Sunday, September 30, 2012, in Bulgaria, part 1

It may take me a long time to integrate my experiences of Sunday, September 29 (was that really only yesterday?!) into my life, and I certainly won't be able to adequately encapsulate them in this blog, but here is a start to the first part of the day.

Along with my colleagues, I attended the 11:00 a.m. service at Purva Baptistka Tsyrkva ("First Baptist Church," formally called "Sofia Evangelical Baptist Church") in Sofia, Bulgaria.  (BTW, a note on pronunciation.  If you say "so-FEE-uh," it is a girl's name.  If you say "SO-fee-uh," it is the city.)  Here are five impressions.

First impression:  no parking.  Well, let me correct that.  The church, all 450 members, has 2 -- count them, TWO -- off-street parking spaces.  The new building, still under construction down the street, with 50,000 square feet on six floors, has six off-street parking spaces.

Second impression:  this church is alive with love.  Little kids, teens, 20's, 30's, every decade is represented up the most senior of members, and they all quite obviously love each other.  Who wouldn't want to be a part of this?

Third impression:  this place is tiny.  Two hundred seats are packed into about 2,000 square feet plus balcony.  The seats themselves are small, and spaced tightly together; my knees touched the seat in front of me, and my hips smooshed against the person next to me.  It was stuffy -- remember, there had already been a previous service, and it was 90 degrees outside -- but it was okay, because these people love being together.  There is no fellowship space, but they fellowship anyway.  There two toilets -- apparently most folks either go before they leave for worship, or they just hold it -- one of which is what we would call a real toilet, and the other of which is a "squatty potty."

Fourth impression:  nobody gripes.  Nobody.  I didn't hear the slightest hint of a grumbly tone.  I didn't see a frown.  Smiles.  Laughter.  Attentiveness.  Warm conversation before and after.  The most frequent phrase I heard was "Slava na Boga," which means "Praise the Lord."  (As an aside, you have to pray for me as I return home, because if I hear anyone at FBC, Sterling whine about "It's too hot," or "It's too cold," or "It's too loud," I may smack them.)  These people know it is God's church, not theirs, and so what they want and prefer doesn't matter as much as what God wills and commands.

Fifth impression:  this church is aligned with God's mission, which drives both vision -- they want to win their deeply hardened neighbors to Christ -- and patience -- they've been working on their new building for EIGHT years, and are not finished.  As Robin Stoops succinctly stated last night, this is not a church that has "found a mission statement," but rather "God's mission has found this church."

It was a profound experience.  The children's sermon was deep with content and fifteen minutes long.  The children heard and heard and heard again the gospel.  There was a baby dedication.  There was engaging, lively worship.  The sermon, preached by ABCUSA Director of International Ministries Reid Trulson, would have been a normal length except that it was translated by lead Pastor Teodor Oprenov.  The service ended at a little about 1:00; and after the closing song was done, nobody rushed out.  We were in a hurry, so we got away about 1:20, and there were still about 80 or 90 folks just standing around chatting.

And that was just the start of the day.  More in part 2.  Some pictures are below.

The children's sermon: counter-clockwise from the top left of the card,  1600,66,39,27,40,5,4,3,2,1.