In the Russian Lutheran church the term “retreat” is unfamiliar (in fact, if any of my Russian-speaking readers know a good translation for the word, please tell me!), as is the practice. However, one of the congregations in our region, the one most willing to experiment, decided to do something new. For 3 days in mid-August, more than a dozen congregational members and friends gathered outside of the city at the dacha of their church council president for Bible study, prayer and fellowship.
Pastor Gleb Pivovarov (above left) organized the event, and chose challenging Biblical texts for study - Jacob's wrestling with a man /an angel/ God (Gen. 32), the book of Job, and Christ's temptations in the desert.
I was asked to lead Bible study on the first day, and I had the joy of dealing with one of my favorite Biblical narratives – the story of Jacob. Many in the group were relatively new to the church, and it was moving to be reminded again together with them of the ways stories of faith that come to us through Scripture can change our outlook on life.
Although I could attend only two of the three days, I can say that experiment was a fruitful one. In many of our churches there is a certain degree of passivity, and the congregational makeup is fairly uniform; more concretely, most of our members are elderly, ethnic German women. The congregation in Krasnoyarsk has always differed from the norm in this regard, but in the year and half since Gleb has been in the parish, there has been a large influx of young members. It was really heartwarming to be in a church gathering here with old and young together, going deep into Biblical texts, singing, cooking, and playing games. I hope that the example of Krasnoyarsk will encourage other congregations to expand their ministry in new ways in the future. 
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