Leaders – Trustworthy Servants

by Estere Roze, Communication Manager for Partners Association Latvia

    RIGA, Latvia – Prayer Days have been included in the calendar of Christian events of Latvia already for the eighth time. The first time BBI/Partners initiated Prayed days was in 1999 before the evangelism campaign, Hope ’99, as leaders understood that the best way to prepare would be coming together for prayer – praying for each other and the ministry that all the churches would face together.

During these years Prayer Days have served for strengthening the unity of different churches and denominations of Latvia.

    This year was not an exception. Pastors, pastors’ wives, missionaries and leaders of Christian organizations came together for prayer, intercession and worship. Seminars offered during Prayer days focused on the calling, responsibility of each Christian leader and the need of being faithful in ministry and everyday life.

    Already for the second time the guest speaker for the Prayer Days was Pastor Dee Duke from Jefferson, Oregon. His teaching was plain and clear – “Leadership is like a key. Look at the history of Israel – everything falls and rises on leadership. If you ride a bus and it goes off the road, who is to blame? Not the passengers.”

Leaders in churches and Christian organizations differ from the leaders from the world’s perception. Christian leaders are not characterized by the title they have but by the God’s authority.

    Latvia has had the privilege to have open doors for preaching and doing Christian ministry for the last sixteen years. And this time has brought many blessing. It has also revealed the drawbacks of the church. One of them is the need for more leaders in all levels of the Christian work. This has been recognized also by BBI/Partners as one of our main focuses for the ministry in Latvia is to work to encourage, equip and develop leaders.

    While teaching on God’s authority Dee Duke says: “It is not obtained from books and studies, it comes from God. God’s authority is earned by being faithful. Paul says: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.” Also in the parable about the talents the master praises the faithful servant and the one who has been faithful with little is entrusted with more. To be faithful we need to make promise to which we are faithful.”

    The personal testimony of Dee Duke about the promises and decisions he has undertaken to develop his relationships with God and to be more effective in his ministry were really encouraging. That is reflected also in the testimonials of the Prayer Days’ participants.

Raimonds Mežiņš, Pastor of Kandava Lutheran Church:  “Prayer Days are very important for me. Me and my wife penciled then in our calendars already the last year, just after returning from Prayer Days of 2005.  After these Prayer Days my wish and decision is to keep the spiritual disciplines and one of the ways I have decided to do that is to have at least one hour every morning at 6AM for Bible reading, prayer and meditation. Prayer Days was a big push for me to discipline myself.”

Dace Rence, “Buckner Latvia” Project Director:  “These Prayer Days were the first for me and they surely were like a turning point and a point of reference for my personal, professional and spiritual life. The persistent encouragement of Pastor Duke to make decisions, to write them down and regularly go back to them as well the formula “no decisions, no growth, no changes” has deeply set into my heart. At the same time it is a big encouragement for me to dare to go for more, to let God lead me and realize His plans though me.”