2008 Worship Summit

The 2008 Worship Summit took place at the Central Baptist Church of Kyiv (Kiev), Ukraine from April 29 through May 1. Leaders from Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Russia, Turkmenistan and Ukraine were represented.

The sessions were led by John Jackson from FLF, Ron Man from the Greater Europe Mission,
Richard Mauney from the Romanian Jubilate, John and Stephen Benham from Music in World Cultures, and James Janzen from Prairie College (Canada).

At the first session the leadership team set the following ongoing goals:

• To help thoroughly ground pastors and music leaders now, and in the future, in the biblical foundations of worship;
• To help pastors and music leaders to understand the importance of worship and to prepare them to lead their congregations in this area;
• To help pastors and music leaders call their congregations to unity and maturity as they encounter discussions and disagreements about biblically based worship practices;
• To help them develop training resources (books and articles giving solid biblical perspectives on worship) that can be used in all Russian speaking countries, and a system to share those resources;
• To involve union leaders, pastors, theological educators, and music leaders in an ongoing dialog with the goal of developing a culturally responsive model of worship education which strikes a balance between indigenous involvement and Western contributions.

This meeting concluded with a worship service with the church family, Summit participants, the Prairie College Choir of Alberta Canada, the Ukrainian National Baptist Youth Choir and the Ukranian National Baptist Orchestra.

The participants agreeded to work together now and in the future and adopted the following vision statement.

Our Common Vision is to strengthen the church of Jesus Christ in the Russian speaking world:

• Through promoting a common understanding of the biblical foundations and priority of worship;
• Through calling congregations to unity and maturity under the Lordship of Christ  in the discussion of worship practices;
• Through developing  and sharing quality worship training resources in the Russian language;
• Through encouraging ongoing dialog among leaders and the development of worship education.