L y o n – Ukrainian Baptists assume the unusually rapid growth of their church in recent years will slow. That opinion was stated by Vyacheslav Nesteruk (Kiev), new President of Ukraine’s Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists on the fringes of the European Baptist Federation (EBF) Council sessions convening in Lyon, France from 26 to 30 September. Statistically, since the demise of communism, the church has founded a new congregation every third day. With 2.800 congregations and 150.000 members, Ukrainian Baptists now form the largest Baptist union on the European continent. According to Nesteruk, interest in the Christian faith was linked to the country’s harsh economic conditions: “Poor persons are more interested in God than rich ones.” Nesteruk has observed that slow, gradual improvements in economic conditions mean decreasing interest in spiritual matters: “We will soon be confronted with completely new challenges.” Primary task at present is to invite members to begin leading an actively evangelistic lifestyle and to school them accordingly. Each month now in one of the country’s 25 districts, appropriate courses are being offered to leading church workers. Ukrainian Baptists recognise no model for church growth in the world-wide boom of Pentecostal and charismatic congregations. Nesteruk informed the European Baptist Press Service (EBPS) that because of spiritual considerations they remain sceptical of trends in such quarters. Nesteruk was voted in as successor to Baptist President Gregory Komendant in May 2006.

The Brasilian Fausto Vasconcelos (Falls Church by Washington), new director of the Baptist World Alliance’s Division of Evangelism and Education, also regards harsh economic realities as one reason for the growth of Christian congregations. World-wide secularism has also taken stronger hold in the countries of the Northern Hemisphere: “People in the Northern Hemisphere are too concerned about themselves and do not care about God.” In the South on the other hand, God is for many people the only hope for better living conditions, both now and in eternity. This has led to the explosive growth of Christian churches particularly in Africa and Latin America. Vasconcelos labels the goal of Latin American Baptists to found 50.000 new congregations within the coming years as “realistic and attainable”. But in other corners of the world, Baptists also should not lapse in their offensive campaigning for faith in Jesus Christ. In hopes of motivating the leaders of Baptist unions and congregations, the Baptist World Alliance has called regional “Living Waters” conferences into being.

It also became known at the EBF conference that German and Russian Baptists intend to cooperate more closely. Regina Claas (Elstal by Berlin), General-Secretary of the German Federation of Evangelical-Free Churches and Peter Mitskevich (Moscow), Vice-President of the Russian Baptist Union, revealed their intention to combine forces in the future for joint projects, especially in the realm of evangelisation. Being that Russian Baptists have had positive experiences with long-distance expeditions – some with automobiles, others with bicycles – plans are being made for an expedition entitled “From Ocean to Ocean” in the coming year. The bike tour is to begin in Denmark on the Baltic Sea and extend to Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean. Goal will be to visit as many Baptist congregations as possible and have joint teaching or evangelistic sessions. According to Mitskevich, a similar expedition from Bryansk in Western Russia to Omsk, Siberia this year was a great success. Twenty bikers were along for the entire distance. In cities they were often hailed enthusiastically – even by public officials. He concludes: “Our congregations profited greatly from the public exposure this tour brought.”