How easy is it for you to share your faith with those around you? It seems that the global church, or at least the so-called Western Church, has made significant strides in thinking through a lot of issues pertaining its ministry. Of course, more often than not, we have simply rediscovered what the Church did in the past. For example, the Christian church was always at the forefront of social justice causes, and the recent recurrence of these ministries in healthy, theologically conservative churches is a return to its roots in a lot of ways. Nevertheless it is great to see how brothers and sisters around the globe are thinking through these various issues and applying them to their ministry.
However, at the same time there seems to be a part of the church life that has lost its vibrancy in the western church and that’s evangelism. In Russia it is certainly much more challenging today than it was even 10 years ago. And it is not because the state has passed new laws that make evangelism more difficult. It is just the global trend that Russia has joined as the novelty of the Gospel that Christian churches enjoyed after the collapse of the Soviet Union has worn off. That is why during these last seven weeks we talked about how we can turn evangelism into a lifestyle for every believer in our community. We began with the simple premise that everyone around us is on a spiritual journey of sorts. Some are walking towards God while others are apathetic, and some are antagonistic towards faith. Thus we discussed seven roles that we play during interactions with people around us, from our need to start praying specifically for some folks in our lives, and finding ways we can create “feasibility structures” that will help them see the Gospel as something plausible, to using Gospel reflections in popular culture, asking probing questions, sharing in relatable form basic tenets of our faith, answering their challenges, and finally getting them grounded in their faith once they turn to God.
While this sermon series is almost over, my plan is to offer it on a regular basis as a Sunday school curriculum for adults. It is part of a Foundations curriculum that we began forming last year. After all, evangelism is something that should be an integral part of every believer’s life.
Yours in praying and hastening the day of revival in Moscow and Russia,
Constantin and Alexandra
P.S. Speaking of Sunday School for adults, that is something that we re-launched recently. But that is a story for another newsletter.
THREE PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please join us in praying for God:
- To grant us favor with the Lutherans and/or Anglicans in Moscow so that we could either retain our home at St. Peter and Paul Cathedral and/or move to St. Andrews Cathedral in Moscow.
- To bring peace to Ukraine and Russia. Moreover, ask God to use this conflict by bringing reconciliation and revival to both countries.
- To bless our Lent season. Lent is rapidly approaching. We have a lot of great things planned for this season. We have done our part in preparation and we now patiently wait for the Lord to send His Spirit and touch many hearts through our services and events during Lent season.
