The Macedonian Call

 

This is Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. Macedonia is 0.2% to 0.5% Evangelical Christian. There are literally more Christians in some mega churches in America than there are in this entire country. 

The Macedonian Call

We read in Acts chapter 16:9-10 how Paul was called to Macedonia through a vision: And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.  A lot has changed since then!

This is the second conference our team has led in Macedonia, and things really began to take hold this year.  There was a real sense of unity forming in the room, and not just among the Macedonian leaders, but between Macedonia and Bulgaria and Montenegro and Albania.  It was amazing to see the unified and passionate desire of these leaders to see a God sized movement sweep across the entire region!

How Do You Move Into New Countries?

Our team is now in 17+ countries with new opportunities arising regularly.  I’m often asked how we move into new countries.  Generally speaking… God ordained relationships.  Here are a couple examples:

We came to know Vukasin (Montenegro) and Sasha (Macedonia) when Altin (Albania) invited them to the Catalyst Community he was hosting several years back.

When Sasha experienced the Catalyst Community in Albania he wanted it for his country, and he invited us to Macedonia.  Sasha then invited several men from Bulgaria, next door to Macedonia, to attend the Catalyst Community in Macedonia.

The Bulgarian contingent we met in Macedonia was very excited about what we were doing, and they invited us to come lead a Catalyst Community conference in Bulgaria.  I will be working to build relationships with our new connections in Bulgaria in hopes of doing our first Catalyst Community there in 2019.

God is using what we are doing and leaders from across borders are inviting us in to help start movements of reproducing churches in their countries!

Developing Regional Strength!

As our work in a nation matures we transition from Catalyst Communities led by our team to Network meetings led by indigenous network leaders.  The Albanian network is a great example of this.  In March, I attended “Kisha X”, the New Thing Albania Network meeting in Tirana, Albania.  There were over 150 leaders from Albania and Kosovo in attendance!  Network leaders Altin and Kejdis chose 5 main stage speakers from among the network, and then offered topic specific break out session opportunities in the afternoon.  This group has plans to plant around 24 churches in 2018, about half in cities and half in villages.

The story of what God is doing in Albania is spreading throughout the Balkaans.  We brought two Albanian leaders with us to Macedonia to share how working together through networks has helped accelerate church planting efforts in their country.  We are training them to help lead future Catalyst Conferences in different parts of the region.  Altin and Kejdis were recently invited to Croatia to share with a group of leaders there what they have seen take shape in Albania.

Do you ever feel alone in ministry?

Vukasin and Sara lead 1 of the 7 evangelical Christian churches in the entire country of Montenegro.  My team lead, Joe Wilson, has helped to establish 2 of these 7 churches.  Vukasin is the only native Montenegran to lead one of these churches.  It’s hard going, but they are pressing on, trusting God to show up, and dreaming bigger dreams!  Pray for them.

What Can You Do To Help?

I begin working full time with Taking New Ground on March 1st.  Here are 3 ways you can come alongside us as we work to catalyze movements of reproducing churches in hard to reach parts of the world.

• Pray for my family. Particularly, pray for my family while I am away.
• Pray for funding.  We are raising 100% of our financial support.  We are trusting God in a huge way as we follow this call.  Maybe He is calling you to help through funding?
• Pray for the continued favor of God.  Over the years this team has helped plant over 400 churches in about 17 countries.  God has used this team in astounding ways, pray He continues to do so!