Victor Ryaguzov, pastor of Transfiguration Church, the home church of the Samara Preachers’ Institute in Samara, Russia, recently asked senior pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church several questions related to ministry and his heart for the Slavic people. What follows is a transcript of that exchange:
John, you have often spoken of your love for the Slavic people, of your love for the Russian church in particular. How did this love grow?
JM: It’s been more than twenty years since I was first invited by Slavic Gospel Association to minister to pastors and church leaders in Russia, Ukraine, and other Slavic countries. I usually resist long trips overseas because my calling is to the local church. Also, the language barrier can make teaching tedious for both speaker and audience. I agreed to go once, thinking I would probably never have such an opportunity to go again.
But my first exposure to the Slavic churches was enough to form a lifelong bond of friendship and close fellowship with Russian-speaking churches. Over the years I have returned to the lands of Eastern Europe and Russia again and again—as often as health and other circumstances permitted. I’ve actually lost track of how many times I’ve traveled to that part of the world.
What I noticed and identified with almost immediately was the lack of pretense or embellishment in the Slavic churches, combined with a deep hunger for biblical truth. Slavic worship is simple and gospel-centered, exactly like we see in the book of Acts. The stress is on the essentials: repentance from sin, faith in Christ, biblical preaching, obedience to the Word of God, love for one another, and a passion for the truth against all forms of error. The gimmickry, superficiality, and man-centeredness that have spoiled so many western churches were notably absent. Russian-speaking churches were vibrant, growing, and spiritually hungry.
That first experience caused me to think more deeply than ever about what’s wrong with Western style pragmatism and why so many American churches compromise. My 1992 book Ashamed of the Gospel reflected my concerns about how western evangelicalism has veered off track. In the preface to a new edition of that book (due for release in the spring of 2010) I recounted how profoundly influenced I was by those early visits to churches in the former Soviet Union. I’m sure I benefited more from my exposure to Slavic pastors than they did from my teaching. And in the process I formed many friendships that have endured across the years.
Some of my dear friends from those earliest trips to the Slavic nations are already in glory, and most of my recent visits to Eastern Europe and Russia have been by videoconference. But my love for Russian-speaking churches and my respect and affection for their pastors remains deep. I have great respect for the UECB and pray for its increased strength and influence. It has been a privilege to serve the leaders and people of this union.
Earlier this year you marked your fortieth year of service at Grace Community Church. Next to the commentary material in the Study Bible, what do you consider your most important work and why?JM: Without doubt or hesitation I can say that my first and most important priority is preaching the Word of God each week to my own flock. Everything else I do flows out of that—including the New Testament commentaries and the Study Bible. In fact, I think one of the reasons Russian Baptist Union leaders embraced me so warmly in those early years is that we had so much in common with regard to the importance of the local church, the primacy of preaching, and the importance of guarding sound doctrine.
What fundamental conviction has influenced you most over the past four decades and kept you serving with such determination even after age 70?JM: At the core of all my beliefs is an unshakable conviction that the Bible is the Word of God. It is authoritative, trustworthy, true, totally without error, clear enough for the simplest mind to understand sufficiently, and yet profound enough that no human mind will ever fully plumb its divine depths. How important is theological training to local church pastors and church-planters? It’s vitally important, but it must be kept in proper biblical perspective. The right kind of theological training is applied discipleship, not merely an academic classroom exercise. That’s why our seminary [The Master’s Seminary] is located on our church campus and I’ve always sought to keep theological training in the context of church life. The purpose of theological training is to make us better disciples and more effective ministers, not to gain academic respectability in the eyes of the world.
Your church has sent out and supports over 60 missionaries, and The Master’s College and Seminary is constantly producing graduates who go all over the world to serve. This has led some to suggest that it is your desire to break up existing denominations in foreign countries and form new ones. What is your response to this?JM: It’s not true. If I had any interest in trying to form a denomination, I would have done it years ago. That’s not something anyone would want to undertake after spending more than forty years trying to strengthen as many denominations, associations, and fellowships as possible by helping them prepare leaders for their churches. That is still the approach to ministry I am committed to.
Nor would I ever have any interest in trying to break up existing denominations overseas. In fact, I have been openly critical of American evangelicals who have gone to Russian-speaking parts of the world and started their own churches and para-church ministries rather than making themselves servants to the churches that are already ministering there.
What plagues the Western evangelical church today infects the Russian church tomorrow. In your opinion, which fundamental doctrines are under greatest threat today in the evangelical church in America?JM: Truth itself is under attack by a postmodern mentality that suggests we cannot really know anything with absolute confidence.
Those who are promoting this view in the church have already attacked such core doctrines as substitutionary atonement, justification by faith, and even the deity of Christ. If the church is unwilling to declare that Scripture is true, authoritative, and infallible because it is the very Word of God, then all the fundamental doctrines of Christianity are placed on a shaky foundation.
What’s particularly frightening is that postmodern values are being promoted in the church by people in leadership, men with academic clout who hold teaching positions in seminaries, and some of the best-selling authors in the evangelical world. In a time when the church is weak on truth, false teachers have easy access, and wolves are being invited into the sheepfold. Never has the true church of Christ been more in need of faithful shepherds who will stand up, speak up, and stay on guard.
What do you think Western believers should learn from the faith and experiences of Russian believers?JM: There are many things the Western church could learn from its Russian-speaking brethren, but the one lesson that stands out most is the true cost of following Christ. All of us could learn something especially from older Russian believers who lived under Soviet persecution and yet remained faithful to Christ.
Western churchgoers have grown accustomed to affluence and ease, so that they are the living embodiment of Revelation 3:17, “[saying] ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ [not realizing that they] are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” Christians in the west can be apathetic; repentance is all but gone from the message they proclaim; they have allowed marketing surveys and popular opinion to usurp Christ’s lordship over His church.
Russian-speaking churches now have to fight those trends, too, because they are all being imported by western “missionaries.” Those who remained steadfast and faithful in times of persecution need to teach us all how to stay faithful and steadfast even in times of prosperity — and help us prepare for more persecution, because I do believe hard times for the church in the West may be close on the horizon.
