An wonderful lecture on the principles of the Christian leadership and missionary work was given by Pastor Tzvetan Petkov, General Conference President at the IMS, and published via Facebook by Brother David Morales on July 2, 2026, during the seminar of the Oceania Division at the IMS in Christchurch, New Zealand, under the motto "We Need leaders like Nehemiah": https://www.facebook.com/100069365258755/videos/2585730205216267/. The seminar will end tomorrow, on July 5, 2026.
In his lesson, Pastor Tzvetan Petkov underlined the main principles of leadership and missionary work, applied both by Nehemiah and Christ. The leadership should include working of the leader together with the church members, planning and order under God’s guidance, influencing the coworkers via enthusiasm given by the Holy Spirit and called holy energy in the testimony of the Spirit of Prophecy. In addition, Pastor Tzvetan Petkov mentioned the most important rules of the Christian missionary work, such as making friendship with the interested souls and using the contacts to motivate the souls for receiving Bible studies, trying to reach a well quantity of interested souls by gaining the confidence and the sympathy of the people, using order and system recommended by Christ, including educating church members to work as messengers. Furthermore, Pastor Tzvetan Petkov emphasized the important method of Christ how a Christian leader should stir by spiritual means and not by authoritarian method (and not block) the initiatives and the wishes of the church members to assist in God’s work, according to John 4:28-30. In the end of his lecture, Pastor Tzvetan Petkov mentioned the testimony of the Spirit of Prophecy that all the saved Christians in heaven would be missionaries with stars as a symbol of gained souls on their crowns.
Written by Margarit Zhekov
Brother David Morales and Pastor Tzvetan Petkov during the Christian seminar in Christchurch, New Zealand.
