Do you remember who was instrumental in helping you lay a solid foundation for your faith? It seems that Sunday School for adults is one of those secrets in the life of the church that was forgotten in Russia and undeservedly so. We noticed a while back in ministry that we desperately needed a foundations of faith course that would help us ground those who recently came to know the Lord and were baptized.
Moreover, if you investigate church history, you will see that the early church spent up to 3 years catechizing new believers. The length of these courses was warranted given how radical the transformation for early Christians was from one worldview to another. But we live in a post-Christian era when we cannot take for granted anymore that someone grew up in church. It is especially evident in a country like Russia where the Christian heritage was forcefully wiped out during the seventy years of the Communist regime. Thus, there is a great need not just for one course, but for a whole system of catechizing those who have come to faith.
That is why we launched the “Foundations” series of courses this year. Altogether “Foundations” includes 12 courses that vary in length from 7 to 15 weeks. It features a course on relationships, apologetics, basic theology, and evangelism, along with courses on the Apostles’ Creed, the Beatitudes, the Lord’s prayer and the 10 commandments. I mentioned back in March this idea of courses when I talked about a series of sermons that I did for Lent. Our first course on basic theology is called “The Starting Point.” It features 12 sessions which start by explaining the nature of faith and the Bible, followed by 4 sessions on the nature of God, and then 6 more sessions on man, sin, salvation, growth, church, and end times.
We tried to launch this course about 10 years ago but could not quite get the needed critical mass of new students. However, this year was different. We set a limit of no more than 20 students per class and quickly maxed out this capacity. I met with the two facilitators that lead the course every week so that we could go over the material before they presented it in class. The sessions include a video lecture that students watch at home, a series of readings they complete before coming to class, and a two-hour session they attend. That two-hour session starts with a quick quiz, thus making the whole environment even more reminiscent of academic seminars many of the students attend or attended in their universities. We also launched a separate group on one of the social networks to give the students a chance to discuss what they have learnt throughout the week.
All in all, it was a great experience, and I am looking forward to repeating “The Starting Point” during Lent and launching additional courses in the “Foundations” series.
Yours in praying and hastening the day of revival in Moscow and Russia,
Constantin and Alexandra
PS One of the courses in the Foundations series is called “Stress Test.” In preparation for the course, I preached a series of hour-long sermons that then became the backbone of the course and also became the video lectures that students watch at home. I preached through the second installment of these sermons this past September and it was a blast.
THREE PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please join us in praying for God:
- To bless our Advent season. We are going through a lot of changes due to the fact that we are in a new location. Please pray that these transitions would be very smooth during the holiday season and that we would be able to reach a lot of people this coming Advent. We have secured a new venue for our candlelight service but still there are a lot of unknowns.
- To bring to repentance unbelievers that began attending out foundations of faith class. Our class is a very intersting mix of those who came to know the Lord recently, those who have been walking with Christ for a while and several people that are completely new to the church. It would be great to see them put their trust in Christ and be baptized. I will share more about this class in the upcoming weeks.
- To bring peace to Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, ask God to use this conflict by bringing reconciliation and revival to these countries.
