Balkan Ministry Center Supplies Effective Ministry
For decades the Church of God in Bulgaria has spread the good news of Jesus Christ through the cities and villages of this Balkan country. Bulgaria is one of Europe’s poorest nations. Unemployment, corruption and health and social issues leave most of the country’s people enduring severe hardship, particularly those of the ethnic Roma community.
THE VISION
Mission Bulgaria is the boldest project that the Church of God has undertaken in Bulgaria in the last ten years. With the goal of creating a multifaceted ministry center in the capital city of Sofia, the Church of God acquired a facility that is 90 percent finished and lends itself superbly to our vision: to have one building that can be home to multiple congregations, while also hosting national church conferences, facilitating ministerial training as an extension of the Bulgarian Theological College, serving as a distribution center for receiving and distributing humanitarian goods and expanding our social ministries to reach Sofia’s poor and elderly.
THE MINISTRY CENTER
The acquired facility, the Balkan Ministry Center, is located in the heart of Sofia—the capital of Bulgaria and home to two million people. It is the biggest evangelical center in the Balkans, offering 43,055 square feet of space for church, educational and humanitarian activities. The building is equipped with rooms that can serve as conference halls, educational facilities, a center for social ministries, a kitchen and feeding center, as well as living accommodations. The center will serve as the setting for various national and international Christian activities, ministries and missionary endeavors.
We believe that this building can become an oasis of Christian activity and a center for spiritual revival and worship. Furthermore, it is our desire that the ministry center will become self-supporting as soon as it is up and running.
We now have a great team of dedicated workers in place to manage the day-to-day affairs of Mission Bulgaria. We also have a new church plant and an existing congregation partnering with us in carrying out local ministries. However, the success of Mission Bulgaria will depend heavily on the spiritual and financial support of those who feel a burden to assist this ministry.
The new ministry center will provide a base for the following ministries:
• Meeting place for several congregations in Sofia: Besides the main sanctuary with seating for 1,300 people, the building’s additional rooms will allow many more churches and organizations to conduct their services and other evangelistic and social activities.
• Extension of the Bulgarian Theological College
• School of Ministry program and other ministerial training classes and seminars
• Chaplaincy training and outreach
• Distribution center for humanitarian goods to assist the Church of God throughout Bulgaria
• Feeding center, which will be open to many people daily
• Computer training courses for various target groups
• Conferences, seminars, workshops, worship and other musical events, and missions training programs that serve both the national church and the entire Balkan region
• Once complete, the building will have space to rent to local Churches of God and other Christian organizations, which will help to cover the operating costs of the building and to support various churches and ministries both in and outside Bulgaria.
Help us bring the Balkan Ministry Center to life and into action – as a great support for building God’s kingdom in Bulgaria!
Balkan Ministry Center in Sofia
Project Number 1029028
© 2009 Church of God World Missions
