Along with ethnic Russians, Russia’s vast territory includes more than 100 unreached, minority people groups. 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.
While the country of Russia has become more complicated, isolated, and unpredictable than it has been in many years, the fact remains that many in this vast land remain far from any real gospel witness.
Our Russia team has experienced incredible upheaval in the last year, but we are also persevering in gospel ministry in a number of local communities. God is truly at work in the lives of many! Even as we are asking questions about how to persevere for the gospel, many people in Russia are asking questions, which soften their hearts to the gospel. We hold in tension the desire to strategically stay and expand our ministries to new communities, along with the many questions about what perseverance here looks like.
In this context of uncertainty, Russia still offers opportunities for co-vocational workers whose gospel witness can spring from a visible commitment to loving the local community. We are persevering to find how we can enter communities, push through barriers, and make connections for the sake of the gospel.
We invite you to discover how you can make a lasting impact for Christ in Russia. Strategic missionary service and Kingdom development start 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. Mourning casualties of war and the separation of families are also new realities for many, especially in minority communities. 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 co-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. The fall of the Soviet state left behind an aged, sometimes crumbling modern society. A continual process of upscaling hums in many urban areas across the country. Today the hard-won stability that people in Russia enjoyed appears again to be precarious. While many in Russia continue to embrace a brand of realism and nationalism that has allowed them to make sacrifices for family, and community, many are 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:
