North Macedonia is a country steeped in history. Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires have all left their mark. Due to that eventful history the country has a sizable Muslim minority living alongside the majority who would identify with the Orthodox church. They have never been influenced by the Protestant Reformation, and so, evangelicals are often viewed with suspicion as something close to a cult.
The Evangelical Church in North Macedonia is very small. Local leaders estimate that there are only a few thousand believers throughout the whole country. That brings its challenges. With such a small number of Christians, mission infrastructure does not exist. There are towns and small cities with little or no evangelical witness. Receiving theological training can be difficult and raising the necessary financial support for new local church planters is next to impossible. Foreign agencies have sent missionaries to the country, but they have found it difficult to overcome the barriers of a suspicious people.
Marko Grozdanov, Pastor of Skopje Baptist church explains:
‘When people come from a different place and move into the area they raise the suspicions of the local people. They begin to ask why are you here, how much are they paying you to move here … [But] if you are a local person, if you are from the city, you know the people, you went to school with your neighbours, you already have a wider pool of people that you can work with. If you have the choice, It’s always better to have local guys doing it … That’s where the partnership with SGA is really helpful… If we didn’t have SGA partnering with us and supporting [Christian workers] …it would be much more difficult to do it.”
Through its Leadership Support Programme, SGA is supporting local pioneer workers in bringing the Gospel to their people. We believe they are best placed to minister among their own. The needs are still great and the challenges are many, but we are grateful for what God has already done through these important partnerships.
