New Life Church of Bezchitsa, Russia

Pastor Dema Redin

Pastor Dema Redin

The City of New Bezchitsa:  The city of Bryansk has four major districts to it and the region of Bezchitsa is its northern district.  The north end of the Bezchitsa district is divided by the regional train tracks that come into the Bezchitsa train station. Along those train tracks are numerous factories , metal, concrete, steel, all which help draw a sort of divide Bezchitsa in half. This  is the area they call “New Bezchitsa.”  There are really on two major accesses into New Bezchitsa from the main part of town, one that drives across the train tracks on the east end, and one that has a major bridge crossing the tracks on the west end.  The major highway across that bridge leads north out of this part of town heads straight to Dyatkovo and all points north. This part of town is home to the famous Bryansk candy factory that employs thousands. The housing in this area is pretty typical of other parts of the Bryansk city, a great number of older soviet style apartments sprinkled in with homes and plenty of small shops, businesses, and a few restaurants. Public transportation in all of Bryansk is constant and amazingly good, so people move easily from one end of town to the other, and work from end of town to the other. New Bezchitsa is primarily a “suburb” type of housing area where people live, and then they tend to work somewhere else in the Bryansk city area.  There are 70,000 residents living in the New Bezchitsa part of town.

New Life Church:  Several years ago the large and influential Bezchitsa Baptist Church launched a campaign to start many new churches in the city and the oblast. They began to train new church leaders and pastors. New Life Church and Pastor Dema Redin came out of this campaign. The Baptist Church had the opportunity to purchase an old run down house and a plot of land located just on the north side of that major bridge and public transportation

between Bezchitsa and New Bezchitsa. It is 3 blocks down the street from that famous Bryansk candy factory that employs thousands of workers. Recently one of the largest grocery store chains has built a major store just 2 blocks from this church facility. Bezchitsa Baptist Church purchased the land even before the church was ever formed, which was great insight on their part.

Dema Redin is a younger man that came to Christ out of his search for God during his Russian Army days. He was your typical Russian youth that grew up in the Bryansk area. He was heavily into athletics, outdoor activities. He even looks a little like the Russian boxer that faced Rocky Balboa in one of those “Rocky” movies. He’s blond, pretty tall, athletic, and in shape. He grew up with a good appreciation for family, but no one in his family was a believer or connected with a church.  It was during those Army days that he was struck with the need for something more in life.  He searched in the only place he knew might have some answers, the Orthodox Church. He came to some understanding of God in a minimal way, but still was not satisfied. Along the

way he met his wife and they fell in love and got married. In the mid 1990’s in the city of Bryansk a major campaign was launched by the evangelistic churches with several major crusade type of events. It was during this time that Dema and his wife came face to face with a relationship with Christ and accepted him as their Savior. Soon thereafter they began slowly to attend the local Baptist Church in Bezchitsa. It took a great deal of adjustment on their part, but some good people brought them in and mentored them. Dema became very close to and was mentored heavily by the Senior Pastor at the church at that time, Sergei Hovlov. Eventually Dema joined some Bible classes and ministry classes, and felt called to a Pastoral and teaching ministry. As the Bezchitsa Church developed their plan of planting a new church in the New Bezchitsa district, this property was purchased, and eventually Dema rose to the challenge to plant the church. Out of this vision and plan, New Life Church was formed. They began early on as a home group type of situation. They officially launched New Life in 2005 with a handful of people, old and young, and began meeting in the little house that was on this property.

Dema and his wife have four young children ranging in ages from 12 to 5. They are a busy family with business, pasturing, and also doing remodel on their large home in Bezchitsa. Dema for a living is sort of a medical equipment salesman. He is most definitely bi-vocational as a pastor.

Ministries of Significance

Sports: This is primarily born out of the love of sports that Dema has. He is not only a member of a football (soccer) club where he plays in a city league, but he is developing a sports team of his own as an evangelistic tool to reach out to young people in ministry. This is still in its infancy, but Dema has a great desire to develop this and reach young people.  His leadership team at the church have a dream of somehow owning or running a gym type facility of their own so that can develop sports evangelism.

Social Ministries:  There have already been a few occurances where the members of New Life Church went out in a social ministry fashion in their community and cleaned up people’s yards, houses, and even did some painting. At one such event many of the neighbors were astounded that a group would come and do such a thing, and they were even more astounded when they discovered they were from the New Life Church taking on such a project. This ministry is also very much in its infancy however.

Kids Program: Each Wednesday during most of the year there is a Kids Club that meets at the little church building. Some of the older ladies come in and provide some refreshments. They bring in a ping pong table, and have some structured game time as well as study – lesson time with the children. This has been primarily an outreach event they do. There have been some resistance from the community at large and some families of the kids when their parents discovered that it was a Christian church providing this after school program. But some of these children have ended up going to the summer camp program and have come to faith in Christ.

The Church Facility: There is not a lot that can be said for this church facility other than it is a small house. They have done some limited remodel to it. It has a small kitchen, an indoor toilet, and a room. When you first go into the room looks like you might be able to get 20 people or so in it. On a Sunday morning New Life has a worship service with about 50 attendees. During the fall of 2008 they are adding on to the church facility which will more than double the size of the facility. The new part will be the place of worship, and the older part will be the children’s area. They have put a pretty good looking sign on the front of the building and put some nice siding on the outside. But the best part about the facility is actually its location. They are one of the most visible sights as you come across the major bridge to this part of town.

