Croatia and Boznia-Herzegovina
This December we led Catalyst Community #1 in Croatia with teams from Croatia and Boznia-Herzegovina in attendance. Croatia is 0.43% Evangelical Christian and Bosnia-Herzegovina is 0.07% (source: Joshua Project). Last month we were in Slovenia, which is 0.21% Evangelical Christian. These statistics always amaze me. Each of these nations are a mere fraction of a percent Evangelical Christian! This is why I love it when we have opportunities to work in this part of the world.
Bernard’s Story: A Heart for Reconciliation
My partners Colin and Joe led a Catalyst Community in Serbia several years back. Our friend Bernard from Croatia was invited to attend. Bernard had planted and pastored multiple churches in this part of the world, but in recent years felt compelled to pull back from leading a specific church so that he could focus his efforts on helping build up the struggling churches in the area. Catalyst Community was a natural means to that end.
Bernard gathered a group of churches from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina to come together. This region has a tumultuous past, full of war and ever moving national borders. The memory of it is still very fresh and often referenced in conversation. It was not insignificant that Bernard had invited two church teams from Boznia-Herzegovina. You see, his family was slaughtered by Bosnians in the war, but Bernard has a heart for reconciliation. He desires to see nations in that region reconciled, and he desires to see people reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ.
A Desperate Need For Developing Leaders
The primary hindrance to starting new churches is not having the leaders you need to start them. That’s why we teach simple systems in Catalyst Community #1 to help pastors and their teams develop a culture that reproduces leaders. There is a desperate need for this skill development in Croatia.
Most churches in this region are probably between 30-50 people. Bernard shared a story of one church, who’s pastor is 70 years old, and has no one to take over his church when he is gone. It is heartbreaking, and things need to change. There is a growing sense that the next generation wants to be engaged, but they don’t necessarily want to be forced to “wear the shoes” of their predecessors. Bernard explains they want something more, something different!
Dreaming for the Future!
Each Catalyst Community builds toward the development of a 2-5 year strategic plan. In CC#1 we start with the two year plan for reproducing leaders, groups, and churches. The group we worked with represented 8 churches from two countries, and they left with plans to triple that to 24 churches in the next two years. They also have plans in place to raise up 118 leaders and start 32 new groups. Guess what groups are in a place like this? Potential future church plants!
We Need Your Help!
I’m excited to let you know that our year end giving reached the $10,000 donor match, however, we are not quite where we need to be for 2024. As I mentioned earlier, we are on a mandatory off year (every 4th year) for a major grant that has funded us between $27,500 and $30,000 a year for the previous 3 years. I’m hoping we can raise enough to offset this grant in 2024! Can you help?
