City Evangelistic Campaigns in Russia
Reaching the MEGA Cities of Russia
It’s
all about the Great Commission.
To date IRR/TV
has directed nine highly intensive evangelistic
campaigns at Russia’s megacities using
media. According to Russian pastors there have
perhaps never been comparable campaigns to reach
millions of Russian 
citizens clustered in the
’s largest cities.
Since 2003 IRR/TV has conducted mega-city campaigns
in Volgograd (South Russia), Ufa (Ural Mountains), Petrozavodsk (Northwest Russia), Archangel (Russian
Arctic), Voronezh (Central Russia), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Samara (Central Russia) and Nizhny Novgorod Krasnoyarsk. The outreach has brought the
Gospel message to millions of people primarily
by television, radio, newspapers, billboards,
city-wide mailings.
By television and radio, seen and heard in other
cities, we have presented the Gospel to over
20 million people. Through the campaigns so
far hundreds of thousands of high quality missions
booklets have been given out to people searching
for the power to change their life. The booklet
details the way of salvation, including the
first steps of the one’s journey of faith.
The book is tailor-made for each city and consists
of the best life-changing testimonies from each
city.
The call centers have logged over tens of thousands of phone
calls. The Jesus Film has been seen by 40,000
people in three campaign cities. Amazingly over
20,000 have prayed the prayer of salvation at
the end of the show. In addition the best stories
of changed lives have been published in newspapers
with editions numbering several million copies.
Pastors report growth in churches from city
to city.
Special
Report Samara (pdf, 1.6 MB)
Kiev - Mega
city campaign begins November 1st
The word has spread outside
of Russia to neighboring independent countries
that used to be part of the Soviet Union. The massive mega city campaign has already begun November 1st in Kiev.
The mega city campaign is a joint outreach with almost 100 churches in Kiev. This is a fine example of “faith on the move”. God’s Spirit is moving in an unprecendented way in that city.
Kazakhstan – Historic campaign reaches over 12 million
For 700 years the Kazakh people have been ruled
by pagan Mongols and Islamist Tatars. The Gospel
has not sounded in Kazakhstan during this time.
The IRR/TV (International Russian Radio/TV)
led a historic mega city campaign in the Islamic
Central Asian city of Almaty in February/ March
of 2006 together with 100 local churches. For
seven weeks straight IRR/TV telecast 72 evangelistic
programs on 2 secular TV channels prime time
every night to over 12 million viewers throughout
Kazakhstan.
Russian pastors have reported dramatic growth
in their churches. IRR/TV has received requests
from pastors in 50 Russian cities for similar
campaigns.
Special
Report Almaty (pdf, 1.5 MB)
Voronezh – Record crowds turn out to see Jesus Film!
Voronezh is a mega city in Southern Russia with
a population of 1.1 million people. It is the
fifth in a series of large cities to be successfully
reached through previously unseen massive evangelistic
events powered by mainline secular media. Phase
I of the campaign included showings of the Jesus
Film at 28 local theaters to over 32,000 residents
of the city. Partnering in the campaign were
New Life Russia, Campus Crusade for Christ,
Canada and IRR/TV.
Officially 32,200 came to see the film during
the campaign. We do not have an accurate number
for how many contact cards were turned in, as
some churches simply haven’t counted theirs
yet. From everything that we hear, there are
at least 18,000 contact cards with names and
addresses.
To understand why we need prayer for the churches
so much, I offer the following statistic. Counting
everyone, including children, there are at most
3,000 believers in Voronezh, a city of a million.
For the believers, the campaign has been wonderful,
exciting, faith stretching, and overwhelming.
In
general, 50% of the people raised their hands
when asked to indicate if they had prayed the
prayer at the end of the film. Some call these
indicated decisions.
Six churches are in the process of being planted
on 6 of the sites where the Jesus Film was being
shown. There are an additional 10 follow up
Bible studies started by various churches. They
will also invite them to some event that the
church is organizing.
Arkhangelsk "Archangel" – Power To Change underway!
5/2005
Undoubtedly the most significant
evangelistic event to ever take place in northern
Russia. Archangel clustered together with Severodvinsk
has a combined population of 600,000.
A massive media campaign called POWER
TO CHANGE combating drugs, alcohol,
crime, launched May 1, 2005. All electronic and
print media was harnessed for 30 days. ARCHANGEL has not seen an outreach of equal magnitude.
The Goal: Reach 600,000 residents with the good
news that Faith in Jesus Christ changes lives
for the better. More than 3,000 decisions for
Christ were made.
Volgograd – 50,000 decisions for Christ!
2003
Volgograd - A major city in
southern Russia, formerly known as Stalingrad.
"Power to Change" became a reality to over 50,000
people who reportedly made their personal decision
to receive Christ. Pastoral committee chairman
Aleksey Rudenky issued these remarks 9 months
after the campaign.
The Mayor of Volgograd reportedly said: " We
have never seen anything like this in the history
of our city!"
The campaign changed the atmosphere of the entire
city and touched the lives of one million residents
as never before. The Head of Volgograd's Orthodox
Church gave his blessing though he was not involved
personally. Prior to the mission there were
4,500 evangelical Christians in Volgograd. Currently
many more are undergoing discipleship.
The media campaign included: TV boith live and
pretaped stories, radio, outdoor ads, newspapers,
billboards, internet, 50,000 attractively laid out, specially tailored
campaign books and 50,000 New Testaments. Lives
were transformed. See "testimonies". Over 110,000 personal contacts
were established.
More stories: Ministry to 300 boys in a children's
prison camp. See Children in Prison. Mission Volgograd - feedback
Ufa – Over 800,000 people reached!
2004
Predominately Islamic by religion
Ufa is located on the western slope of the Ural
Mountains in Russia with a population of 1,2
million. There are 15 Evangelical Churches in
the city with a combined membership of about
3,000 adherents. All churches in the city partnered
in this historic undertaking.
1 million of the city's residents were targeted
with the simple message "God gives you the power
to change!" All available media were harnessed
to simultaeously proclaim this message over
a one month period. Thousands called the campaign
hotline for counselling. Many made a life changing
decision for Christ.
Read about ministry in a children's prison camp. More Stories Mission Ufa
Petrozavodsk – "Power To Change" shakes city
11-12/2004
As the massive media
campaign unfolded "The mood in the city changed
overnight" commented a daily paper in the city.
Over 3,000 people left their contact information
for further contact. There are only 1,000 members
in evangelically oriented Churches in Petrozavodsk.
The city has a population of 350,000. In one special event attended by almost 200
non church-goers all made a decision to accept Christ. There was not enough
room on stage for the crowd so it spilled over into the seating area. Response was overwhelming. Additional
phones lines at the call center were installed in the first days of the
campaign. Russian cities have never witnesses campaigns of
similar magnitude.
