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.
Ukraine: There is no safety in appeasement
Prior to his election to a second presidency in November 2024, Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that he would easily and …