Weekly Newsletter 04/20/2023

Peace to you!

There are 3 things I want us to look at this week:

1) A romantic evening for couples is coming up on May 6. Beloved, we don’t even notice how fast time flies by and how fast we grow up and get used to or even forget about the main things in a relationship. It is important to periodically stop and more carefully examine things we have gotten used to, for example, the relationship between a husband and a wife. We often think about this relationship when things are going south or there are various struggles, but so often we don’t stop to think about it when things are going well. We hold such events to encourage couples to strengthen their relationships and grow in their gospel relations inside the family. This year, besides inviting our speaker Andrey Rezunenko, we have also invited Nikolay Pastukhov to fill the night with good music and singing. Please try to make it to this event.

https://mygracefamilychurch.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/1718226

2) On April 30^th at 5:00 PM something special will happen in the life of the church – a baptism! As usual, here are the names of all the candidates who have gone through the interview with the elder board. We ask you to pray for all of them. And if you have any questions or comments regarding any of them, please let any member of the elder board know.

Yevgeniya Chazov

Mariya Trikolich

Mark Neagov

Leon Osipov

Martin Chorney

Iliya Nahornyak

Emily Konovalchuk

Andrey Laptev

Daniil Sarumov

Karina Gubceac

Viktoria Dragni

Nik Tarasov

Andrey Ryzhov

Alina Archibasova

Karina Kapakly

Tanya Sandulova

3) Our bookstore recently obtained some new books. Unfortunately, because of busyness, reading is of lower priority for many people. But we understand that a believer is called to spend a good amount of time in the word (Jos. 1:8) in order to be a spiritually influential and healthy Christian (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Besides the Scriptures, there is much other good and healthy biblical literature. Our bookstore exists specifically for this purpose, to equip us with good and useful resources. Read books yourselves and gift them to each other.

As an encouragement, here are a few quotes from a book I recently read, The Compelling Community by Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop.

“In “gospel-plus” community, church leaders enthusiastically use similarity to build community. But as a whole, this community says little about the power of the gospel. Contrast this with “gospel-revealing” community. In gospel-revealing community, many relationships would never exist but for the truth and power of the gospel—either because of the depth of care for each other or because two people in relationship have little in common but Christ.” (p. 22)

“In fact, one sign that many in your congregation are not regenerate is how hard you have to work to motivate them. If an attraction ministry has gathered a congregation of Christians in name only, you will have to manipulate or coerce them into acting like followers of Jesus.” (p. 46)

“At its core, every problem in your congregation is a problem of unbelief. If you want to form a culture of discipling in your church, your people must believe Jesus’ words. They must believe that ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35). They must believe that they will grow best as they help others grow.” (p. 89)

“God loves to defend his reputation. When we pray together, our needs become public. When he answers, his glory becomes public.” (p. 107)

“By way of analogy, if you want to heat a large room with a fire place of burning coals, what do you do? Do you spread the coals evenly through the room? No! You push the coals together—and as they burn brighter and hotter, the fire’s warmth fills the space. If you decide to follow the advice for fostering community that I’ve laid out in this book, you must believe that God’s plan for reaching the lost is for local churches to burn brighter and hotter. You must believe that in the long run, the exclusivity that fuels a blazing hot community of believers can do far more gospel work than watering down breadth and depth of commitment in order to feel inclusive.” (p. 127)

Book Recommendations:

¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 

¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 

²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

• Thursday (6:30 PM) – Kid’s Bible School (open to all but required for parents), followed by Bible Study (Proverbs) for the whole church at 7:30 PM.
• Worship Service in Russian at 9:00 AM
• Worship Service in English at 11:15 AM