Impressions of Russia - By Shafer Parker

Pastor, Hawkwood Baptist Church
Calgary, Alberta


The Rostov Baptist Bible School was created in the mid-1990s after the fall of Communism. In meetings with Russian Baptist leaders, North American Baptists asked how they could best support what Russian churches were already doing. Educating pastors and young adults for Christian ministry became a priority. Financially the school is supported by NAB churches in Canada and the U.S. All costs for each student are covered, including a tiny amount of spending money. The program is completed in one year, with each subject handled in two-week intensives (Bible survey courses, theology, hermeneutics, homiletics, etc.), led by volunteer professors and pastors from North America. Teaching is done through a professional translator and visiting professors live in a well-furnished apartment a five-minute walk away.


As I write this I’m on my way home from two weeks of teaching the Pentateuch at the Rostov Baptist Bible School in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. This was my second teaching trip and as I left for Russia this time I mistakenly assumed I would simply pick up where I had left off in 2008. Well, that notion disappeared in a hurry. I’d forgotten how much the translation process slows everything down. I also failed to realize that with a brand new group of students (10 men and 3 women) it would take a few days to assess their level of Biblical knowledge and develop the same rapport I had enjoyed with the students by the end of my first visit.

Nor had it crossed my mind how different the weather could be. I mean different from last year because this year it never varied from one day to the next. It rained, except for short periods of heavy overcast and dripping trees, then it rained some more. The hour of the day made no difference. It just rained. As we discussed Noah’s flood in the classroom, nature was giving us a graphic illustration of 40 days of inclemency just outside the window, with narry a rainbow in sight. Rostov is on the Don River just 20 miles east of the Sea of Asov, so I expected the humidity to be a little higher than in my home town of Calgary, Alberta. But this was ridiculous. Ah well, I made up for the dampness outdoors by the dryness of my teaching style indoors.

To meet a Russian Evangelical Christian is to meet someone who understands total commitment to Christ. Exceptions must surely exist, but I’ve not met any. Russia is no longer Communist and religious freedom is a reality, but by and large the culture is so opposed to Christianity, and evangelical Christianity in particular, that no one decides to confess Christ without counting the cost. Or else, like many of this year’s students, they’ve traveled the way of the world to its bitter end and know how to compare the cost of that journey to the rewards of following Jesus. Several of the men in this year’s class have spent time in prison, or in drug and alcohol rehab. They came to faith with the desperation of a Jacob, begging for a blessing from God after all natural strength has been torn away. None of them harbor any illusions as to the source of the new life they presently enjoy, nor would they return to their old way of life for anything this world can offer.


The classroom and the dormitory for the Bible school are in the basement of Central Baptist Church, the only new Baptist Church building to be built in Russia during the Communist era. The Soviet Union hosted the Olympics in Moscow in 1980 and the government was anxious to show the world that its people enjoyed religious freedom, which meant that precisely one church in one city got permission to build — at the end of a narrow, pot-holed lane that appears more alley than street, and where the church building is hidden from view behind some of the most dilapidated buildings in Rostov. No one just drops in at Central. To get there you have to be looking for it, and even then you probably need guidance from someone who knows the way.

Despite the difficulties, a growing number of people are attending Christian worship in Russia. The thousand-seat sanctuary at Central Baptist is nearly full every Sunday, with enough young people present to convince even a convinced skeptic that Christianity cannot be dismissed as nothing more than delusional comfort for a dying generation.

Still, attendance at Central isn’t what it once was — not, surprisingly enough, necessarily a bad thing. Before the fall of communism standing-room-only crowds were the order of the day. But over the past 15 years many members have used their new-found freedom to immigrate away from Russia, and an equal number have gone out to plant new churches around the city — one of them an imposing brick structure on a major thoroughfare with a large cross on top that leaves no room for the passing crowds to misunderstand what goes on inside.


For me, it’s the students I will always remember. Andre, who grew up as one of the good guys but remained haunted by the thought that something was wrong with his life. It was when one of the local pastors suggested he help out at a drug rehab centre that he began to understand his own need for repentance. Michael was a patient at that same centre who shared with me that he had dedicated 20 years of his life to drugs, alcohol and prisons. Within six weeks of entering rehab last year, and being exposed to a Christian witness, he had repented and believed. “Since then God has led me with His own hand,” he reports.

