Russia (MNN) — On Tuesday Russia ran its second nuclear missile exercise in the span of two weeks. Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia will take measures to ensure its sovereignty and security, not enter a nuclear arms race. This isn’t exactly reassuring for the watching world.
This comes as the war between Russia and Ukraine nears its one thousandth day.
Eric Mock with Slavic Gospel Association draws out the fact that no matter what country you call home, it’s easy to view another nation as one collective group, with shared characteristics and intentions.
“We need to be careful not to connect the decisions of Russian national leadership to all Russian people,” Mock says.
SGA serves alongside many churches in Russia engaged in faithful gospel ministry. These believers can sometimes feel disconnected from the world because of the political climate they live in.
Woman reading a Russian Bible. (Representative stock photo courtesy of Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash)
Here’s a big-picture account of the changes Mock says Russian society has gone through over the past 30 years.
“In the late ’90s, there were financial challenges, but a tremendous amount of openness to the things of God. In 2005 things began to shift — both [a] shift away from God and shift toward a level of [affluence],” Mock says. Economic growth led to new businesses opening, even many from the West.
“But by the 2010s, churches were noticing the people where there [used to be] this excitement and openness to the gospel, they weren’t interested anymore. It was becoming more and more difficult to reach people with the gospel.
“Now in the 2020s, things are much more difficult for them. There are new restrictions that make it very difficult for open evangelism, if not impossible. There are restrictions on the pulpit, what could be said and not said.”
Another pressure point on public discourse is the war between Russia and Ukraine. Coupled with the restraints placed upon social media, it can lead Russian believers to feel that distance between themselves and the world.
However, there’s more to this picture: gospel-driven unity.
“One of the blessings of SGA is our ministry is unblemished by the changing events in this world. We have been able to serve [Russian] churches because it’s not been about us. We are serving their churches as they take the gospel to their people,” Mock says.
“Because that vision remains unchanged, they have felt connected and not forgotten. They feel not abandoned and not apart, but instead, they feel that the Body of Christ is standing together.”
Immanuel’s Child (Photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association)
Learn more here about SGA’s gospel outreaches alongside local churches. Among them are Immanuel’s Child and Orphans Reborn.
But above all, pray!
“Pray that these faithful Bible-teaching churches would be those churches that stand tall in increasing and mounting difficulties,” Mock says. “[Pray] that we (the global Church) would be united in the single cause to know Christ and to make Him known among the nations.”
Header photo courtesy of SGA.
