgarian Bible. Since that time, this text has become a classic Bible study tool for everyone who uses a computer to study the Bulgarian Bible. Many websites, including our own Bibliata.com, have included the text as a Bulgarian standard reference and the Bible Works software has published it in its last several versions. Many of the Bulgarian Bible publishers have used it as a base for their new revision and the Gideon’s have helped distribute it to every corner of the country.

This year our team was able to publish, on paper, the 1940 Revision of the Bulgarian Bible with the help from our colleagues from Bibles.org.uk. This new edition contains 800 pages in a beautiful hard cover and can be purchased directly from the publisher at Lulu.com. It has become one of our projects in the Year of the Bible in Bulgaria and we are hoping to be able to put this version in a set with the 1871 Constantinople Bible by the end of the year.

National Leadership Seminar for the Bulgarian Church of God Continues

Levels 3-5 of the Leadership Seminar were presented on Saturday afternoon in the Gabrovo Church of God.  The following topics were covered: 21 Laws of Leadership from a Biblical Perspective, 52 Leadership Principles of Jesus and 17 Laws of Teamwork for Churches. Plans have been made for the seminar to be held in Bourgas, Sofia, Samokov and Russe.

On Sunday we delivered a message entitled 10 Signs of the Last Days. This is a sermon accompanied by a powerful media presentation that informs of recent developments in Bible Prophecy and urges believers to prepare and stay ready for the final hour of Biblical eschatology.

After the morning service, we traveled south to meet with pastors in Kazanlak and Stara Zagora and reached the city of Dimitrovgrad located South of the Balkan Range. We were invited to speak to the hundreds of young people from Bulgaria, Ukrain, Russia and Molodva who had gathered there for a youth rally. As planned and expected we announced the release of the newest of our ministry websites – a GodTube like web community called Bibliata.TV.

Family Seminar for Military Men and Women

We held three important events in the Stara Zagora region of the Bulgarian Church of God this week. Our chaplaincy organization, the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association partnered with the Military Ministry in a family seminar for military men and women in Sliven. Special guest speakers from the United States, Yambol pastor Tzonko and Valya Atanasov and others joined our training team for a weekend of learning and fellowship.

We were also able to minister in the Pentecostal church of Yambol on Wednesday continuing our series on the Gospel of Mark and on Sunday morning, delivering a message on 20 Signs of the Last Days. A group from the local Home for Children was special guest to the service and celebrated with us in the presence of the Lord.

We then returned to Sliven along with some 20 youth from the Yambol youth group to support the new Pentecostal church that had just opened there. Over a hundred were present and we were able to minister to them through the service.

This new congregation is a special one, as many of its members study or work abroad, which gives an unique opportunity to train ministry teams who can work in their respective locations. This training opening is becoming more prominent as many Bulgarian immigrants begin looking for better work opportunities in Western European countries and it allows us to fulfill our long-term plan for Bulgarian congregations in Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Great Britain.

National Leadership Seminar for the Bulgarian Church of God

While ministering in Bulgaria, we are continuing to offer our leadership seminar to churches and communities nationwide. Our team has worked on developing this Leadership Seminar over the course of the past three years to equip church leaders and their ministry teams, serve as joining clay for pastors and churches within the structure of the denomination and to provide the vision for the next level of ministry for the Church of God denomination in Bulgaria.

This year we have presented the introductory level of the seminar and its first module in various locations across the country including the capital Sofia and Sliven. This past weekend we were able to teach the seminar for the Bulgarian Church of God regions of Gabrovo and Samokov. We have plans to present the first two levels of the seminar at the churches in Yambol and Bourgas, and then to teach the next three modules in Gabrovo and Sofia. All five levels of the seminar will be presented at the national ministerial meeting in Rouse which will take place during the month of November.

Meeting with the Pastoral Fellowship in Gabrovo

We are continuing our ministry in Bulgaria focusing on events with a countrywide impact. We met with the National Pastoral Fellowship in the town of Gabrovo recently to discuss the opportunity for a national media campaign focusing on the role of evangelical churches in the Bulgarian community. Pastors of the leading churches in the country were present and along with other colleagues we were able to discuss key factors in promoting the ministry of the local church in the community. A special celebration was planned for the Day of Reformation on October 31st which is to be called, “A Day of Open Doors”. On this day, many churches will be open for unchurched people from the community whom will be given a tour of the church to be introduced to all ministries available to them and their families. Along with this, several large Bulgarian towns will hold a series of press conferences dealing with the role of Protestantism in Bulgarian history. We are planning to participate in this events through creating a fairly large volume of printed and online publications addressing the above issues and helping the local church congregations to learn and remember their historical heritage. We are also planning on releasing the final edition of another long-term project of ours, namely the printed edition of the 1871 Constantinople Bible – the first complete publication of the Bible in spoken Bulgarian.

Cup & Cross Ministries in Church of God Publications

Cup & Cross Ministries news bulletin was recently published in two strategic publications of the Church of God namely:

The weekly bulletin of the Church of God World Missions: http://www.cogwm.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1945&Itemid=60

and the Church of God Chaplaincy Commission’s Weekly Update:
http://www.cogchaplains.com/ministry/?p=140 as follows:

“One of our chaplaincy organizations, the Cup and Cross Ministries, has worked toward the establishment of the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association for many years. After five years of training, strategic professional placement and providing ministry in all areas of chaplaincy, we began the process of registration with the Bulgarian government. It was only after resorting to International Human Rights and Religious Freedom organizations that on February 23, 2007, the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association received registration by the Sofia Municipality Court to become the first legal chaplaincy organization in Bulgaria officially recognized by the Bulgarian government.”

Say Ye to the Righteous is a mesage preached at the 12th Annual Mission Conference in Pahokee, Florida

transcripted via: https://cupandcross.com/index.php/say-ye-to-the-righteous/

and broadcasted on: http://www.cogwm.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1945&Itemid=60