Pastor Slava calls on church leaders to develop their spiritual lives
23.05.2012
On May 23rd, there was a meeting of the ministry and home group leaders for New Life Church. Pastor Slava Goncharenko meets once a month with the church leadership for teaching, anointing for ministry, discussing current questions and preparation for special services. After tea and fellowship, Pastor Slava shared about his trip to Baku Azerbadzhan. He went to Baku to visit the New Life church, which is a daughter church of New Life in Minsk. During his visit, he offered leadership training and preached at the Sunday service. During the service and teachings, Pastor Slava gave greetings from the Minsk brothers and sisters. In comments about how the church has grown and progressed, Pastor Vyacheslav said; “The church now has an official registration and a building for meetings and services. The services are filled with God’s presence, and it is wonderful.” His teaching for Baku New Life was focused on how to expand the church’s heart to become the pastor for the city. “The cross shows us that we cannot only have a vertical line (relationship with God), but we need to have a horizontal line (relationships and ministries with others in society). You can be anointed, but you might only take your anointing inward. When you visit the sick however, the glory of God is shown. The fire of the Holy Spirit should flow through you.”
The second part of leader’s meeting was devoted to the teaching about the differences between the spiritual Christian and the carnal Christian. The pastor called the leadership to live pious lives and to develop their spiritual lives. “If you do not grow on a spiritual level, you can become a carnal Christian. Then your spirit is weak, you think worldly thoughts, you cannot distinguish between sin and holiness and you make decisions based on experience. This carnal Christian is irritated by discussions of prayer, talk about God and the study of the Bible.”
Pastor Slava then talked about the danger of being disobedient. He said that seventy disciples left Christ because they disagreed with His teaching. Pastor Slava called on the leadership to develop their spiritual lives, to learn to obey the Holy Spirit (Rom.8:9-14) and to choose decisions which are born from spirit (Gal. 5:16).
The meeting ended with a fervent prayer for the church’s leaders to obey the Holy Spirit and crucify acts of carnal living in their own lives.
