Along with ethnic Russians, Russia’s vast territory includes more than 100 minority people groups, and ministry here can take many forms in order to reach each of these cultures with the gospel. Whether connecting with Buddhists through English clubs, evangelizing in Muslim communities, or running camps for Slavic students, SEND Russia partners with local believers to engage unreached people groups with the gospel.
We stay alert and available to strategically expand our ministries to new communities that lack a gospel witness. Some communities prove hard to enter through conventional missionary service, so Russia offers opportunities for bi-vocational workers whose gospel witness can spring from a visible commitment to loving the local community.
We invite you to discover how you can make a lasting impact for Christ in Russia. Missionary service starts with prayer! Click here to find a prayer guide for unreached people groups in Russia.
Much of Russia has no gospel witness. About two-thirds of the Russian population identifies with the culturally and politically strong, but spiritually weak, Russian Orthodox Church. Evangelical Christians remain a small percentage of the population (less than 2%), while Islam is Russia’s fastest-growing religion. Large unreached communities of Tibetan Buddhists also live in Russia, as do people groups that practice folk religions. In this spiritual climate, SEND workers develop meaningful relationships through which they share the hope of the gospel.
Russia’s legacy of atheistic communism created a spiritual vacuum, with people attempting to fill their emptiness with wealth, sex, and other material pursuits. As a result, Russia suffers from rampant social problems including high suicide rates, human trafficking, alcoholism, drug use, and HIV. In this spiritual climate, SEND seeks to bring the light of the gospel to unreached places and partner with local believers to start new churches. With many local communities within Russia becoming harder to enter, SEND workers, now more than ever, need to be bi-vocational, so their gospel witness can spring from a visible commitment to loving the local community.
Eleven time zones sprawling from Eastern Europe to Far East Asia hardly characterizes the utter vastness of this country. While the fall of the Soviet state left behind an aged, sometimes crumbling modern society, a continual process of upscaling hums in many urban areas 24/7. Today people in Russia enjoy a hard-won stability compared to the economic and power vacuum left by the USSR’s demise. Many in Russia embrace a brand of realism and nationalism that has allowed them make sacrifices for family, and community, but has left many searching for more meaning in life.
SEND Russia desires to build teams that thrive and have a lasting impact in their communities- an impact that makes Christ’s great love famous to the diverse peoples of the Russian forests, steppes, cities and Taiga.
God can use a wide variety of gifts, talents and experiences in Russia's diverse context. As you explore joining SEND Russia, here are some areas to consider:
