Whenever someone writes an opinion piece that targets a specific people group, they open themselves up to criticism.  Because of that, I want to set the context before I dive into the article and explain why an American should have any credibility in this discussion.  For many years, my wife and I ran bible studies out of our living room in Everett,WA.  Most of the people who attended were of Slavic decent.  I also co-lead a men’s only Bible study which consisted of 90% Slavic men.  On top of those two ministries, the following is also true about me:

• My wife is from the Ukraine.
• Most of my family are Slavic.
• I have been involved in the Seattle area Slavic community for nearly 15 years.
• I have preached at local Slavic churches.
• I have participated as a panel member at multiple men’s breakfast events at a local Slavic church.
• My wedding was done at a local Slavic church by a Slavic pastor (who is a family friend).
• I have attended Sunday service at Slavic churches many times.
• I have been to many baptisms in the Slavic community.
• My closest friends are of Slavic descent.
• I love the Slavic community.
• I am a Christian.
• I am seminary trained and have taken biblical counseling courses and seminars.
• I love to help people.

With that in mind, I want to approach this article very carefully and with a heart full of grace and love and a motive to help.

There is a movement going on right now within the American church community that places an emphasis on the importance of Christian counseling within the local church context.  What this means in a practical sense is that churches in your neighborhood are now offering counseling services to their membership (and often to non members as well depending on resources).  For a long time, the church avoided this trend and left it for the professionals to handle.  You know, the secular psychologists, psychiatrists, and mental health therapists.  Most of these people hold graduate, or doctoral degrees in the field of psychology.

I have no interest in undermining these peoples work as many of these people do important work that saves lives.  What I want to point out is that when someone approached the local church pastor with problems which include: depression, anger, relationship issues, marital issues, sex issues, or any other behavioral issue, the pastor would often refer the person on to someone who “knows what they’re doing” instead of trying to provide that person with counsel themselves.

Often times the pastor would refer the person on to an “expert” who would provide the person with a diagnosis such as depression, Bi-Polar Disorder, ADHD, PTSD, alcohol or drug dependency (et cetera) and tell the person that their ailment will likely follow them throughout the rest of their life, and that they need prescription drugs and therapy in order to have a reasonable existence.  Since therapy costs a lot, and the insurance companies don’t want to pay for it, the patient is essentially left with a bottle of psychotropic medicine and some literature of what to do if they have suicidal thoughts.

To be absolutely clear, there are thousands of mental health providers who provide excellent care and help countless patients with their problems.  However, the problem is so tremendous that most people cannot receive quality mental health care, most doctors are encouraged to set people up with medicine and move them along, and the poor in particular receive a disproportionately poor level of care and attention.

That’s why I wholeheartedly appreciate that the local church, and it’s pastors and members are engaging in Christian counseling.  Pastors in particular are obtaining counseling training.  Seminaries are teaching men and women how to discern between medical problems that require a medical doctors skills (suicidal intentions) versus behavioral problems that can be addressed by the pastor or Christian counselor (relationship problems, depression, anxiety, anger, etc).  The pastor is no longer limited to providing pre-marriage counseling like he has for years.  He can now step in where the secular establishment has failed and provide the average hurting person with and ear to listen, and a tongue to speak bible centered truth.

By now you have to be asking “what does any of this Christian counseling stuff have to do with the Slavic community”? That’s an excellent question.

Please allow me to address the question by pointing out six things that I believe are true about many in the local Slavic Christian community:

1. There are a lot of personal connections within the local Slavic community.
2. Because of this, everyone knows everyone.
3. Everyone knows everyone’s personal business.
4. Because of that, people are very slow to express their feelings.
5. People hold things in which severely delays their healing/overcoming process.
6. Finally, it is unlikely that the Christian counseling movement will find a respectable place within the local Slavic Christian community any time soon because of points 1-5.

Around 15 years ago I met my first Slavic friend.  He is Russian (and we still stay in touch to some extent).  I thought he was without emotion when I first met him.  He seemed Stoic, as the philosophically minded people would say.  Then we started to hang out and I quickly noticed he was passionate about many things, especially his faith.  His parents had a lot of passion too!  His mom ran her house with authority, and his dad displayed love and respect for her.  Then I went to church with him.  That was my first time at a Pentecostal church, and I gotta say, I definitely left convinced that the Slavic people are a passionate people when it comes to their faith!  At first I didn’t even know that people were speaking in tongues, it all sounded like gibberish to me.

