The Gospel in the City

When we look at the many problems faced by modern cities, the natural but troubling question arises—is there any hope for cities? Will they manage? What will happen to our city?

Maybe you have heard the saying: “Fish seek where it is deeper, and men seek where it is better,” which reflects a person's desire to be in more comfortable and promising places. Today, we have witnessed the incredible migration of the nations. People are looking for a better life, more opportunities, and prosperity for themselves and their families. However, here is the paradox—all of these new places where people are trying to move, for a number of understandable and well-known reasons, are becoming less attractive over time. And again, there is a move. Someday, a time may come when mankind will have no other place to run, for behind him nothing will be left but chaos and disorder. This impending horror is fixed by the curse of God which He put on the earth for the sin of man. Therefore, our world is saturated with death, contaminated with sin, and everything in it is subject to decay and destruction.

Satan tries with all his might to turn our cities into the suburbs of hell: places full of violence in the streets, prostitution, drug addiction, homelessness, and domestic conflicts. Poverty coexists alongside luxury, insatiable greed, and endless indulgence. We see how much is done in the name of human pride and not for God's glory. It is for the prosperity of man's conceit, not for the prosperity of God's truth.

When I walk across a bridge over the Moscow River, I see its murky waters and watch brave fishermen trying to catch something decent there. Then, I notice half-abandoned industrial areas on the riverbank. For some reason, these scenes lead me to think about another future in which I will partake. The present condition of my city reminds me of another city, in which God Himself is an architect and builder (Hebrews 11:10), and through which a crystal-clear river of living water runs from the throne of God and His Lamb (Revelation 22:1).

God allows me to see past what is around me today. I begin to see the judgment of my city and its redemption. I see possibility in the midst of despair and hardship. And because of my biblical persuasions, I understand that the main instrument of all this will be the gospel, forming the local church made up of true Christians.

City

What do we know about Moscow? It’s a megacity! Officially, over 16 million people live here. Unofficially, there are 20 million all together. Every day, up to 7 million people come in and out of the city through the subway system. This is one of the most influential cities in the world. It's multi-cultural. A typical citizen of this city is a young professional. People from all over the former Soviet Union, and elsewhere, come here to study, work, make careers, and raise children. You can find almost everything here. But there's so little of the gospel.

I myself was born in a small mining town in Siberia, where my grandfather was exiled because of his faith. I never had a dream of living in a big city. I had to pray seriously and ask God to help me love this city, but before that prayer, God led me through a reassessment of my perception. This happened in 2007. I was the head of the youth ministry department of the Russian Baptist Union. I frequently had to travel back and forth between Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. I visited all the key churches and cities in the country. Finally, I realized that if I want to see the Spiritual Awakening of the country in my generation, it is necessary that it begin with Moscow, the most influential city in the nation.

Church

In 2009, we opened a new congregation—Russian Bible Church—aimed to reach the residents of our capital with the gospel. We only had 17 people. Today, hundreds of people serve in Russian Bible Church for the glory of Christ and for the blessing of our city. I rejoice that our congregation has become a true missionary base in this city and beyond. Before us, many attempts at church planting in Moscow proved unsuccessful. Few people believed we could make it. We didn’t have rich sponsors (or, more accurately, virtually any sponsors). We didn’t have an impressive team (most were quite young; I myself was only 33 years old). Furthermore, we held conservative biblical views.

Yet, years have passed and today we thank God for His amazing loyalty and saving grace—we have witnessed hundreds of transformed lives, the birth of new ministers and churches, the expansion of biblical influence, and the strengthening of the gospel’s presence not only in Moscow, but also far beyond.

The local church is the epicenter of God's work on earth. Due to the various challenges of living in a megacity, without a spiritually healthy church you cannot even survive, much less begin to think about gospel advancement.

