In March 2024, I spoke at a summit in Kyiv that launched an effort among Ukrainian Baptists to plant 1,000 new churches by 2036. Surveying the lay of the land there, I believe that this is an achievable vision, and that now is most certainly the right time.
Laying the matter of a full-scale invasion and war to one side, planting a church is – at the best of times - fraught with difficulties, never mind cooperatively planting 1,000. Wisdom is needed.
Not the kind of worldly wisdom that raises problems to solutions, let me be clear. Encouragingly, the people I am working with do not see the war or displacement as appropriate justification for gospel withdrawal. They recognise that there is a spiritual war to also be fought, and the war for their nation and for gospel advance sometimes overlap.
We must not forget Ukraine
February marked four years since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and 12 years since the Russo-Ukrainian War began with …