Our Ministry

The North Caucasus region is home to more than 50 ethnic groups, spread across 7 provinces and speaking 48 languages. Most ethnic groups are traditionally Muslim. Many communities have no churches or Scripture in their languages. North Caucasus Bible Institute (NCBI) is dedicated to preparing church-planters for this region. A center of Moscow Theological Seminary (MTS) and partner of RLM, NCBI offers courses in pastoral theology, social education, worship arts, counseling and digital media for evangelism. In addition to classes, students are involved in children’s camps, worship conferences, Bible studies and evangelistic outreach, pastoral internships. “NCBI’s affiliation with MTS helps us raise the academic level of our school … This in turn attracts more students – especially those who want a quality education like that at MTS but cannot afford to go to Moscow for classes.” —Andrey Kravtsev, former president of NCBI

The Rostov-on-Don Learning Center is located on the western border of Russia, strategically located in a leading city that serves as the center of commerce for trade between Russia, Ukraine, and the southern republics of the former Soviet Union. This center serves students who are studying part-time in our pastoral studies or Christian education programs.

Focusing on ministry training, North Moscow is our newest center and the first center in Moscow outside of the main campus. Currently, the North Moscow Training Center is running a 3-year program on rehabilitation ministry. All of the students enrolled in this program are directors of church-based rehabilitation centers in the Moscow Region, and most of them are former addicts who came to faith through centers like the ones they now direct.

Moscow Theological Seminary offers bachelor’s degrees in pastoral ministry, theology, and Christian education, as well as a masters’ degree in pastoral ministry. Students can also earn certificates in preaching, youth and young adult ministry, religion and law, biblical counseling, and social/rehabilitation ministry. The curriculum includes Old and New Testament studies, systematic theology, counseling, church history, biblical archeology, Hebrew, Greek, English, and other subjects. Chapel services are conducted five days a week during the school year. All seminary students and the all-Russian faculty are involved in local church ministry as well.

Located in the Ural Mountain region—the border of Europe and Asia—the Chelyabinsk Learning Center offers pastoral ministry and Christian education classes to students from the Bashkortistan, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Perm, Udmurtia, and Yekaterinburg regions. Offering the region's only seminary-level education, it provides students in this geographically isolated region a rare chance to study and prepare for ministry at the college level.

Located just below the Arctic Circle, Noyabrsk is the most remote of our learning centers. With programs in pastoral ministry and Christian education, the Noyabrsk Learning Center is comprised of students eager to apply their new knowledge to their local church ministries. Many of our Noyabrsk alumni serve in the Tyumen, Khanty-Mansiysky, and Yamalo-Nenetsky autonomous regions. MTS alumnus Alexander Podkolzin (’01) serves as the Learning Center Director. “Our students have become a force in our region within just the past two years. I have received reports of improvements in their preaching. Some of our churches have Sunday Schools for children for the first time … I would say we even have a new sense of hope in our region because of the fellowship our students have when they come together. We dream new dreams about how to plant churches and bring the Gospel to our region.” ~ Director Alexander Podkolzin

The Novokuznetsk Training Center is meeting a great need as many students in this region hunger for a seminary education. In the spring of 2006, MTI graduate Viktor Fedorovsky assumed the center’s leadership responsibilities. Novokuznetsk Center offers programs in Pastoral and Christian Education.

Located in eastern Siberia, the Chita Regional Training Center is the smallest of the Moscow Theological Seminary’s centers. Graduates serve in the Chita and Irkutsk regions, vast regions with few churches and great spiritual needs.

Khabarovsk is in far-east Russia along the Amur River, just 19 miles from the Chinese border. Because of the history of this region, the Khabarovsk Learning Center trains church leaders and ministry workers from Chinese, Japanese, and Korean churches as well as Russian evangelical churches in the region. Outside of classes, students apply their education in regional churches by preparing and preaching sermons, leading services, organizing evangelism opportunities and teaching in Christian children camps.