How to Impact the World for Christ (from right where you already are)

How to Impact the World for Christ (from right where you already are)

Published August 23, 2019 in Summit Magazine

Dr. Evgeny Bakhmutsky is a 2016 Baptist Bible Seminary graduate of the Doctor of Ministry program. He is a fourth-generation Russian Christ-follower. With family members who were martyred or exiled, Bakhmutsky was sent as a church-planter from Siberia to the capital and most populated city of Russia. He serves as pastor-teacher of Russian Bible Church in Moscow, and has served as senior vice president of the Union of Evangelical-Christian Baptist Churches, overseeing operations of more than 2,000 churches in Russia. He recently published two Russian books: “Shepherds” was published in 2018 and “Here is Your Happiness” in 2019.

How can you impact the world for Christ right where you are?

1. Pray.

2. Build relationships with your neighbors. There may be people from other parts of the world among them.

3. Be a faithful minister at your local church. The best missionaries come out of healthy churches with good church ministry experience.

4. Help a church that ministers in other parts of the world through the lens of biblical ecclesiology.

5. Join short-term missionary projects that are carried out in partnership with or even under the authority of indigenous churches.

6. Move to another country as a missionary for a longer period of time and experience God’s grace and blessing.

How can missions harm the cause for Christ internationally?

During my ministry, both in Russia and outside of it, I have seen the following ways people have inconsiderately harmed the ministry of the gospel:

1. Place missiology above ecclesiology. This turns the whole ministry of the church into a project, not the development of the Body of Christ.

2. Go to serve with a sense of superiority while assuming you have a better understanding than local believers, instead of consulting and building a joint partnership. This approach imposes plans and strategies that are often wrong and destructive to the cause of the gospel in that locality.

3. Develop ministry without a clear strategy for the future. This is ministering without an exit strategy—leaving the ministry dependent on a visiting missionary. The development of local leaders needs to occur, especially equipping people to the level of proactive performer.

How can missions help the cause for Christ internationally?

1. Become friends. Do not come as project people, but join them as partners and fellow-believers.

2. Serve. By serving alongside local believers, local churches grow stronger and become more self-sufficient, both spiritually and materially.

3. Be a Barnabas. Do not be afraid to enjoy the success of others. Add your strengths to the common good of the progress of the gospel.

By Dr. Evgeny Bakhmutsky (’16)

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