Skip to main content

Russian Slavic Churches in America

It has been a tremendous joy talking to Russian pastors and leaders from all over the world.  Giving my Slavic background, I was able to understand the problem's Slavic community in the states experiencing now.  That was a sobering and confident reality check for me personally. 

I have been born in Russia and immigrate to the states when I was eight years old.   When I was twenty or twenty one, I experienced a desire to read and study the bible.  Inevitably, that lead me to serve in Slavic Baptist church that I visited.  I grew up in Russian church's; I got saved in Russian church; I married in Russian church; I grew spiritually in Russian church.  No need to say more on my ties to Russian church.  Writing this post personally is not an intellectual approach reacting to the problem that Russian churches face today, but a loving and a prayerful heart concern.  What do Slavic Russian Christian communities experiencing in the states now?

Well, the sobering moment comes from seeing how most Russian speaking church will problem die out in the next 15 to 20 years.  This prediction was made by en elderly Russian man, who has been involved in Slavic community for years.  He mentioned Russian immigrants in Canada and how slowly they died out–stop existing after a while.  Grand kids are growing up and having Russian school in churches won't solve the problem.  Where do grand kids go?  Either stop going to church or go to an English church (best scenario).

But what comforts me is knowing that the gospel is not giving to a certain race, but to all the nations.  So, every Russian baptist church need to answer a question: what is important for the Russian Baptist church?  Russian language, culture or the mission that Christ lays out for the church? "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" (Matt 28:19).  Most often when there is a conversation on the direction of the Russian speaking church, the focus is on the youth.  It involves preserving the Russian language and the culture.

This elderly person used Swedish evangelical churches as example.  When they immigrated to America, they decided to transition to English speaking church, he continued to say.  Right now, the Swedish evangelical denomination are influential in America.

Going back to the scriptures and learning from the scriptures is the only way out of the crisis.  But, will there be a Russian baptist church that listens?  Or, Russian language and culture more important than the gospel?  Just remember, this is not about Russian Baptist church, this is about Christ church!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lock Him up with the Bible & the Books

"Fling him into his office. Tear the 'Office' sign from the door and nail on the sign, 'Study.' Take him off the mailing list. Lock him up with his books and his typewriter and his Bible. Slam him down on his knees before texts and broken hearts and the flock of lives of a superficial flock and a holy God.  Force him to be the one man in our surfeited communities who knows about God. Throw him into the ring to box with God until he learns how short his arms are. Engage him to wrestle with God all the night through. And let him come out only when he's bruised and beaten into being a blessing.  Shut his mouth forever spouting remarks, and stop his tongue forever tripping lightly over every nonessential. Require him to have something to say before he dares break the silence. Bend his knees in the lonesome valley.  Burn his eyes with weary study. Wreck his emotional poise with worry for God. And make him exchange his pious stance for a humble walk with God a...
1 comment
Read more

Why Do an Altar Call?

Altar call is described as a religious method that helps a person to confess Christ publicly. The problem with this method is that altar call is not described in the bible. When three thousand people received Christ during Peter’s preaching, most likely no one came forward to confess Christ publicly (Acts 2:41). The confession was there, yet walking forward down the aisle was not there. These days, when an alter call takes place, music is plays in the background. Preacher might say a sad story followed with a tear. Some even have counselors walk forward to motivate others to do the same. Thus, altar call is a method that is not described in the Bible leading us to question if this method should be practiced in churches at all?     Altar call began in the 1800’s. Preachers created a mourner’s bench as an area for people to walk forward when an altar call was called. The Methodist evangelists have invented this method, yet Charles Finney was the one who gave a title al...
Post a Comment
Read more

Interpreting the Bible

The Right Hermeneutics   To understand the Bible (that was written about 2000 years ago), requires the right hermeneutics. The majority of Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek. 2000 years separates us from the day of Apostles (New Testament), but the Old Testament books were written long before that. Today we can see how cults use the bible to defense their heresies. Bible is read through out the world in many languages and not every person who teaches the bible have a seminary degree. Bible itself was not intended to be used by educated or scholarly people. John wrote, “The anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things” (1 John 2:27). Yet having stated that, ignorance is not an excuse to make dramatic interpretation mistakes. Bible is not a book to have it be used anyway someone desires to.  In fact, Bible as a book did...
Post a Comment
Read more