letter from Mongolia
We are privileged that God called us to live and minister amongst the Mongolians in Mongolia. We first moved to Ulaanbaatar in April 1993. Then, we were young naïve Christians with a heart to be involved in what God was doing, although we weren’t exactly sure what that was.
We arrived to find a country in transition. Seventy years of Soviet Socialism had ended in 1991 and people were hopeful that the nation would pass through the lean times and grow into a robust democracy. The church, which had been very small, was growing at an amazing rate as God brought gospel seed, planted years earlier, to fruition.
Thirty years later, much of that hope and excitement has dissipated. Broken promises coupled with the government’s seeming inability to follow through have left many people disillusioned. Plus, the democratically elected government appears to govern through patronage networks, so few gain any benefit from inward foreign investment or the burgeoning mining sector. And in this, an election year, many cannot believe that their personal economic fragility and social vulnerability will change at all.
Disillusionment and unmet expectations have also impacted the church. Initially, the gospel reached the poorer and uneducated. Many came with unrealistic expectations, syncretising their beliefs with Christianity and falling away when their material needs remained unmet. The government watched the church’s rapid growth with concern, championing Mongolians’ historic national religions of Tibetan Buddhism, Shamanism and Islam whilst effectively consigning Christianity to the margins.
But Mongolian Christians remained bold, taking various evangelistic programmes across the country, although with very little follow-up and discipleship. Today, local pastors and Christian leaders recognise how vital it is that new Christians be linked into church communities that will disciple and strengthen them in their new faith in God.
As the church grows into its second generation, believers are steadily maturing and realising that their influence reaches beyond the church’s doors. Recently, the country’s president consulted local Christian leaders on the wording of laws concerning religion and NGOs. And, at grassroots level, churches are involved in a multitude of aid ministries in their communities.
Yet at the forefront of their work is the preaching of the gospel. Evangelism, whether local or cross-cultural, remains a strength of the church. ‘We must speak out the gospel,’ is a common phrase. ‘God has given us a command that we cannot disobey.’
The love of God, and of His good news, and a passion to see the lost saved, fuels the church’s mission.
First-generation Christian leaders recognise the importance of letting the next generation find their place in the church. Older pastors give younger people opportunities to be involved in ministry under the guidance of more mature believers. Of course there are challenges, but across the church there is an increasing desire to know God, to be faithful and to reach out into the community. Christians are seeking to be witnesses and a godly influence wherever God has placed them. A few have even entered the political arena. This maturing is not like the swift growth of the 1990s, rather it is slow and steady, rooting people in God, bringing a credible witness into society and pointing people to the one in whom lies our true source of salvation and hope – Jesus Christ.
