Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

ion and the activism of the apostolic church. For So- viet evangelicals this poses a major challenge. Many will be watching to see how much time the new department on evangelism and church unity will devote to unity and how much time to evangelism. Will they really send evangelists on tours as in the twenties? Being faithful to the missionary task requires identification of goals and resources. Increasing numbers of young people are returning to reli- gion, and young people represent a significant percentage of the Soviet 442 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Ii population. Successful proselytization among Soviet young people requires younger trained leadership. Will Soviet evangelicals be able to produce such leaders and will the older members trust them? Already in 1974 Bychkov drew attention to the urbanization process. In order to reach the increasing number of urbanites, Soviet evangelicals will need to develop considerable expertise. Generally speaking, Soviet evangelicals are confronted with the need for better-educated missionaries able to employ flexible approaches for a modern paganized society. Christians elsewhere in the world are following their progress with interest because the Soviets are clearly living in the post- Christian society now also emerging in the West. Soviet evangelicals appear to be embarked on a growth decade—they must be doing something right. Conclusion: The Dangers of Normalization Although the AUCECB now finds itself in a situation of normalization where state pressure has eased considerably, both sides affirm that the church-state relationship is an enemy relationship. The state is still commit- ted to the eventual eradication of religion, whereas the church fully expects to remain in existence until the return of its Lord. What is the significance of the modus vivendi that has been reached? How will it affect the ideology of the state and the ideology of the church? Will the AUCECB continue to think like a free church? Are there not signs pointing toward a state-church mentality? Soviet sociologists have recently made this claim. _ Reform Baptist leaders still emphasize that nothing has changed, that the persecution is as intense as it ever was, and they also charge that the AUCECB continues to be seriously compromised with the state.67 The Reformers are indeed being persecuted more seriously again, but they are mistaken in claiming that nothing has changed. Change is inevitable. As we have seen, the AUCECB grew from 250,000 in 1968 to around 350,000 by 1980, This resulted in a new membership and also in a new leadership. There were no major changes in orientation, but a series of gradual steps toward a more genuine free church are apparent. The growth of the evangelicals still represents a threat to the state and it is quite conceivable that new measures might be undertaken to stop the growth. From the evang