Ukraine: The Bible Belt of the Former Soviet Union

The other day, I was talking with a local pastor (here in Germany) about our work in the former USSR. We couldn't help but to notice the differences between the development of Pentecostalism/Evangelicalism in Ukraine and in Russia. Without a doubt, the revival fires have been strong in Ukraine. Russian, on the other hand, has experienced slower growth. Even to this day, it is easier for our church to send missionaries and humanitarian aid from Christian organizations to Ukraine than Russia

And then today I see that Christianity Today has an article about the church in Ukraine. If you want to read the article in full length, simple click here.

How did evangelicalism become such a big deal in Ukraine?

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and a discrediting of an atheist policy and a realization that the secularization of Soviet society was perhaps a mistake, there was renewed interest in a variety of religious traditions.

Evangelicalism in particular garnered a lot of interest after the collapse of Communism, first because it was so anti-Soviet — in the former Soviet Union as well as elsewhere, such as in the United States — and secondly, because huge numbers of American and other Western missionaries came to the former Soviet Union. That assisted in the development of not just awareness of evangelicalism, but even of evangelical infrastructure like seminaries and printing of all kinds of religious literature.

The third reason I would say was the charitable outreach of both evangelical missionaries as well as of evangelical communities, and that charitable outreach was very much appreciated and urgently needed, given that after the collapse of Communism, the social service sector pretty much suffered a similar level of collapse.

Fourth, evangelical prescriptions on morality — what is right and what is wrong — arrived at a moment when the population was quite prepared to hear them.

There are more evangelicals now than there were then. Who are today's Ukrainian evangelicals?

The people who are filling evangelical churches these days are overwhelmingly new converts, and that's because after the collapse of Communism, it was possible to immigrate to the United States as a refugee, if one could prove a history of past persecution, which a great many evangelicals could. Which created something of a quandary back in the former Soviet Union. At precisely the moment when there was all this interest in religion and in particular in

Why is Ukraine an evangelical center?

The laws and the bureaucracy in Ukraine have created circumstances that are far more conducive to missionizing, and they're far more welcoming of the arrival of missionaries and religious leaders from elsewhere, as well as the arrival of humanitarian aid and allowing local religious organizations to distribute that aid. So, the legal and bureaucratic environment that's been created in Ukraine is far more welcoming to foreign religious organizations but also to the functioning of local religious organizations.

Is there still a feeling that evangelicals are very much on the fringe, that they are cultish?

Yes. I would say overall there's a fairly negative still impression of evangelical faith.

However this is really beginning to change. For example, the current mayor of Kiev is an openly practicing Pentecostal believer. And there are several members of parliament who are of a Baptist tradition, and for a while there the head of the KGB was an openly practicing Baptist. So it's important to note that it is beginning to change as people who are very open and upfront about their religious faith are actually choosing to acknowledge that they practice an evangelical faith.

That's even occurring among standard politicians, where it's become more accepted and maybe even expected that politicians will state their position on religion.