The Agony and the Ecstasy, Part 2

March, 2004

by: Jack Hughes

In December of 2003, Sean Cullen, the Missions Committee Chairman of Calvary Bible Church and I traveled half way around the world to Samara, Russia to minister to the Russian pastors and churches, and to investigate the possibility of future missions involvement there. For the Calvary Review I decided to write a two–part series entitled “The Agony and the Ecstasy,” a name taken from Irving Stone's book, later made into a movie, about the life of Michelangelo, the world renowned artist. Stone's book portrays the agony and ecstasy of Michelangelo's life as he worked to paint the frescoes on the ceiling of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. When thinking of our trip to Russia, this title came to mind. Getting to Samara, Russia is an agony, but the ministry there is ecstasy. Since last Calvary Review was written to describe the pains of traveling to Russia, I want to use this issue of the Calvary Review to describe the ecstasy we had while ministering there.

After arriving in Russia, they gave us one day of acclimation time. It is kind of like when you buy a fish at a pet store for your aquarium, you let them float around in the bag you purchased them in for a while before setting them free in the tank. So they let us float around with no responsibilities for a day and then let us loose in the waters of Russian ministry. With twelve hours of jet lag this was a great act of kindness and mercy. It was during our first day in Russia that I was able to do most of my site seeing.The rest of the time I was busy teaching, preaching, and going to meetings. Sean, on the other hand, was able to get out more and his experience was significantly different than mine as they exposed him to a wider range of activities. If you want to know about Sean's activities, you will have to talk to him about that.

The Samara Theological Institute

The primary purpose that I went to Samara, Russia was to teach a class on “Preaching the Gospels and Acts” to a group of Russian pastors enrolled in the Samara Theological Institute. The institute is a joint ministry of the main central Baptist Church in Samara (Church of the Transfiguration) and Grace Ministries International of Grace Community Church. The focus of the institute is to train Russian pastors to better teach and preach the Word of God. Because of this, all of the classes offered in the institute are designed to help pastors become Biblical expositors or better Biblical expositors. Some of the pastors who have graduated from the institute have become full–time students in the Seminary which is also part of the ministryof Central Church and Grace Ministries International. The difference between the Institute and the Seminary is that the institute classes are only offered in two week sections three times a year while the seminary is for full–time students who are resident all year.

Most Russian pastors are not supported by their churches. They work secular jobs to support themselves and the churches they pastor rely on them to shepherd and preach God's Word. Yet, many desperately need training. So the institute has designed their program to accommodate the specific needs of Russian pastors. Three times a year, pastors in the region leave after their Sunday morning services and travel by car or train to the Institute in Samara for two weeks of training. Some have to travel up to 1,500 kilometers and arrive late Monday night tired and worn out. This is why classes start on Tuesday during the first week of each session. Then all day long, Tuesday through Friday, and half of Saturday, the pastors sit in a classroom where a variety of instructors teach classes on topics related to expository preaching. Late in the afternoon students participate in preaching labs where they are able to apply what they are learning in their classes and receive constructive criticism.

On Sunday, the pastors are able to attend any number of local churches but most attend Central Church. For the second week, classes start on Monday and students study all day, Monday through Thursday and then a half day on Friday. This allows them to have enough time to travel to their home churches so they can preach on Sunday morning. The program allows the students to get in two weeks of training but only miss one Sunday at their home churches. I came to teach the first week of one of the two week sessions.

While the pastors are attending classes at the institute, they are housed by members of Central Church and the institute feeds the men in the church cafeteria. Yet even with all of this help, it is still a great sacrifice for the pastors to come to the institute. Most of the students who come miss work for two weeks in a row, three times a year. This works out to them having to give up six weeks of pay to study to become better preachers of the Word of God! Their desire to become better preachers is evident in class as they are very hungry to learn, even when it means listening to someone speak in a foreign language with a translator all day long. If you have never heard someone teach through a translator, it is about as exciting as waiting in line at the Post Office during Christmas time.

Teaching at the Institute

Teaching through a translator is painful for both teacher and student for several reasons. First, the teacher is unable to model good teaching techniques because he has to stop after every sentence to allow for translation. Secondly, the translator doesn't always communicate clearly what the teacher is trying to say. Third, interaction is stilted because everything must flow through a translator in both directions. Fourth, you can only teach about 60 percent as fast as you can without a translator. All this makes for very tedious teaching and learning. Nevertheless, the Russian pastors sit attentively and are willing to endure all of this in order to become better preachers.

So my normal day went something like this. Get up in the morning, get dressed, study and prepare for the day, have breakfast, travel to the Institute in the dark, teach for an hour or so, have a break, teach for another hour or so, have another break, teach for an hour or so, and have lunch, etc., etc. until late afternoon when the men would break up for their preaching labs. During preaching labs I would study and go over material for the next day and sermons to preach that week. When the preaching labs were done, we would drive back home in the dark.

