How are you doing? This past Saturday during the leadership training for new church leaders we were discussing the role culture plays in the ministry. Peter Drucker said once that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Perhaps changing the culture of the church was and still is one of the most challenging tasks that I have encountered over these last 10 years of ministry. Don’t get me wrong, Moscow Bible Church was never a bad church, but that is often the main problem in ministry -- when we forget that being ok is not ok.
For example, one of the areas where we needed to change culture and not just our strategy was in evangelism. We changed our strategy about 10 years ago, filling our church calendar with trainings and special events (such as a church picnic, Christmas candlelight service, special Good Friday service, and many more opportunities that made inviting a friend to church very simple). Yet for about 5 years, I saw a very peculiar dynamic in which these trainings and opportunities were mostly used by people from other churches but not from Moscow Bible. It was seen most clearly during the Christmas Eve and Good Friday services that became a recognizable tradition for protestants all over Moscow, but where folks from Moscow Bible would not take advantage of those special events.
But then things began to change slowly. The culture was shifting dramatically, and I began to see the fruits of it. More and more people from Moscow Bible began using these opportunities to invite their friends to come to church for the first time. Our youth ministry is doing more and more in training teenagers and college students in how to share the Gospel. Now consider that the 2 years of pandemic and 1 year of war were hardly conducive for growing evangelistic ministry, and yet because culture changed, the ministry grew.
This year, the Christmas Eve candlelight service was very special to me. It was on a Saturday, so there was a visible difference between the Sunday service and a late-night service the day before. Folks from Moscow Bible were introducing me to their friends, relatives, and colleagues. The church was packed with those who came to it for the very first time and heard the Gospel; the same Gospel story they had already heard from their friends who invited them to church. The same Gospel story that has been transforming lives these past 2000 years.
- Please join us in thanking God for the safe delivery of our baby and also for the way the boys responded to their little sister. These two weeks were a blast and it was such a joy to see how much Misha and Ivan love their little sister.
- We have yet to sell my grandma’s apartment and we cannot buy a new place before we sell that flat. So we would appreciate your prayers for both selling the place and buying a new one.
- We are in the midst of a very fruitful season in our church. Please pray with us that during this Lent season we will see many new people come to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
GIVING THROUGH INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITIES OF EURASIA (ICC-E):
You can donate to the Lysakovs’ ministry via ICC-E by check or autopay from your bank (see address below), or with your credit card via the ICC-E web site http://icceurasia.com/
Website: http://icceurasia.com
Email: icc.eurasia@gmail.com:
Mailing Address:
ICC-Eurasia
P.O. Box 34035
Bethesda, MD 20827-0035
Phone +1 (301) 514-7433
GIVING THROUGH CRYPTO CURRENCY
It's a new age and a new dawn, so why not use this simple method if you are so inclined and you have etherium or bitcoin that you want to use to support our ministry. You can use our Metamask wallet that was set up for these purposes (0xE021dB34F65C0F5B1F0ccF4Def059233B67891DB)
