I am honored and humbled to have been elected to the Executive Committee of the PCSBA. Having grown up in a Slavic Baptist Church for most of my life, I have a deep love and affection for the Slavic people. I distinctly remember driving to Sacramento from Seattle with my parents to attend the PCSBA annual conventions as a teenager. At that time, I was still living in Seattle, Washington, and the church that we were members of was also a part of the PCSBA. After getting married and moving to Southern California in 2006, I have been a member of two churches, both of which were part of the PCSBA.
In 2017, the church my wife Victoria and I planted and founded, Forward Church in Irvine, California, an entirely English-speaking church, also became a part of the PCSBA. To my knowledge, Forward Church was the first fully English-speaking American church that became a part of the PCSBA in the association's almost 100-year history. I firmly believe that the church is the hope of the world. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18: I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Contrary to what many in our culture say, the local and global church is doing very well; praise be to the Lord. As I travel, speak, and meet with pastors and ministry leaders, I am encouraged to hear and see that their passion for reaching new people for Christ is palatable, their mission is moving forward, and new disciples are being raised up in the way of the Lord. I desire to make as impactful a contribution as possible during my tenure on the executive committee of the PCSBA.
I can contribute to two specific areas within the PCSBA by the grace of our Lord.
The first one is to help churches plant new churches. Send Network's president, Vance Pitman, makes an essential point regarding church planting. "Individuals don't plant churches. Denominations don't plant churches. Networks don't plant churches," Pitman said. "Churches plant churches." My experience of planting a new church and working with the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States, the Southern Baptist Convention, has positioned me well to help further this cause within the PCSBA. In addition, partnering with the North American Mission Board and Send Network, the church planting arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, for the last five years has also helped me learn more about what it takes for a pastor to plant a church and how a church can plant a new church. SEND NETWORK has planted ten thousand new churches in the United States in the last ten years. That is something that we can celebrate and thank God for. By identifying churches that want to plant churches, churches that want to plant new campuses of their church, and churches that desire revitalization to take place in their midst, these are the areas of focus I primarily and passionately would like to contribute to, alongside my brothers, within the PCSBA.
The second area of focus that I'd like to contribute, being on the leadership team of the PCSBA, has to do with raising new disciples, specifically, men who desire to be pastors and leaders in a local church context. In his second letter to a young pastor named Timothy, Apostle Paul says, "And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also." (2 Timothy 2:2). I believe that when the men get better, everyone gets better. I deeply resonate with the words of the Apostle Paul when he wrote his letter to the Corinthians and said: For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel." (1 Corinthians 4:15). Throughout my travels and conversations with many young men in the church, I have uncovered a pattern. Today, young men have many teachers to whom they subscribe to, but they do not have fathers to whom they look up to. By God's grace, I desire to be that spiritual father figure in their life. I am thankful to God for my father, Leonid Kipko, who inspired me to become a preacher of the gospel. I am also profoundly grateful to the many father figures who have come alongside me to pray for me, coach me, disciple me, oversee me, and help me win in every area of life. I am convinced that if the men get better, the families get better, the church, the city, the state, and everyone gets better. When we focus on discipling men so that they would resemble Christ, this is the path to a healthy and flourishing society. I am humbled and excited to contribute to this focus area as much as I can by the grace of our Lord.
I am grateful for this opportunity to extend my ministry in this capacity, to serve the over thirty churches that are a part of the PCSBA, so that Jesus would get all the glory, new disciples would be made, new churches started, and the eternal Kingdom of God would be expanded.
When my wife and I planted Forward Church, I chose Philippians 3:13-14 as our foundational verse for our church. "13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." This verse has now become my life mission. With much prayer and trepidation, I am entering into this new season of this ministry and am excited to come alongside my brothers for the cause of Christ.
BOGDAN KIPKO (BIO)
BOGDAN KIPKO is the Senior and Founding Pastor at Forward Church in Irvine, California. His passion is to help people find hope in Jesus and help people plant new churches in America.
Bogdan was born in the former Soviet Union into a Christian family and then immigrated with his parents and four sisters to the United States in February 1992.
He is a follower of Jesus, has been married to Victoria for over eighteen years, and is a pastor, podcaster, and author who is passionate about cultivating a culture where Jesus is worshiped perpetually, and the Bible is exposited faithfully.
Bogdan holds a Master's degree in Theology and has studied at The Master's Seminary in Sun Valley, CA, and Talbot Theological Seminary in La Mirada, CA.
Bogdan is determined to proclaim the timeless message of the gospel to a generation seeking hope and healing, which only Jesus can provide.
For more information, please visit www.forwardchurchirvine.com, check out all of Pastor Kipko's sermons at www.forwardchurchpodcast.com, subscribe to Pastor Kipko's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@kipko and follow him on Instagram: www.instagram.com/kipko.
Bogdan and his wife, Victoria, currently live in Southern California.
Bordan Kipko
