Andrei Murzin is the Ukraine National Coordinator for Overseas Instruction in Counseling (OIC) and the Assistant Director of the Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling program at Kyiv Theological Seminary (KTS). He is married to Olya and has three grown children. He also co-pastors a local church in Kyiv.
Andrei was interviewed at the OIC Missionary Training Conference held in October 2019 and shared a few of his thoughts, experiences, and hopes for the future regarding his ministry with OIC as well as personally.
Andrei came to realize Biblical counseling as vital to the life of the church having carefully studied what Biblical counseling is and seeing all its ramifications for the church of Christ. After finding himself at a crossroad regarding his ministry’s trajectory, he sought God’s face about what to do next and unexpectedly received an invitation to serve with OIC at the seminary in Kyiv, Ukraine. He has become even more passionate about Biblical counseling having served with OIC’s ministry for almost seven years, commenting, “It’s very exciting to watch how Biblical counseling, the ministry of OIC particularly, answers very acute, very relevant issues and needs in the church today.”
Andrei testified that since his involvement with OIC’s training ministry at KTS, he has seen the Lord do amazing things. For instance, he finds it intriguing that although the required prerequisites in theological studies limits those the school can accept into their MA in Biblical Counseling cohort programs, more and more people are showing interest in this field of study. This reality was reflected in admission stats from the recent academic year.
When asked why he thought this was the case, Andrei enthusiastically commented he sees more people seeking this kind of training because there is a vast need arising from a lack of intensive, intentional, and personal instruction (or discipleship/soul care) within the church generally. He noted that among those seeking training in this field are experienced pastors, stating that “more than half of the twenty people we admitted into our new cohort were pastors. Which is very exciting! And a lot of them are graduates of Kyiv Theological Seminary’s undergraduate programs.”
For instance, he was surprised and encouraged that some faculty members of KTS recently enrolled in the OIC-led Master of Arts program. Andrei related that a former Dean at KTS, who is an American missionary with a PhD degree in Theology, a current pastor of the local English-speaking church, and the individual currently responsible for developing post-graduate programs at KTS, approached him and said he and his wife wanted to enroll in the MABC program. This is a small example of the faithfulness of the Lord in making fruitful the work of OIC in Ukraine.
Andrei shared many desires and hopes as he looks to the future regarding the OIC team in Ukraine. He was specific in stating that it is his desire to help develop the OIC Ukraine team, including seeing more KTS MABC graduates joining the OIC team to foster effective growth both in the Church Leadership Training modular programs (CLTs) as well as at the Seminary.
It is also his desire to implement the principles that are taught through OIC’s Biblical counseling training in his own church. Andrei revealed he “would love to develop this open, sincere relationship between Christians where these ‘one another’ principles would be practiced more and more.”
Furthermore, in order to be more faithful in his own work and pastoral calling, Andrei is personally praying about pursuing a PhD degree in Biblical Counseling. He recognizes the apparent need for more academic work to be done in this field. He is very optimistic about the future, trusting the Lord for many hopes and desires as the OIC team seeks to be faithful to the ministry’s mission and vision. “It is very exciting to see what the Lord will do through OIC’s ministry in Ukraine and the rest of the world in the future,” he remarked.
In concluding his thoughts, Andrei strongly emphasized the commitment of OIC’s people and training to the local church. He made it clear that OIC’s overarching goal is to “develop Biblical counseling, not as detached from the local church—not the clinical model—but with the focus in and on local churches so that Biblical counseling would be happening as a normal part of everyday church life.”
Ultimately, Andrei affirmed his understanding that the need for and fruit of the ministry of OIC in Ukraine reflects a greater reality around the world – everyone everywhere needs the whole counsel of God passed down by wise and faithful men and women so that the local church is built up and grows as the Lord commands and desires. As such, he would strongly encourage anyone who has a burden to address the great need for deep, purposeful, multiplying discipleship in the church to consider partnering with OIC’s ministry.
Andrei is an example of how the Lord has graciously worked and continues to work through OIC’s ministry and training to teach and equip committed Biblical counseling trainers around the world.
July 2020 update: Andrei has been accepted into the Ph.D. program with emphasis in Biblical Counseling at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, MO, with his studies to begin in January 2021.
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