Ministry

Dear Friends and Supporters of George Bakalov Ministries:

A huge part of my ministry in the last 20 years has been dedicated to our flagship church in Bulgaria -- Breakthrough Christian Center. However, the last season of the church has been rather challenging. I am glad to say this season is over and new one has begun.

I have just returned to Minnesota from my latest trip to Bulgaria and some changes have taken place, which I thought you might want to know about.

SOME BACKGROUND

Seven years ago I was led by the Lord to relocate our family to the United States and to begin to travel internationally. This resulted in number of developments and it impacted profoundly the completion of my formation as a minister. I really feel as if the last 20 years of ministry have been simply the time and the season for the Lord to form me as a leader and a minister. At 40 I feel ready for some things, while at the same time I feel less confident in my carnal self. I think this is a good place to be.

The church in Sofia has been our apostolic base for many years. Seven years ago I made an attempt to transfer the pastoral leadership and shift to an apostolic oversight. This did not happen as successfully as I would have liked it. After a season of working together it became apparent that pastor Emil, the leader I thought was going to be the one who will fit the profile, turned out not to have the gift mix required for the task. We appreciate the time we shared laboring in the Lord's field, but the time came to evaluate our building and it wasn't what I had anticipated for it to be. The need for a leadership change was obvious.

Meanwhile, pastor Kaloyan  Kourdomanov, who has been part of the leadership of the church for many years, has emerged as the leader myself and other mature leaders see as matching the profile of a leader Breakthrough Christian Center needs in order to develop as intended by God.

LEADERSHIP CHANGE

I initiated the change already in 2007. Wanda and I were so concerned with the direction of the church and how this change would impact everyone, that we actually were preparing to move back to Bulgaria for a season of time in order to oversee this leadership transition. However, last year turned out to be very challenging for us on a personal level - Wanda lost her mom in May and I ended up extremely tired and burned out. We were not in any shape to move to Bulgaria at all. We initiated the change anyway and it has been going on already since the fall of 2008.

As a result, the former pastor didn’t accept our decision for leadership change. Initially he agreed to accept a new position as national coordinator in our network of churches, but few months asked to be released from this position. In June of this year he informed me that he no longer wishes to be under my leadership and his family will no longer be members of the church. We released them and began to prepare to turn a new page in our church's history.

MY MOST RECENT TRIP TO BULGARIA

My mission on this latest trip was:

• to address the leadership situation and various rumors regarding it.
• to release publicly the former pastor from the church.
• to express my support for the new pastor and leadership core of the church.
• to confirm publicly our decision to remain resident in the United States.
• and to confirm my future commitment to the work of God in Bulgaria.
• to meet with the national leaders of our church network in Bulgaria and ask for their support in this coming new season.
• to minister to all the leaders from our church network through a day-long seminar.

I was able to accomplish all of the above.

I feel a release from the church in Sofia like I have never felt before. I now sense a new motivation to work with the national leadership. My positioning has changed and it’s very tangible and real. With pastor Kaloyan and the current leadership team (pastor Stoyan Georgiev and pastor Radoslav Iliev) in charge I feel safe and I feel that the church is in good hands.

They certainly need to learn a lot more and grow a lot more as leaders and I will continue to provide apostolic oversight to them and the church. But I do feel a profound change has taken place and I am released to be positioned in a whole new way both in the United States, in Bulgaria and in general. The truth is that in the last seven years, due to the difficult transition of the leader in Sofia, the church didn’t really take ownership of the vision and I had to put much effort and time to make sure things went well. I don’t feel this is the case any more.

NEW POSITIONING

While I am not 100% sure what our next step is going to be, I know it is the next level God has been preparing us for the last 20 years. When and how we will move to our next level of involvement in the ministry the Lord has called us to, is only a guess at this point. We are well positioned and we ask for the prayer support of the Body of Christ in preparation for the future.

Feel free to comment in the section below, we would love to hear from you!

George Bakalov

President
GBMI, Inc.
Overseeing apostle
Apostolic Reformed Church Bulgaria