Update on Shestopalov Family (2)

Many of our readers of the blog and/or newsletter have been asking about the Shestopalov family. The funeral for the daughter was held this past Monday at the seminary. About 200 guests came from all over Russia, and a number of family members from outside of Russia. After the church ceremony, most of the guests accompanied the family for the graveside ceremony. Later in the afternoon, there was a meal for the family and guests at the seminary.

Bishop Shestopalov and his wife, Aphrodite, were able to attend the funeral. They were temporarily released from the hospital on Monday morning. They returned to the hospital on Tuesday morning. The two oldest daughters remain in the hospital and were not released for the funeral. (The two youngest daughters not in the accident did attend the funeral). The 2nd oldest daughter who had broken both legs continues to improve. The oldest daughter who suffered many head injuries is stable but will require further surgeries. We had antipated that she would be operated on last week, but this action has been delayed.

Thank you for your prayers. The Shestopalovs still face many challenges with their health plus the adjustments of losing a daughter/sister.

Update on Shestopalov Family

Many of our readers and those receiving our updates via email have asked us for updates.

Yesterday (Wednesday), Brother and Sister Shestopalov were finally transferred to a Moscow hospital, but I'm not sure if it is the same one where the two oldest daughters are.

The funeral for Sabrina is scheduled for Monday, June 22 to be held in the seminary chapel. Exact time .... I haven't heard yet. This will be coordinated with the cementary.

The overseer, Vladimir, has suffered some kidney damage from the accident and needs time to mend. He will be released on Monday just for a couple of hours to attend the funeral. Aphrodite, the wife, is suffering from low blood pressure and psychologically / emotionally is having a most difficult time.

The oldest daughter, Christine, remains in ICI with "head damage." and swelling. She has been brought out of her coma, can open her eyes and can think. Due to swelling, she has high pressure in the head. Her vision isn't the best; one eye has trouble shutting. And there is a part of the skull that has been shattered and needs to be replaced. Today she was transferred out of ICU into a regular room. I hear there is a surgery scheduled for Friday, but I'm not sure what is being done.

The 2nd oldest daughter, Diana, who had the broken legs is sitting up and might be released from hospital in the next couple of days.

Thank you once again for your prayers

Urgent Message from Moscow - Update on Shestopalov Family

Immediate Response Needed
Church of God World Missions Project Number #132-4002

Daughter Killed in Car Accident
On June 13, 2009 Russian National Overseer Vladimir Shestopalov and his family were traveling in the Moscow region when they were hit head-on by an coming SUV, causing them to slide into a ditch and roll over several times. In the van with Bishop Shestopalov were his wife, Afrodita, and his three oldest children.

Unfortunately, the Shetopalov's third daughter Sabrina died of her injuries shortly after the accident. The other two daughters in the vehicle were seriously injured and were medivaced to a hospital in Moscow. The oldest, Christine, is in critical condition with sever damage to her head. Another daughter, Diana, has broken both of her legs below the knees but is otherwise stable.

Bishop Shestopalov and his wife remain hospitalized near the accident site with numerous cuts, bruises, and internal injuries. The will be released to attend Sabrina's funeral but still require further medical treatment.

This horrible tragedy affects the entire Church of God family and Russia and throughout the field of Eurasia.

Prayer: Please pray for the Shestopalov family. They need much love, comfort, and emotional/spiritual support in this time of loss. There will cert ainly be many painful and unanswered questions to arise in the weeks and months ahead.

Give: The Russian medical system promises free health care for only the most basic of needs, but patients must pay for effective medicines and operations. Many Russian churches responded with offerings within 24 hours of the news, but we anticipate the family's medical expenses to be well beyond these available means.

Since medical treatment in Russia is largely dependent upon the ability to pay in advance, the Shestopalovs will require immediate assistance for their hospital expenses.