Community

Therefore, the first thing we started to do was to build a church community where the gospel would be preached and embodied in everyday life. We saw that the majority of evangelical churches (of which there are very few in Moscow—less than 30,000 believers out of 20 million people) are in many ways parishes, not communities with biblical membership and an authentic koinonia. In addition, evangelism was most often in the form of projects and short-term activities, rather than through personal evangelism and social involvement. Evangelism was often motivated by guilt and a sense of duty rather than love for God and people. Also, many church members did not understand or love their city, so they did not pray for it.

They perceived life in Moscow as a necessary means to acquire a particular level of income or comfort. Without a church community where God's love reigns, it is impossible to attain spiritual triumph in a megacity where loneliness resides at every corner. Our believers began to open their homes to each other. We provided hospitality to visitors from other cities and even created the first website in Russia to welcome believers and non-believers who need a roof over their heads when in Moscow. Thousands of people have already passed through our community. Many have heard about Christ for the first time in their lives. Some later became our brothers and sisters in Christ! And the hearts of believers from other cities were simply comforted by the common faith (Philippians 1:7) as they encountered the warmth of Christian love in such a massive and cold city.

Spiritual Growth

We have also seen in scripture that unless there is consistent pastoral care and discipleship, there will be no spiritual growth of church members—and therefore, no ministry devoted to the work of Christ where they live, study, or work. So we have helped in every way, especially helping men grow in faith and take responsibility for their families, jobs, church, and even their city. We wanted to show our church members that the city is not a place to hide out or get rich, but a great place for spiritual growth and evangelism.

Our deacons have repeatedly pulled people out of debt by helping believers and non-believers. One day, a young man named Andrew turned out to be in such a situation. Trying to impress others, he began to acquire many possessions that required serious financial expenditures. So, he started borrowing money from friends, taking loans from banks, and even stealing. All of this corrupted his heart and degraded his character. He became a man who couldn't be trusted. Yet thanks to the power of the gospel, his heart was broken and he was led to repentance. Then, pastoral care and our deacon's work led him to not only pay all of his debts, but to build a successful career, get married, and have children. Furthermore, he also became one of the leaders of the small group ministry in our church!

Perhaps the most unusual manifestation of the power of the gospel in our believers' lives is the integrity of their work. They work for God (Col. 3:24) in order to help their neighbors (Eph. 4:28). This has led to many social projects of our church being supported by even the most secular or nominally-religious people (including Muslims). They see the responsibility and dedication of our members. One large businessman financially supports our Russia-wide pastoral conference because he believes that there should be more of these kinds of believers in our country. By God’s grace, many people have already believed in his company. And we continue to pray for him and witness to him about Christ!

Developing Leaders

The natural product of our pastoral care was to equip new ministers. In the city, it's literally impossible to be a solo pastor. It's just physically impossible to find the time to be everywhere and do everything. And most importantly, scripture talks about how there was a team of ministers in the church (Acts 13:1-2, 14:23, Titus 1:5). We have built an effective biblical mentoring system for new leaders, and every year we have new ministers. Today, there are almost 100 leaders at various levels in the congregation. The number of interns for ordination, by the grace of God, is constantly increasing. Many of them were baptized in our congregation. So, we’ve been able to watch them from the very beginning of their spiritual journey.

I remember Paul, a successful car dealer. He heard about our church from a friend of his. As a self-righteous man, he decided to go and talk to the pastor to show him that if you believe in God, you must be Orthodox. For the first time in his life, he heard the gospel that day. It's been years since then. And this upcoming September, on the birthday of the RBC, he will be ordained as a minister of our congregation, along with three other brothers! This is just the amazing grace of God!

Mercy Ministries

It is impossible to love God and not see the pain and suffering around you. The apostle Paul says these words in his epistle to the Galatians: “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10).

That is why we are cultivating diaconal and counseling ministries. Doing so, we’ve begun to expand care of those around us. More often than not, it represents informal charity service to our neighbors and colleagues, but there are also official ministries, such as a crisis pregnancy center. Often as people go through major life challenges, their hearts soften and are open to hear the good news.

