On Monday and Tuesday, all participants of XXIV Missions Conference, which is being held in Rivne, had the opportunity to attend the seminar on evangelism and discipleship under the heading of Good Soil. The materials of this seminar in Russian were prepared by Kaleb Syuko, an American missionary in Ukraine, and his co-workers of the evangelism and discipleship center Blagovestie.today. We enjoyed having brother Yuri Karamaneshta teach us.
This course was broken down in four blocks: from 10.00 a.m. to 16.00p.m., including lunch time and coffee breaks. After the seminar, there were breakout sessions led by two brothers: Kirby Holmes, whom we already know from a last year enlightening seminar and the new speaker to our church, Sean James.
The seminar was dealing with the Christ’s teaching of His disciples on the essence of evangelism and discipleship. So the presenters taught us on what types of people’s spiritual state, and what kind of “soil” is really “good.” And what is our role in the process of “plowing the soil” and what is the role of God in the spiritual regeneration of human being?
The listeners discussed about the opportunities for evangelism at the first session – whether it is effective and what dangers it may pose. We talked about how we should be involved in the process of sharing the Gospel from person to person in general, and how we can help the unbeliever to understand it clearly. What are the main obstacles of the unbelieving worldview were faced by the apostles, and how can we overcome them today? How are we to determine when the heart “soil” of the hearer is ready? How can we explain, convince and teach people? In what way we can help a believer to become grounded in the gospel? What is God’s redemptive plan for the Church and for humanity as a whole?
We are grateful to God for empowering us and making us willing to learn how to share the gospel and take care of the disciples!
Tatyana Arterchuk
