Baltic Church Planting

Our History

In 1996 national church leaders in Latvia approached Emmanuel Ministries International (EMI), a mission already involved in training church leaders in Latvia (through Riga Bible Institute), about the possibility of providing church planter training as well. After a few exploratory trips, church planter training began to be offered in the fall of 1997. Training was provided primarily by American pastors.

This first “generation” of students was a reflection of EMI’s passion: to bring together ethnic Latvians and Russian-speaking leaders, from a variety of denominations, and train them to reach their own culture for Christ. This first group of students graduated in 1999, and several churches were planted, or are still being planted, by these graduates.

A second “generation” of students was trained from 1999-2001, and Baltic Church Planting also became an encouragement ministry, in order to provide for the graduates now planting churches. This second round of training took place in two sights in Latvia: Riga, and Liepaja.

Following the graduation of these students, Baltic Chuch Planting continued to provide encouragement for the growing list of church planters, but made a shift in our training strategy. An EMI missionary, Sam Bible, was called to the Baltics to provide training in several locations, within the context of the local church. The hope was that as the local church became healthy, as members were discipled and grew in their passion for planting, churches would be planted out of the local church.

This ministry did bear some fruit. But when Sam (and his new wife Melissa) left the Baltics, in 2005, it was time to reevaluate.

Today our training is a hybrid of these previous attempts. We are again providing regional training (now in four sights), using a variety of trainers to offer planter-specific instruction. But several of our trainers are now national pastors and leaders, and we are working more closely with the local church than was true in 1997. Those being trained come to us as recommended by the local church, and are required to have mentors in the local church. And the National Administrator is now a full-time position. Our vision is to assist and serve as a catalyst, coming alongside the national church for the planting of churches, and strengthening and encouraging of church planters.