Kiev gives new meaning to the term “opposites attract.”
Ukraine’s capital, with nearly 3 million people, is one of the oldest in Europe. However, it is a mixture of former Soviet architecture and highly developed transportation systems; traditional Slavic mindsets and modern Western European culture; and Orthodox religion and mystic, occultist beliefs.
Home to the first large Slavic kingdom centuries ago, it is where Slavic people first became Orthodox. Ukraine later became part of the Russian empire and consequently the Soviet Union but gained its independence after the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
“[Slavic people] can easily hold two ideas in their head that radically conflict with each other and see no problem,” said Dan Upchurch, a Southern Baptist representative who serves in Kiev with his wife Lori. “It’s not hard for them to deal with the fact that they are Orthodox by tradition but atheist by practice.”
This dichotomous mindset is a major challenge in the Upchurches’ ministry work. They and another Southern Baptist couple, Joel and Mary Ellen Ragains, teach church planting at Kiev Theological Seminary. The four-year undergraduate program requires students to attend classes four times each year for 10 days at a time.
People think in two distinct categories in Ukrainian culture — knowledge and practice, Upchurch said, noting they love to gain knowledge, but “they have no idea what to do with it.”
“Their default setting would be to put theological education in the knowledge category but not in the practice category,” he said.
The seminary’s church-planting program, however, pushes students to put knowledge into practice. Not only do they take classes about theological subjects but students also must be involved in planting a church in order to earn their diploma.
Alabama Baptists are familiar with this effort. Having partnered with the Baptist convention in Ukraine since 2005, Alabama Baptist churches, associations and the State Board of Missions (SBOM) have assisted church-planting and evangelism efforts in various ways. One of the major efforts has been at the seminary.
“We have worked through the International Mission Board’s Shannon Ford and through the seminaries (in Ukraine) to help support young church planters who were in seminary and who were involved already,” said Reggie Quimby, director of the SBOM office of global missions.
“We have assisted about 10 different church planters … through the Cooperative Program,” he said, noting that about 500 Alabama Baptist volunteers have gone to Ukraine since the partnership began.
Covington Baptist Association and its churches have taken the lead in church-planting efforts from Alabama, Quimby added.
In 2008, then-Director of Missions Larry Cummings and four pastors from the association taught a leadership conference for Ukrainian church leaders and spoke in eight churches. This began a partnership with the Ukrainian oblast (a region about the size of 10 counties) of Rivne, west of Kiev. Now the association directly supports two church plants and has helped fund the education of a church planter at Kiev Theological University.
A team from First Baptist Church, Opp, traveled to Rivne in October, leading worship in a few church plants and praying with a Ukrainian pastor over starting a new plant.
“We’re hoping to go back in the summer,” said Randy Breedlove, pastor of First, Opp. The missions team will minister to Ukrainian youth who love sports and any opportunity to practice English.
Students from across Eurasia — including Russia, Belarus, Romania, Azerbaijan and Lithuania — have come to learn the church-planting methods taught at Kiev Theological Seminary.
“Nationals are the ones that are going to get the job done,” Dan Upchurch noted. “Americans in Eastern Europe, unless trends change, are going to directly be able to do less and less, but nationals have the capability and the freedoms still in many places where we can’t do anything in terms of direct church planting and mass evangelism — they can still do that. They are the heartbeat.”
Though the seminary’s church-planting program is only about six years old, the Upchurches are encouraged. More than 30 graduates have started 30-plus new churches; these graduates also have baptized approximately 600 new believers. In addition, current seminary students are planting an additional 30 churches.
The Upchurches and Ragainses ask prayer that Ukrainians will see Jesus as the only truth; that students from Kiev Theological Seminary and their families will put their knowledge into practice as they plant churches; that students and financial resources will continue to come to the seminary; and that they will see fruitful results in mentoring and discipling the students who will spread the gospel across Eurasia. (BP, TAB)
Share with others: