BAKU, Azerbaijan — A Baptist pastor still cannot conduct services in the local church and Bibles sent to the Baptist church are yet on the wharves because the government refuses to release them.
These are some of the findings of Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Denton Lotz and Tony Cupit, director of study and research, who visited Azerbaijan Sept. 28–30, to meet with a growing Baptist community, but one that faces much harassment from the state.
Of particular concern is the fate of pastor Sari Mizroev, who because of accusations that he made anti-Muslim statements, has now been effectively banned from conducting worship in a church he started after God gave him a vision of reaching Azeris for Christ in 1992. He began as pastor of the church in 1994.
Since then many have become believers. There are 800 baptized believers among the Azerbaijanis in 20 groups, four congregations and some house churches. Most of the converts are from the Azeri people.
There are two Baptist language groups in Azerbaijan, the Russian and the Azeri speaking. Their churches join in one Baptist convention and Ilya Ziechenko, Pastor of the Russian-speaking church, is president.
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