By a Team Expansion worker
Some people treat life as a gift from God and joyfully offer that gift back to Him through love and service. Smiles are part of their daily attire. They sing loudly, breathe deeply, laugh wholeheartedly, and effortlessly infect others with hope, love, and zeal for God.
If you ever met Saško and his wife Ira, you’d understand.
Saško and Ira have been faithfully proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus in Serbia for several decades now. Saško is a technological genius, who spends most of his time looking at the world through the lens of the camera, recording, and creating and Ira is a gifted communicator with years of experience working at a Bible school and leading various ministries.
Today, they form a perfect team for their media outreach, using social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. They create Gospel-centered content, make posts, and engage with those who respond. Their mission is straightforward — to freely proclaim God’s word in Serbia through media.
Saško believes that thoughtful and strategic responses to people who react to ads are essential for meaningful engagement and fruit. As Ira faithfully embraces the role of the responder, Saško generously praises her ability to engage with seekers.
“Ira spends most days reading, learning, and leading ministries. The Scripture is important. If you don’t know Scripture, what will you say? If you grow in the Lord, you have something to share with people. If you don’t, it’s just an ‘I think, you think’ conversation,” says Saško.
How do people engage?
As a content creator, Saško says that understanding context is a vital element of successful campaigns.
“Our context is totally different from other countries. In our country, every person will say they are an Orthodox Christian. They view us, on the other hand, as a sect. Many people come to argue, saying it is not the right Christianity. And we are ready to communicate with these people to show them and explain that God is not an Orthodox Serbian priest. We explain to them that there are many people in the world who are Christian believers. They say, ‘No their faith is not correct, and they need to become Orthodox.’ So, we look at what people are thinking and what bothers them about God, and we create content around that. We pose challenging questions because they cannot stay still; when they see our questions, they immediately feel they need to argue and protect their Orthodox faith.”
Saško and Ira strategically incorporate tradition and culture in content creation. They believe that the appearance of cultural elements in ads creates an immediate connection with local people. The couple ran one such ad at Christmas time. They posted an image of bread česnica, a tradition practiced since the days of the medieval kings and one of the most important Christmas symbols of Orthodox Serbs. Next to the image of the bread, is a question, “Why do you celebrate?”
“We try to not focus on the crowds, but always use personal pronouns as if directly talking to one person,” says Saško.
Most of the responses to these questions consist of answers like, ‘Because it is our tradition,’ or ‘Because my grandfather and his grandfather did that, and we will do that as long as we live.’ But Saško and Ira challenge their audience by offering a real reason for the celebration.
“Many people feel enlightened then,” says Saško, “They say, ‘Oh, I had no idea.’ They come to teach us, but we give them the Gospel, verses from the Bible. And they understand that there is something much deeper,” he adds.
Adjustments
Saško and Ira say that a media approach to sharing the Gospel in Serbia changed their perspective on people, what they communicate to them, and their attitude toward evangelism. Their approach and goal have changed into encouraging a believer to search deeper for God.
“If a person says that he or she is a Christian, we need to respect that. Who am I to tell them they are not? But then, through a few questions that we ask, people eventually realize that they are not Christian. Then many times our discussion with people through the content stops because they agree with everything we say. They say, ‘I never thought about this.’ We offer them to connect and read the Bible,” says Saško.
He often cautions missionaries who come to Serbia to avoid the mindset of attempting to fix the “wrong Christianity” and to first and foremost respect people and their beliefs.
Most successful campaigns
Saško often thinks outside the box while looking for new and creative ways to connect with seekers. In one campaign, for example, he filmed another responder and her story.
“A friend of ours who is a believer experienced cancer in the family. She is a great writer, I approached her and asked her to write the script, with the goal of comforting people who are struggling with cancer or who have someone in the family who is struggling with cancer.” I gave her guidelines, she wrote the text. We had three topics. She sat in front of the camera and read the text on the teleprompter. We produced three short videos. It was a great campaign. Many people responded.”
A campaign “There is an Exit,” consisting of the testimonies of former drug addicts, generated an unprecedented response. As a result, soon after the beginning of that campaign, three people visited a body of believers and gave their lives to Christ.
Dreams
Saško and Ira do not lack vision, mission, creativity, or ambition. What they quietly wish for is a dedicated space for media production, a small studio that will provide adequate space and technology. Currently, they film and produce most of the content in the corner of their humble Belgrade apartment. Living off support, many times they have to make a hard choice and turn off the Facebook ads as well.
“We have to stop these campaigns because of lack of funds. I max out our budget. I know that if we activate these campaigns, we will have responses again.”
Regardless of their financial struggles, they trust God and know He will provide.
On weekends, one can find Saško at the riverfront or nearby lake. When he has to pause fishing for men, he focuses on fish, and he sees God provide a delicious dinner for the entire family.
Learn more about our Media efforts, teams, and strategies and how you can get involved.
