Moscow: Missions in the Context of Urban Need

An Article from Evangelical Missions Quarterly, April 2013

Many evangelicals are beginning to engage a cultural strategy (A-E-I-O-U) that touches five cultural issues in Moscow. Buck Burch talks about how Evangelical Christians in Russia's capital have crafted a strategy for meeting needs as a part of their emerging urban missiology. 

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ECMU - As Close to Baptist As You Can Get Without Crossing Over

The Evangelical Christian Missionary Union (ECMU) has been faithful to its own creeds and its published church planting plans in European Russia. Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch maintain that “our ecclesiology flows more naturally out of our sense of mission.”[1] ECMU and C&MA express their ecclesiology through practical mission. If Great Commission Church is a typical example of church planting within the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), then C&MA also exhibits faithfulness to its stated ecclesiology as well. If John S. Hammett’s ecclesiological model as presented in Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches is used as a standard for biblical truth, then ECMU’s ecclesiology in St. Petersburg, Russia, meets those requirements for being biblical. If it is held as a lever for Baptist ecclesiology, then ECMU could be considered either Baptist or at least Baptist-like.  

ECMU is planting new churches mainly in urban centers throughout European Russia. Using each metropolis as a base for launching further work in nearby cities, towns, and villages, ECMU is practicing the same methods as the current master plans of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (IMB) in many of those cities. Moreover, IMB currently has a missionary presence in four of the same megacities as EMCU in European Russia, so it is no surprise that the two organizations often work together.

Because so much of IMB’s current strategy in European Russia echoes ECMU’s church planting strategy, IMB has chosen to continue to build strategic partnership with ECMU on a variety levels. Through planting churches in large and influential cities of Russia, IMB hopes to develop bases for ongoing church planting throughout Russia. By creating outreach projects based on meeting needs of and providing service to the larger community, IMB hopes to develop the same type of presence that ECMU is establishing. By planting churches that will send and support their own missionaries, IMB hopes to see a church planting movement spread throughout European Russia.[2] IMB has hosted several leadership training events in Moscow and St. Petersburg to train cross-cultural workers for this purpose, and ECMU has participated regularly in these events.

In the European Russian context, an ideal urban church planting ministry should entail the establishment of church planting teams and churches in the megacities. Ideally, it should also entail some type of community outreach that would meet human needs while teaching sound biblical theology. Preferably, churches should be taught the principles of church planting movements and should initiate the sending of their own missionaries for global mission expansion. In reality these are the very activities in which IMB and ECMU has been involved for the past decade, and ECMU has seen an almost five hundred percent increase in churches and members. ECMU is as close to Baptist as you can get without crossing over.

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[1] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2013), 31.

[2] David Garrison defines a Church Planting Movement as “a rapid multiplication of indigenous churches planting churches that sweeps through a people group or population segment” in his book, Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming a Lost World (Arkadelphia, Ark.: WIGTake, 2004), 21.

So How Does Russia's ECMU compare to Baptist Ecclesiology? Part 2

Ed Stetzer believes many churches “have neglected some of the ecclesiology described in Scripture by de-emphasizing New Testament patterns of leadership, misunderstanding the role of covenant and related church discipline, and failure to practice the biblically prescribed ordinances.”[1] John Hammett identifies the positions of elders/pastors/overseers and deacons as two offices in Baptist ecclesiology. He lists the qualifications for elders as those coming from 1 Timothy 3:2–7 and Titus 1:6–9. The list includes morality, marital status, giftedness, maturity, gender, and a divine calling. Of those qualifications, the overwhelming majority of the Evangelical Christian Missionary Union (ECMU) concurs.[2] Hammett also encourages a plurality of elders in his Baptist ecclesiology,[3] the very thing that ECMU also encourages.[4] After one hundred years of deacon rule, Hammett has issued a call back to congregational rule wherein a plurality of elders “would force churches to think through the relationship of the two offices and would result in a renewal of the servant aspect of diaconal ministry, with leadership left to the elders.”[5] The way that Frolov has established the ministries of elder and deacon in his church is reflective of that renewal.

The ECMU church in St. Petersburg recognizes pastoral ordination, but it does not practice deacon ordination. According to Hammett, the issue of ordination is a historical one.

