Church Without Walls: Post-Soviet Baptists after the Ukrainian Revolution, 2013-14, Joshua T. Searle, 2016

d others, °° James Wm. McClendon, Jr., Systematic Theology: Volume II: Doctrine (Nashville: Abingdon, 1994), 439. 57 Walter Sawatsky, “Without God We Cannot, Without Us God Won’t: Thoughts on God’s Mission within the CIS in the Future”, in Penner and Sawatsky (eds.), Mission in the Former Soviet Union (Schwarzenfeld: Neufeld Verlag, 2005), 258. ** Stephen Bevans and Roger Schroeder, Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2004), 1. °° James Rosenthal and Susan T. Erdey (eds.), Living Communion: Anglican Consultative Council XIII (London: Anglican Communion Office, 2006), 302. ® John G. Flett, The Witness of God: The Trinity, Missio Dei, Karl Barth and the Nature of Christian Community (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2010). §! David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1991). originates in the very nature of the Triune God, then mission becomes not so much an activity in which churches engage, but a divine imperative in which the church participates. The Kingdom of God, rather than the growth of the church, is the object of mission. The coming of that Kingdom “on earth as in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), rather than numerical conversions, is regarded as the true aim of mission. Mission is not about inviting people to religious services, but is concerned with the wholesale transfiguration of the kingdoms of this world into the “Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (Rev 11:15). Secondly, we are witnessing the transition from a particular understanding of mission as the “spiritual work” of a few designated “missionaries” to the idea of a holistic mission, covering all spheres of life and mobilising all the people of the church to participate in the missio Dei. Such participation involves a renewed commitment to work tirelessly in the struggle for social justice. A reconsideration of the idea of the “priesthood of all believers” provides impetus to a theological understanding of mission as a responsibility delegated to all the people of God. As Charles Spurgeon once quipped, “Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.” Related to this is the expansion of the social base of mission — from a ministry of professional missionaries to a movement of missional professionals. Ukraine has seen new missional initiatives, such as the creation of the Alliance of Christian Professional Associations and the mass publication of the Desktop Gospel (Eeanzenue nua pa6bouem cmoue), in which Baptists have played a leading role. If previously mission boiled down to evangelism and the planting of new churches, today it inevitably involves discerning the activity of the transfiguring Word in the world and campaigning for social justice, which is itself a gospel imperative. The third trend that can be observed in connection with cultural and demographic processes is the call to revive, awaken, and reform existing church structures in o