Then there’s Alexander (Sasha to his friends), who was a “danger to other people and a danger to myself.” Twice he tried to commit suicide, and twice the Lord preserved him until he finally went back to his believing parents and asked them to “tell me about God.” Since then “God has released me from my burdens,” he says.

These days Andre, Michael and Sasha are focused on preparing for a lifetime of ministry to others. They’ve got a long way to go to be completely ready, but I have little doubt they’ll make it. To God be the glory! Great things He has done!

Glorify Your Father

I’ve been preaching through I Peter, looking for, among other things, the missional elements in this blunt and powerful epistle. From that perspective 2:12 looked like a gimme. How much more missional can you get than to exhort your readers to “live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us?”

With their usual genius for discovering the obvious, the commentaries all note the similarity between Peter and Jesus in the Sermon On the Mount, where our Lord commands his followers to “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). But then I found two difficulties in interpretation. 1) What is the missional point of a life of good deeds if the poor, benighted pagans don’t wake up and recognize their source before the judgment day? And, 2) What kind of good deeds will cause unbelievers to look past the doer in order to praise the Father in heaven?

Fortunately, I was able to dispose of the first difficulty rather quickly. “The reference to glorifying God suggests that the salvation of Gentiles is in view,” writes Thomas Schreiner in the New American Commentary Series (volume 37, page 124). “Typically, in the New Testament people glorify God or give him glory by believing.” In other words, those who see the Christian’s good works and believe in Jesus while still alive will bring glory to God on the judgment day.

But that still left me wondering how to serve in such a way that unbelievers recognize and praise God. After much prayer I decided to look to Jesus as my example and teacher (I can hear the chorus of “duhs” already). Here is what I found.

• When seeking to serve in such a way that people praise God for it, those whom we serve have to believe that we are serving them only because they are loved. And for that to happen they have to believe that they are loved and accepted as they are. This is not impossible. The gospels tell us that Jesus was a “friend” of “sinners,” using a word that means hardened sinners, people devoted to sin. Yet Jesus found a way to befriend such people. He was good to them because he is good, like God, who “sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45). To be like Jesus we have to learn the indifference of true love. We have to learn to love without the slightest concern for who is being loved, or for what benefits may come back to us. Only then will the world recognize God in us. And by the way, isn’t that Jesus’ main point in the last few verses of Matthew 5?

• In a related matter, the people we serve must become convinced that only the love of God can explain our commitment (II Cor. 5:14). They need to know, for instance, that we are not looking for their votes. Nor are we trying to get them to attend our church. We must be very clear that we are not trying to sell them anything or make a reputation for ourselves. If the slightest hint of an ulterior motive crops up they may go ahead and accept what we are offering, but they will not glorify the Father in heaven.

• Our service must be infused with a level of joy, peace, hope and other godly character qualities that can only be explained by a vital relationship with God. No one ever served God without stirring up opposition somewhere. This was especially true for the first generation of Christians who, in the persons of Peter and John, could not even heal a lame man by the temple gate without getting themselves thrown into jail. But at their trial even the priests had to admit that Jesus had made a difference in their lives: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

• Our service must be done from the heart as an act of worship. Worship and service are two sides of the same coin. We worship God as we serve him, and we serve him in worship. This matters because it balances the first point, the one that says we should be true friends with unbelievers. Without the focus on God provided by worshipping him, we risk failing to give a clear call to unbelievers to repent and believe in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. We can easily fall into the trap of serving sinners in such a way as to enable them to maintain their life of sin and rebellion.

• Our service must have an element of sacrifice about it. (See the second point above.) But let me offer a warning. Here is where Jesus’ admonitions to give in secret and pray in secret (Matt. 6:1-6) become relevant. The moment someone realizes we’re making a great sacrifice we risk losing the ability to point them to God. It’s possible they will remain impressed by what we’re doing for them, but our ultimate purpose may be lost.

I have become convinced that a missional approach is necessary if we are serious about building Christ’s Kingdom in North America. We must commit our very existence to the proposition that all intellectual arguments for faith notwithstanding, people will not believe unless they perceive the presence of God in the work we are doing. Even Jesus was driven to this extremity as he defended his divinity before his own disciples: “Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do” (John 14:11, NLT).

