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- Factors Behind the Ukrainian Evangelical Missionary Surge from 1989 to 1999
Factors Behind the Ukrainian Evangelical Missionary Surge from 1989 to 1999
Foreword by Donald Fairbairn
Series: Evangelical Missiological Society Monograph Series
Imprint: Pickwick Publications
Throughout its history, the Soviet Union was one of the most closed places in the world to missionary work. As perestroika came in the late 1980s and the Soviet Union fell in 1991, a spiritual vacuum formed as massive numbers of people became interested in Christianity. An unprecedented freedom allowed evangelicals to engage in missionary work.
Much has been written about foreign evangelical missionary work during this period, but virtually nothing has been written about nationals doing ministry. This book examines the remarkable surge in Ukrainian evangelical missionary work from 1989 to 1999.
Both Baptists and Pentecostals engaged in a wave of missions, flowing from Ukraine to the end of the earth: Siberia. What were these pioneering missionaries like? What motivated them? What enabled them to do what had been forbidden for so long? What legacy did they leave for us today? What can we learn from their example for future missions?
This book also looks at how a surge in missions takes place, analyzing the factors behind the Ukrainian evangelical missionary surge by looking at different models for change. Here we consider: what steps can we take to help bring about new missionary surges?
John Edward White is a missionary with WorldVenture and the Director of Missiology Programs at the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary in Kyiv, Ukraine. He was formerly a teacher of missiology at Donetsk Christian University in Donetsk, Ukraine. He has a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Biola University. He is married and has a son.
“At the time, a surprised Western missionary likened the sudden search for God across the Soviet Union as a supernova. Everyone noticed the explosion of Christian witness and ministries, over five hundred mission agencies from the West were everywhere, but as Don Fairbairn correctly states in the foreword, their long-term results ‘were very mixed,’ too many ignorant foreign missionaries flashing through, then gone. John White was among the few who stayed, came to know the people. His focus is on the indigenous missionaries, the Ukrainian evangelicals.”
—Walter Sawatsky, Professor Emeritus of Church History and Mission, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary
“As I began research into new mission movements in Central and Eastern Europe, I considered including the Ukrainian organization Light of the Gospel in my study, but I soon determined it was beyond my competence and resources. I am so glad I waited! John White has discovered far more and in greater depth than I ever could have. By embedding this one agency in a larger study of Ukrainian missions he offers a fine addition to the recent literature on emerging mission initiatives. I have learned much from his research and am glad to commend it to those seeking to better understand the mission situation in Ukraine.”
—Scott Klingsmith, Missiologist in Residence, Denver Seminary, author of Missions Beyond the Wall
“John White has performed an important service for both mission studies and global evangelical history. A trustworthy guide, he has succeeded in shaping scattered and fragmentary written and oral sources into a coherent, insightful narrative. The analysis is first rate!”
—Mary Raber, History Instructor, Odessa Theological Seminary