Over the course of church history, ordination grew in importance. It eventually became viewed as a sacrament, conferring grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit on the recipient…This understanding of ordination came under sharp attack in the Reformation, because it contradicted the idea of the priesthood of all believers, it created a false dichotomy between clergy and laity, and it lacked biblical warrant.[6]

Frolov does not see a need to unnecessarily “burden” lay servants with cultural and historical baggage.[7]

Hammett outlines five ecclesial functions in Baptist ecclesiology, the very same functions or ministries that Frolov and ECMU outlines as their own. Hammett argues that “in Baptist life, the ministry of the Word has been central.”[8] ECMU calls the ministry of the Word “the only true source of knowing God (John 5:39).”[9] Hammett said the ministry of fellowship “explains how otherwise diverse believers can experience oneness in Christ; what they have in common outweighs their differences.”[10] ECMU says that “fellowship with other Christians (Hebrews 10:25) is what leads a Christian to readiness to serve God with power and with the gifts of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:11–13).”[11] Hammett says that in the Baptist ministry of worship “evangelism was a byproduct of worship, not the design of worship.”[12] ECMU reflects this as well in its identification with the evangelical movement even in its worship practices.[13] Hammett identifies service as a Baptist ideal, even though “this is an area in which Baptists… need to improve.”[14] Frolov says that “ECMU is including an aspect of service to the community and to each other as an integral part of its church life.”[15] Hammett also includes evangelism that extends “to the ends of the earth, or what is usually called international missions.”[16] EMCU is also careful to include an evangelism aspect that extends “to all generations and to all people groups.”[17]

Interestingly, the substance of Baptist ecclesiology as presented by Hammett is reflective of the very practice of ECMU in Russia. Almost item by item, each element of historical Baptist theology as it relates to the doctrine of the church is present in ECMU’s praxis. Perhaps it is for this reason that Frolov makes the claim that “we are really Baptists; we just don’t have the title Russian Baptists. We are a different denomination, but we are just like Baptists.”[18]

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[1]Ed Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches: Planting a Church That’s Biblically Sound and Reaching People in Culture (Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman & Holman, 2006), 177.

[2] The only sticking point would be Hammett’s insistence on the elder role as limited to males. ECMU has one female serving as pastor in the Buddhist region of Russia. See Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Церкви Калмыцкой Епархии,” (2009). http://www.exmc.ru/churches/kalmykyia (accessed August 18, 2009). However, even though the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 defines male leadership of churches, the Southern Baptist Convention still has about 30 women pastors. See Executive Committee of the SBC, “Southern Baptists and Women Pastors,” The Truth about the SBC & Texas (2009). http://www.baptist2baptist.net/printfriendly.asp?ID=58 (accessed August 18, 2009).

[3] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 166-177.

[4] Frolov, interview by author.

[5] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 197.

[6] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 205–206.

[7] Frolov, interview by author.

[8] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 228.

[9] Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Символ Веры.”

[10] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 233.

[11] Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Символ Веры.”

[12] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 248.

[13] See Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Символ Веры.”

[14] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 252.

[15] Frolov, interview by author.

[16] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 255.

[17] See Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Символ Веры.”

[18] Dmitry A. Frolov, interview by author, written notes, St. Petersburg, Russia, May 15, 2004.

So How Does Russia's ECMU compare to Baptist Ecclesiology? Part 1

John S. Hammett makes a case for Baptist ecclesiology in his book Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology. He personally argues that there is a clear Baptist heritage and theological stance when it comes to the doctrine of the church. From an historical perspective, he identifies a certain biblical and theological position as indicative of traditional Baptist ecclesiology. Interestingly, Great Commission Church of ECMU holds to this exact formula for Baptist ecclesiology.

Images. Hammett employs several biblical images to describe the church. According to Hammett, Baptists see the church as the New Testament “people of God”[1] reflective of and with some spiritual connection to the Old Testament designation for the children of Israel. He also employs the image of the “Body of Christ”[2] to describe the unity, diversity and mutuality of its members. Moreover, he uses the term “Temple of the Spirit”[3] to identify the church as well. In its Creed and Important Teachings for Missional Ministry, ECMU has also employed the same terminology to describe the church as “the people of God,”[4] “the body of Christ,”[5] and “a building made by the ministry of spiritual gifts.”[6]

Marks. Hammett lists several marks of a Baptist understanding of church, namely oneness, holiness, catholic, and apostolic. Although ECMU does not employ these exact terms in its documents, Dmitry Frolov says ECMU “expresses a unity of believers who covenant together to live godly lives in accordance with Scripture.”[7] Hammett says that the church is organized, local, growing, gospel-oriented, and Spirit-empowered.[8] ECMU’s official statement on the church expresses an organization that is “local… a live organism… with a call to share the “gospel of salvation to the world (Matthew 29:19–20)… by means of the Holy Spirit.”[9] 