Please help us respond to this need today by sending donations to:

Project #132-4002
Shestopalov / Medical Needs
Church of God World Missions
PO Box 8016
Cleveland, TN 37320-8016

Or call toll-free at 1-800-345-7492
Or donate online at www.cogwm.org

If donating online through our secure server, please make sure to check the box: "My gift is specifically for Missionary Support, National Workers or Special Projects as listed below". (If you use the20link above, the project number should already be listed in the form.)

PLEASE NOTE: This is a different project number than the one listed yesterday. Instead of using the seminary's project number (710-0072), we ask that all donations for the Shestopalovs go the number highlighted above.

Lee Singers in Germany

There has been quite a bit going on and little time for blogging. Today, I hope to post a few news items that relate to our work in Europe.

First, the Lee Singers (Lee University, Cleveland, TN, USA) are currently on tour in Germany. Tom helped them finalize their schedule when they had a last minute cancellation. Additionally, we help our district church in the housing arrangements of their visit to our area.

But the highlight for us was to see my cousin Rachel (okay, 1st cousin once removed). It has been a couple of years since we had seen her and the family. So this was a very special evening. She and two other Singers stayed at our home for the one evening. Dr. Brad Moffit has kept a blog of the tour which you can read here.

After Winnenden School Shootings - No More Paintball

It came out in the news today here in Germany that lawmakers will tighten the already stringent gun laws as a result of the Winnenden shootings in March. I couldn't help but think of our youth group in Charlottesville, VA (Matt Temple's era) and the days they would often spend playing paintball for "good clean fun."

Winnenden massacre could lead to paintball and laser tag ban

Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20090507-19127.html

The German government has agreed to tighten gun laws and ban games such as paintball and laser tag because lawmakers say they “simulate killing” that could spark tragedies such as the Winnenden school massacre.

German media reported on Thursday that lawmakers from the ruling coalition had agreed on a catalogue of measures aimed at clamping down on illegal firearms and better monitoring privately owned weapons.

"We have agreed on reasonable changes that will mean more security without over-regulating hobby marksmen and hunters," the deputy head of the conservative Christian Union parliamentary group, Wolfgang Bosbach, told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.

The measures include banning paintball, where players use air rifles to shoot ammunition filled with paint at opponents, and laser tag, a game where players attempt to score points by shooting each other with an infrared-emitting gun.

Violators of the ban would be slapped with fines of up to €5,000, the paper reported.

“The games simulate killing,” Bosbach said.

The move comes two months after 17-year-old Tim Kretschmar killed 15 people, including nine students and three teachers at his old school in Winnenden in southwestern Germany, with a gun stolen from his father’s bedroom. The incident has sparked a fierce debate on gun laws in Germany.

German media reported that lawmakers were also considering barring people under the age of 18 from shooting high-calibre guns at target practice and permitting police to conduct random checks at the homes of gun owners to ensure their weapons are under lock and key.

Other measures would include creating a digital database of firearms as well as biometric security systems to help ensure weapons are used by their rightful owners. In addition, lawmakers would introduce an amnesty for owners of illegal firearms if they turn them in to authorities, reports said

ETSM represented at EPTA Meeting

Did you know there is a fellowship and joint research entity for Pentecostal schools and scholars in Europe. The European Pentecostal Theological Association (which is the European equivalent to SPS in North America) began many years ago. Our denominational sister schools in Germany and Romania have been member schools since almost EPTA's inception.

Some three years ago, ETSM began to participate in the European Pentecostal Theological Association. However, we have not always been able to participate in the annual meeting. Fortunately, this year we were able to have three representatives at this year's "compressed" conference at our denominational sister school in Germany.

Representatives from most of the Pentecostal seminaries in Europe came together and examined more closely the roots of Pentecostalism in Central and Northern Europe. As a result of this meeting, one of our faculty members has been invited do additional research / presentations in connection with postmodernism and post-Soviet Russian Pentecostalsim.

