05 April
Church Growth, Elders and Small Groups
Church Growth: We praise God that our church is experiencing a significant increase in attendance, indicating a thriving and vibrant community. Because of this growth, we’re looking to rent a larger space to accommodate everyone comfortably. This new building is crucial for our continued growth and community engagement. Right now, our building holds 60 people comfortably and we have between 70 and 100 people coming each week. We are meeting in a temporary location once a month that fits 100 people, but we are praying for a new permanent location that seats 140 people.
Training Elders: By investing in the training and development of our elders, we’re laying a strong foundation for church leadership. These elders play a vital role in ensuring the long-term sustainability and security of our church, providing wisdom and guidance. I am investing in and training 6 potential elders weekly, until the end of this year.
Small Groups: Our small groups are an integral part of our ministry, providing personal and spiritual growth opportunities. As these groups grow, there’s an increasing need for capable and dedicated leaders to guide and nurture these vital communities. Right now, we have 7 small groups and we are praying for God to raise more leaders.
E2E Program – Celebrating the 7th Generation’s Graduation
The 7th generation has graduated! The latest group of E2E graduates shows the program’s success in bringing knowledge together with hands-on practice in order to help each student discover his calling in ministry and in God’s Kingdom. This missionary equipping program is so important because there is a great need for more missionaries in Romania, and especially in our context where only 0.5% of the population are born-again believers.
**Here are a few ways that this program has helped the 4 students that just graduated:
- Vili – The “Missionary Project” course helped me to discover my spiritual gifts, how God created me, and how I can use my spiritual gifts for His glory and His Kingdom. When we use our spiritual gifts given by God, we fulfill His will and we are also fulfilled because of this.
- Alexandra – The “Discipleship” course changed my perspective about discipleship. I learned how to be more loving and understanding of others, but also how to practice humility and serving daily. This course offered me the necessary tools and guidance to grow spiritually.
- Elena – The “Missionary Project” opened my eyes to be able to start my own personal project. The target group of my project is the children in Craiova and each Saturday we have an English Club with them. I want them to hear the Word of God and have a safe place to connect with each other.
- Jonathan – I got a lot of knowledge during this E2E program from all of the different professors and all of the different courses. My project is that I am building an app for our church, Hope Church Craiova.
- We are also trying a new way to teach E2E. We went to Cluj for a 2 day conference to teach 4 of the E2E courses. We want to be able to help more people throughout Romania to learn and grow in: Discipleship, Servant Leadership, Church-planting and Missionary Project.