Yet this particular trip to Russia included some special opportunities to minister to the Russian Pastors. The main pastor/teacher of Central Church, Pastor Victor knew that many pastors in the region would already be attending the institute, so he organized a pastors' conference Friday through Sunday. Pastor Victor is the head of all the Russian Baptist churches in that area. He asked if I would be willing to preach to the Russian pastors on the topic of being in the world but not of the world. This was a once–in–a–life–time opportunity as pastors were there from almost every church in the region. The main central church was packed out. Every pew was full, every seat was taken in the balcony and there was standing room only in the foyer. I preached that Friday for two hours. Afterwards, Sean gave them a greeting from Calvary Bible Church and then they opened it up for a question and answer time, and Sean and I were able to explain to them our position on a variety of practical theological and missions related topics. According to Pastor Victor the men were very blessed. He said it was “like oil to their souls.”

Evening Activities

During the evenings we did a variety of things. Sometimes we ate at the missionary's house where we were staying. I stayed at a missionary couple's house sent out from Grace Ministries International, John and Denise Snyder. John and Denise have two boys, Jacob and Jordan. On two different evenings we had dinner and meetings with Pastor Victor and his right hand man, Oleg. We talked about the churches in Russia, Russian pastors, and how we might be able to minister to them. One night we ate dinner with the seminary students and had a question and answer time followed by a chance to give them a “one important thing to remember” devotion. Another night we gathered with all of the missionaries for dinner and fellowship. So every night was a time offellowship, planning, teaching, learning, and eating.

Sunday's Activities

Sunday was the highlight of the week as might be expected. In Russian Churches they usually have three preachers preach three sermons. The first two preachers preach shorter sermons and the last preacher preaches a longer sermon. They get this from I Cor. 14:27 where in the context of speaking in tongues Paul says, “If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and one must interpret.” While the context is talking about the supernatural gift of tongues, they believe the principle of “two or three” still applies. Ironically, when I preached there, I needed an interpreter as I was speaking in a known language that was unknown to most of the Russians attending the service.

Before the preaching time began, there was a call to worship, prayer, congregational singing, and several children of various ages either sang or recited poetry with perfect precision. It was amazing to see a five year old boy step up in front of a packed out congregation of about five hundred or more people, and look them in the face and recite a piece of poetry. I couldn't help but think of Psa. 8:2 which speaks of God establishing strength “from the mouth of infants and nursing babes.”

Also during the service a couple came forward and told the congregation they were leaving Russia for the United States. The poverty is so severe in Russia that many young couples save up and apply for refugee status. If they get accepted, they leave for America where our government gives them many free things which they could never afford in Russia. They are often given training, money for rent, help getting employment or business loans for starting their own business. This has caused many of the younger, more entrepreneurial Russians to leave the country in search of a better standard of living in the United States.

Sadly, some of these people are faithful servants in the church. This causes mixed feelings for the Russians who want to see their brothers and sisters in Christ prosper, but yet desperately need these young energetic people to stay and help build the church in Russia. The couple who were leaving asked the entire congregation for forgiveness. With heads bowed low they expressed their love and thankfulness to God for the people of Central Church and said goodbye. There was a prayer for them and the whole event was very sobering.

Then came the preaching. First, one of the elders gave a very good lesson from the Book of Galatians. They skipped the second preacher and let me have longer to preach since I needed to be translated. I preached a sermon on the importance of preaching, teaching, and obeying the Word of God from Amos 8:11. In the sermon I mentioned how not wanting to know, obey, or tell others about the Word of God might be a sign of spiritual deadness. I gave a mild Gospel presentation, a call to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and then after the sermon prayed and sat down. Immediately a young lady came forward in tears, repented of her sins in front of the packed out church and gave her life to Jesus Christ. It was worth the entire trip just to see this miracle of God take place. A good portion of the church was in tears.

After the Sunday morning services we had lunch and then I prepared to preach at another church that evening. Church of the Resurrection is where John and Denise Snyder serve. The church has about one hundred attendees. For years they have been nomadic, roaming from place to place without a place to call home. For a while they ended up in a chemical factory but there was no heat, and in the winter they had to worship when the temperature was about twenty degrees. This makes worshiping difficult. The best thing about worshiping in sub–freezing temperatures is that no one falls asleep. Recently, by the providence of God, a local Lutheran Church with an older but nice church building offered to let them use their facilities in the evening for evening services. Now they have a nice warm church building to meet in. This is where I preached on Sunday evening. My translator was a daughter of the pastor of Resurrection Church. After evening services it was time to go home and pack up for the agonizing trip home. One lesson to learn from all of this is that some of the most agonizing things in our walks as Christians lead us to the greatest ecstasies of joy.