What helps you to get to know people in your church? I am not talking about your friends or people in your small group, but rather about people that you would not normally spend time with and perhaps would not even cross paths with in the sanctuary. For Moscow Bible Church, one of the activities that helps us get to know those that we do not normally spend time with is our annual church retreat. It gives us a chance to get outside of the city in a rather scenic place that happens to belong to the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. Yes, we have our church retreat at a rather official government location. Do not ask me how we managed to land this spot several years ago or why they are still very eager to have us every year even though they know that we are a protestant church. Some things still remain a mystery to me.
My wife, Sasha, made an interesting observation this year. She noticed that while we MBC was meeting at St. Peter and Paul’s Cathedral, the retreat was a very special time because it allowed everyone in the church to feel closer to one another, something that was not as readily available in the sprawling Cathedral sanctuary. That was one of the reasons why we initially moved our retreat into a small auditorium. Since our church’s move from the cathedral, however, the need for a smaller retreat space is not as relevant anymore, since we experience more closeness on Sundays.
I shared a year ago that our church retreat is a great way not only to get to know some of the folks from the church that you would not normally spend time with, but also to invite your friends and colleagues who perhaps have never been to church. Last year we brought our neighbors to the retreat for the first time, and this year we had a lot of new people who joined us. However, for most of them it was not their first time in church. It was more of an opportunity for those who have been checking out the church since Easter to really plunge into community and spend a full day with us. As a result of the larger numbers at this retreat, we quickly realized that most likely this will be our last retreat in the smaller auditorium. We simply outgrew it this year and will have to move to a bigger space next year. It is a tremendous blessing to see how the church has grown during this past year, despite having to move from a location that was our home for close to 13 years.
Yours in praying and hastening the day of revival in Moscow and Russia,
Constantin and Alexandra
PS You may remember that about 6 months ago, I shared about an unprecedented opportunity that Sasha got with her new job at one of the premiere corporate charitable foundations in Russia. Well, in my next newsletter I will share a little bit about how her new role is crossing paths with her old ministry.
FOUR PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please take a moment right now, after you fnished reading this e-mail, to join us in praying for God:
- To strengthen our new crop of trainers as we are nearing the end of our Train the Trainer program. In my last newsletter I shared that we were getting some of the trainees involved in fascilitating our Incubator for Church Planters. This was an important part of their training. Well we are now getting closer to the end of their training. Our last session will be next week. Please pray for us as we are getting ready to significantly increase the number of trainers.
- To bless our baptism. I usually share just 3 prayer requests but recently two of those became recurring and there is so much happening in ministry right now even though things usually slow down during the summer. We are set to baptize 3 more people on Sunday. I shared about one of those getting baptized couple weeks ago.
- To raise necessery funds for us to purchase our own building. I shared in one of 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.
