The world is waiting for a church that leads the way in love. Jesus prayed that we might be “one,” even as Jesus and the Father are one – a depth of unity and love that would attract the world to Christ (Jn. 17:21-23).

Lyle Thomas has pursued this vision since 1997 when the Lord called him to start an organization called Christian Ministries United in Richmond, Virginia. For ten years he served the citywide Church as a facilitator of conversation and prayer among leadership from over 60 different churches, nonprofits, and businesses.

Lyle has continued to serve this hope since 2007 as a missionary in St. Petersburg, Russia through Novo Mission (www.novo.org). Drawing on his experience as both a citywide leader and as a family counselor and life coach, Lyle has trained lay and church leaders through what has now become an international outreach to the Russian-speaking world through the Novo Academy. Now a team of over 30 leaders and volunteers from over a dozen different countries, Novo is emerging as a leader in a sparsely populated world of Christian ministry, particularly in their specialty: building deep and transformative relationships with God in Christ, within the Body, and with those outside the faith.

Most of the curricula that Novo Academy uses was written by Lyle himself, based on his years of service in Richmond, as well as his work in the Russian context, which is so steeped in relational and cultural trauma from its tragic political and religious history. The Lord has given Lyle favor across national boundaries, particularly between Russia and the Ukraine, where he is working with Christians on both sides of the ideological and political divide to learn how to take conflict seriously but to seek the Lord’s ultimate values and leading.

Lyle has developed courses with significant potential for the American context, where racial and political divides threaten to tear society and even churches apart. The basic principles woven into the three-year training experience, include:

• developing a common, biblical language for conversation and listening;
• understanding how problems in relationships relate to brokenness in relationship with God the Father;
• how unity is meaningless without taking differences seriously;
• a clear process for deep, trusting, vulnerable, and mutually accountable relationships;
• how to discern personal and corporate agendas that may be good, but that may not be God’s best for the moment;
• how to “exegete” a community for its core values that stand against the purposes of God;
• how to engage those far from God with conversations that find God’s already-present work.

Lyle is looking for new opportunities to invest in Christian leadership and communities in the West to demonstrate the potential for Kingdom relationships that Christians intuitively know are possible, but have not yet experienced.