The United Baptist Theological Seminary (UBTS), which cooperates with thousands of churches across Ukraine, has revealed at least 400 churches have been lost since the conflict started in February 2022. Speaking to the Baptist Press, president and pastor of Journey church in Lviv, Yaroslav Pyzh said one of the Church’s biggest challenge in the futures is “similar to Nehemiah’s challenge.” “It’s not only rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. It’s rebuilding the nation of Israel, of worshiping God. That’s the same thing here in Ukraine,” he continued. According to the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists, dozens of pastors of the around 2,500 baptist congregations in Ukraine have been forced to flee.
For pastor Yaroslav, once the war is over, it will be very difficult to “bridge the gap in leadership that we lost.” “Sadly, the longer the war goes on, the more the gap is going to be. The real build is the rebuilding of leadership capacity because if you rebuild buildings and you have no pastors to lead churches, I don’t think it’s going to do any good”, he added. To tackle this, UBTS has decided to suspend tuition fees for the upcoming academic year. According to the data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, a third of Ukrainians have been displaced since Russia’s invasion.
Source: Premier Christian News
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