Church growth in Ukraine during the pandemic
Dmitriy Lutsyuk leads a church in Boryspil, Ukraine. Here he shares how the pandemic has brought new challenges as well as new opportunities for church growth.
Like everyone, the past year has been an interesting one for us. It has been one year since the pandemic started and our church leadership has been worried as to how it will affect our church.
During the winter, we had a lockdown which led to all of our meetings being moved online. This actually gave an opportunity for more people to visit some of the meetings. For example, not everybody was able to make it physically to our prayer meetings, but more people could make it when they were online. During this we also noticed that more people were sharing and opening up about their lives.
Summer was when we could forget more about the pandemic and get back to usual. We were able to gather together and even have a church camp. This time was beneficial for everyone. Everyone from the church could spend time together and just bond. As a result, we noticed how some people really began looking for an opportunity to serve at the church and now it wasn’t somebody else's church. It was their church!
During the winter, we had a lockdown which led to all of our meetings being moved online. This actually gave an opportunity for more people to visit some of the meetings.
Finding a venue location is a challenge that has always been with us. Originally, we had been meeting on the first floor of an 18-storey building where people’s apartments are. For this reason we were limited as to when we could gather and how loud our activities could be (this was more of a challenge for our youth!).
We have been praying and looking for different locations, but there are not many places in our city that would be fit for a church and even if they are, not everyone is willing to rent to a church. After much prayer and searching, we were able to find an excellent location right in the centre of town. The rent was half the price of other places, and in an independent building where no one lives. We did some remodeling, which was all included in our rent amount. Now the kids also have great rooms that we are able to use for Sunday school and we are all very excited!
Now the kids also have great rooms that we are able to use for Sunday school and we are all very excited!
The move gave our church a fresh start. Many of the people that had started coming to our church didn’t relate to it, because it was always “someone else's church” for them. With the new location, we decided to change the church name to “Borispol Bible Church”. With this fresh start, it gives everyone a sense of relation and they will have their own history in this church.
Our current challenge is what we will do with the new lockdowns coming our way. We plan on having more and more of our people join home groups because we realize that this is how we will be able to keep in contact with each other and continue to function as a church.
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