An Interview with SNC Pastor Vladimir Venger

Pastor Vladimir Venger planted a church in Vinnytsia, Ukraine in 2021 called Light of Life Church. When the war started, his church began to serve over 500 refugees per day.

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GIBSON: Vlad, tell us what is currently happening in your city right now regarding the war.

VENGER: Currently, we live in the season of "no active war, no real peace.” Until our city center was hit on July 14th, many people enjoyed relatively peaceful living. Right now, many more people pay attention to sirens and all mass gatherings are banned and enforced.

GIBSON: How has the last 5-month impacted your church?

VENGER: Our church has lost approximately 1/3 of our regular members during the first weeks of the war. After that, many refugees started to come to our church from the East. For the first time, we saw many non-believers starting to come to our Sunday services, home groups, and participate at social events along with our team.

GIBSON: What are you all currently doing now to serve those impacted by the war?

VENGER: We have been actively serving the refugees at our church from April to the end of June. We provided food, clothing, shelter, and help with basic necessities. Currently, we just took 1-month off to let our team refresh after 5-months of work, but we plan to resume serving the refugees ASAP. We currently are finishing up a small remodel of a house that can host 2 families at the same time for up to a year.

GIBSON: What have learned about yourself over the last 6-months?

VENGER: I've learned that I am more of a strategic leader, best suited for "peaceful times.” When the war started, many people picked up shovels and started doing "at least something,” regardless if it was useful or not. For me, I first had to come up with a plan: What to do... figure out why we are doing what we are doing... what are we trying to achieve through these efforts, etc. It was much easier for me to prepare the church during the "pre-war" times, and lead it now when things are a little more stable.

GIBSON: What are your biggest needs during this season of your ministry?

VENGER: Time management and figuring out what I should focus on right now — this is the hardest for me. There are so many different things that I could do, from starting a business for refugees, to prepping a team to open another church in our city, the opportunities are endless. I am learning that I can’t do everything at the same time.

Also, with many people visiting our church, we have outgrown our church building. We need a building where we can have at least 2-3 classes for kids and have enough seats for people to sit during the service. Each Sunday, we have about 100-150 people and its hard to get around in our current building. But this is a good problem to have.

GIBSON: How can we pray for you and your church?

VENGER: Please pray for the LORD to give me a clear vision on where He wants me to be moving forward. Our church has grown, and we see lots of potential leaders joining our team. I’m praying to see if it’s the time to try to build a stronger team, or time to build a second team for a new church plant. We also need to figure out roles among team members to have a clear understanding of our responsibilities.