The game: plant a church in the fictional Eastern European country of Lower Slabobia, in and around a city named Sikigrad. Every five minutes that passed represented a month in the life of the game. Teams were required to make decisions on deadlines, create budgets and develop ministry plans for their churches. Like life, the game brought changes such as budget adjustments and natural disasters for the teams to work through.
“Everyone was looking at me,” said Boseff, who was chosen as the leader for his team, “and I said, ‘God I am looking at you.’ Things came into order, in a way I can’t explain now. Without realizing, we started to come up with a plan.”
It was a group of nearly 40 church planters and leaders from Bulgaria (24), Romania (5) and Hungary (8) playing the four-hour game, which capped off a gathering in Razgrad, Bulgaria from 22-24 September. The weekend included discussions on how specific Eastern European pastors handle finances, facilities, church planting, etc. in their respective churches, and enabled the group to share about their common experiences.
This unity carried into the game: with representatives from all three countries mixed on each team, many expected a significant challenges between languages, experiences and cultural perspectives. Still, people found that their own life experiences pushed them to take the game seriously, and began utilizing one another’s gifts to create a plan for the church.
“We forgot it was a game,” said one woman, who nurtures several village churches near Stubel, Bulgaria. “We were ready to really go and plant a church in this town.”
“I was very impressed in the midst of the work,” said another participant. “We were different, we were from different languages, but when the team started to work, I think the unity was more important than anything. Everybody understood what everyone else had to do. And we learned that where God is, there is faith, love and action.”
By the end of the weekend, the group developed a church-planting covenant of 12 principles that everyone agreed to use as a guide for their pastoral ministries.
It affirms a passionate, prayer-centered, team approach to ministry. It stresses the importance of creativity and moving toward interdependence.
The covenant helped voice an uncharacteristic unity for countries that have seen so much tension and conflict. Participants say they gained new perspectives on church planting, and felt connected to one another through common experiences.
Though the game was a theoretical experience, it was designed to reflect reality.
In that case, Boseff’s experience with the game speaks to increasing hope in Southeastern Europe.
“We had a small amount of money, we had God on our side, and we had a church in an unknown place,” said Boseff. “That was our beginning.”
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