Crutial Ministry Changes

To my churches, supporters and friends,

Below is the letter that we read to our church here this morning (in Slovak). It sums up some huge changes to our ministry. If you're wondering what's been going on here, this has been the very important main topic of discussion...


Our dear brothers and sisters of The Fellowship,

Solomon wisely advised, “To everything there is a season….”
Over the past 12 years we have gone through many “seasons” with you. Today we are writing to describe and explain to you about a new “season” which has arrived, and with it certain changes to the mission of our team to Trnava and throughout Slovakia in general. We are excited about these changes, because they represent new milestones for both our team and for The Fellowship. They are signs of God’s blessing on us and you—and of his leading for the both of us.

The primary change is that we are forming two MTW teams: one team will remain in Trnava, but with a different mission (which we will explain below); the second team will move beyond Trnava in order to establish a new base of operations and, with God’s blessing, plant another church.

The mission of the team that remains in Trnava will be to serve and nurture The Fellowship. They will no longer plan programs independently for The Building; instead, they will work alongside the pastor and other leaders of the congregation to nurture The Fellowship toward maturity and fullness in Christ. Its mission is described in Ephesians 4:7-16.

One thing this means is that by 1 September 2009, MTW will no longer operate The Building and its programs. Instead, the team which remains in Trnava will focus its attention on helping The Fellowship find a new place to meet, and it will offer its gifts to your pastor in order to assist him in the development of a vision and mission for The Fellowship. The important new thing is that we now want to focus on you, The Fellowship, helping you to achieve what God has called you to do for him here in Trnava. With that in mind, the “MTW church-nurture team” will remain in Trnava committed to aiding you to achieve these objectives so you will bear much fruit for God’s glory.

We know that over the years The Building has been used by God and has been a wonderful gift to many of you. Some of you came to faith in Christ through relationships that started here. Many of you now serve the Lord wholeheartedly in the different programs of The Building. For all of you this is your place of worship, fellowship, and instruction. It would not be saying too much that some of you even grew up in it. We know that it will be hard to say “goodbye” to it. But every parent knows that such “seasons of life” bring with them not only sorrow, but changes which open new opportunities. Remember what the Apostle John wrote: “I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in the truth.” It is our joy to see you take your places and serve God together. We trust that taking these steps will serve to help The Fellowship grow and mature and begin to shape the whole city for Christ.

Think about what this means: you will now be able to take what you have learned from your service in The Building and step out in faith. You yourselves could be leading new ministries and building new relationships for the church. You will be able to shape new ministries according to the insights and imagination that God has given you as part of this culture. You will have the joy of seeing what God will do through you as you trust in him and exercise your skills and gifts as a ministry and outreach of The Fellowship.

We want to stress to you that each of us with MTW loves you and we are not really leaving you. As mentioned above, the team that is staying here is committed to serving you until you are fully established as a self-sustaining congregation (from a human perspective—of course no congregation is self-sustaining, since we all draw our life from Christ). The team that will leave Trnava loves you deeply and will miss you. They will ask you to pray for them as they step out in faith as well. This season is truly painful for them too.

Now, about some of the specifics: the current programs of the Building will end (in their current form) with the camps in July. In August the task of emptying the physical Building will begin and as soon as that is accomplished the lease will end. The church-planting team will then take its work beyond Trnava, moving as soon as a new location is determined. The church-nurture team will continue working with The Fellowship to make sure it has a new meeting place so that it can begin its worship services without interruption in August.

Juro has set up a vision team that will be meeting in April and May. His team will work on clarifying the vision and mission of Fellowship. Your pastor has asked us if we would be willing to leave a few missionaries to help in developing and assisting in the work of the church. This we were very willing and happy to do. As of this writing, the church nurture team in Trnava will include the Lundgaards and the Gregoires. I can assure you that they willingly remain and are as excited as the rest of us to see what God is going to do next.

You may be assured that we all love you and will continue to pray with and for you as we take this next step together. May God bless the work of our hands throughout Slovakia.
In the love of the Lord Jesus,

John Lesondak, for the MTW team