Before the full-scale invasion, the sphere of worship was actively developing in evangelical churches of Ukraine both professionally and theologically. There were many teams, often at one church, which served in shifts, exchanged experience, attended further training, seminars and conferences, including the annual Music in Worship conference at UETS.
However, when the war started, many Christian performers and musicians had to flee to other places in Ukraine or even abroad for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, those included mostly women, which, considering the fact that most of the worship leaders in Ukraine were female, affected the sphere of church worship overall.
It means that today many churches are facing the need to restore or build up their worship ministry literally from scratch – the fact which explains the relevance of a new shorter program to meet the immediate need of competent ministers in the sphere of church worship, who would be equipped both professionally and theologically.
For this very reason, we are launching a one-year program which includes 8 modules, 2 out of which are planned to be offline on the campus and the rest are planned to be online. Some of the courses within the program are aimed at improving technical skills, but the most of them, considering its duration, will pursue theological foundation and organizational issues of church worship.
“The goal I am pursuing by enrolling in the program is rather simple…. I would like to systematize my knowledge, correct the foundation (if needed), exchange experience with others, learn more about the ministry of others in the field of church worship, and, of course, apply obtained knowledge in my further ministry. I have already got one bonus… Having learned about our decision to enroll, another worship leader from our church expressed his desire to join us as a student of the same program at UETS,” said Maksym Roy, a prospective UETS student and worship leader at ICF Kyiv.
Pray that new worship leaders are trained and equipped, competence of worship leaders is strengthened, worship ministry at Ukrainian churches is restored, the sphere of worship is developed in Ukraine both professionally and theologically, and a network of worship leaders whereby experience is exchanged is created.