NAME CHANGE: The New Vision

One of the most known and so frequently quotes parts of the Bible are the verses from Galatians 3:28 where apostle Paul says that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. I am happy to say that, in the last several months, these words have come to life in our church. 

From the moment it started, back in 2008, and with the first church meetings being initiated in September 2010, our ministry has been conformed to the culture and overall, the reality of the Roma and Ashkali/Egyptians to the best of our knowledge and capacities. The examples of that were and still are numerous: 

• from taking our shoes off when entering the place of worship (the place of worship should be physically clean on the top of being spiritually pure)
• seating in a rectangle shape and/or on the floor
• intensive time of worship and prayer during every service in (at least) three languages and, sometimes, the same amount of hours
• Not having a cross sign anywhere as the outside community has inherited an animosity against it due to historical reasons 
• Structure of our church service (sermon first, worship later)
• Our church’s name - Bashkësia e Ungjillit i Jezus Krishtit/Zajednica Jevanđelja Isusa Hrista/Church of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (it had to sound right in Albanian)
• me speaking and preaching in broken Serbian so that church can understand me better
• me sounding weird, or should I say uneducated, to the native Serbian speakers as the result of the previous 
• To me giving up the culture I was born in in order to be more successfully submerged into the Muslim Roma and Ashkali/Egyptian culture

All of that and much more seemed (and probably was) necessary for our ministry to be welcomed and accepted in the community, as well as for our church to grow. Basically, everything was adjusted to the ways of the Muslim Roma and Ashkali/Egyptians. Everything, but not the message of the Gospel. 

Over the course of years, our ministry/church has been going through various stages, without a single dull moment. With the growing pressure due to the heavy and all-comprehensive (re) Islamization, they way that we grew was mostly in depth, grasping the truths of the Bible as we were walking through various books systematically, chapter by chapter, paragraph by paragraph. 

So, in the last couple of years we have walked through all the Epistles (Romans to Jude), Proverbs, the first 6 chapters of Revelation, Ezra, Esther, Nehemiah, the first 12 chapters of the Acts, with some “sidetracking” here and there. Just recently, we have started going through the 1 Kings simultaneously with the corresponding chapters in 2 Chronicles. 

All of this hard work on conforming to Christ and His Word has made those who genuinely follow Christ become “uncomfortable in their own skin”. The limitations and framework imposed on them by their own community with its ways and culture with its values, became simply too small and overly narrow. The Muslim Roma culture, that is oppressive enough to those outside of the church, rises up strongly against the all those, in this case believing Christians, who are trying to distance themselves from it. Therefore, the battle is really hard and (spiritual) casualties are many. The way out for them seems to be in stepping out of the culture they were born in and adopting the new, Kingdom culture, which often means connecting with their non-Roma Christian brothers and sisters on a deeper level. 

Thankfully, that is already happening. At this point, there are 4 non-Roma people that attend our church services faithfully and stepped up to take some responsibilities, with some others showing up occasionally. The connection and bonds between the “two sides” is becoming increasingly stronger, which is definitely a breath of fresh air into our small body. We believe that these signs are the indicators that our ministry needs to undergo certain changes:

Firstly, we need to acknowledge the growth and the change that took place and realize that we have outgrown the version of ministry that had a strong ethnic character/identity.

Secondly, we need to make our service and ministry in general more welcoming to the non-Roma believers and seekers. Potentially even change church’s location.

Thirdly, our church should not be a “Roma church” but simply “a church where some or even the majority of goers are the Roma and Ashkali/Egyptians”. This being said, IT IS NOT our intention to abandon RAE community nor the work we’ve done by now. Instead, we simply do not want to be overly set in our ways to become blind and deaf to what God is doing, where we think He is leading us and not to close doors on emerging Gospel opportunities. 

We do understand this is going to be a process that will require a lot from us - further growth in faith and transformation of identity (even in ways we do not anticipate yet), making bold decisions and keeping humble attitude and meek hearts. On the visible side, we will not make any major moves apart from one - changing of our church’s name. 

The name that we’ve carried until now was the one we that suited us as a narrowly ethnic, Roma-RAE ministry, fitting the context where Albanian was a dominant language. Outside of that context, the name was very difficult to repeat, not to say memorize. For the identity we want to build in the future, we realized we needed a new name - the one that would both point out to our Christ-centered character, resonate better with the larger Montenegrin context, and be easy to remember. So we came up with one - Christ the Savior Church or should I say Crkva Hrista Spasitelja/Црква Христа Спаситеља  in Serbian and Kisha e Krishtit Shpëtimtarit in Albanian. The paperwork is already submitted and we hope that in a few weeks we will be able to use that name officially. 

To some of you this may seem little and to other a lot and I think both is true. For me personally, it took A LOT just to allow myself to think in the direction that I just told you. One thing I know for sure is that none of these changes, no growth of any kind we can produce by ourselves or our own efforts. If God is really behind it, He will be the one to make it happen. He is the vine. We are just the branches.