CEE Story From The Mission Field
The door is closing in Russia
March 27, 2007
Changes are on the horizon in Russia. The open doors afforded by the fall of communism are now, almost two decades later, beginning to close.
International Mission Board (IMB) missionary Buck Burch has recently seen two of his teams kicked out of the country, another missionary blackballed and two volunteer teams arrested. This past summer members of a volunteer team ministering in an orphanage noticed the shabby walls and decided to help by repairing them, but were arrested for doing construction. Another team was invited to a church to lead Bible studies. When the police discovered the leaders were speaking in English, they told them they did not have authorization to teach English, so they, too, were arrested.
This summer a new law was passed requiring all foreigners to re-register every time they leave their home city. This time-consuming procedure is a burden to missionaries as well as the national Baptists.
In addition, laws governing church workers are stringent. Evangelical churches exist, but only paid church workers have the freedom to evangelize outside of the church. Foreigners registered as religious workers can do no more than preach--all other activities must be carried out by national church workers. The volunteers who were kicked out will never be able to return to Russia. The missionary teams have to wait five years for their records to be expunged.
However, in all of this, God is at work. The laws in Russia are forcing a focused and empowered nationally directed home mission force. Russian Baptists are taking control of the vision for their country and accepting responsibility to win it for Christ.
In February, an IMB worker from another region led a church-planting movement (CPM) conference in Ivanavo, Russia, and told Russian believers about the CPM his country is experiencing. The national believer who accompanied him gave his testimony, which had a powerful effect on the Russian believers. The Russian Baptist Union (RBU) decided to form a new RBU Missions office for the northwest region of the country in order to begin multiple house churches, starting with a goal of 100—although, in reality, thousands are needed. These new house churches will be directly responsible for reproducing other house churches, intentionally preparing and training new believers for leadership and practicing communion and baptism independently of a mother church, giving it full church stature. The Russian Baptists also are starting a new program that will mirror the Annie Armstrong Offering, sending nationals out as home missionaries.
Buck believes all of this activity is God’s way of preparing Russian believers for the future.
“The door is definitely closing,” he said. “This groundwork is being laid to get them ready for the next wave of persecution and the future necessity of house churches.”
Buck is the leader of the European Russia (ER) cluster. Seventeen IMB missionary teams presently work in this area where 100 million people live. In addition to reaching the greater populace with the Gospel, the teams also focus on target groups—the Deaf, Jews, professionals, students and artists. The hand of God is obviously at work, but Buck is quick to say much work is yet to be done.
“God is doing huge things, but we’re talking about a landmass that is so large … and we have so few people … that the progress we make pales in comparison to the lostness,” he said.
With the present number of strategy coordinators (SCs) in the area, less than half of the ER cluster is targeted to hear the Gospel. Throughout this year the IMB’s feature of the former Soviet Union may bring much needed prayer and volunteer efforts. The IMB missionaries in Russia are also coordinating ministry with 15 other missions agencies in order to reach as many people as possible.
Now is the time for Russia to hear and embrace the Gospel before the door closes once again. To learn more about the needs in Russia and how to pray effectively for this country, go to hope4russia.org and look for the 90 Days of Prayer menu option.