Bible Ministry Camp 2010
Ministry Camp 2010 was a complete success with over 65 registered campers gathered for a week in the heart of the Bulgarian Balkan mountain in a location that is kept authentic as Bulgarian architecture was a couple of centuries ago. A number of newly started churches and ministries were represented among which the churches in Sliven, Yambol, Haskovo, Zheravna, Mokren, Bourgas, Kotel, Razgrad and Sofia. Beside the Bulgarian youth, we had friends and partners in the ministry who came from Greece, the United States, England, Spain and Macedonia. But the most important thing for us personally, was the unique opportunity to train workers for the Harvest in a camp that was not targeted towards a general audience, but focused on youth with a ministry call upon their lives.
Camp began on Sunday afternoon in order not to interfere with any church service and official registration began at 8:00 am the following morning. The opening message as well as on Tuesday night was delivered by Rev. Anton Penev, pastor of the newly started Reformation Pentecostal Church of Haskovo. He challenged the youth in a very powerful way to seek the Lord’s will through the week and focused on the calling and direction He has upon their lives.
We were able to teach the morning sessions, a total of six lessons from the Epistle to Ephesians, using our new translation of the Bulgarian New Testament, which is currently in print. Topics like salvation, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit, family relationships in the ministry and spiritual warfare sharpened the minds and hearts of the young people, preparing them for the afternoon sessions which focused on the practical issues of Christian ministry.
In the afternoons the campers broke up into smalls groups which focused on three aspects of the ministry, as follows: preaching, prayer and worship according to their ministry calling. It was during the small groups that we were able to work more personally with the youth specially called to preaching the Gospel. The service on Ephesians chapter 4, when we taught on the ministry of the church, was specifically powerful and as a result some 30 young people received the call for ministry or a confirmation with the special laying of hands by the elders present. Several water baptisms and a baptism with the Holy Spirit followed the service.
Pastor Anton, was aided in the evening sessions by Pastor Encho Hristov from the Sliven church who ministered on Tuesday night and guests from Greece ministered during the closing service on Wednesday evening. We were also able to minister with puppets to the children that were present at the camp as guest from surrounding villages and towns came for the evening service from the Church of God in Mokren and Zheravna. Praise teams from the Yambol and Kotel Assemblies of God churches provided the music for the camp.
We thank all of those who made this camp a success and extend a special thanks to the Eco Complex in Katunishte for graciously hosting our event and allowing us to use their facilities. We thank the Lord for this great opportunity as our team is already receiving reports of healings and miracles. A lady from Sliven, whose daughter was deaf in one ear, just wrote us that her daughter was healed during the service last night. We are hoping to be able to do a follow up in a couple months down the road with the people who dedicated their lives to the ministry.
Investigating Ireland
Back in 2006, while presenting a paper on the Story of the Bulgarian Bible at the Evangelical Bible Society in Washington, D.C., we were invited to visit an exposition at the Smithsonian that was showing, among other ancient writing, the Codex Sinaiticus. To stand by this most ancient holistic text of the Bible, that so many hands through history have beheld with reverence, was an experience that is hard to describe. Fortunately, only a few months after our observation of the text, the University of Leipzig in Germany finished its long-overdue project with the text and its digital representation was made available to all via the internet. But just recently, we were privileged to take a research trip to another, yet older and more revered Bible text, namely the Chester-Beatty papyri in Dublin.
What a person is most surprised of while visiting the Chester-Beatty library is how easy it was to find and access these ancient writings. Starting at the heart of Dublin, one goes south toward the river on O’Connell Street by the big statue of the famous Irish politician and patriot Daniel O’Connell. After crossing the river on the O’Connell Bridge by Abbey Theater, you will reach the infamous Trinity College and the House of Lords by the Bank of Ireland. The Dublin Castle is less than a mile walking up the hill west on College Green and behind the castle, by the uniquely shaped garden, is the Chester-Beatty library. Right next to the castle is the City Center, across the street is Christ Church Cathedral and just a block away is the St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
The Chester-Beatty papyri of the New Testament are displayed in the center of a magnificent exposition of ancient writing on the second floor on a pyramid shaped platform. A closer look at the papyri surprises the observer with their miniature size (only as big as an iPhone). The color of the pages has darkened through the centuries of their history to a dark almost brownish ocher. The small font of the equally justified text has faded to brown. Since the papyri were bound as a codex, instead of the traditional roll format, they are badly burnt at the end of the pages and in the center where the pages were attached together.
