After the Wall came down: Church Planting in Post-Communist Europe

In the exciting days after the break-up of the Soviet Union, churches grew and revival seemed to be on its way.  Nikolai Ivanov from The Bulgarian Bible League remembers his church in Sophia growing from 200 members to 5000 in less than three years.

“Everything became more colourful,” he says. “Before, the streets, the clothes and everything were grey. Everyone was so interested in Christianity because it had been forbidden under Communism. People flooded into the churches 

After praying for the persecuted church in the USSR for many years, Western churches and mission agencies also flooded into the countries as they became more open. Peicho Muhtarov of The Bulgarian Bible League feels his organisation is a good example of Western missionaries partnering with local people:

“The Bible League work with local pastors and teachers, and hire local staff. They allow us to make our own bible study and church planting materials, and don’t bring in huge amounts of money that create dependency. We only cover a church planter’s travel expenses and push them to receive help from the local churches.”

The experience was not so positive however when an organisation came in with their own ideas of how things should be done, and were not prepared to listen to the national Christians.

“In Bulgaria we never had apologetic evangelism – it was always personal testimony and stories of what God has done. But Christian groups come in from outside who have more modernist ways of presenting the Gospel. People become confused and don’t know what to do, because this was not in the culture before - the Gospel was always told through stories.”

“Christian groups come in from outside who have more modernist ways of presenting the Gospel. People become confused”

In Ukraine, some partnerships were established before 1990, for example Ukranian Baptists with the Baptist World Alliance, and the Ukrainian Pentecostals with the Assemblies of God. These recognised relationships gave the opportunity to present the needs of the country and ask for prayer at an organisational level. After ‘the Wall came down’, it was possible to build more local relationships between churches or ministries in the West with those in the Ukraine. 

“We believe very much in partnership and that the body of Christ has beauty in variety,” says Victor Kulbich of the Antioch Movement. “Without partnerships with churches in the West we wouldn’t have known how to get started or produce new materials because we had never done it before.

“Without partnerships with churches in the West we wouldn’t have known how to get started or produce new materials because we had never done it before”

“After eighteen years (in 2008), we are now starting to develop triangle partnerships where for example Swedish and Ukrainians are working together to help those in Central Asia and we are working with Germans to develop a church planting work with street children and homeless people.”

“As we develop experience in church planting in partnership, we recognise that we as Ukrainians can do much more than others, because we belong to the country. We just need understanding and partnership in the consultancy area and training and maybe sometimes financial help to get started. This kind of partnership works well.”

An Amercian missionary who worked in Belarus for many years agrees.

“God is at work doing something among the people – so we need missionaries to come in to find out what God is doing and join in that. In Belarus there are qualified people who just need a partner to add that distinctive flavour to their work, but not come in as an outsider to teach them what to do. One of my Belrusian co-workers was educated at Regent College in Vancouver, and another spent a year in London studying preaching. What could I teach them? But I could partner with them and add to it, rather than trying to tell them what they need to do.”

Joanne Appleton

This article is based on interviews with church planters conducted in late 2008, describing the conditions in which churches were planted in the Ukraine, Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, East Berlin, Latvia and Russia, as well as issues affecting the growth of the Church in these countries.