            Although the question of unregenerate members is also addressed by Russian Baptist churches by excommunication of those who are in danger of losing their salvation for falling into particular sins, ECMU addresses it by employing a discipleship process for its members. Hammett believes regenerate church membership is the hallmark of Baptist ecclesiological identity and the “center of Baptist ecclesiology.”[10] Hammett cites Justice C. Anderson in his connection of regeneration and church membership as the “cardinal point of Baptist ecclesiology, and logically, the point of departure for church polity.”[11]

           

Ordinances. Baptists observe two ordinances of the local church: the Lord’s Supper and baptism. ECMU, like Russian Baptists, practices baptism by immersion in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.[12] Although Hammett suggests that “baptism is a decision of the church in which it endorses the reality of the [candidate’s] decision,”[13] Frolov sees baptism as the “first step of obedience”[14] in the life of a new believer and places more emphasis on the individual being baptized. Most Baptists do not practice infant baptism but rather adhere to credo-baptism. The Russian Baptist practice of not baptizing anyone under the age of sixteen without parental permission is reflective of their state legal system whereby a child becomes legally accountable for adult crime at that age.[15] There are even some among pastors in EMCU that wait until age 18 for baptism candidates.[16] Though the actual practice of many churches in the Southern Baptist Convention is to baptize small children under the age of five [17], who arguably do not understand fully what they are doing [18], most church members come from a higher age bracket and are accepted on the basis of profession of faith as an older teen or adult. Hammett believes this postponement for later ages comes from a strong Baptist heritage of both Separatist Baptists and Particular Baptists of the seventeenth century.[19] According to Frolov, ECMU also does not usually practice childhood baptisms.[20]

This disdain for paedobaptism in early Baptist history ultimately led to a congregational form of church polity whereby the local church expressed its local autonomy and freedom to direct its own affairs. Hammett deals extensively with leadership roles in Baptist congregational polity.

Local autonomy, one aspect of congregationalism, is also supported by the overwhelmingly dominant use of ekklesia to refer to local churches in the New Testament. There is no superior organizational level to which churches are accountable.[21]

Due to its hierarchal structure and prescribed levels of authority within the Russian Baptist Union, most Russian Baptist churches operate more from a Presbyterian form of church government.[22] In contrast ECMU, as typified in the Great Commission Church of St. Petersburg, also holds to a more congregational form of church polity. Therefore, it could be argued that ECMU in Russia is more closely associated with Hammett’s idea of historical Baptist polity than the Russian Baptist Union. But some Baptist historians have begun to challenge this thinking with examples of presbyterian polity present in historical Baptist examples.

            The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper is a celebratory event in the life of Great Commission Church. Hammett admits that “Baptists typically emphasize the human actions involved in the ordinances…The danger here is missing a blessing God may have for us, because we never look for it.”[23] It is for this reason that ECMU attempts to make this event both a “celebration of koinonia with each other and communion with God.”[24] The Great Commission Church celebrates this observance as a regular monthly event.

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[1] John S. Hammett, Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2005), 32.

[2] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 37.

[3] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 43.

[4] See Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Символ Веры,” (2003), http://www.exmc.ru/about/credo (accessed August 1, 2009).

[5] Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Аспекты вероучения, важные для осуществления миссионерского служения,” (2003). http://www.exmc.ru/about/faith_aspects (accessed August 18, 2009).

[6] Ibid.

[7] Dmitry Frolov, pastor of ECMU church in St. Petersburg, Russia. Interview by author.

[8] See Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 67-76.

[9] Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Символ веры.”

[10] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 98.

[11] Justice C. Anderson, “Old Baptist Principles Reset,” Southwestern Journal of Theology 31 (Spring 1989), 8 in Hammett, 98.

[12] Frolov, interview by author.

[13] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 272.

[14] Frolov, interview by author.

[15] Yuri V. Podosenov, interview by author, written notes, St. Petersburg, Russia, 5 February 2004.

[16] Sergei G. Fedotov, pastor of The Source ECMU Church in Slavyansk-on-Kuban, Russia, believes that it is permissible to baptize youth as young as 12 years old as long as there is parental permission. However, he believes that without parental permission, a person must wait to receive baptism until he is the adult age of 18 or older. See Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Крещение младенцев,” ECMU Forum (February 22, 2009). http://www.exmc.ru/pub/viewtopic.php?t=582 (accessed August 19, 2009).

