Russia - Sergei Nikolaev

Sergei Nikolaev
Russia

Reared in an atheist family, Sergei Nikolaev decided at 19 to be baptized as a Russian Orthodox Christian, although he admits he had little real understanding of what baptism meant. His goal now is to train the next generation of Christian leaders for Russia.

His spiritual journey began with his involvement in the Russian-Korean-American United Methodist Church in Moscow. Introduced to the congregation through its free English classes, his involvement escalated to the point that Sergei’s pastor asked him to preach for three weeks in his absence. Sergei says he found the experience both humbling and rewarding, and it resulted in his working as the church’s assistant pastor.

Enrolling in the fledgling Russia United Methodist Seminary, Sergei became a member of its first graduating class of in 1997. He subsequently enrolled in 1999 in the Ph.D. program at Southern Methodist University and received Dempster Graduate Fellowships in 2001 and 2002. Sergei hopes to return to Moscow to teach at the seminary from which he graduated.