School Without Walls helps train future church leaders

Russia (MNN) — Throughout the former Soviet Union, ongoing changes in government have had a significant impact on the spiritual climate. With various laws, restrictions and power struggles throughout the former Soviet Union, it’s no surprise that the church in Russia has undergone much change.

Russian Ministries’ Sergey Rakhuba recognizes this as an opportunity for the Church to shine, and that’s why their School Without Walls program is training a new generation of leaders. School Without Walls is a training program to reach, motivate and equip church leaders for Russia.

“We realized that they are not as much motivated as the previous generation that was raised under the persecution. So we have to contextualize all these methods, how to reach out to the young generation and how to train young believers to be more active in reaching out to their communities on behalf of their churches.”

This generation is more educated and technically equipped, and Rakhuba says, “We have to be on the cutting edge of ministry to continue to be relevant in order to be able to communicate the Gospel to this young generation.”

Rakhuba says equipping new leaders is crucial to the future of the church in Russia, “We have to train young generation leaders, those who are not stuck with the traditional ideas, who are not poisoned with legalism, those ones who are open to take new tools and new ideas and continue spreading the Gospel, the same truth, the same Bible, but using different vehicles getting to the young generation in Russia.”

Russian Ministries has been doing training and providing resources for the church and leaders, but they see the importance of having a vision for the next generation as well, says Rakhuba, “All the church leaders there realize, if they don’t train, don’t mobilize the next generation, within the next five to seven years, they could run into a pretty serious crisis when the churches will not be attractive anymore to young people.”

Prayer and financial support are ongoing needs. Pray that God will raise up many strong leaders for the Russian church through the training at the School Without Walls. Contact Russian Ministries for more information.