The gospel is a word of comfort not only for the underprivileged and abandoned, but also for those who are self-reliant and outwardly successful. In recent years, we have witnessed more and more people involved in the arts and sciences hear about Christ for the first time through their friends, our church members. Today, there are many scientists, artists, and singers in our congregation—even from the Bolshoi Theatre! Some businesses and firms that are led by our brothers and sisters are experiencing spiritual awakening. Now they have to hire new unbelievers because everyone already working there now believes.

Just yesterday, I received a message from a businessman named Yaroslav, whose life was a total failure and defeat despite his external success. For some reason, he decided to talk to an old acquaintance whose name he coincidentally saw in his notebook. This young lady was from our church. Soon, we talked to this young man about true happiness and a living faith. Today, he is happily a family man, a successful and honest businessman, a small group minister, and a coordinator of the Foundations of Faith group for unbelievers. Every year, we have dozens of completely unchurched people going through this program who, like Yaroslav, have never heard of Noah’s ark or King David. They have never read the Bible! Today, Yaroslav explains the truth to people like these, and preaches the gospel to them.

Please understand—we're not simply trying to grow our church. We're trying to be God's blessing to our city. If we bless our city with the gospel’s presence, then God may grow our church for His glory! Nevertheless, His glory and the needs of others remain our priorities.

Church Planting

We are also quite aware that the church is not just a Sunday meeting. The community of Christ is not just a weekly religious event. We want the gospel to be closer and its presence wider in our city. We hope that someday there will not be a single district in Moscow where people cannot interact with the truth through believers.

Therefore, we sought to localize the presence of the gospel through planting new churches and replanting existing churches. Without the training of mission teams and a strategic and biblical trajectory of development, we cannot expand ministry in our city and beyond. Our first church plant has already begun preparations to plant a new church. The day is near when our congregation will not only be a spiritual mother, but a grandmother in our city! This team will be led by a young lawyer named Alexander, who moved to Moscow several years ago for his career and irrepressible ambitions. He met one of our brothers in a law course, where he first heard about God's law. They debated for over a year until Alexander finally humbled himself before the wisdom and power of God!

Our Prayer

We pray and dream about a Spiritual Awakening in Russia. We, like the Apostle Paul in the past, are creating mission centers in major cities of the country, starting with Moscow. Our motivation is the glory of Christ! Our strategy is spiritually healthy churches, training mature ministers, and sending mission teams to plant new churches. All this will bring glory to our God and bring us closer to the Spiritual Awakening of Russia.

In his sermon “Our Gifts and How to Use Them,” Charles Spurgeon said:

Some people prefer to live where there is light, and for them the choice is wise; but I think, for usefulness, loving hearts might prefer to live in the bad parts of the city that they might do well. Are you doing all you can for Jesus? Come, answer like an honest person!

As a citizen of heavenly Jerusalem, I want to be in Moscow as an ambassador for Christ with His saving gospel! Our mission and calling in Moscow is to bring the eternal values of the heavenly city to this temporal city in which we now live. Granted, we cannot make Moscow a heavenly Jerusalem; such a promise and command for us is not in the Bible. God does not expect this from us, because the new Jerusalem comes down from above—from God. It is the city which was built by God Himself. However, what we can do is share this eternal city through our words and deeds so people may know that it is there and built by God Himself! There is a future, and there is hope.

How can we do this? We must be a living embodiment of this heavenly city here and now, where we live, work, study, and rest. By watching our work, people can notice something supernatural and ask us about the motives behind these good deeds.

We can’t build the New Jerusalem, but we can live by its values. This is our responsibility and privilege as citizens of the best city in the universe. We do not live for earthly things, but focus on the eternal. We are people of the present, living in the future, living on earth in the light of eternity. We are ordinary perishable people who carry the heavenly and divine message to this world.

Therefore, we have a calling in our earthly homeland to strengthen and improve the welfare of our city through art, science, business, service, charity, and most importantly, through the word of truth: gospel proclamation. Through this ministry, we show the reality of the glory, majesty, and beauty of the heavenly Jerusalem. And we display the hope of the gospel to our earthly city!