Friday Recap

The first full day of the Church Leaders Conference began with breakfast that included a stunning view of the ocean. This was a special treat for the Ukrainians, who had never before seen the ocean.

Josef Sykora was the teacher for the morning Bible hour. He selected as his text the Old Testament passage about the healing of Namaan and used it to challenge our thinking about what it means to know God. To know God we need to become radically obedient. In this complicated world fixed rules do not solve the majority of cases; we must be sensitive to God to know what to do. Knowledge of God is more than we can capture, our arms must be wide open.

Two workshops followed. Norbert Izsák from Hungary led a session on “Challenges for Pastoral Psychology in 21^st Century Europe.” He asserted that our view of the means of counseling is directly related to our view of the nature of man and the nature of God. In small groups he challenged the participants to consider a biblical, holistic approach to counseling that considers an individual’s mind, body, and spirit.

Kevin Austin, Saskia Wishart, and Kali Long Papanagis led a session about the modern-day movement to abolish human trafficking and slavery. Kevin presented a global view, Saskia presented a Europe-wide view, and Kali spoke specifically about the situation in Greece. Together they called the church to be involved once again in the abolitionist movement.

The afternoon was devoted to the missionaries and pastors meeting with Bishop Roller, at which time he introduced a new supervisory model for the work in Europe and introduced the three men who would together be sharing the supervisory responsibilities. Following a time of questions and answers the three new regional supervisors met with people from their respective areas in order to begin the process of acquainting themselves with their families and ministries.

The evening service began with another excellent music set offered by the worship team. Júlia Tóth continued the interview series by introducing Hugo and Carla Conceicao to the conference. Hugo and Carla are expected to be received as Conference Ministerial Candidates on Saturday night.

As an added bonus, Al Mellinger introduce Pastor Nikolai from Bulgaria, who gave his testimony about how God has worked in his life and ministry.

David Carr concluded the service with a stirring message about what it means to be truly free, based upon the biblical reference in John 3:36.