After the resurrection of Jesus, His acension and outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, there was a powerful movement of Christian growth as people came to faith and passed the word from household to household and person to person. In the Book of Acts we can see how God used a few committed believers to spread the gospel.
The strategy of Jesus was simple, send the best trained leaders out from Jerusalem to various cities and preach the good news then disciple or equip them to reproduce themselves in that region. It proved to be a remarkably successful approach. In about 300 years the Roman Empire was afire with Christians despite persecution and oppression.
What is generally overlooked by modern Christians is how slow but steady that method proved to be. We truly love a quick fix. We want to preach a few sermons, preferably on radio and TV, and let the newly converted babies rear themselves. That approach in Russia and Eastern Europe has proved disasterous. Many of the new churches planted by this method after Perestroika have closed and others are very weak.
Our approach is different. First, we do not plant new churches but support the churches and leaders already here. They know the culture, spiritual needs and the best ways to share the gospel and follow up with discipleship. It is a slow bu powerful model much like that Jesus suggested.
In this part of the world, almost eveyone has been traumatized and, as a result, suffers from emotional and relational problems. Addictive behavior has been rampant ever since Peter The Great promoted alcohol as an essential part of government. The Soviets exacerbated that problem and cigarrettes have become a partner to alcohol as an agent of death, destruction and depression.
We have introduced the 12 Step Groups here and find that when they are cobined with prayer, scripture and worship they provide a wonderful process for getting and staying sober. As many as 75 to 80% of all men are alcoholics! Read Isaiah 28 for the reasons why.
The 12 Steps are a wonderful summary of basic Christianity. The local Christians have added several "Group Rules" that assist in training the people to listen, care and break the patterns of co-dependency. Pray for the leaders. Next week some of them will travel to cities far from Moscow to train more leaders. They are literally "Going into all the world and making disciples" by "teaching them to do everything that Jesus did."
If you can support one of the Russian leaders, let us know.
Gary Sweeten
My last letter from Moscow this trip
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