"Sektanty" as Faithful Disciples

  From Magadan Len and I flew south to Khabarovsk; we spent four days with two congregations in the Khabarovsky krai. Clear skies during the flight allowed us to see the incredible beauty of Russia's eastern coast and the Amur River region. The area is very sparsely populated, and from the air it seems to be a vast wilderness inviting you to explore...from what local residents told us, though, bears might not take too kindly to human visitors tramping through their territory!

  Well, we didn't have any time for camping anyway. Our hope instead was to raise questions and provide tools for congregations that might help them develop a sense of their own, particular call in and for their communities. Len provided many years of experience in the field and knowledge about the process of congregational transformation; my job was to translate and, from time to time, adapt and add in a way that would be appropriate to the cultural context.

  One of the realities that we ran in to again and again is the degree to which Lutheran (and any non-Russian Orthodox, really) congregations are at a disadvantage here in terms of people's stereotypes. “You don't have a church building?” their neighbors ask. “Well, then you must be a 'sektanty' (said with the same intonation that we might say “cult members” in English to speak of those who belong to a dangerous religious group). People who are less set in their stereotypes might ask - “how does your faith differ from Christianity?” You can imagine, then, what a challenge it is to even get a sense of how to talk to people in a way that witnesses to the Gospel without in any way “stealing sheep” from our sisters and brothers in the Orthodox church.

  In the Far East, though, groups of mostly professional people (doctors, musicians, artists, businessmen and most especially teachers) have found their way to our small congregations and have made their spiritual home there. Because of their life situation, though, they run in to a problem we see frequently in the West – the busyness of lay leaders, some of whom are on the edge of burnout. On this trip I noticed again just how difficult it is for working-age people to find time to meet on weekdays, and so our first couple of mid-week meetings were rather disappointing. By the weekend, though, we were visiting St. Catherine's Lutheran, a congregation that was dealing with yet another extra layer of difficulty – their location. Located a 6+ hour bus ride north of the Trans-Siberian railroad, they get pastoral visits even less frequently than others in the region.

  In spite of that, the congregation remains committed to the Gospel and to one another, led by a team of gifted lay women. Len and I found it a joy to work with them and to share in their fellowship. It is my prayer that the Lord would provide opportunities for them to widen their circle so that others may join them on the journey of discipleship.