My dear Brothers and Sisters,
I wanted to write you more often than just once a month, but the events of the last 2 weeks
have been so troubling, in good and bad, that I feel compelled to write you sooner than the middle
of October !
Five days after Andrew's baptism, we had Sergey making the decision to leave darkness and coming
into the light : Well, my friends, as incredible as it may appear, the very events of his baptism
literally illustrated this decision ! Late in the evening, as over 20 people were gathered in my
flat to celebrate the event, all of sudden the light went off ! There is not only total darkness
in the whole flat, the electricity has completely shot down in the whole building. You should have
seen the picture : a few persons were holding candles while others were singing and reading some
Scriptures. Some were even holding their tears as Sergey was explaining in front of all how the
love of Christ had changed his life. I could not stop picturing early Christians meeting in
catacombs. But now, get yourself ready for the most amazing of all : Finally after 20 minutes of
"darkness", Sergey steps into the baptistery, makes his public confession of faith, and the very
second he comes out of the water the lights are turned on again !!!! What a glorious symbol ! God
could not choose a better image to remind us what He does in the spiritual realm.
FROM LIGHT TO DARKNESS
Since the Voronezh Church exists, there are very few events that have shaken my heart more than
what happened a few days ago. Dima, the very man I described in my last report, who started
leading the singing this summer, ( married, baptized his wife himself, in his early forties), a
brother I dearly loved, well, he decided to follow the inclinations of his heart. Ever since I
baptized him, he was always very independent. He would rarely show up to the Bible studies,
because he felt he knew better. Judging that he "compensated" his absence by knowing a lot from
the Bible and by coming regularly on Sundays, I never insisted to much. He is this kind of persons
that if you push him, he will go right in the other direction ! And he had changed a lot in the
last year, from being cold and shy to become warm and loving.
In my absence this summer, he had preached once, and encouraged by the experience he started to
wanting more. He preached two Sundays ago, and I thought he was quite good. He is able to express
himself with convictions and a lot of emotions, a quality very appealing to Russians. Sensing
some good potential, but being inwardly concerned at the same time by some of his doctrinal views,
( for instance he openly said that women should wear the veil in the assembly ), I asked him if he
Wanted to come to my place so we could talk more. He immediately refused which surprised me
very much. And than quoting 1 John 2:27 (... You do not need anyone to teach you...the Spirit
teaches you about all things... ) he added that he did not need anyone to teach him about
anything. At this point, all the red flags went up but I did not insist further because his pride
was too obvious. I invited him to come to the mid-week Bible study to consider some of the
doctrinal points he had risen. He came, but instead of asking and studying , he started
monopolizing all the attention on him. When he started to preach about the fact that one can
be born again before baptism or that a Christian can't loose his salvation and that God has
predestined some to be saved and others to be lost, than he really got my attention !!!! I gently
tried to correct his views with the Bible, but that did not really stop him. The next day, we went
to his place with Volodia Skritski. I told him that it was not appropriate to bring doctrines that
as a leadership we did not agree and had not talked about together before the meeting. But the
worse, I told him, was the fact that he had openly argued in a critical and divisive spirit in
front of all the members He said he would not do this again; but he added as well that there was
a burning fire that God had put on his heart. After this meeting, Volodia was satisfied and most
other people in the church thought that the tension between me and Dima was just a personality
conflict that would pass away. I was not at peace ; I had this nagging feeling that Dima was not
understanding anything at all. I got that confirmation on Sunday during the worship service. Dima
came to Vladick, who was supposed to preach, and strongly demanded to have the opportunity to
preach. He added that he would not say anything against me, he just wanted to teach about faith.
Vladick asked me what I thought, and I purposely said : "This is a decision between you, the
Russian leaders." They decided to let him speak. Putting all my trust in the Almighty, I nervously
sat down and prayed : " Lord, whatever happens, turn this situation to your Glory, you have the
control of all things "
Well, the answer came rather quickly : as soon as Dima opened his mouth he started to indirectly,
but very clearly criticize me and the church. With passion and eloquence, he said that the
doctrine was not so important and that we should let God speak more to our hearts. Vladick and
Volodia were shocked, and I was very hurt. Vladick came to talk to him right after the fellowship
break ( which we have in the middle of the service ), but he would not see anything wrong in what
he said. Not a single iota.
I hesitated a long time, and finally by the end of the service I decided to speak openly to the
whole church. I talked in such a way as to present the whole truth, but in such a loving and
gentle way as to give him the chance to respond with reconciliation. I knew that attacking him in
front of all would only turn him against me. When I finished, I sat down with a heavy heart and
hoped for the miracle of love. It never came. Instead Dima immediately replied that we should be
humble only before God, that I was an hypocrite and that I needed to be rebuked in front of all !
Man, you should have been there ! A sister jumped on him saying that a humility that is not shown
before men has no value before God, a woman visitor tried to preach an impossible reconciliation,
my wife was crying, and finally Vladick got up. With tears in the eyes, he expressed how
distressed he was, and he asked everyone to pray with him. Than groups of people came to hug me,
others Dima, and my wife and I went home with heavy hearts.
At that point I did not know what to think. Was the church and the leadership seeing what I was
seeing ? How much would all this divide the church ? Would the church survive a split ? should I
leave Voronezh for the sake of this church I so dearly loved ?
Vladick and Volodia called me about 2 hours later and said they had talked with many of the close
friends of Dima and explained the whole situation. Acting swiftly and firmly, they corrected the
situation and exposed the truth. Having seen clearly what Dima had done, they were now convinced
for themselves. A great relief came on my heart. The truth was triumphing.
On Tuesday night the women studied 1 Tim. 4 : 16, last night Vladick taught on Rom. 16 : 17 .
I believe the situation is now redressed.
In all this, God protected His church while teaching us some very important lessons.
The leaders have now understood that there are standards of leadership, not everyone who wants to
speak will be allowed to speak ( potential speakers/leaders need to be tested (1 Tim. 3: 6 + 10
)), humility and listening to each other as leaders is not an option, it is absolutely essential
for the unity of the church, and the leaders were forced to accept that in some situations one
cannot remain neutral. The church has better understood that doctrinal purity is not just a nice
concept, it is essential to unity. But I hope that the greatest lesson of all is that there will
always be room for some disagreements in the church, as long as one is willing to solve them in a
peaceful and loving way.
Please do pray for the Church and Dima. With God, all things are possible.
In all this God has glorified His name : it was the first real dangerous attack of Satan on the
church since her beginning, and instead of weakening her, it has made her even stronger !
TURNING THE DARKNESS INTO LIGHT
Consider the following and stand in awe of God's power and wisdom: Daniel, one of our students who
has been coming regularly to church for the last 6 months has decided to be baptized this week.
When asked why, he said that when he saw all what happened on last Sunday, he was moved to give
his life to Christ. Completely amazed, I asked " Why ??? It seems that all this mess should have
turned you off ! " He replied : " No, quite the contrary. When I saw Vladick tears and how much
you Christians love each other, how precious is unity to you all, I understood how real your love
is ! "
We truly serve an amazing God in an amazing Church !
To Him be the glory !
Your Yves
Picture Attachments: