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21st Century Roman roads to the glory of God!
Written by Hugo
Wednesday, 20 July 2005
Dear Friends
"Then His fame went throughout all Syria..." "Great multitudes followed Him..." (Mat. 4:24, 25)
It is no accident that Jesus Christ came to the earth during the era of the mighty Roman Empire. Apart from having a strong army, the Romans were famous for building roads so good that even today some of them are still in existence.
Ambitious Roman Caesars built these roads for their own purposes, but God had a divine purpose: preparing the way for the disciples of Jesus Christ to spread the Good News across the Empire!
That was the 1st century, now we are in the 21st century. Today more people are living on the earth than the sum of everybody who ever lived before us. But once again God has provided the Roman roads that will help us take the Good News to the multitudes: the mass media. Through television, radio, newspapers and the Internet we can reach millions with the Gospel of the Kingdom.
The mass media can never replace the living church of Jesus Christ, yet - like Roman roads in the first centuries - it serves as a powerful vehicle to take heaven's treasures to the nations.
Let me share with you where we are today in Russia; what we have and where we are going. In a nutshell: (A)WHAT WE HAVE today - in terms of the mass media - is 24 hour Russian Christian television; (B)WHERE WE ARE GOING is seeing a church planted in every city town and village in Russia.
(A)WHAT WE HAVE:
1. AROUND-THE-CLOCK RUSSIAN CHRISTIAN TELEVISION
Two years ago, our association (The Association of Christian Churches of Russia) started to partnership with TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network). See http://www.accr.ru for more details on this. The result of this partnership is that we now have 24 hour Russian Christian television, broadcasted from satellites Express 6A and Hotbird to cover the whole of Russia, the CIS and even Israel and Germany.
2. CONTRACTS WITH CABLE STATIONS ACROSS RUSSIA
So the 'signal is in the air', after that it still needs to be received on the earth. This is starting to happen, as more than 70 towns in Russia are already receiving Christian television. We are now in the process of negotiating with a group of 300 cable stations in Russia to broadcast Christian television through them. Another 100 cable stations might soon become a reality. Russians in Israel are already receiving it. In the last month broadcast has been launched in the USA, where a few million Russians are living.
So the programs are produced, the signal goes out from the satellites and many people across Russia and other nations will receive Russian language Christian television. So far so good, but a lot more needs to happen to see churches planted. God has entrusted an incredible instrument to us, we now need to utilize it to the glory of God.
Let's now look at what needs to happen, in other words, where we are going from here:
(B)WHERE WE ARE GOING
3. FEEDBACK
People need to be given an opportunity to RESPOND to the message and teaching by phoning, sending an e-mail, writing normal mail or visiting a website. We plan to establish a media centre in Moscow that will include a hotline with a team of trained Christians ready to receive calls and minister to people. Others will receive and answer mail. An excellent website will soon be constructed to facilitate seekers of God.
Meticulous records will be kept of everybody who responds. This is what I call spiritual accounting. People are usually careful to give an account of every dollar, rouble or rand spent, but we tend to be less careful with the precious souls of people. If "give or take a few" isn't good enough in financial accounting, it is even less acceptable in spiritual accounting.
4. MEDIA FOLLOW-UP
We will then respond to these calls, letters and messages by starting to send people sermons and teachings via DVD, video, CD, an evangelistic website and the printed press. Keep in mind that Russia has 39 000 cities, towns and villages - it is simply not possible to send a trained Christian worker to each of those places. For this to happen we are praying for the necessary equipment in order to produce and reproduce high-quality media.
By this time groups will start to form spontaneously in many cities, towns and villages.
5. LIVE FOLLOW-UP
Christians are sent out to start ministering to these groups of converts/almost-converts. This includes missionaries, Russian ministers and Christians who are already showing fruit in their lives. A high emphasis will be put on identifying key people and potential leaders in towns.
6. FORMATION OF HOME CHURCHES
This is maybe the most exciting part, when home churches start to form, starting to radiate the light and glory of Christ in their community. Christian media will continue to play an important role in helping to encourage and train these people. Home churches will start to spread across Russia and beyond. Often clusters of home churches will move together to form a strong local church.
The Kingdom of God church in Moscow, for example, will consist of a huge family with thousands of home churches throughout Moscow.
7. THESE NEW CHURCHES ARE LINKED TOGETHER TO FORM THE KINGDOM NETWORK.
Praise God that phases 1 and 2 are already becoming a reality. We now need to move boldly move forward to see phases 3 to 7 come to pass. Our God is able!
Vision & Strategy 
