Orthodoxy and Personal Faith

A Rock in a Hard Place

God's Hand Still Moves

Like the onion domes of St. Basil’s dominating the view in Red Square, the Russian Orthodox Church dominates the religious landscape in Far East as in the rest of Russia. Through seven decades of official atheism, many of the religiously observant still considered themselves Russian Orthodox. In today’s new freedom, Islam, Judaism, and non-Orthodox Christian denominations claim some adherents in Russia, but 75% of citizens who say they are religious profess to be Russian Orthodox.

Now that the constraints of official atheism have been removed, the Orthodox Church is regaining its historic position as a strong influence in Russian politics. It is “politically correct” for national leaders to affiliate themselves with the church, and the government has actually sought church advice on many critical decisions. This renewed alliance of church and state is a challenge to the freedom of religion nominally guaranteed in the 1993 constitution.

Despite the dominance of the Orthodox Church in Russia and Ukraine, evangelical churches have grown rapidly since 1990. SEND International works alongside the existing evangelical church to help reach this region with the Gospel. Thousands have come to personal faith. National churches and foreign missionaries cooperated to plant at least five hundred new churches in Russia and Ukraine in the last three years. But no one knows how long this door of opportunity will remain open. At this point, the compelling need is for trained church leaders to nurture and disciple the many new believers.

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A Rock in a Hard Place

Ministry in Far East Russia offers missionaries and volunteers an opportunity to be “a rock in a hard place.” In many ways, FER is more non-religious and less spiritually responsive than other parts of Russia. Many people in FER still claim to be atheist. Few are involved even in the Russian Orthodox Church. The predominant “religion” here seems to be materialism—interest in secular things and in the Western lifestyle.

According to FER field director Ken Guenther, the most pressing ministry needs in Far East Russia are to establish the credibility of the church and to gain the trust of the people. Gennady Ivanovich Abramov, the Far East Russia regional vice president of the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, says he sees little interest in organized religion. Mass evangelism creates minimal response.

And yet, Pastor Abramov notes, spiritual hunger exists everywhere. Even people in administrative positions are interested in talking about spiritual things. One can still hear stories of small villages where people will respond to a church-sponsored event because it’s “the only show in town.” In such villages Westerners are still a drawing card, because they are so rare. And in many places where SEND missionaries are working in FER, baptisms are taking place - in the new church plant in Magadan City, ten people were baptized in 2000 and five were baptized in 2001. In Khabarovsk Central Church, 17 were baptized in 2001 and 45 were baptized in a joint service for all the churches in 2000.

Ten years ago, there were 18 Baptist churches and groups in FER. Today there are 123 churches and groups (77 churches and 46 groups of 10 or less members). Ten years ago there were 20 ordained Baptist pastors and deacons. Today there are 93 ordained pastors and deacons with another 12 soon to be ordained (total of 34 pastors and 71 deacons). In Far East Russia, strong resistance to Christianity remains and church growth is not rapid. But though the overwhelming spiritual responsiveness of the early ‘90s has vanished, there definitely remain areas where spiritual hunger is apparent. SEND is eager to respond to the challenge of Far East Russia, to seek out those who are spiritually hungry, and to offer them the Bread of Life.

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God's Hand Still Moves 
From Ken and Bertha Guenther’s newsletter

In October 2001, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association sponsored a Conference for Evangelists. in FER. Victor Hamm, Russian Regional Director for the BGEA, was the main speaker. Five hundred Christian leaders and workers from all across FER, and from Siberia, Mongolia and China, were challenged to recommit themselves afresh to evangelism. After the conference ended, Victor Hamm remained behind for a one-evening evangelistic meeting for the residents of Khabarovsk. The hall was packed with more than 600 in attendance. Every seat was occupied with benches and extra chairs filling every available space in the aisles. We had been told that the days of mass evangelism were over in Russia, that people no longer responded as in the early ‘90s. But at least 30 people responded to the invitation, forcing their way up to the front through crowded aisles. We were delighted to meet some of these who responded in church on the following Sundays.

God is continuing to draw people to himself. Two Sundays ago in the Central church in Khabarovsk, five people repented in the morning worship service. The service had not been remarkable or unusual for the first 75 minutes or so. We heard two good sermons, neither of which were particularly evangelistic. Then our chief pastor for the region got up to preach the third sermon. He had spoken for maybe 30 seconds when he was forced to stop because a young man had come forward and wanted to repent before the congregation. This young man had been baptized but had fallen into sin, and now wanted to be restored to fellowship. Then another woman came forward in tears, wanting to repent and trust Christ for salvation. Then yet another woman pushed her way to the centre aisle, wanting to repent. Finally the pastor was allowed to finish his message, but as soon as he finished, another two people came forward to repent, one of them the wife of the first man who repented. After each of their public prayers of repentance, one of the pastors or Ken prayed for them, and the congregation sang a song of rejoicing. As you can imagine, we did not finish the service at 12:00, but no one seemed to mind. God is at work, and we are excited to be participants in what He is doing!

We have recently heard that Victor Hamm is willing to return to FER next summer for 20 days of evangelistic meetings in five or six different cities. Together with our Russian co-workers, we have begun praying and planning for these series of meetings. A sense of excitement and anticipation is in the air.

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You'll Have To Leave
From Ken and Bertha Guenther’s newsletter

"You are going to have to walk through the auditorium and ask the believers to leave."

That's not a typical assignment for a missionary at an evangelistic meeting. But as we saw the auditorium rapidly filling up, the pastors of the churches who had organized this evangelistic crusade were very concerned that there would not be sufficient seating for all the non-Christians we had invited. We had rented the largest auditorium we were allowed to rent in Khabarovsk, with seating for a little more than a thousand. For the past nine months, we had been planning and praying for this crusade with Victor Hamm, an associate with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. And despite a lingering scepticism about the effectiveness of large evangelistic crusades in summer, more people than we had ever expected filled the auditorium to capacity. The auditorium was packed, with attendance surpassing a thousand each night. Every seat was taken, and even front row seats that were temporarily vacated were immediately filled with people who were standing along the sides.

The crusade was only two nights long, but more than 160 people responded to the invitation to accept Christ, including two of Rachel's friends from our neighbourhood. We were thankful that we were able to participate in these evangelistic meetings just a week before we left Russia for our home service. Bertha sang in the choir, Ken was on the organizing committee, SEND contributed to the expenses of the crusade, but our biggest joy was inviting neighbours and friends, and taking them with us. We were also thankful that the follow-up process was well planned and thorough, and that the two girls from our neighbourhood attended church with us on our last Sunday in Russia.

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