Three of them, marked P45, P46 and P47, are specifically important to the subject of New Testament criticism being the oldest copies of the New Testament dated at 200-250 AD beside P52, which is dated around 150 AD. In 1931, the director of the British Museum, Sir Frederic Kenyon reported for The Time that their discovery of the Chester-Beatty papyri is only next to the Codex Sinaiticus.
Recommending Dr. George D. Voorhis’ New Book
After studying theology for 11 years on a graduate level and practicing theology in the ministry for over 20, I have finally found the textbook of Arminian faith, rightly dividing and soundly presenting the truth of the Bible – that God’s will was to give man a choice to be saved to eternity or be lost to hell.
Dr. George D. Voorhis founder of East Coast Bible College and one of my favorite professors from my early college years has presented his work of many years under the title: The 6,000 Year Christian War (4004 B.C. to 2007 A.D.): Against Unconditional Eternal Security. This book of over 400 pages takes the Calvin-Arminian argument from every angle possible and once and for all puts it to an end. The best part of the whole story is that Dr. V, as he is know among his students, beats Calvinists with their own arguments; and beaten at their own arguments, they just cannot argue them anymore.
The book presents the foundation of Calvinism, Calvin’s own writings and their developmental failure as theology. A detailed outline of scripture follows with their respective exegetical and apologetic interpretations. No scripter that has ever been quoted by Calvinist in support of Eternal Security is left unanswered. All are rightly divided and properly interpreted to show their right meaning. Four groups of scriptures are categorized in defense of the doctrine of human free will: (1) Bible statements warning of punishment in case of backsliding, (2) the scripter’s of human will going against God’s will, (3) the Bible stories of saved men and women who backslide and (4) the “if” statements of the Bible. At the end, the book presents the story of Jacob Arminian and his theology, which through the use of Wesleyan praxis became the foundation of the holiness-renewal movement and modern day Pentecostalism.
The conclusion of the book is simple and everyone can understand it. God gave men and women free will to make their own choice on the salvation which He offers freely. If you backslide before Christ returns, you fall for eternity. This is not to be interpreted as self-righteousness, but faith which produces fruit as the Bible commands. And something more: people who use eternal security to live their lives like the devil, can be secure that they will spend eternity in hell if they do not repent.
I give my highest recommendation to every Christian who is seeking wholeheartedly the will of God for his/her life. If you want to practice theology in a pluralistic society, reading this book is a must.
Chaplaincy in Bulgaria
- Chaplaincy Conference and Master’s of Chaplaincy
- Chaplaincy Course in Yambol, BULGARIA
- Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association Annual Meeting
- Family Seminar for Military Men and Women
- Cup & Cross Ministries in Church of God Publications
- The Case of a NATO Chaplaincy Model within the Bulgarian Army
- 10 Years of Military Ministry in Bulgaria
- Bulgarian Chaplaincy Associations Recognized by U.S. Department of State
- National Chaplaincy Conference
- Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association Gains Legal Status
- Chaplain Dees Visits Bulgaria
- Chaplaincy Course at the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute
- Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association
- Meeting the NATO Chaplain
- National Chaplaincy Meeting
- Chaplaincy Developments in Bulgaria
- U.S. Bases in Bulgaria
- National Chaplaincy Meeting
- Chaplaincy in Bulgaria
- HEALTHCARE CHAPLAINCY IN BULGARIA
- Chaplaincy in Bulgaria
- Mission Bulgaria
At North Greensboro Church of God
Write the Vision …
Some of the Projects Completed with the Bulgarian Church of God in 2005-10
1. Chaplaincy: Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association and masters program in chaplaincy
2. Ethnic Minorities: annual Roma events and training seminars
3. Evangelism: 19 documented revivals, 24 evangelization meetings and 9 prayer rallies
4. Leadership Seminars for Church of God regional representatives
5. Media: COGBG.com and related websites
6. Mobile Bible School for pastoral teams and local churches
7. National Assembly for the Bulgarian Church of God
8. Served on the educational committees, evangelism board and church planting teams
9. Sunday School Program (2001-2002 and 2010 anniversary addition)
10. Youth Ministry: annual national events and camps
Mission Service at Covenant of Faith
Mission Service at the Vineyard Church of God
M3: Missions for the Third Millennium – A Public Position
by Rev. Dony K. Donev, D.Min.
