By: Matthew Hosier

Exploring gospel partnership in a new region for Advance

In August, we had the opportunity to visit a church in a part of the world that is entirely new to our movement: Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

Situated in Central Asia between Russia, China and the other Central Asian nations, Kazakhstan is a vast and rapidly developing country. Astana itself is a growing city of around two million people, surrounded by the seemingly endless steppe.

It was here that we spent time with Alexey and Oleysa Bannikov and the church they planted 17 years ago: Shanyrak Church.

The name Shanyrak comes from the cross-shaped structure at the top of a Kazakh yurt, which holds the whole structure together and represents the place where heaven and earth meet. It is a fitting name for a church seeking to proclaim Christ in a city shaped by many cultures and languages.

A church for a diverse city

Shanyrak is a congregation of around 500 people, meeting across three Sunday services.

The church reflects something of the diversity of Astana itself. Kazakh and Russian people worship alongside people from a variety of other nationalities, and services are conducted in Kazakh, Russian and English. During worship, song lyrics are projected in all three languages.

At the heart of the church is a clear commitment to the gospel and to faithful biblical preaching.

Alexey has been strongly shaped by the Simeon Trust model of expositional preaching, and this emphasis is evident in the life of the church. With new people regularly attending, the gospel is preached each week, and communion is celebrated at every service.

There is also a strong desire to demonstrate what it means to be one people in Christ. In a context marked by different ethnicities, languages and cultural backgrounds, the church is seeking to display the unity that comes through the gospel.

There are encouraging signs of God’s work.

The church is seeing a steady stream of people coming to faith, including people from culturally Muslim backgrounds. During our visit, we had the joy of witnessing the baptism of a woman from that background.

Meeting with church leaders

One of the highlights of the visit was a gathering of around 30 leaders from across the church and its wider ministry connections.

Meeting together in a barn on the Bannikovs’ property, we spent time hearing reports about what God is doing in different areas of ministry and reflecting together on the work of the gospel.

The teaching focused on the two frontiers of the gospel: the ends of the earth and the depths of our hearts.

It was a valuable opportunity not only to teach, but to listen, learn, and begin building relationships with leaders serving in this part of the world.

The following day, we joined the church for Sunday worship, with preaching across all three services.

Despite being thousands of kilometres from many of the places where Advance currently has established relationships, there was a striking sense of familiarity.

The same gospel. The same Scriptures. The same Lord. A local church faithfully seeking to make Christ known.

Looking towards Central Asia

Every region brings its own history, culture, challenges and opportunities. We don’t want to assume that what works in one context can simply be transplanted into another. Instead, partnership begins with relationship: listening, learning, praying and getting to know one another.

Shanyrak has a vision for reaching people across Astana and beyond, and there are exciting opportunities ahead for church planting, leadership development and theological training.

A new region, the same gospel

One of the great privileges of being part of Advance is seeing the local church in places and cultures far beyond our own.

In Astana, we were reminded again that the gospel creates a people who cross boundaries of language, nationality and culture.

We are grateful to God for the welcome we received from Shanyrak Church, for the opportunity to learn from what God is doing in Kazakhstan, and for the privilege of beginning to explore what it might mean to go further together in Central Asia.