LEWISVILLE—In its eight-year existence, El Companerismo Biblico El Camino of Lewisville has planted and supported churches and ministries around the world. The Spanish-language church’s latest ministry project, a Russian-language church plant, is only 20 miles away in distance but a world away in culture.

 

The two churches may seem an unlikely tandem. The pastors, though from different cultures and upbringings, share a common commitment to missions and church planting. Their current ministries give immigrants who might otherwise feel disconnected within their new communities a sense of belonging in a fellowship of believers.

 

“I’ve always had a burden for missions,” said Felix Cornier, pastor of El Camino and an SBTC church planting consultant. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York, Cornier did not learn to speak Spanish until he was 21. At El Camino he has worked to create a mission-minded church. The fruit of their faith is reflected in a budget that sets aside 20 percent for missions, including the SBTC and the Cooperative Program missions funding plan.

 

“That,” Cornier said, “is non-negotiable.”

 

The Hispanic congregation financially and prayerfully supports Russian Bible Church, an SBTC congregation whose pastor, Josef Lozovyy, is an accomplished violinist. El Camino mission coordinator John McLaughlin said their support has not been with physical help, in part due to logistics. Both congregations are spread throughout the Dallas area. The financial assistance, he said, allows the Russian church to develop as God leads.

 

“We want to take a backseat and let God lead the Russian church. This was the most effective way of helping,” McLaughlin said.

 

Lozovyy contacted Cornier in 2007 about supporting the start of a Russian-language church in the Richardson area. He said he contacted the SBTC because the Southern Baptist Convention had been a significant help when his father was involved in church planting in Ohio.

 

The decision to assist the upstart Russian church was not a difficult one for the small Hispanic church, the majority of whom, Cornier said, are new believers. Launched in 2000, El Camino is a fellowship with a common faith and language but a variety of backgrounds. The congregation of 147 has an average age of 37. They are young couples, day laborers, and professionals. Some are American by birth while others are immigrants from numerous Spanish-language nations—Mexico, El Salvador, Argentina, and Puerto Rico.

 

Although they did not share a common native tongue, they shared a common experience with their Russian brothers and sisters and even if the support funds had to come out of his own salary, Cornier said he was determined to help.

 

It was not Lozovyy’s first effort to start a Russian-language church in North Texas.

As a seminary student in Dallas in the late 1990s he made three attempts in two years to start a congregation but his efforts bore no fruit. The opportunity for continued education took him from Dallas back to Ohio where his family had first immigrated in 1992 when Lozovyy was 19 years old. His father, Teodoziy, had been a Protestant church planter in Russia and it was in that spiritually bleak land that Lozovyy’s Christian education began.

 

In Russia before the Glasnost reforms of the 1980s, the Lozovyy family at times found themselves the only confessing Christians they knew of. It was also illegal, he said, for parents to take their children to church.

 

“The main desire of my father was to educate his family in music and worship. Second was theological education,” Lozovyy recalled.

 

To that end Teodoziy Lozovyy was quite successful. All six children are involved in ministry, some at Russian Bible Church. Josef earned his master’s degree from seminary. And he and his siblings are all accomplished musicians. Music, he said, plays an important role in Russian culture and worship and has been a draw to the services, even attracting some Russian Jews who appreciate the music and camaraderie with fellow expatriates.

 

But when Lozovyy first approached Cornier about starting the church, Cornier questioned, “How many Russians are out there?”

 

With Hispanics making up 37.7 percent of the population in Dallas County alone, according to the U.S. Census, the need for reaching Hispanics is apparent. But the Russian population is not so readily visible. Lozovyy estimated there are more than 20,000 Russia immigrants in North Texas.

 

Russian Bible Church began in 2008 with Saturday night Bible studies, mostly attended by Lozovyy’s family and a few other Russian speakers. But the word spread and more began to attend. The group of 30-40 now meets Sundays at 2 p.m. at Northrich Baptist Church in Richardson. One Russian family from Houston makes the 254-mile trip to church once a month because they can find no evangelical Russian services in their area.

 

When the pastors and McLaughlin were finally able to share a worship service together—the two congregations have not met—Cornier and McLaughlin said they were struck by the professionalism and talent of Lozovyy and the Russian church leadership. McLaughlin said before he visited Russian Bible Church he had some preconceived ideas of what to expect.

 

“Just from some of my schooling I was anticipating a more orthodox, formal setting. You just have these pictures,” he recalled.

 

He said the service, given in Russian, was reverent and reflective of the culture and the people leading were “incredibly talented.”

 

Lozovyy said it is very important to him that their services “emphasize quality, quality, quality—the message, the preaching, the music.”

 

He said he is aware that some people come to church simply for the fellowship of those who share a common language, not a common faith. So presenting the truth of the gospel in an environment that reveals a depth of earnestness and a desire to draw people to Christ is paramount.

 

Ultimately, it is the language that draws people to both congregations. Though most, if not all, of the members of each church speak and understand English fluently, the language of worship for them is their native language. By teaching and worshiping in their respective languages the Russians and Latinos are able to keep subsequent generations connected to the heritage of their families while at the same time drawing unbelievers into the family of God.

 

Cornier and Lozovyy said they recognize the need to appeal to young people, especially native-born children. At El Camino, youth activities and children’s Sunday School classes are taught in English because it is predominant in their lives. Lozovyy said his church most likely would eventually become bilingual for the same reasons.

For both congregations the services are in their native language.

 

For the Russians, Lozovyy said, assimilation into an English-language church, an established “American” church, is about more than just the manner of speech. There are cultural differences to which each society clings, such as the ordinances of communion and baptism.

 

For example, in traditional Southern Baptist churches when an individual makes a profession of faith, Lozovy said they can be baptized right away. For Russian Baptists, Lozovyy said there has to be a period of time between the confession and the baptism that allows the individual to prove that he has truly made a life-altering decision. And the Lord’s Supper, he added, is taken with a great deal of solemnity and introspection.

 

Cultural clashes among Christians should be rare but, Cornier said, believers sometimes need to be taught to appreciate what their brethren bring to the altar in the forms of worship and how they live out their faith.

 

Speaking of his congregation, Cornier added, “They’ve accepted that we’re not the only Christians in the world. Others love God just as much as we do. We need to have that central point of unity—the cross.”

 

After visiting with Lozovyy and his church, McLaughlin said the experience was poignant. McLaughlin, a native English speaker who learned Spanish, spent a Sunday morning at El Camino worshiping God in Spanish, spent the day speaking with his wife in English, and capped off the evening with a worship service in Russian. He could only revel in God’s creativity and diversity, he said.