This must become the goal of our lives; that people would come to believe in Jesus because of the work they see us do. No other form of evangelism will succeed with any degree of consistency.

Missional Call by Shafer Parker

According to Milfred Minatrea’s book Shaped by God’s Heart, “a missional church is a reproducing community of authentic disciples, being equipped as missionaries sent by God, to live and proclaim His Kingdom in their world.” And by way of interrupting myself, I say it is a useful thing to place such a key description so early in the book (p. 12). Believe it or not, I’ve searched other books on missional church life from cover to cover without ever finding a description of the very thing that supposedly consumes the author’s life.

But to get to my point, I will never forget the liberation and clarity I experienced regarding my personal call when I finally understood the missional purpose of the church. Frankly, for most of my adult life I often questioned why I was even in ministry, primarily because I never really felt that I fit any of the standard models for pastoral leadership.

To illustrate, consider with me the pastoral styles listed by Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Church (p. 125). I am not a natural evangelist, so every church I’ve served eventually discovers it will never lead the league in baptisms. And as a worship leader I tend to lapse into expositions of song lyrics when I should be getting on with praising God. I despise the idea of the pastor as chaplain. It seems to me that serious Christians should sicken at the thought of the pastorate reduced to religious window dressing for what are essentially family affairs.

Nor am I a reformer according to the social justice model described by Warren. For one thing, the gospel, not social justice is our primary message. For another thing, a lot of matters that are widely accepted as social justice issues have no connection at all with God’s Kingdom. And for yet a third thing, placards and petitions seem to me to be the very antithesis of the Spirit of our Lord who binds the bruised reed and gently blows the oxygen of His Spirit upon the smoldering wick (Mat. 12:18-19). I do not say there is no place for Christian activism, but is it really the place of the body of Christ to be found quarrelling and crying out in the streets? That seems more like a model provided by the labour movement than by our Lord.

Having rejected the other pastoral styles in Warren’s list I concluded I had to be either an instructor or an equipper. And I was mostly okay with that. Teaching and lecturing came naturally, and as a loyal subject of the Queen it was no bother to me to speak to crowned heads if it meant their owners were bent forward to take notes.

But as I pondered being an instructor or an equipper two questions still haunted me. Instructed for what? Equipped for what? In the end I was never satisfied merely regurgitating partially digested Biblical and theological facts for fat infantilized Christians.

Only when I understood the over-arching mission of the church did I also understand my purpose as a pastor. I was called to produce “authentic disciples who will live and proclaim Christ’s kingdom in their world.” Suddenly, the pastorate became the greatest opportunity for service a man could ever have, an all-consuming vocation not to be traded for anything less (and that includes everything else).

Much is written…much to be read

I am a word person. I read. I write. I speak. In fact, I have the great difficulty being quiet.

But I am learning to listen to the words of others as special treasures. That is why I have asked a number of friends to contribute their thoughts to this missional dialogue. One thing I have learned is that while many may be invited…a smaller number respond.

In the next days, we will begin including posts from some of the friends we have made on the journey. Their insights stir my own thinking. Sometimes they write things that make me say, “Why didn’t I see that?” Other times I do not see eye-to-eye with their insights. Of course, sometimes I don’t agree with myself either!

My hope is that the inclusion of their posts will enhance our own thinking about the roles we each hold in God’s mission. I trust that you and I will be challenged to realize the significant implications of our participation in the Kingdom of God. And I hope that other voices will enable us to enter a more effective dialogue…comments are encouraged…so that iron may sharpen iron.

You will be able to identify their words by the icon: Postcards from friends…on the journey.

Be watching for the first of those posts from Shafer Parker, pastor of Hawkwood Baptist Fellowship in Calgary, Alberta. Having known each other as young children, Shafer and I had lost any contact for more than 45 years until our paths reconnected on the missional journey. Shafer and his wife Jeanne have opened their home when Pam and I have ministered in Canada. We love these sweet disciples of Jesus.

So watch for the “postcard” icon. Read and react to the thoughts of friends who are seeking to live and lead in God’s mission. By the way, I would welcome your “postcards” as well. What is God teaching you? What are you wrestling with on the journey? Share your story with me…and I’ll share it with others.