Euro Voices - BulgariaScot Bower - 15 Apr 2010
In this weeks Euro Voices blog we hear from our Bulgarian friends Peter and Rossi Petrov. The Petrovs live in the east of the country where, amongst other things, they run a Christian publishing house. They have been tracking with 24-7 Prayer for years, translating many of our 24-7 Titles into Bulgarian as well as exploring the values of Boiler Rooms and simple church. They’re a lovely generous family with a big heart and I know they'll value your prayers.
Bulgaria is an ancient state in the South-East of Europe with a fascinating history and culture. Through the centuries its armies have won great battles and at one time its territory stretched from the Adriatic, the Aegean and the Black Seas. But several times in its history Bulgaria was conquered and ruled over and influenced for long periods by other empires – the Byzantine, the Ottoman and finally the Russian (during the post war communist era).
Bulgaria was pronounced Orthodox Christian in the 9th century and this is still the official religion in the country, although other religions and Christian traditions are free to practice and express their beliefs, too.
What we need is to become a modern society and put aside our slave mentality, apathy and lately, hopelessness. We have had a succession of poor governments, full of corruption and people are tired of history repeating itself.
At the beginning of the 1990’s there was a revival wave in Bulgaria, marked by large evangelistic outreaches by foreign evangelists which saw many new evangelical churches planted around the country. It lasted for several years and then died down. Churches grew thinner, regrouped, split… Some closed down. Some settled.
BUT there is also a new trend towards home/simple/organic churches. It’s been brewing for the last two or three years and slowly but steadily it’s taking shape and emerging.
We’ve been part of this trend for a number of years. We had been pastors of a small evangelical church for more than 10 years when we started to realize that it was not bearing the fruit it should. We tried to change that but eventually we made the incredibly painful decision to shut the congregation down and wait on Jesus for what to do next.
In January 2010 we published Organic Church by Neil Cole in Bulgarian and have since become aware of a shift towards simple church planting in our nation. We'd really appreciate your prayers for the future.
Please pray for:
An honest and forward thinking government
Hope and education for society, and that it finds it’s voice
The beginnings of a church multiplication movement of organic origin
Let's join with Peter and Rossi and pray for the government of Bulgaria as well as hope for the people. Ultimately let's pray Christ's kingdom come in Bulgaria.
Feel free to leave your prayer for Bulgaria in the comments box below and we'll be sure to pass them on.
To join with Christians all over the world in praying for the prodigal continent of Europe visit our new website 24-7prayer.eu where you can sign up to pray, for weekly newsletters and prayer resources. You might also like to read Ian Nicholsons article Restoring the Romance or watch our excellent European Prayer video.
If you've missed our earlier posts in the European Voices series you can catch up: