CEE Story From The Mission Field
EKG - The Heartbeat of Russia
April 20, 2006
The partnership between Russian and American Baptists took on a new dimension recently through a conference entitled “Empowering Kingdom Growth” (EKG), held in Moscow, Russia. This International Mission Board sponsored event attracted more than 100 Baptist union leaders from all over the former Soviet Union. Ken Hemphill, the Southern Baptist Convention’s national strategist for EKG, presented the initiative to help Russian Baptists blend a spiritual focus on the kingdom of God with planning tools to help congregations discover their vision, mission and values.
“In a land marked by political and cultural transition, churches can grow stronger and reach future generations with the Gospel if they “turn their heart’s affection” toward the kingdom of God, “ Hemphill advised. “God is seeking a people who will embody His name, embrace His mission and obey His Word,” he declared.
This sort of initiative is just what Soviet Baptists need according to Mick Stockwell, Strategy Associate for Belarus, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Sattelites (BUS). “The Soviet society pretty well ran people’s lives and they were not taught critical thinking and planning skills,” Stockwell said. “Churches were struggling to simply survive in that context rather than seeking to grow or minister in strategic ways,” he added.
This way of thinking has served as a barrier for International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries. “Often our IMB missionaries have been frustrated because we did not have a good biblical tool to help our partners to develop vision and strategy,” Stockwell explained. “We have wonderful partners who are seeking to grow their own churches and to plant new ones, but they are often overwhelmed with the day-to- day struggle. EKG is a very practical tool with which they can sit down with their ministry team and ask the critical questions and arrive at vision, goals and strategies that will help them to be a part of the kingdom.”
The Soviet leaders agree with Stockwell’s observations. “The biggest challenge in the short term is the strong reliance on tradition and doing ministry the way it’s always been done,” said Fiodor Baraniuk, director of the Sunday School department for the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptist. “EKG is helping people to refuse doing church in just the traditional way.”
However, though EKG recognizes the need for these outward changes in ministry strategy, it heavily emphasizes the importance of starting with a renewed passion for God. “It’s after you change the heart that you can change the thinking of the church,” Hemphill told participants in the two-day conference. “If you try to make structural changes without changing the hearts, you’ll generally fracture your church. It needs an affection and passion for the kingdom of God.”
Hemphill walked participants though numerous biblical passages to lay a foundation for ministry focused on advancing God’s kingdom. According to Strategy Associate for Russia, Ed Tarleton, this strong emphasis on scripture is the reason behind the Russian’s warm reception of the initiative. “EKG, from beginning to end, presents a biblically based, conservative Christ-centered process for helping churches look at ways to not just grow the unions but at ways to help all evangelical believers,” Tarleton said. “Pastors and leaders in these countries share incredibly strong concerns for being biblically based in what they do. EKG is a great combination for strengthening existing churches and providing the DNA for new churches to be planted.”
IMB representatives introduced EKG to Russian Baptists’ key leaders three years ago. They accepted the initiative as a national ministry focus after a prolonged session of reading Scripture and praying about its use among the union’s approximately 1400 churches.
A follow-up meeting with several Baptist Union leaders on April 8th in Kiev, Ukraine was proof positive that the EKG initiative is having an impact. Ed Tarleton reported that virtually every President shared a desire to focus their strategy not only in villages, where Baptists have flourished in the past, but also in the cities, which represents a whole new way of thinking.
Franz Tiessen, president of the Kasakhstan Baptist Union, shared that since over 54% of all the people in Kazakhstan live in cities, the Union has a new two-step vision. First step: they want to plant 1 church for every 50,000 people and they want to have 1% of the country as evangelical believers. Second step: they want to plant 1 church for every 1,000 people and have 5% of their country be evangelical believers.
"When we share these ideas," Franz said, "people say that we are crazy. But, it is our dream! We are going to the cities of our country with such a vision." He went on to share, "we are talking about churches, not buildings. Yes--a building is nice and if we can afford one, then certainly we will build houses of prayer. But buildings are not our goal. Planting new churches that will reach lost people is our goal."
Testimonies of these house churches starting are not yet common, but are increasing. In Udmurtia, Russia, one Russian lady recently accepted Christ. The Russian lady and her husband retired and moved to a village. She couldn't find any believers in the village, so she posted a small advertisement inviting people to come to her house to watch the Jesus film. During the past 2 years, over 30 people have been baptized and a new church has formed.
It is stories like these that fuel the passion and desire of IMB missionaries and Russian believers alike. Their partnership together is impacting the nation for Christ. The kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God and the commission of the King is for all believers,” said Rodney Hammer, the IMB’s regional leader for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). “God’s intent is that we do this together in this day.”