MAY ’26 PART 3: Growing Evangelical Free Church of Russia
There is a big difference between being busy and being productive. But how would you distinguish one from the other? Often that distinction can be lost on us. Thus, it takes a great deal of vigilance to ensure that we are not just caught in the hamster wheel of activities, whether in business or ministry, but are really investing our time and resources wisely. Over the years I have been approached numerous times with various projects whose main goal appeared to be a project for project’s sake. Time and time again I asked two questions that remained unanswered: What is it that unites us and what is the goal of our partnership? It is with that mindset that Moscow Bible Church joined the Evangelical Free Churches of Russia a year ago, even though Moscow Bible essentially launched this denomination about 35 years ago.
One of the remarkable episodes in the history of Moscow Bible Church is that it played a pivotal role in establishing the Evangelical Free Church in Russia. In those early days when Rick Thompson was a pastor at Moscow Bible Church, he also served as the head of the Evangelical Free Church Mission in Russia. Rick got busy right away; he traveled across the country, taught various seminars, and laid the foundation for the Evangelical Free Church of Russia. Both the current president and vice president of this association went through their pastoral internship at Moscow Bible in the mid-90s. After that they both planted churches – one in Kazan and one in Kirov.
I understood that given the role Moscow Bible played in the history of the Evangelical Free Churches of Russia, we came to this denomination with a certain weight that should be exercised very carefully and with a great deal of humility. The denomination existed and grew without us all these years. It was an honor and a privilege to join this great group of churches. At the same time, we can also serve them in striving to grow this association further and make them stronger. Thus about 6 months ago, we initiated the work of revising the statement of faith for the association. This renewed statement of faith was accepted by the churches at the general gathering about 3 weeks ago. The next steps will involve developing our theological vision, stance, and distinctives.
At this conference in May, the Evangelical Free Church of Russia was joined by a delegation from the Evangelical Reformed Church of Russia. This is a historic denomination with almost 400 years of history in Russia. We intend to sign a partnership agreement with them in the near future, which could be a first step among many in forming strategic partnerships with other groups and denominations that would allow us to plant new healthy churches across the country.
Yours in praying and hastening the day of revival in Moscow and Russia,
Constantin and Alexandra
P.S. Our work with the Evangelical Free Church of Russia is but one aspect of the outsized impact of Moscow Bible Church. In my next newsletter, I will share a little bit about our vision for our building in Moscow, which we hope will be a multi-purpose center of attraction for the entire city.
THREE PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please take a moment right now, after you fnished reading this e-mail, to join us in praying for God:
- To use our youth ministry as they go on their annual mission trip to Kazan. On one hand Kazan is a major muslim center in Russia. On another hand this city currently has four Evangelical Free Churches and it is quite possible that we will add another one in this city in the nearest future. Thus it makes this trip for our youth even more strategic as they will work in close partnership with our churches there.
- To raise necessery funds for us to purchase our own building. I shared in my previous newsletter about our capital campaign that we just launched. Check it out if you have not yet and if you can please share about it with as many people as possible especially with the missions board of your church.
- To bring peace to Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, ask God to use this conflict by bringing reconciliation and revival to these countries. In my previous letter I shared that one of the highlights for me personally of our "Train the Trainer" program is that one of the lead trainers in it currently lives in Ukraine. It is projects like this that give me hope for the future.
