2004 Prognoses about Bulgarian Churches in North America 10 Years Later

With the present rates and dynamics of immigration, the growth of Bulgarian immigrant communities across North America is inevitable. As it has experiences a great increase in the past fifteen years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Bulgaria immigrant community is has not only first-generation, Bulgarian-born members, but second-generation of Bulgarian Americans born in North America.

As the community and the churches within it continues to deal with the cultural dilemma, they will discover that that a new generation of immigrants will be eventually assimilated within the American culture. As North American cross-cultural dynamics in the beginning of the 21st century tend to preserve ethnic belongingness rather then assimilate it, they will perhaps present the Bulgarian American churches with an intergenerational opportunity for ministry.

Such change is a historical precedent, which demands preparation from both Bulgarian and American sides. In the past, the children of the immigrants have usually changed the ways their parents lived their lives. However, this dynamics have been reversed to a lifestyle that contains the old immigrant identity. The effect of such metamorphoses is overwhelming, since second generation immigrant must balance between the heritage of their parents and the reality of the new world in which they live.

In a religious context, the new generation is retaining or rather reinventing the old ways of worship inherited from their parents. Thus, while the secular world offers a context for assimilation, the religious community provides an atmosphere for preservation of culture. At the same time, second generation immigrants may switch to a congregation with that promotes a more American style of worship, role of women and social services. Such dynamics provide the context and reasons for church splits.

In their short modern history of the 1990s, the American Bulgarian churches have already experienced a number church splits. Some of the congregations have experienced even more than one split. Such experiences have been painful, but at the same time have brought sense to the reality of church dynamics and have sources of learning for both pastors of congregations. As the Bulgarian American churches grow in number and influence, the second generation immigrants take a more significant role in the church’s life and dynamics. In such context, programs for identity formation and church split prevention must become the focus of the church’s discipleship process.

Annual Conferences of Bulgarian Churches in America

In the summer of 2002 the pastors of the Bulgarian churches in North America came together for their first meeting in Dallas, TX. As a result, an organization called the Alliance of the Bulgarian Evangelical Churches in North America was established as a first step toward networking between the churches. The churches within the Alliance has met over Memorial Day weekend every year since then as follows:

2002 – Dallas
2003 – Chicago
2004 – Minneapolis
2005 – Los Angeles
2006 – Dallas
2007 – Chicago
2008 – Minneapolis
2009 – Los Angeles
2010 – Houston
2011 – Las Vegas
2012 – Chicago
2013 – Dallas
2014 – Minneapolis
2015 – Las Vegas
2016 – Houston
2017 – Chicago

READ ALSO:

• The story of the first Bulgarian Church of God in the Untied States
• San Francisco Springs
• Prognoses about Bulgarian Churches in North America

Sunday School program from the Declaration of Faith for the Bulgarian Church of God

Sunday School program from the Declaration of Faith for the Bulgarian Church of God 

The Sunday School program for the Bulgarian Church of God was envisioned at the end of 2000. Because of the lack of continuity with Sunday School programs taught in the time before the communist Regime and general unavailability for translated curriculum, we created the program from scratch as follows:

2001 Taught first series at the Capital Church of God in Sofia

2002 Presented the newly published Sunday School to the General Presbyters Council of the Bulgarian Church of God

2003 Taught complete Sunday School series at Church of God in Pravetz Bulgaria

2005-2007 Over 40,000 copies of the Sunday School program were printed and distributed among the Church of God congregations

2009 Taught the Sunday School series in a regional meeing of presybuters from the Church of God of Prophecy in Ruse, Bulgaria

2010 Taught the Sunday School series in the Church of God in Ruse, Bulgaria

2011 Taught all 14 modules of the Sunday School series in the Church of God in Gabrovo, Bulgaria

2012 Published the 2nd edition of the Sunday School Program as Bible Studies on the Church of God Declaration of Faith

2013 Taught the modules of the program via the Mobile Bible School

Tetraevangelion: New Bulgarian Translation

Tetraevangelion: New Bulgarian Translation: Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, John, Epistles, Apocalypse (New Bulgarian Translation of the Bible) (Bulgarian Edition)

