Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

occasion where an East European missionary had the address of only one contact who turned out to be an 80-year-old man sick in bed. But in spite of this, the courier stuffed $10,000 in local bills under the man’s mattress when the rest of the family momentarily left the room, and by means of sign language tried to communicate it was a gift from America. The missionary was able to report that $10,000 had been given to needy Christians behind the Iron Curtain!47 Such incidents, which are embarrassingly numerous, can be eliminated by improving the quality of the missionary, but there is a much more basic problem in the relationship with East European missions to the Soviet Union. Those missions that are supporting needy pastors financially 404 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II usually send the contribution to the individual directly. Sometimes such an individual is in conflict with his own church union because the latter is afraid to stand up to state authorities. In the Soviet Union such an indi- vidual can choose between competing unions, either AUCECB or CCECB, But since he can get highly desired Western money from his mission sup- porters directly, the pastor can afford to ignore the church union and proceed to build his own independent church. That was identified as mis- taken mission policy when applied to Africa or India. Now one expects that mission agencies will strive to cooperate with the local church, will consult together on policy so that in the end organized indigenous churches inde- pendent of the mother mission would emerge. A mission such as Licht im Osten or Slavic Gospel Association has con- sciously restricted its goals, seeing itself as facilitator and resource for mission work done by Soviet Christians themselves. Although many other missions claim similar goals, the working policies of both Underground Evangelism and the Wurmbrand mission fit the image of 19th-century mission imperialism. 3, Leadership Responsibility. Back in 1945 the editors of Bratskii Vestnik acknowledged that they had been unable to establish communica- tion with many of the churches. That has improved since then, but in com- parison with the West, Soviet evangelical congregations are quite isolated. The central leadership has not visited every church nor apparently does Bratskii Vestnik manage to visit every church. Even so, a guest sermon once a year or eighty pages of religious reading material every second month is rather minimal outside stimulation. The other source of external stimulation ~ is religious radio broadcasting or the visits of foreigners (in the big cities). During the past five years there has been growing awareness of the fact that the radio broadcasts have been serving a leadership function for Soviet evangelicals. The striking feature in this awareness is the degree to which radio broadcasters themselves underestimated their