New Language, Same Mission

For the first time in the history of our church, First Baptist Dallas now offers a Slavic Sunday School class. More than four million Slavic speakers are living in the United States, with more arriving each day due to the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia. This is a large and growing community that needs the gospel. God is using two of our members, Sergey Primbetov and Vitaliy Orekhov, to teach God’s Word in Russian by co-leading the Славянскую Воскресную Школу (Slavic Sunday School). The class had their first meeting on Sunday, September 1. 

Both Sergey and Vitaliy come from Christian families that faced religious persecution. Sergey moved to the United States from Ukraine in the early 90s and recalled the challenge of finding a strong church. “When I was in Boston, there were very few Bible-based churches. I remember feeling like I was missing a big piece of the community. It made my walk more difficult,” says Sergey. After moving to Dallas to attend Dallas Theological Seminary in 2022, he began attending First Baptist Dallas. Soon, he felt called to help start this Sunday School class, to extend the Bible teaching and community our Sunday School offers to Russian-speaking speakers: “I found out there is a need to give Russian-speaking families what I was missing for years when I was in their shoes. God was calling me to do this.”

Similarly, Vitaliy and his family relocated from Washington D.C. to Dallas a year ago to study at Dallas Theological Seminary. “We visited First Dallas a few times and, over time, decided it was the church for us,” Vitaliy shares. “One of the things that attracted us was biblical preaching and teaching at the Sunday School level, and that has been beneficial.” Once they made First Dallas their church home, they began looking for ways to serve. Vitaliy recalls, “When we first came here, they held a Volunteer Fair with different places to serve; we weren’t really thinking about starting the class yet, but it sparked conversations about where God wanted us to serve.”

Sergey and Vitaliy reached out to Dr. Humberto Gonzalez, our Minister en Español here at First Dallas. Dr. Gonzalez shared about the success the church has had in starting Sunday School classes in Spanish. God began to spark in them the vision for a new class. Vitaliy realized, “If you are being blessed by something, share it with people. I don’t know what my future calling is, but God showed a need and opened my eyes to these things.”

In a brief time, God has already begun using the Slavic Sunday School class in mighty ways to advance the mission of the church. The class has connected existing First Dallas families and opens an opportunity to invite new people. “We had 40 or 50 people attending the first class. Some have been at First Dallas for many years; others were friends we met and invited,” Vitaliy says. Among those who attend is a woman who had been praying for a Russian-speaking community. She had never been to First Dallas before but saw the new class advertised on social media. Without a car, she walked an hour each way just to attend the class and was blessed by her experience. This shows the great hunger for biblical community that exists in our city and how the Slavic Sunday School class is already meeting that need.

The class follows the same curriculum used by other First Dallas adult Sunday School classes, but they translate everything into Russian to help the class members connect and understand God’s truth. The class provides something both familiar and special for Russian-speaking families, especially during a time of great turmoil in Ukraine and Russia. “We are going through a very difficult time spiritually and mentally within the Slavic community,” says Sergey. Their hope for the new class is to ensure that refugees and families don’t have to choose between finding community in their own language or finding trusted biblical teaching. First Baptist Dallas can provide both. “There is a deficit in solid Bible teaching” in Russian, Sergey emphasizes.

Sergey also notes, “This is a very difficult time for Slavic people, and First Dallas is geographically positioned to help us build this platform and develop a new source of productive members for the church.” Vitaliy adds, “The purpose of the class is to help people integrate into American culture in a way that feels familiar while also becoming part of the greater church body.” Sergey and Vitaliy seek to embody the First Dallas mission of transforming the world with God’s Word one life at a time. 

Just as we have seen with First Dallas en Español, there is a way to do effective ministry in other languages that is still integrated into the church body and unified in Jesus Christ. The members of the Slavic Sunday School class are able to understand the truth of God’s Word at a deeper level while connecting with others who speak their native language. At the same time, they are able to benefit from all that First Dallas does to minister to all ages. Vitaliy explains, “Outside of our Sunday School, the larger church community can offer so much: women’s ministries, men’s groups, and children’s programs. If people choose to connect, these are excellent resources, and the church is a great place for that.” 

This new Sunday School class embodies the spirit of Mission 1:8 WIN NOW, our ministry strategy for 2023–2024. Our goal has been to reach as many people as possible as quickly as possible with the gospel of Jesus Christ, as Paul says, that by becoming all things to all people we might save some (1 Corinthians 9:22). In 2023, that led us to invest in First Dallas en Español and the First Dallas Deaf Fellowship. In the last year, we have already seen the Lord reach many people we never could have reached before—through ministry in Spanish and ASL. Now, in 2024, we have seen God open this unexpected door to reach even more people, extending our Sunday School ministry to connect with the Slavic community. 

Sergey and Vitaliy are two First Dallas members who have answered the call to WIN NOW. Vitaliy shared his prayer for the Slavic Sunday School class, that “through all of this, God will be glorified, and more people will grow in their relationship with God and come to know Him.” Be praying with Sergey and Vitaliy that God would use our Sunday School ministry and our entire church to reach many more people who need to know Jesus Christ!