Reinventing American Protestantism

I just finished reading Donald Miller's Reinventing American Protestantism. Miller, a sociology professor from the Unversity of Southern California, applies his discipline to understanding three growing movements: Calvary Chapel, Vineyard Association, and Hope Chapel. All three of these movements are of the charismatic persuasion and have experienced tremendous growth in the past couple of decades while many mainline Protestant churches have been in decline.

Miller espouses the religious markets theory that compares churches to businesses. Some rise, others fall - much depends on a church's "polity, clergy, religious doctrines, and evangelization techniques.'

A quick summary: "New paradigm churches eliminated many of the inefficiencies of bureaucratized religion by an appeal to the first century model of Christianity; this 'purged' form of religion corresponded to the countercultural worldview of baby boomers, who rejected institutionalized religion; with their bureaucratically lean, lay-oriented organizational structure, new paradigm churches developed programs sensitive to the needs of their constituency; new paradigm churches offered a style of worshp that was attractive to people alienated from establishedment religion because it was in their own idiom; this worship and the corresponding message provided direct acces to an experience of the sacred, which had the potential of transforming people's lives by addressing their deepenst personal needs."

Miller's book is a scholarly look at the growth of these movements in a positive light. He also has some reccomendations for the revitalization of the mainline denominations -- some of these keys are worth looking at for our own church, too.

What Should Denominations Do?

Bill Isaacs, Administrative Bishop for the Churches of God in Northern Ohio, has a blog in which he asks the honest question, "What can/should denominations do?" Considering the mandated reallocation of funds (decision of our general assembly), this is the first question that must be addressed before deciding where to set the knife.

Bill has opened his blog to user comments, and there has been quite a number of responses to his question -- with many various opinions. Below is my response to question as I posted on his blog.

Bill, thanks for opening the dialog on this topic. Let me address the matter from a more historical perspective by asking the question, what were the core values of our denomination in its earliest years. Finding out what contributed to any organization’s early successes will normally be tied to its DNA. So. here’s my take on our core values.

1. Church planting From the onset, A.J. Tomlinson had the desire to evangelize by planting new churches. In 1902, there was the single church in Camp Creek, NC. By 1905, there were churches in NC, TN, and GA. At the first Assembly in 1905, there were five congregations. By 1910, we had 31 churches; by 1911 there were 51. By …, well you get the picture.

2. The Power of Holy Spirit I place this second on purpose due to its historical timing. Although there were charismatic demonstrations with the Christian Union in 1886, there was no teaching about it. And it appears that the charismata didn’t stick with the group. It was in 1908, after the third General Assembly that A.J. Tomlinson was filled with the spirit at a revival in Alabama. Subsequently, he invited G.B. Cashwell to Cleveland and the Pentecostal revival came to stay in the denomination.

3. World Missions By 1909, Edmund Barr and R.M Evans experienced Pentecost. The next year, they went to the Bahamas to plant the COG. Other missionaries and countries would quickly be a part of the denomination’s outreach. Today, the COG is in 170 countries.

4. Social Ministry From 1900-1910, the leaders frequently collected clothes for needy children. There were several attempts to establish an orphanage. 1910, Lillian Thrasher started an orphanage in Egypt. Finally, the first COG home for children was established in 1920 in Cleveland.

5. Youth Ministry 1906, already the need for family ministry, family devotions was expressed. Later initiatives, youth camps and the YPE movement.

6. Ministerial Training/Education Most of us know about Lee University having its roots at the Bible Training Institute. It began in 1919. Since then we can look at all the different educational initiatives and programs, including the MIP and CIMS.

After writing this, I am still of the conviction that the local church is the hope of the world. The denomination exists because of the local church. However, the denomination has the power to be greater than the sums of its local congregations. The purpose of the denomination is simply to help us all achieve things that local churches by themselves cannot accomplish alone.

I think these core values listed above can really be our north star / our true north as we navigate the waters of decentralization (how else are we to interpret the decision of the last General Assembly) and budget reductions.