Cristian Scridonesi is a pastor in Romania.
When did you trust Christ?
As a young, troubled man, raised in the church, I reached a turning point. Being at this intersection, guided by the Holy Spirit and by the grace and mercy of God, I went back to church and chose to follow Jesus for the rest of my life. Shortly after, I decided to go to university to study pastoral theology.
What have been the defining moments of your Christian walk?
The most significant impact on me has been the unshaken determination of the Christians in my family. I have witnessed them serve Jesus in challenging times. Now, there is still freedom, but the determination is weaker.
What do you hope to gain from participating?
The Forum has been of great help to me. I have managed to give more effective messages and counselling to those who fight with depression and trauma because of the time I spent learning about these subjects at the Forum. The affordable books are also a tremendous help. I look forward to meeting with other Christian leaders, getting to know them, and learning from one another. There is so much to learn, and the Forum is the right place to do it.
What I expect from the Year-Round Mentoring program is a transparent image of what it means to be a true leader in the biblical sense of the word. We have so many examples of spiritual leaders in the Bible, yet I struggle to understand my role clearly when it comes to standing in front of others and giving yourself as an example to follow. Sometimes, you need someone with more experience than you to show what this means. Learning from the experiences of others is also something I am interested in, especially when it comes to church leadership.
What is your ministry?
I am a pastor at Emanuel Baptist Church in Bistrita, Romania. Together with the team, we want to make our Lord proud by setting a good example for our congregation. There is no more incredible honour than to serve our Lord, who died for us and gave us this Good News. We want to be able to share it with as many people as possible. Making Christians in our congregation want to spread the Gospel of our Lord is an important step we would like to achieve as soon as possible.
What is your leadership role or what were your past leadership roles?
I am a pastor at Emanuel Baptist Church in Bistrita, a town in Romania with about 80,000 residents. One of my main preoccupations as a pastor is preaching the Good News we have received from our Lord to pass on to others. I also supervise the Sunday school program with an extraordinary group of dedicated sisters who prioritise delivering the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ to our children. Of course, pastoring the flock and overseeing it is a priority for me.
Why should someone invest in your ministry?
The main concern for our church is to follow the example of the first church in Acts. First, we need to edify one another in faith and seek to grow in numbers. We have the infrastructure for that and need the means necessary.
