Church-Planters of the Union of Baptist Churches in Serbia, part 1

I was blown away by the vision and urgency of our Serbian Baptist brothers and sisters to start new churches.  Astonishing commitments are being forged by the Holy Spirit in the lives of young couples to plant  Christ-honoring, gospel-centered churches in this nation.  The Union of Baptist Churches in Serbia will train and support couples sent by their home churches who sense God has called them to plant churches where there is no evangelical witness.  Seven new churches have started in the last couple of years, and they have a vision to start over a dozen more.  

When I asked Ondrej Franka, president of the Union of Baptist Churches in Serbia, what they mean by "support," he said that the sponsoring church must be willing to give $75 a month to the couple, and then the Union will give another $675 a month.  So, the couple gets a total of $750/month for 3 to 5 years, or longer if necessary, until the church can support its own pastor.  I had already heard that the average salary for employed people in Serbia is a about $475/month, so I thought this sounded pretty generous.  

But then Ondrej explained that this $750 is everything the couple receives.  Not only do they have to rent a place to live, and feed and clothe their family, but also must provide all the ministry expenses the church plant may have:  rent and utilities for a place to meet (house-churches typically don't go over well in that culture, but that's another blog), literature for distribution, travel expenses (gas is $8.00 a gallon), Bibles, children's ministry materials, etc.  

We talked with a couple in Paraćin who rent a 500-square-foot store-front that holds about 30 people for Sunday mornings.  It costs about $160 a month.  They're trying to get the two rooms above the storefront for children's ministry, but they just didn't have the funds, so they were asking God for help.  It would take about another $100 a month. Here are some pictures of this facility.  It's just the front part of this building.

They were just thrilled to be sharing the gospel, seeing souls get saved, and loving the community to which God has called them.  I was deeply convicted.

With so little, they do so much for the gospel and God's glory.  

With so much, what are we doing?