Entrust-Russia
An Overview
Vision
We envision that—by December 31, 2020—we will have helped establish networks of accessible, biblical leadership education, together covering all of the 89 governmental regions of Russia and providing such training for at least 3,000 servant-leaders effectively directing local churches and missionary organizations in helping to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ among all the people groups in the largest country on earth.
Need
The most critical need of the world Christian movement in Russia is for an adequate number of spiritually mature servant-leaders of churches and missionary organizations who are able and trained to equip others with competencies essential for an effective servant-leader. Since religious freedom dawned in Russia in 1987 several thousand new churches were planted, but most of the pastors, missionaries and teachers in Russia have little or no biblical training for their ministry.
It is true that many bible colleges and seminaries have been established and are operating across the country. However, these institutions generally take a highly academic approach to training and are accessible mainly to young men with little or no ministry experience. Also, enrollment in many of these schools has significantly declined in recent years.
A vast majority of church leaders in Russia – both male and female—have families, jobs and ministries that they cannot abandon in order to "go away to school." Their training must be brought to them where they are already living and ministering. Their training must be "holistic," aiming for personal transformation of the learner in the three main areas of "being," "knowing," and "doing." Their training must help them become competent communicators of the word of God and equippers of other servant-leaders.
Of special demographic importance is the fact that about 80% of the members of churches in Russia are female. Therefore, Russian sisters in Christ must be trained to help train other sisters in Christ as competent servant-leaders of women.
Solution
Provide accessible, transformational, biblical training.
To accomplish this we will focus on four areas that are critical for success:
- Training & Consulting Projects
- Personnel Development
- Literature Development
- Financial Development