Did you ever have a relationship that seemed to be irrevocably broken that God somehow healed later? Well, this is the story of such a relationship that led to another accidental church plant that I mentioned in one of my previous newsletters.
We had a couple, Zhenya and Anya, that came to our church about 13 years ago right after we moved into St. Peter and Paul’s Cathedral. They were a part of our church before, stopped attending for a while, and then went to a couple of other churches before they fell out of Christian fellowship almost completely. Then they came to Moscow Bible right at the time when we began the process of reforming the church. If they had come just a few months later, they would not have been thrust into a position of leadership, but at the time they came, those unhealthy patterns were still evident in our church. Thus, this couple began serving our youth, and soon it became apparent that they were not really interested in the church; they were interested only in what they themselves were doing. Moreover, they began leading the youth away from the church, isolating them as much as possible. Well, that spelled trouble. One by one, the leaders of the church tried to admonish them over a period of several months. We encouraged them to join the church formally by becoming members and submitting to the Board of the church. (Yes, when we began reforming the church 13 years ago, it was not uncommon for “people to do what seemed right in their own eyes” at Moscow Bible.) But all these conversations led to conflicts. The couple basically demanded that the Board fire me, or they would file a lawsuit with a local district attorney about my alleged abuse of power at Moscow Bible. It was a bluff, but it gives you an idea of the level of hostility I experienced at the time. The patience of the Board wore thin, and we told this couple that they would have to repent of their actions and submit to the leadership of the church, or they would be essentially excommunicated from the body, and even though they were not church members, it would not stop us from excommunicating them.
Thus, they left the church. But as they exited, they attempted to split the church and took about 20 people with them. They founded a new church that was youth-oriented. Approximately 5 years later we tried to reconcile with them and even met for a special meeting of reconciliation. However, the meeting was more of a formality from the standpoint that we did not really hear them change their stance significantly. However, it gave me an opportunity to sort of wrap up this situation. I did not think I would ever have to revisit it again. I was wrong.
A couple of years ago, Zhenya came to Moscow Bible for our Easter service. After the service he approached me to apologize for not treating me as a pastor when they were part of Moscow Bible. I was shocked but still very cautious. After all, it takes a while to warm up to somebody who once upon a time tried to fire you and threatened to report you to the authorities. Zhenya asked if it would be possible for us to get together and talk. He seemed like a different person. I agreed to meet. We spent over 2 hours talking about ministry, about his journey and the way God was both humbling him and his wife Anya and building them up. He apologized several times for the way they treated us. It was obvious that God was working in his heart. Then he wrote to me and asked if Moscow Bible would be willing to come and pray for their church, in a way to bless them retroactively as a church plant. I brought up the issue before the Board. The elders of Moscow Bible asked Zhenya what he and his wife would do if we refused to bless them and instead asked them to disband their church and return penitently to Moscow Bible. He wrote back that it would be incredibly hard for them to do since they feel that they are responsible for the people in their church, but they would do whatever we asked of them. It was then that we all knew just how thorough of a work God was doing in the heart of Anya and Zhenya. So, we agreed to come and to bless this church plant retroactively, which we did back in December of last year.
This church has now joined us for Maundy Thursday and for Good Friday services. Our two churches are growing closer together, and I can now say that after years of not being able to plant a church, we now have 2 churches that were planted accidentally.
Yours in praying and hastening the day of revival in Moscow and Russia,
Constantin and Alexandra
THREE PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please join us in praying for God:
- To bless us to see the kids, teenagers, and college students that went to our kids' and youth camps but who do not come to church get plugged in this year and start attending Sunday School and Youth Ministry. That God would use these camps as the first step to a truly meaningful lifelong relationship with Him.
- To richly bless our Sunday School for adults that we are launching in September. These last couple of years we have been working on materials for this Sunday School. We wanted to launch this program back in February, but then we found out that we had to move and thus the entire program was put on pause. We are finally getting back to it and launching it on September 21.
- To bring peace to Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, ask God to use this conflict by bringing reconciliation and revival to these countries.
