Pray for Greece: Wildfires destroying Athens
2020 Vision for Bulgarian Evangelical Churches
Over a decade ago, after publishing Bulgarian Churches in North America: Analytical Overview and Church Planting Proposal for Bulgarian American Congregations Considering Cultural, Economical and Leadership Dimensions, we purposed to explore the possibility of implementing the church planning program among Bulgarian Diasporas in various destination countries of migration.
With this in mind, we carried the vision for establishing 20 Bulgarian churches outside of Bulgaria by the year 2020. Cyprus, the United Kingdom and Canada were among the first to successfully implement our program. Bulgarian migrant communities in France, Italy and especially Spain and Germany followed with great enthusiasm – there are 7 Bulgarian evangelical churches active in Span today, and 18 in Germany.
Of course, not all parts of the program proved to be efficient. The program’s modules and training that was implemented, however, have produced 47 strong church plants thus far and the number is growing every month. The program proposed has been confirmed by the leadership we have received from the Holy Spirit. Our commitment to seize the opportunity and work toward adding more Bulgarian churches by the year 202 has by far surpassed all expectations.
READ ALSO:
- Global Network of Bulgarian Evangelical Churches outside of Bulgaria (2018 Report)
- Unrealized Spiritual Harvest as a Paradigm for Cross-Cultural Ministries among Migrant and Disfranchised Ethnic Groups in America Today
Revival Harvest Campaign: REBUILDING the WALLS
GOD is DOING a NEW THING
The Holy Ghost within us cries for holiness and we shall not be oppressed, depressed, repressed, regressed, transgressed by this dead and dying world. For there’s a standard of heaven and a judgment of God; a rule of holiness and a road of righteousness which must begin nowhere else but with the household of God; where God is doing a NEW thing and speaking for a SEASON of:
– Re-covery
– Re-claiming
– Re-versal
– Re-juvenation
– Re-imbursement
– Re-cuperation
– Re-organization
– Re-volution
– Re-envisioning
– Re-freshing
and re-telling the old, old story that a King has left His glory and died on cross on Calvary to save a wretch like me…
Gateway Cities
Recent analysis of migrant churches in the United States reveals the predominant majority of them are located in cities which have a high influxation and concentration of immigrants. Such localities are called “gateway cities”. Immigrants typically enter the United States through one of these cities and settle there. These areas contain over half of the foreign-born population in the United States as follows
1. New York, NY Foreign born population 18.7%
2. Los Angeles, CA Foreign born population 27.1%
3. Houston, TX Foreign born population 12.3%
4. Washington, DC Foreign born population 8.6%
5. Miami, FL Foreign born population 33.6%
6. Chicago, IL Foreign born population 11.1%
7. San Francisco, CA Foreign born population 20.0%
Compelled by the love of Christ
When David Livingstone was asked why he became a missionary to Africa, he replied, “I was compelled by the love of Christ.” It leaves us in wonder, can one truly show the love of God without obey to send, be sent and go. This is not meant to be critical, but it certainly bids the question, what type of Christians attend church two-three times weekly and call it done. Should we truly expect people to simply attend church because we want them to come to our program or should we be the ones to send, be sent and go to the periphery of society where the disenfranchised, marginalized and outcasts live. Jesus did!
America Is Becoming Less Christian, Less Religious
America is still a predominantly Christian nation, but it’s becoming both less Christian and less religious, according to the results of the new American Religious Identification Survey. According to the poll, which came out today, the percentage of Americans who define themselves as Christian has dropped from 86 percent in 1990 to 76 percent in 2008. In one of the most dramatic shifts, 15 percent of Americans now say they have no religion — a figure that’s almost doubled in 18 years. Americans with no religious preference are now larger than all other major religious groups except Catholics and Baptists.
“What seems to be happening is there is a decline in what we might call traditional brand loyalty to the old denominations, specific churches,” said Barry Kosmin, a principle investigator for the American Religious Identification Survey. In the last 18 years, despite population growth and immigration, almost all religious denominations have lost ground. Mainline Protestants are down the most. Methodists, for example, have gone from 8 to 5 percent. Baptists are down from 19.3 to 15.8. And Jews are down from 1.8 to 1.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the number of atheists, while still small, has nearly doubled from 900,000 to 1.6 million. Kosmin says that people may feel more comfortable admitting their lack of faith at a time when atheist books, like Christopher Hitchens’ “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” and movies are getting a lot of attention. Comedian Bill Maher took aim at religion in his documentary film “Religulous,” saying that he preaches “the gospel of ‘I Don’t Know.'”
But researchers point out that just because people are dropping out of organized religion, that doesn’t mean they’re abandoning faith. In an informal poll on Twitter today, we heard similar sentiments.
“I no longer attend church, but still pray to Jesus,” said Sean Whitney.
Dramatic Shift in Way Americans Worship
“I dropped out of the Catholic faith years ago. However, it doesn’t mean I have stopped believing in God,” said Carmen Rivera.
The study finds that more people are exploring spiritual frontiers. Some 2.8 million Americans now say they identify with new religious movements like Wicca, paganism or spiritualists. Catholic strongholds in New England and the Midwest have faded as people have moved toward the Sunbelt.
“We are becoming a nation of spiritually anchored people who are not traditionally religious,” said Serene Jones, president of the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.
While Americans may be leaving established denominations, the one major growth area in American Christianity is among evangelicals. Megachurches are booming, rising from 5 to 11.8 percent of the population.
And with the economy in free fall, many megachurches say they’re seeing increased attendance. They’re praying that perhaps hard times will draw Americans back to their faith.
