Strong education

Nobody believed that this young boy from an unbelieving family will pass the entrance exams of the first and best evangelical seminary in the former USSR...

But God had His own plans, and so in September 1993, fresh out of Word of Life Kiev Baptist Bible School, Alexei fell into the hands of professors of Greek and Hebrew...

After the collapse of Communism, Odessa Theological Seminary became the first accredited Evangelical institute of higher theological education.

The best professors from around the world come and teach students here. These teachers laid a solid foundation for Pastor Alexei's understanding of effective principles of Bible study...

Despite the seminary's mainly academic approach to training ministers, Pastor Alexei, even as freshman, followed his call, and begun to prepare for practical ministry.

One day, he asked professor Alexandrenko from Louisiana (picture above), what he needed to learn to be an effective pastor of local church...

"CHURCH ADMINISTRATION, HOMILETICS AND COUNSELING!"

It was a short yet profound answer from an experienced teacher and minister. So, Alexei's first term paper was titled "Three main forms of church administration in the New Testament."

Alexei poured over a great number of books on rhetoric, homiletics, management, counseling and psychology, but in all of his research, he tried to stick with the direction given by his gray-haired teacher!