April 11, 2026
Mission Methodologies, Theology, Training, Contextualization, Leadership Training

Self-Theologizing and Church Maturity: Lessons from the Ukrainian Church

Self-Theologizing and Church Maturity A recent blog post highlighted three books written by Christian Ukrainian authors and scholars. In my view, this points to an often-overlooked fourth metric for church maturity. Most church planters are familiar with the traditional criteria for church maturity or an exit strategy. We often look for churches that demonstrate the three “selves”: self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating. These three “selves” do not always develop in a linear way. From my observation, Ukrainian churches have shown a strong vision and trajectory for self-propagation. Their progress toward self-sustainability (self-supporting), however, has been less consistent. At times, churches have looked too quickly to the West for financial support. This is simply my perspective. The Ukrainian Church as a Sending Church By 2022, the Ukrainian church was not only self-propagating. In practice, it had also become a sending church. Ukrainian missionaries were already serving among some unreached people groups. The… Read the whole post
Books, Book Reviews

Reflections on War in Ukraine: Three Essential Books

Over the years, much of our cross-cultural ministry has been in leadership development (including theological education) in Ukraine. We have had the privilege of learning from and serving with truly gifted Ukrainian colleagues. Now, during war, as citizens of the defending nation and as citizens of heaven, many of our colleagues are sharing their experiences and reflections in print. I want to recommend three books that have been recently published. The three books are: Beatitudes and Terror: A Ukrainian Theological Response to Russian Aggression edited by Oleksandr Geychenko, Roman Soloviy, and Yevgeny Ustinovich Light in the Valley of the Shadow of Death: Stories of Ukrainian Christians During the War edited by Roman Soloviy Serving God Under Siege: How War Transformed a Ukrainian Community by Valentyn Syniy Beatitudes and Terror The foreword of Beatitudes and Terror says, “The book you’re holding right now is an endeavor by eight Ukrainian evangelical theologians… Read the whole post
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