Pastor Pavlo started thinking about church planting in 2002. They have 8 new churches and 6 of them are still up and going. they want to reach unbelievers. they believe the most effective way to reach people is through social works (handicap ministries, drug abuse ministries and homeless ministries). They have 1000 people all together. 450 people attend Pastor Pavlo’s church. 2/3 of the people involved are not necessarily christians. they have 5 daughter churches in Lutsk and 1 outside of the city. In 2003 they began church planting. They have started at least 1 church every year since. Their first vision was to open new church plants in the city. they also have 15-17 small groups. They want each small group to view themself as a church. they have communion in these small groups. They have developed a training manual about pastoral care that small group leaders go through. They are working to create a process within the church to prepare leaders to go church plant from within this mother church. They possibly even want to create a church planting school. They need help with this training. Their current situation is that only 1 of the 6 church plants is financially able to support the pastor. They say they have never seen a church launch large and had alot of questions about Aviator Church.
Their financial need: $200/month for salary per church. $1,000/year for ministry per church.
Pastor Pavlo’s church as 40 ministries they financially support and the church is financially strapped.
Most of their leaders for church planting come from the drug rehab centers. They are at a point where they are assessing the situation and praying about the vision and direction for the next 5-10 years. They will probably have a clear vision by September 2010.
In their state they have 127 Baptist churches. 10 years ago there were 80. Only 10 of these new churches were church plants. The rest were church splits. Most Baptist churches in the state say it’s not necessary to church plant. One new church plant is not even being recognized by the association as a church because an existing church is throwing a fit.
Their plan for the next 10 years is as follows:
1. Want to plant churches that will plant churches.
2. Want to train people from their church to plant in Lutsk.
3. They want to use the next 2 years to create a union with people on board with the vision to church plant.
4. They also want to plant in Russia, Central Asia, Azerbijon & Muldova.
5. They want to plant in cities, suburbs, states & internationally.
6. They want to be more aggressive and progressive.
7. They currently have 2-4 people identified to lead teams to start churches.
