Stories from Inside Russia

Church-State Relations Program Empowers Church Leaders

We’ve all dealt with red tape. We’ve waited in a line (or three or four) for a driver’s license, requested building permits, filled out forms and submitted to municipal regulations. For churches in Russia, these processes can be especially frustratingas they often face unnecessary and even unlawful procedures and regulations. Some students’ churches are repeatedly asked to provide lists of church members, even though no law exists requiring them to do so. They are met with difficult and lengthy procedures when applying for rental spaces or renovation permits. Churches must sometimes hire lawyers to help navigate the legal system, an expensive and time consuming process. Being uninformed about the law and the church’s rights within it wastes time and impedes progress.

In response, Moscow Theological Seminary has implemented a new Church-State Relations program focusing on religion and the law. The unique, comprehensive curriculum equips church leaders with the knowledge necessary to address bureaucraticroadblocks from various government agencies. Practically oriented courses significantly enhance legal literacy in the church and help build relationships with government officials. Upon completion of the program, church leaders are equipped to solve a number of legal issues that religious organizations face in their daily activities, eliminating the need for lawyers and allowing more time and resources to focus on ministry.

The program was developed by Anatoly Pchelintsev, co-president of the Slavic Center for Law and Justice, chief editor of Religion and Law magazine and honorable member of the Russian Attorney League. Dr. Pchelintsev and several other experts in the field have begun teaching classes at the Moscow campus and will subsequently travel to five other learning centers, making this the first specialized nationwide program at MTS.

According to Dr. Pchelintsev, “the new program moves Russians to work together toward the development of a civil society in which human rights are guaranteed and protected.” When churches know their rights within the law, they are empowered to protect their religious freedoms and minister more effectively in their communities.

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What Group is Most Instrumental in Spreading the Gospel?

Here’s a hint: it is not a people group, it’s an age group. Half of the world’s population is under 25 years old. Yet relatively few missions resources are invested in reaching this young population. This was the theme of Valley Community Baptist Church’s recent World Outreach Week where Andrey Kravtsev, NCBI President, presented as an emerging leader in reaching this critical population. Andrey spoke about the work of NCBI and told stories of his students and graduatesto over 1,200 people.

Missions Pastor Doug Christgau reflects, “Andrey was warmly received as he shared the story of a young man converted from Islam who now pastors of one of the few churches reaching Muslims in the North Caucasus. We appreciated that the school uses modern technology to bring quality education to students. Through distance learning, students can access professors from Moscow on a time schedule that fits into the bi-vocational lifestyle of the pastors. Many people from Valley signed up to be prayer partners with Andrey.”

We’re grateful to Valley Baptist for their partnership in reaching this strategic population in Russia. Learn more about Andrey and the North Caucasus region on the NCBI Learning Center page.

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Translating the Word

An MTS professor consults on the first Russian Bible translation since the 19th century

If you visit the average Christian bookstore in the United States, how many Bible translations do you find? Ten? Fifteen? Not to mention the Bibles targeted specifically to women, men, children, teens, students and others. In Russia however, this is not the case. There has not been a new translation of the Russian Bible since 1867. But that’s all about to change.

Gennadi Savin, Moscow Theological Seminary professor and dean of masters level programs, was commissioned by the Russian Bible Society to lend his expertise in Greek for a modern translation into Russian. This is a crucial project as the language of the current version is dated and difficult for most Russians to read and understand.

Gennadi explains,“The old language is very different from modern Russian. In the last 20 years there have been some attempts at a modern translation, but the most of them have not been good. They had many errors and needed changing and corrections.”

The new translation will enable Russians to engage more deeply with Scripture in their heart language. Gennadi says,“Our contemporary culture lacks solid Bible knowledge. The new translation will popularize the Bible for Russian speaking people, including those in surrounding areas.”

According to Peter Mitskevich, MTS President, “Most Russians uphold the mystery of God but don’t believe he is someone to whom they can relate personally. This Bible is necessary for a new generation of Russians to understand God, to dive into the Bible, love it and believe in it.”

The new Bible will be published and distributed in 2011. Join us in praising God for Gennadi’s hard work on this project and pray that the new translation will lead the Russian people to grow in their knowledge of the Lord.

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Sergiy Sannikov named Distinguished Professor of MTS; Prepares to Publish New Book

“Popular History of Christianity” by Sergiy Sannikov

This book is a popular presentation of S. V. Sannikov’s encyclopedic two-volume book: "Twenty Centuries of Christianity", which was published in 2000-01 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The present edition is targeted toward a broad audience of readers who are superficially acquainted with Christianity and its history. It invites the reader to look at history in the form of a virtual play in 6acts with a prologue and an epilogue. The main dialogues, which give a modern interpretation of historical events, are supplemented by maps and charts and other visual study aids.

The book attempts to present its content in as neutral a form as possible, thus avoiding biased confessional and atheistic evaluations, and focuses on the desire to understand the motives of the life and work of Christian figures seeing both their positive and negative sides. The history of Christianity is represented as a complex, global phenomenon with the book tracing, in parallel, the events occurring both in the East, and in the West, in order to see an overall picture of all events occurring in the Christian world (in Europe, Russia, Africa, in America, etc.).

Another important idea put forth in the book is to show how events in Christian history not only involved the church, but also penetrated and changed all aspects of society. Therefore, it is important for the reader to see the influence of Christianity on secular history, on science, on art,on music, and also on the development of theological thinking and on the history of Christian missionary activity.

The author, working together with the designer, Alexander Pavlichenko, hopes to have the text and basic part of the proposed book finished by the end of 2010, with layout completed by the end of January, 2011. For more details (in Russian) see: www.20vekov.info