The Open Heart Conference was a time for many European disciples come together for the fellowship, teaching and worship.

See the written report below and click here for the video report.

This year the Open Heart Conference was held on the same weekend as the leadership training for Continental Europe. (For a video clip of the conference click here.)Tallinn hosted both events. Tallinn is a beautiful, old European capital, especially close to the heart of all of those who were born in the USSR. Kaido and Triin Leesmann together with all the disciples from Tallinn did a great job. They truly opened their hearts to all the brothers and sisters who came for the Conference this past weekend.

There were many special guests besides the European leaders and disciples: Gordon & Teresa Ferguson, Valdur & Irene Koha, Reese & Mary-Kay Neyland and Tomm Wilson - who all came to serve and teach. Andy and Tammy Fleming came as well (they now live near Continental Europe). It was also encouraging to see and hear our brothers from Russia - Sergei Kononenko (Moscow) and Alexey Donskoy (St. Petersburg) and, of course, our dear brother Shawn Wooten.

The following are some of the comments from various participants:

Peti Szabad - Budapest Church of Christ

“The European Conference in Tallinn was a great and encouraging event to get 2009 started on a great note. The Tallinn church led by Kaido and Triin Leesmann was an outstanding host. For people coming from the small churches in Europe, there is nothing like being together with hundreds of disciples, to worship and to fellowship together. That gave a great atmosphere to the entire conference.

The lessons were very helpful, challenging and inspiring. The main focus to me was on a duality of Biblical teaching and personal life discipling. To paraphrase Chris Reed, who recently moved to Stockholm to lead the church there: ‘Bible teaching without personal life discipling produces arrogance and legalism. Personal life discipling without Bible teaching produces humanism and reliance on people. We need both!’

It was also great to get together with campus ministry leaders and students and share about our efforts on restarting campus ministries throughout Europe. I was very encouraged by the faith and determination of the few, believing that with God we will make a difference.

On a personal note it was encouraging that my wife Virág’s book entitled Like Little Children was recently published and on sale at the conference. People were very interested and gave a lot of positive feedback on one of the first spiritual book written by a European disciple in our movement.”

Sergei Kononenko - Moscow Church of Christ

“First of all, the fired up and hospitable disciples of the Tallinn Church inspired me the most! They were so serving! There were moments when they did not even let us pay for our meal and were willing to feed us. Their example was inspiring and challenging at the same time.

The teaching was so mature and deep. We got everything we needed to deepen our relationships with God, to grow in love towards our brothers and sisters, and the ability to lead them with faith to serve the Kingdom of God!

I got a strong impression that we are still an international family of Christ. Unity, brotherhood and strong love for one another, we still have! I would define the spirit of the conference with the following words: "We are one family!"

My old, and unfortunately forgotten, vision came back to me - to love people who are not a part of Christ's family yet, to protect the church from the Satan's spirit of distress and discouragement, and to continue loving and sharing the gospel.”

Yura Nikolaev – brother from Kiev Church of Christ:

I believe that this conference was very important for our brothers and sisters from the European countries –Baltic, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe –with smaller churches. This opportunity to experience being a part of a great movement is what they get through the events like this. So our family went to this conference not just to get a new spiritual teaching for ourselves but to encourage our dearest brothers and sisters from the other countries.

The program was very intense and very useful for us. We are especially grateful for the incredible couple, Gordon and Teresa Ferguson, who while being older people, still keep pure hearts of children. They did a great teaching for parents. Many of the things they taught we started to put into practice with our daughter Veronica. All our family is happy, getting stronger in love and respect for one another.

The sermon by Alexey Donskoy was very strong as well. It helped us to get focused on helping people to turn to God in season and out of season. He also talked about our motivation for saving the lost through love and compassion.

The comparatively small church in Tallinn did such a great job putting together this conference. Even the view on the old city from our moderately priced hotel room was so encouraging! Thank you very much!”

Sandu lepur - Riga Church of Christ:

First thing that inspired me was a quality of teaching. All the sermons were strong having both encouragement and challenges from the Bible without any human ambitions involved. It is great to see the growth of our preachers from conference to conference, and we are eager to follow and imitate the brothers. Most of all I was touched by the teaching of Chris Reed, who moved from Denver lead the Stockholm church. His teaching was so fresh and honest. He said the things that many of us were thinking and called all of us to be radical in our life. All who I talked to in a fellowship were inspired with his speech. It is great to see that we as disciples are still attracted to the idea of radicalness.

For me personally, I still see the challenge to preach the Word more boldly, to challenge where Jesus would challenge, and to encourage where He would do so. I was glad to spend time with my disciplers - Dave Hooper and Tomm Wilson. Dave teaches me how to be a better evangelist, to inspire the church to spread the gospel, and Tomm, like our spiritual father, takes care of us fulfilling all our needs - even those that I did not yet have a chance to mention to him. I want to imitate him, and to grow in being so sensitive and wise as he is.”