America’s Orthodox Future Is Being Built by Hand

In 2001, the newly ordained Fr. Justin Frederick wasn’t sure what to expect when Archbishop Dmitri of Dallas assigned him to the new Mission of St. Maximus the Confessor in Denton, Texas. “I thought there would be a flood of people once we opened the doors,” he admits. But for the first few years – and even a little longer – growth was gradual.

Fr. Justin is a convert to Orthodoxy. Raised in the Evangelical tradition, he was acquainted with Orthodoxy in college, where one of the several degrees he obtained was in Russian. He began his studies intending to travel to Russian for missionary work. He worked as an intern at an Evangelical church. But what happened instead is a story many have experienced: the more he studied, the more he realized the shallowness of Evangelical Christianity.