Last summer God spoke to me that He wants me to be involved on establishing a credible church. That has helped me in my struggles to do church planting and learn (or copy) from what others are doing in the North American context. On the other side makes sense to me for a simple reason. Albania has been under communist regime for a generation and we have been brainwashed that religion is bad. When the door of information were open, we heard from West that religion is bad. Additionally we have seen what churches, christians throughout the history have done wrong in the name of their faith. I forgot to tell those who don;t know yet, that the majority of Albanians have a Muslim background-practising or not.
So working towards establishing a church for Albanians in North America become a little bit more difficult. Many of church plants “fail” after several years. Different reasons! But the good news is that existing English speaking churches continue to impact communities and there are new church plants who are successful in their mission. I just feel that I don;t have the comfort to fail as the first Albanian church plant in Canada. THe second initiative might have some experience from the first attempt, but also would have to deal with any mess that the first one has started.
That’s why I believe that God was very SPECIFIC when He asked me to work towards something that will be CREDIBLE. It’s a work mostly regarding foundations and will be less visible as the results are not the main target, the process is the main focus.
Intentionally we are being focused on building the right relationships and not providing great Sunday services. Through the relationships the life processes naturally from the one who has it to the one who need it. As we are looking to see genuine conversions and real disciples of Jesus in a time when most people like to be a “fan” of Jesus, that requires more hard work daily and not only towards a service.
Can you pray for us in this journey?
Can you pray for yourselves, first letting God speaking to you and secondly doing what God is telling you to do? This is not super easy, but God never called us in easy paths. He simply says” Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”.
Brother Endrit Journey 