LAKELAND — Of the more than 60 organized United Methodist congregations in the Russia Conference, only one owns it own building, according to Larry Rankin, director of the Florida Conference Council on Ministries’ Missions office. Yet, despite the lack of facilities, the Russian United Methodist church is growing, especially among young adults.

Rankin spent two weeks last April visiting Russian and Estonian churches at the invitation of the General Board of Global Ministries’ Advance for Christ and His Church. The trip was designed to expose conference mission personnel to Advance-sponsored missions around the world. Rankin says it gave him the opportunity to see "the work of the church in Russia."

"I brought back with me a reaffirmation of the universal workings of the Holy Spirit through…small groups, class meetings and house churches," he said. "The Russian church can teach us how to seriously practice the Wesleyan way of parish development."

Rankin says he visited a new church that is worshipping at a home in a new neighborhood outside Moscow. He said the building "looks like all the other houses in the area…with no visible markings, yet." Although services were held in the basement of the two-story structure, he said much of the church’s work is done elsewhere.

"Russian people love to discuss things," he said. "Young people meet in coffee houses for discussions on…philosophy, politics, religion. Church folk just blend in with everyone else through the universities and work connections. It’s very hands-on, one-on-one."

Young people are particularly attracted to the United Methodist Church because it welcomes them and gives them opportunities to express themselves, according to Rankin. He says after 70 years of atheism, young people in Russia "hunger for spiritual experience and release."

The church is feeding that hunger through discussion and drama groups, reading clubs, and music, Rankin said. "The church gives a lot of people a lot of ways of expressing themselves," he said.

In addition to appealing to the Russian people’s intelligence and culture, the United Methodist Church is connecting through social service ministries. Holy Trinity United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Russia, has a relationship with a neighboring drug and alcohol treatment center and is using its connections in America, including Trinity United Methodist Church in Lighthouse Point, Fla., to import Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous materials.

Rankin said one of the most valuable lessons to be learned from the Russian United Methodist Church is faith.