Twenty-two church plants in six years of ministry in Ukraine. That is the record of Joel Ragains, a Baptist representative serving through the International Mission Board. No, Ragains did not start 22 mission churches on his own. He did it through students in the church-planting program of Kiev Theological Seminary.
That the seminary has a church-planting program is just as much of a surprise as are the 22 church starts. Ragains went to Ukraine to supervise the practical ministry requirement (known as field work in the United States) for seminary students. But only days after arriving, he learned that would not be possible. That was when he began thinking about adding a church-planting emphasis to the curriculum, the program he now directs.
Instead of living on campus year-round, the program brings students to campus four times a year for two weeks at a time. While on campus, students spend eight hours a day in class, plus time doing homework. The program runs for four years, and at the end of that time, graduates receive a bachelor of theology with an emphasis in church planting. Officials say as far as they know, the program is the only one of its kind in Europe. In fact, students now come from other eastern European countries to study church planting.
This spring, the seminary will graduate its fourth class, but students have already planted more churches than there are graduates from the program. Sixteen students have received degrees to date.
During their studies, students are required to work with a mentor and to work in the church served by their mentor. And students are told before beginning the program that they are expected to start a church during their fourth year.
But many do not wait until their senior year. Joseph Todiaskh is in his third year and has already started a church focused on the Roma people in Rakhi in the Carpathian Mountains in western Ukraine. Todiaskh said he had to move from his village to Rakhi to be near the target group. He added that it is unlikely he ever would have initiated the work had it not been for the church-planting program. “I thought my call was to be a pastor, not a church planter,” Todiaskh said. “In the courses, I realized God had gifted me and called me to church planting, so that is what I am doing.”
He said one of the values of the program is to study under teachers who have done what they are teaching as Ragains invites people from the United States and around Europe to teach the two-week modules.
“We can ask practical questions and get answers from people who have been there and done that,” Todiaskh said.
Mike Flowers, pastor of First Baptist Church, Opp, is scheduled to teach a course later this year.
Ragains said students are told upfront that the seminary cannot promise them a church building or salary, pointing out that most of them are “tentmakers,” working outside the church to support themselves while also working to build the church.
“What we do promise is that we will try and recruit volunteers from America to come and work beside them to help give them credibility,” he said. So far, three groups from Alabama have worked with church-planting students. Those groups were from First Baptist Church, Prattville; Eastmont Baptist Church, Montgomery; and several Daphne churches.
Ragains said he and other Baptist representatives in Ukraine want to see God planting rapidly reproducing churches. “We expect our students to plant more than one church in their ministry,” he said. And he said he expects other students at the seminary to become more supportive of church planting when they are exposed to church-planting studies.
Ragains noted that the nation’s current economic crisis has impacted the number of students financially able to enroll in the program so he is making plans to export it to regional Bible schools. These schools will teach church planting to more students in the areas where they live. “The important thing is to encourage and equip national Christians to reach their own people,” Ragains said.
For more information, call the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions’ office of global missions at 1-800-264-1225.
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