[17] Lifeway Research, “2007 Southern Baptist Statistics: Number of Baptisms,” (2008). http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/files/lwcF_LifeWay_Research_2007_ACP_Summary_Charts_Part_2.pdf (accessed August 18, 2009).

[18] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 112. Hammett argues that “it is hard to see how these preschool children could have convinced earlier Baptists that they were in fact regenerate or competent to take on the duties and responsibilities of church membership.”

[19] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 91.

[20] Frolov, interview by author.

[21] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 146.

[22] Frolov, interview by author.

[23] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 262.

[24] Frolov, interview by author.

Why It's Still Important To Be Involved in Russian Missions

Georgia Baptists are still involved in a 5 year partnership with Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia

Actual Ecclesiological Practice of the Evangelical Christian Missionary Union

ECMU has over sixty new Russian churches, most of which were planted within the past decade by sending out Russian church planters to begin new work. One such church plant is Great Commission Church in St. Petersburg, Russia. The church was birthed by a vision of ECMU church planter Dmitry A. Frolov. What grew from an initial evangelism event in 2003 is now a congregation of about fifty persons. This church plant is a testimony to ECMU’s attempt to practice what it preaches.

As one of the partners of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Petersburg, the Great Commission Church details their beginnings and development on their website:

In the fall of 2003, the Frolov family (Dmitry and Valentina) moved to St. Petersburg from Volgograd. They started their ministry with an anti-narcotics festival of Music, Word and Sports called "A Time to Live." This was carried out in the Primorsky region where they were serving. This festival was in conjunction with a Committee of Evangelical Churches helping to plan the celebration of the 300 year anniversary of St. Petersburg... From 2004 to 2006, annual short-term mission teams from Southern Baptist churches came to help reach people in our region through sports events and free English classes. In November of 2005, after two years of evangelism, we held our first official worship service in a local café. Then up until the summer of 2008, we held regular services on the premises of a local mission agency, "Good News", with a regular Sunday attendance of thirty to forty, twenty-seven of which were baptized. Over the course of these 3 years, there were four more baptismal services.[1]

The congregation now rents a small hall for Sunday services from 5 to 7 PM on Malaya Konyushkaya in the St. Catherine’s Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg.

According to Frolov, church planting in European Russia is usually done in several steps.[2] The first step involves teaching biblical truth to new believers. In order to acquire these new believers, Frolov believes a church planter should share personal testimonies of how Christ is actively working in the lives of those being saved. Therefore he establishes what he calls “fellowship platforms”[3] to reach young adults through multiple avenues like sports events, English classes and showing Christian films. These evangelism events are then focused on a goal of repentance and faith. New friends are invited to evangelistic church services that are also especially geared toward repentance. Frolov says that “even our baptism services are used as teaching moments about repentance and faith. They are teaching by example.”[4] This practice seems to hold true to the professed standard of community outreach that is publicized on the C&MA website and to the historical beginnings of evangelistic activities of Ivan S. Prokhanov in the early twentieth century.[5]

            Great Commission Church has a basic discipleship ministry that matches a new believer’s talents and gifts with service opportunities and leadership development. Frolov believes the pastor is the primary person with the responsibility to teach the church, but he also believes there should be “mutual accountability”[6] among all members. That is why he has developed weekly small group sessions that meet in homes to discuss the applications of Sunday sermons. This is his answer to the Acts 2 fellowship groups that C&MA promotes in its creeds and published lists of core values.

            Although Great Commission Church fully follows the creed outlined on ECMU’s website,[7] Frolov says that each church is fully independent and autonomous in relation to its own theology. In Maikop, Russia, for example, there are strict rules on accountability in tithing whereby “members have to stand and give a weekly verbal account of their income and tithing,”[8] something that Great Commission Church has chosen not to practice. The American members of their church who are associated with Christian and Missionary Alliance are considered partners in the ministry and often help with local church functions, but the main leaders of the local churches are Russians who “self-theologize.”[9]

            In order to become a fully independent church, the ECMU teaches that a group must have financial independence, a sound plan for budgeting, a stable place to meet, and governmental registration. The Union divides groups into three categories – group, developing church, and fully developed church – the latter of which exhibits the aforementioned elements. Both ecclesiological maturity and ecclesiastical maturity are concurrent goals.

