On April 28, thirty young men and women were baptized during a joint service of the Russian and English church service at Grace Family Church. There were a lot of guests, a beautifully-decorated stage and baptistry, and special testimonies of those who were getting baptized, which made this church service very joyful and special.
Over the course of many months, a group of church pastors were meeting with the baptism candidates for systematic lessons. Pastors Yevgeniy Bardosh and Andrey Kobzar taught in English, and Sergey Nyagov and Timothy Agrachkov taught in Russian so that everyone was able to learn in the language they were comfortable in. The lessons plan included the foundations of the faith and doctrines of the Bible. At the end of the classes, the baptism candidates also learned about the rules of the local church, its structure, and their responsibilities.
After all of the instructional sesssions were over, there was also a meeting with the elders of the church as well which was also open for every church member to visit as well. This way, it wasn’t only for just the baptism candidates and pastors, but friends, family, and any church member could come to support the candidates, or to ask some questions. Every person shared their testimony and expressed their reasons for why they would like to get baptized. Every story was very unique and testified of a special work of God in the hearts of people.
The baptism ceremony took place in the church baptistry on the main stage. One by one, young men and women entered the baptistry as their testimony was being shown on screen, and after that, they boldly confessed their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior as pastors Yevgeniy Bardosh and Daniel Muzychenko were baptizing them.
After all their testimonies and being baptized, there was a small break, followed by a time of prayer and sermon, and concluded with Communion. This was a special and joyful church service. The whole sanctuary was full of excitement as the newly baptized church members received specialized Bibles, certificates, and large bouquets of flowers!
However, the work with these new church members did not end. A group of pastors will continue to pay special attention to them, and make sure that every one of them will be involved in small groups and service for the church.
Those who don’t know this church very well are sometimes asking why doesn’t this church do altar calls. The church’s pastor, Dmitriy Zherebnenkov answered this question as follows: “Salvation of the souls is the work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot dictate to Him when, and how He should be saving them. However, we preach the Gospel in every one of our church services, camps, and during our small groups. After the sermon, if people have questions and woluld like to talk to a pastor, we are offering them that opportunity after the church service. I also pray after church service with these people. And this baptism of 30 people is a testimony to God’s saving work in our church. In fact, we have others who expressed their desire to be baptized and we are planning to start another group soon.”
We congratulate the new church members of this church, and wish them God’s guidance in their Christian walk. May God grant them the ability to continue to follow Him, and be faithful to Him to the end of their life here on earth, and to glorify Him in everything that they will be doing and going through in their lives.
Recording of the baptism service can be found here.
Recording of an interview with Pastor D. Zherebnenkov can be found here.
Olga Avetisova
