Saratov, Russia
The Volga region has traditionally been a very important center for church life in Russia, from the times of the German colonists up until today. Saratov is certainly one of the most important cities there, and it was with great joy that I had the chance to visit and teacher there in May.
Together with pastor Andrey Dzhamgarov and Area Dean Alexander Scheiermann, we chose the theme "healthy congregations" for our time together and, after inviting Dean Vladimir Provorov from Ulyanovsk (a good friend of the congregation) to share in teaching duties, we named the seminar "A Healthy Spirit in a Healthy Body." There were approximately 16 attendees from Saratov, Saratov oblast, Ulyanovsk, and Kazan who took part over the first two days, while another group joined us for a summary of the seminary on Sunday after worship.
The group was engaged with the material, and especially enjoyed working together on the Bible in small groups, something that I learned was not typical for them. I personally very much enjoyed seeing the church (an enormous structure that has been and will be under construction for some time), meeting the congregations, and getting acquainted a bit more closely with a pietist tradition congregation in a large, provincial city.
Less successful, it seems, was our choice of dates. The period of late April to the end of May is a great time in Russia, but it is also a time filled with many different holidays, events, and work on the dacha. This probably hurt us in terms of attendance, but we will learn from this experience in order to organize things better next time around.
Bradn Buerkle
The Volga region has traditionally been a very important center for church life in Russia, from the times of the German colonists up until today. Saratov is certainly one of the most important cities there, and it was with great joy that I had the chance to visit and teacher there in May.
Together with pastor Andrey Dzhamgarov and Area Dean Alexander Scheiermann, we chose the theme "healthy congregations" for our time together and, after inviting Dean Vladimir Provorov from Ulyanovsk (a good friend of the congregation) to share in teaching duties, we named the seminar "A Healthy Spirit in a Healthy Body." There were approximately 16 attendees from Saratov, Saratov oblast, Ulyanovsk, and Kazan who took part over the first two days, while another group joined us for a summary of the seminary on Sunday after worship.
The group was engaged with the material, and especially enjoyed working together on the Bible in small groups, something that I learned was not typical for them. I personally very much enjoyed seeing the church (an enormous structure that has been and will be under construction for some time), meeting the congregations, and getting acquainted a bit more closely with a pietist tradition congregation in a large, provincial city.
Less successful, it seems, was our choice of dates. The period of late April to the end of May is a great time in Russia, but it is also a time filled with many different holidays, events, and work on the dacha. This probably hurt us in terms of attendance, but we will learn from this experience in order to organize things better next time around.
Bradn Buerkle
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