As a Baptist, I actually find the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of deification to be rather congenial. Norman Russell has a quite good and extensive study of that doctrine in the Greek patristics.
Protestants should stay out of Slavic states. It’s like a 3rd grader going up against a tenured professor, spiritually speaking.
The riches of Orthodoxy cannot be found in any other Christian expression, as it is the Church of Christ and the full expression of Wisdom.
I once had a (formerly protestant) convert friend reprimand me for mocking the spiritual and intellectual simplicity of protestants. She told me, “We have this huge feast, with every possible food imaginable. And we say, “Come, eat with us! The food is plentiful, unending, and rich.” All they have is baby food and milk, and they mix it up in all these different ways to make it palatable, but it’s all they have and it’s all they know. They cant even imagine our reality.”
Don’t get me wrong, I personally don’t care if you or anyone else is a protestant. But it’s foolish to think any protestant has anything of faith to offer a practicing Orthodox. Almost all the protestants I know who genuinely explore Orthodoxy become Orthodox.
Do they also send missionaries to New York and California where the sinners are?
Recognising postcommunist mission mistakes, and recalling the region's long- standing tradition of state churches identified with particular nationalities, one can more readily explain the genesis of various legislative measures to curb Western missionary activity. The fact of ill-advised and ill-informed Christian witness is however only part of the explanation for the hostile reception. Communists, national- ists and the hierarchs of former state churches also oppose Evangelical missionaries because they are just as often warm, winsome and loving as they are brash, brazen and culturally clueless. Opposition, then, is as much a function of what Evangelicals are doing right as it is of what they are doing wrong. It may be argued that so many ministries are having such a beneficial effect, in so many places, in so many ways, that their detractors cannot tolerate it, and as a result seek to restrict freedom of conscience by erecting political barriers which discriminate against arbitrarily defined 'non-traditional' faiths. In the meantime, large numbers of Western ministries are making perhaps their greatest impact for good in former Soviet-bloc states through all manner of specialised assistance, including facilitating in-country radio broadcasting, publish- ing, and film and video production, entering into partnership with indigenous churches to help provide training at all levels from Sunday school to seminary, sharing expertise in counselling on marriage, family, youth, prison, alcohol and drugs and introducing sports, camping, and drama ministries.
Первая на территории России христианская FM-станция «Новая Жизнь» появилась в 1996 году в Магадане. В 2000 году радио «Новая Жизнь» открыло свой филиал в Москве и начало спутниковое вещание на территорию всей России, а также организовало Интернет-вещание.
Источник: %https://nlradio.net/%
If 500 pages of reading on American history is too much for voters selecting leaders, then the ballot box insertions are too valuable. They had better stay at home watching Gilligan.