New Bulgarian Translation (NBT) 2007-2013

MATTHEW: New Bulgarian Translation (NBT), 2009

MARK: MATTHEW: New Bulgarian Translation (NBT), 2011

JOHN: Gospel, Epistles, Apocalypse New Bulgarian Translation (NBT), 2007

LUKE: Gospel, Acts New Bulgarian Translation (NBT), 2013

Ancient Recipes of Bulgaria

This cookbook features nearly two dozen truly ancient recipes of Bulgarian cooking. Some of these dishes are distant relatives to ones found in ancient Roman manuscripts believed to have been compiled in the late 4th or early 5th century AD. Others are among those far before the time of Christ. As Bulgaria is a country of oral history, recipes are typically not written, but passed down from one generation to the next by experiencing the method of preparation. With nearly every dish in Bulgarian cooking comes a story and custom. This cookbook attempts to preserve these hundred year old stories for many years to come so they can continue to be passed down.

Bulgarian Study New Testament

We are truly blessed to introduce for the first time the Bulgarian Study New Testament. The text is specifically designed and printed for Bulgarian immigrant churches outside of Bulgaria and specifically for the Goodwin need of Bibles, study guides and leadership literature among the Bulgarian Churches in North America. This first edition contains:

• Revised protestant Bible History of the New Testament texts
• The Story of the Bulgarian Bible
• Harmony of the Gospels
• Prologue to each book
• How can I be saved?
• What the Bible says about…
• Holy Spirit in the life of the believer
• Prayer Devotions
• Praise and Worship Lessons
• Role of the Church in the world
• Theology in contrasts
• Names and titles of Jesus Christ
• Messianic Prophecies Fulfilled
• The miracles of Jesus
• The proverbs of the Lord
• Model and use of the Tabernacle
• Maps of Biblical places
• Plan of the Last days and the Book of Revelation

The Four Gospels of the New Bulgarian Translation Published

We are both happy and humbled to announce the publication of the Tetraevangelion of of the New Bulgarian Translation including:

• Matthew (2011)
• Mark (2010)
• Luke: Gospel and Acts (2013)
• John: Gospel, Epistles and Apocalypse (2007)

This final volume has been almost ten years in the making as it combines all four previously published volumes. It is new literal translation in the Bulgarian vernacular directly from the Nestle Aland Novum Testamentum (27/28 editions).

We thank friends and foes for the internal motivation without which this work would have never been completed.

We are currently working on another similar project, namely the publication of a Study New Testament in Bulgarian, which will be ready for print by the end of this summer.

  

Luke and Acts Published (New Bulgarian Translation)

  

We are both happy and humbled to announce the publication of the Luke/Acts volume of the New Testament in Bulgarian. This fourth and final volume of our literal translation was presented to the churches on the day of Pentecost, which this year in Bulgaria was on June 25th. It has taken us almost seven years to complete the translation work as we published: John: Gospel, Epistles and Apocalypse (2007), Mark (2010), Matthew (2011) and finally the Luke: Gospel and Acts (2013). We thank friends and foes for the internal motivation without which this work would have never been completed. We are now working on the publication of a Study New Testament in Bulgarian, which will be ready for print by the end of this summer.

50 Bible Hour Episodes for St. George’s Day

Our weekly Bible Hour program has reached its 50th LIVE show just in time for the Bulgarian celebration of St. George’s Day. We began this ministry endeavor in 2002 initially with 14 lessons from the Church of God Declaration of Faith, which were built to a six-month curriculum as we taught them every Sunday at the Central Church of God in Sofia and various other locations throughout Bulgaria.

This spring we filmed ten of the lessons to be included with the rest of the weekly broadcast and another ten will be released by the end of the summer. Just recently, we also published the lessons in an easy to use study book which can be implemented in the Sunday School format in dozens of our churches in Bulgaria.

And last but not least, for the Bulgarian culture and heritage holiday on May 24th, our team released a Bulgarian Study New Testament.

Annual Conference of the Bulgarian Churches in North America

Bulgarian Churches in the United States meet this weekend for their annual conference in Dallas, Texas. They are hosted by the local Assemblies of God as the Bulgarian churches represent Full Gospel, Foursquare, the Church of God and independent works. Currently, there are regular Bulgarian church meetings in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Through the years, small groups have sporadically started meetings in Buffalo, St. Louis, Seattle and three places in Florida: Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa and Jacksonville. Through the years, we have assisted with the church projects in Atlanta, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. There have also been attempts to restore the meetings in Washington State, where the difficulty is that most Bulgarians live in the outer suburbs.

See all Bulgarian Churches in the United States, Canada and Europe on our catalog website http://bulgarianchurches.com/

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