            ECMU does not believe in unregenerate church membership. Frolov explains,

You cannot truly know the heart of a person, of course. Just as Paul said, ‘He went out from us but was not one of us.’ However, unlike Russian Baptists who are Arminian, we do not believe you can lose your salvation. Salvation is not a ruble you can misplace somewhere. Therefore, we have certain measures instituted to handle public sin and lovingly discipline a church member.[10]

Frolov expounds more upon this church discipline when he explains there are two levels of disciplinary action:

If a member admits to a serious public sin that we believe warrants discipline and publicly repents, we institute disciplinary probation. For a time, he or she may have to withdraw from full church fellowship during the Lord’s Supper. This is to reiterate the seriousness of sin, but then later he is restored to full fellowship. However, for those who refuse to repent and continue to live in sin, the last straw is excommunication. Adultery, for example, could be an either-or. It depends on his repentance.[11]

Frolov explains further that this last straw is used in extreme circumstances only when it appears that the member will never repent.

            For its church polity, ECMU teaches congregationalism with a plurality of leaders. When Frolov planted his church in St. Petersburg, he immediately established a pastoral team whereby the senior pastor was held responsible for the church’s vision but was not considered a dictator. In contrast to Russian Baptist churches, where the church polity is more Presbyterian in nature, ECMU church plants seek to involve the full congregation in decision making as soon as new believers are baptized and the group constitutes as a church. There are separate leadership meetings designed for evangelism and educational planning, but the larger body is responsible for the ministry plans for the church.           

            The pastoral team is made up of the senior pastor, other pastors, deacons, and elders. The ordained senior pastor is the “key figure responsible for the spiritual formations of the people.”[12] Other pastors may or may not be ordained, but they are responsible for ministry leadership development. Some others on the pastoral team are non-ordained deacons responsible for helping to meet humanitarian needs in the church. There are also ordained elders, or older ones in the church, that may or may not function also as deacons. ECMU uses passages from First Timothy and Titus for its list of qualifications of church leaders with a heavy emphasis on outside reputation and ability to teach.[13]

            ECMU lists five ecclesiological functions in their web pages, and their church plants exhibit those same functions. According to Frolov, Great Commission Church has a teaching program designed to provide basic discipleship and mentorship to church members through sermons on Sunday and weekly home groups.[14] They place a high priority on fellowship in both home groups and community events. Frolov sees music, praise, and prayer in home groups as fulfilling one part of the worship aspect, but he believes that “our entire lifestyle should be a lifestyle of worship.”[15] The ministry aspect is fulfilled in “personal relationships as members help each other with meeting real needs.”[16] Finally, with its strong emphasis on evangelism through sports, English, films, mountain-climbing, student ministry, and Alpha discussion clubs,[17] Great Commission Church sets the evangelism function of the church as an ecclesiological priority. Frolov believes his young church is attempting to live out the mandates of Scripture and uphold ECMU’s published core values.[18]

            ECMU holds the Lord’s Supper and baptism as the two ordinances instituted by Jesus,[19] so its church plants have varying ways of observing these ordinances. At Great Commission Church, the members have the Lord’s Supper as a part of their worship service on the first Sunday of each month. Baptism can be performed at any time a person accepts Christ, but usually it is done with several in each group. There have been four such baptismal services thus far, and Frolov uses each service as a teaching moment to refer the growing congregation back to the commands of Jesus and the congregation’s ecclesial identity as an ECMU church.[20]

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[1] Great Commission Church of EMCU in St. Petersburg, “История Церкви,” (February 23, 2009). http://greatcommissionspb.ru/?page_id=10 (accessed August 1, 2009).

[2] Dmitry A. Frolov, interview by author, written notes, Moscow, Russia, 13 August 2009.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Although founded as a denomination in the 1990s, ECMU traces its origins to the Prokhanov movement in European Russia in the early twentieth century. Ivan S. Prokhanov emphasized needs-based evangelism that expanded some of the early work of prison ministry and youth ministry in Russia. See Ivan S. Prokhanov, “Мое Первое Тюремное Заключение и Работа среди Молодежи,” in В Котле России 1869–1933: Автобиография Ивана Степановича Проханова (Chicago: World Fellowship of Slavic Evangelical Christians, 1992), 187–194.

[6] Ibid.

[7] See Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Символ Веры,” (2003), http://www.exmc.ru/about/credo (accessed August 1, 2009).

[8] Frolov, interview by author.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17] The Alpha discussion club is an informal gathering designed to allow exploration of the Christian faith over a ten week period. See The Alpha Course, “Российский Альфа-Курс,” (n.d.) http://www.alphacourse.ru (accessed August 17, 2009).

[18] Frolov, interview by author.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Ibid.