Today we'd like to publish one of such question that has been sent to pastor Sunday and pastor's answer to it.

The question:

Dear Pastor Sunday,

According to the statistics you declared to the central church, about 800 thousand people have repented at church and filled out the questionnaires; but you said that only 40 thousand of these people are members of the church, and about 100 thousand consider themselves church members all together.

Talking about those people you call church members, it is only 5%. And those who consider themselves church members adds up to only 12.5%.

When I see these figures, I personally have mixed feelings. I need to get the answer to this question. Maybe there is something wrong with our nation, or maybe there is something wrong with the methods we use to convert people.

Thank you very much for your ministry.

Vladimir Pochernin
Student of “Joshua” Missionary Bible Institute and Leader of Information Ministry of Department

The answer:

Good day, Vladimir

Thank you for your letter. To answer your question, I want to say that more than one million people have repented at our church. You ask why they are not in the church now. I want to say that it would be completely wrong to think that they would all stay at our church, because every man has a free will to choose what church to attend or even not to attend any church at all.

In this case 40% who repented are not citizens of Kyiv, but residents of other cities and countries. Besides, a great number of people stayed in the Orthodox Church after repentance and there is nothing wrong with that. The most important thing is that people can understand of God's existing and know about Him. There is also a certain percent who attend other evangelical churches. Our church is attended by more people than any other church and has a good showing.

But it's necessary to understand that when we speak about the people who attend our church, the number of parishioners is not so important for me.

Parishioners are committed believers. But my main goal is to eradicate atheism, raise believers and make them understand the grace in knowing God, Who governs human lives.

This million that repented at our church touched God, and will sooner or later continue getting to know Him. I also can admit that a large percent of new converts do not fully understand the meaning of what they did, the meaning of repentance.

Talking about the million people, we mean not only those who were born again, but also those who responded to the call to repent and filled out the questionnaires. Maybe, a great percentage of people repent without truly understanding what they are doing. So sooner or later they leave the church. But it's still easier to reach them again rather than those who have no understanding at all about God.

May God bless and strengthen you!

Pastor Sunday