The time of changes in the world of missions is at hand. The search for a new paradigm for doing missions in the beginning of the 21st century has begun. Much like in the world of the internet, it cannot be a closed-circuit reinstallation of the same old software, which changes the interface, but not the structure; or a copyrighted etalon designed to be used by a tender legal minority. It must be an open-source, people oriented, social networking, body-like organism of believers that practice the Bible providing the diakonia of missions to peoples and nations in a need of salvation.
This necessity for a fresh evaluation of the way we do missions in the Spirit is based on issues which older missional paradigms were unable to adequately address. Rethinking of world missions today, includes rethinking the global problems of economic crises, world terrorism, immigration and open border markets. Problems that point not to new frontiers in some unknown cosmic future, but back to the old countries upon which modern day civilization was built.
Churches and missionaries, then, cannot afford to simply follow any secular, political, social or economical wave, but must propose Biblical solutions, which surpass both the understanding and history of the natural world to the realm of the Kingdom of God – the sole solver, provider and proprietor of the restoration of God created humanity, social justice and every relationship within the universum for eternity.
It is there, in the very Kingdom identity, or the lacking of such thereof, that the problem of ministry in missions is found. And this problem is deep, penetrating the very soul and make of the church, changing it from a community of mission minded believers willing to dedicate their lives to missions, to an agency that sends half-prepared, half-sponsored, half-aware missionaries to a mission filed where cultural, leadership and financial dilemmas hit them as a hurricane and never seize to oppose their call to minister in a foreign land.
Several characteristics are apparent immediately. The ministry of missions in the 21st century must be:
1. More mission minded than agency structured
2. More missionary focused than leadership centralized
3. More operational than organizational
4. More result oriented than self and strategy containable
5. More praying than thinking while more feeling, than cognitive
6. More giving than fundraising oriented
7. More focused on the Dominion of the Kingdom, than the denomination.
A proposal of such caliber must begin simultaneously at three starting points. First, perhaps not by importance, but by legal requirement, a professional counsel is a must. Many mission agencies follow the secular practice of debriefing missionaries, who have been on the field for a long time as part of their reentry. It is expected that post-missional experiences are often defined as problems requiring a professional counselors. But there are so many more cultural, financial, leadership, church and purely structure related problems. For example, how can one ever imagine doing missions in the 21st century without assertive financial planning in difficult times and rapidly changing international currencies, or political and security advisory in times of ever-present global terrorism? If addressed properly by in-house professionals beforehand, most of them can and should be easily prevented in the ministry of the missionaries. Thus, released from the burden of solving problems they are not qualified to deal with, missionaries will be allowed to fully focus on their main goal: namely, the salvation of eternal human souls.
Second, but equally important, are some very practical implications concerning the church recognition of the ministry of the missionary. Unfortunately, even in the beginning of the 21st century, some of the leading Pentecostal denominations in the world do not have the ministry of missions present on their ministerial report forms, as if it simply does not fit there. Others are yet to include missions as a ministry occupation on their voting registrations for business meetings at assemblies.
And finally, a word about the Prophetic Utterance of Pentecostal Missions. Historically, we, the missionaries baptized with the Holy Ghost, seldom followed models and paradigms. Our guidance has been that prophetic Word, that utterance of the Spirit, that divine guidance and Heavenly call that are never wrong. We went without knowing. We prayed without ceasing. We prophesied without seeing in the physical or even purposefully refusing to reckon with it. We preached without a season, for preaching was the vibe of our ministry and the life of our churches. And this made us Pentecostal. Even more important, this made us powerfully Pentecostal and Pentecostally powerful.
And if indeed, it is true that this very power is being lost today, it means that the very identity of our movement has changed from power giving to power needing – from powerful to powerless. The main questions that must be raised then are these: “What is the prophetic word for Pentecostal missions in 21st century?” and “What does the Spirit wants us to do?” And their answers could be found in the restoration of Pentecostal preaching, prophecy and prayer, as the foundation of any paradigm or model on which we continue to build the Ministry of World Missions.