Strengths

A Young energetic Pastor: Dema is a strength for this church. He has a good background of understanding the common unreached Russian. He did not grow up Baptist which is a major plus, and he seems to be able to move beyond many older traditional ways of thinking and ministry in a more comfortable fashion. Dema has many dreams about his church which I believe are valid. He wants this church to be a 7 day a week work and ministry place; a café, coffee shop, internet use after school facility, and even a location for sports and sports teams. His vision of ministry is something that touches people where they live today.

Younger Leaders: By all appearances there is a good solid leadership team of young men who lead the way with work and service.  Vlad, Sasha, and Michael are three of these leading men, and there are others. They are young men with young families and they are enthusiastically involved in many areas of this churches life.  My evaluation is that when you have a young group of guys like this that jump in and get involved, you can go places.

A thoughtful and planned Worship Service: Even though their facility is terribly lacking, they actually are in many ways more organized in their worship services than many of the other larger existing churches I have attended. They print out a bulletin and don’t seem to be bound by the traditional Baptist formula of the conduct of the worship service itself.

Goals, Dreams and Desires from Pastor Dema and his leadership Team:

• To finish the new part of the worship center. They are more than doubling the size of their building with a new worship room.
• Convert the older worship room into a Sunday School area for children
• Develop the whole building into a Christian Store, with internet access, game room, good music that is Christian, and some positive influences on children and families
• Add new floors onto the building every time they need new space
• Develop sports leagues that will build relationships with unbelievers

New Life Church truly has the chance to become a good solid church in this part of the city. They are very much in the early and beginning stages as a church trying to figure out who they really are and what they should become. Their facility location is pretty amazing, and the last thing  they need is to have a monstrous traditional church building. What they need is a multi-use facility that has an active ongoing ministry, much like what Dema dreams for. There is very little spiritual influence from a church in the New Bezchitsa area. There is an active Orthodox Church, and one very small Pentecostal Church. This is great ground for an active and progressive Church ministry. But New Life is young. The Church Health needs to be measured in such a way as to help them form strong healthy habits now before they grow much older, and they are harder to change. They have such good active young leadership now that could be molded in a fresh new way to carry out ministry in the modern world we live in. My final evaluation is to get this church going in a healthy way now because it is so young. They can be a good solid and influential church in this area, but these next 5 years are critical in that development.

Travis McIntosh, Pastor Beverly Park Baptist Church Seattle, partnering with New Life Church

The Partner Church: The partnering relationship with New Life needs to come to the table with this in mind. They have an opportunity to help form a new church in a new way for a new Russia… today. Beverly Park Baptist Church in south Seattle has come to agree to be this partner. Their Pastor Travis McIntosh is a relatively new Pastor that has already seen in just over a year a resurgence of growth from an older and changing congregation. Travis has helped bring a fresh set of eyes and a new heart to this ministry.

A Prayer for New Life Baptist Church of New Bezchitsa (Bryansk), Russia… and their partner Beverly Park Baptist Church of Seattle, Washington USA

Almighty God, thank you for bringing New Life Church into this community of 70,000 people who are in great need of you. May the citizens of this community come to know you by seeing  the active hands and feet of Christ through the members of this New Life Church family. May they be the light that shines in the darkness for so many in this community who are seeking you.  May you bless Pastor Dema Redin, his wife, and their young children.  May you protect them and keep them close in your hands. Give them a great vision, along with the wisdom to know what to do with that vision, and an even greater courage to boldly live these dreams. We ask for your hand of strength and blessing on the young leaders of this new congregation…young men and women who so badly want to be used by you to do your work. Help them to be faithful to you, available for your work, with a teachable of heart, as they boldly lead your church.  May you bring renewal and revival to the people of the city of New Bezchitsa, seeing thousands of people come to faith and trust in you for their lives and their eternal destiny. May you raise this Church Body up to grow in healthy ways, so that they will become a bright light of hope to so many who seek you, and an example to so many other church congregations in this city and in other parts of Russia. Only you can carry out this great plan, and we humble bring this request to you.

May you bring out of this partnering relationship with Beverly Park Baptist Church in Seattle the same kind of zeal and passion for health, growth, and reaching out the lost on in this city as well. We pray for Pastor Travis McIntosh, his wife Jennifer, and their four young children. God may you be with and strengthen the leadership of Beverly Park Baptist Church.  May you give them great vision, and even greater courage as they face the needs of a transitional neighborhood and a spiritually dark population surrounding them. We pray for the entire church family of Beverly Park as they carry out God’s work individually and collectively.  May you help them to grow healthy and become that bright light of hope that spreads to other parts of Seattle, their nation, and those parts of the world that you have called them to serve.

We come to you realizing that you are not restricted by nor partial to the national borders that separate governments and people. You have no preferences to languages, cultures or tribes. You know people not by whether they are rich or poor, dark or light, this language or that one… but whether they are lost or found. Help us as your people to connect with human souls and show them in a clear way how to come into a relationship with the God of the Universe in Jesus Christ. Help us as the members of your Church Body to strive for health, so that we may grow your kingdom’s work and see it multiply in a transformational way in the hearts and lives of the souls you love. In Jesus’ name, Amen