Senior Pastor Juri Popov
Juri Popov was born on December 10, 1961 in Sarata, a village in the suburbs of Odessa. His father was a pastor of a local Pentecostal church. From early childhood, the word of God formed the ideology and character of Juri. In 1985, in the city of Tallinn, he started his ministry in the “Church of the Full Gospel” as an elder of the church and the leader of the worship group. In 1989, Juri Popov founded a new church in the same city which was named “Church of the New Testament” and he served there as pastor over the span of five years. In 1994, Pastor Juri Popov arrived in the United States of America in the state of California upon the invitation of several Russian-speaking churches. Within the year, he preached in many Russian and American churches of different denominations. His services took place with the support of American pastors Robert Saunders and Ron Lewis. During this time, in one cramped apartment in Brooklyn, New York, Jewish believers in Jesus Christ gathered and prayed. They were once again without a church and they missed fellowship, sermons and worship. Juri Popov was greeted with hospitality there and he preached to this group for a period of time. God called him to be a pastor to them. Soon afterwards, in 1996, the church named “Beth Shalom”, a translation from Hebrew meaning “House of Peace”, was officially registered and began its weekly services. Through Juri Popov’s sermons and ministry of healing and deliverance hundreds of people have received salvation and have been able to obtain freedom in the Lord. At the present time, Pastor Juri Popov along with his wife and three children live in New Jersey.
