The Impact of One Man with a Church: Training Pastors in Russia

A couple years ago, 9Marks sent one man back to Russia to be our pointman for translating resources and building relationships.

Yet he didn’t do his work alone. His church in Moscow began to encourage both him and the work. He and his pastor began talking about biblical ecclesiology. The church grew in maturity. Other pastors began paying attention. And now this man’s church has became a launchpad for still further work in strengthening churches.

Fast forward to May 2018: fourteen Russian pastors crossed the Atlantic Ocean to attend a ten-day 9Marks International Intensive, led by this man and his Russian pastor. What did they learn? Watch this video and hear directly from them.

The relationships from the Intensive paved the way for 9Marks to supply material for a Russian blog. Over the past seven months, these biblical ideas have spread around Russia.

In fact, enough interest grew that a national conference seemed like a good idea. So this past October, Mark Dever traveled to Moscow and spoke to 500 Russian pastors from 100+ cities—from the far eastern parts of Siberia to the far west of Russia. Each attendee received twelve books, including five 9Marks titles and a three-volume set of Calvin’s New Testament Commentary.

Books have ideas. And those ideas are spreading. Russian pastors are changing Russian churches. And 9Marks is helping. Praise God.