I attended that church several more times and learned that the Slavic’s (at this church at least) handled services (and ministry in general) much differently than what I have encountered at American churches.  There were no “Small groups”, “life groups”,   or “community groups” where church people would get together outside of church on a weekday night to do bible study and spend time with each other.  As far as I could tell, there was no extensive premarital counseling offered.  There definitely wasn’t any official program in place for the members to receive Christian counseling in a professional environment.  I say professional environment as I don’t consider having the pastor over for dinner to be a “counseling session”.  Besides, people aren’t likely to offer up their weaknesses in front of a crowd of witnesses anyway.

I am going to touch on a tender subject now.  Please be patient with me.  I have seen many Slavic people go through the motions at church to satisfy their parents, pastors, and communities preconceived ideals of what’s expected of them, while they are secretly struggling and suffering with crippling sin and addiction. Again, this isn’t the case with every single Slavic person, and it is certainly true of any people group.  I had an experience like this too, growing up in the American church. However, in the American church environment I could seek help from a pastor or friend who didn’t know my family intimately, who wouldn’t tell anyone my problem, and who I could trust.  These people had nothing to gain from “gossiping” about my circumstance.

Many Slavic Christians simply do not have access to the kind of resource that is becoming more prevalent in the American church community.  I believe that if the Slavic Christian community were to embrace the concept of confidential, bible centered, Christian counseling, that the people would overcome their problems at a much more rapid and consistent rate.  Marriages would no longer be stagnate, but instead be filled with satisfaction and joy.  Hurting people could receive the help they need without needing to shovel handfuls of powerful medications down their throat that are prescribed by people who don’t know the culture, and may not even be Christians.

In order for this to happen, the following has to take place.

1. The local Slavic church community must recognize a need for Christian counseling.  This requires wisdom and humility.  It is too easy to keep going business as usual thinking that everything is OK (while countless people are hurting and not getting help).
2. Both men and women need to receive formal Christian counseling training from accredited institutions (or people who are professionally trained) so that they can counsel people appropriately (and know when to refer to medical doctors).  Believe it or not, there are Slavic people who struggle with suicidal thoughts.  These people aren’t getting the help they need from within the walls of the church. Many of these people are told that their condition is brought on by sin, or by not obeying their pastor/parents.  Little to no careful consideration is placed on identifying the root cause of the problem, and creating and implementing a solution to the problem.  Because of that fact, many people are simply stuck.
3. These men and women must commit to confidentiality.  If there is any hope for Christian counseling to take off in the Slavic Christian community, people have to know that the counselors will keep their information private.  Any breach in trust would cripple the Christian counseling in that church. Ethically speaking, a pastor should be obligated to keep the conversation confidential unless the person threatens to harm them-self or someone else.  The pastor should NOT be preaching a sermon the next Sunday on the topics discussed in the counseling room.
4. The Slavic people must open up and express their weaknesses and be willing to change.  I’m assuming that anyone who has the courage to ask for help is willing to talk about their problem.
5. The local Slavic Christian church will continue to lose members to American churches if they don’t embrace the strengths that the American church has to offer.  Christian counseling is one of those strengths.
6. All of this needs to be rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, packed full of prayer, and placed in a practical package where people are held accountable and encouraged to change for the better.

There are already some local Slavic churches that are implementing some of these ideas.  May God bless them and continue to provide them with the courage and ambition needed to tackle this difficult task.  However, many Russian churches are continuing on business as usual.  I suspect there will be many people who disagree with this article, or who will try to label me as prejudice or ignorant of the “real” situation.  Meanwhile, the people who actually know me, most of whom are Slavic themselves, are the one’s who have filled my ears full of the things that I mentioned in this article, and therefore, this article is merely an extension of opinions held by many forward thinking Slavic thinkers.  With that said, it was not my intention to attack anyone, pick on any specific church (or person), or to create division between Christians of any ethnic background.

Conclusion: My intention is simple, to equip the local church with the resources needed to make Christ known to the world, and to help those who are hurting (which is every single human alive today).  The secular establishment doesn’t have all of the answers, and lacks the resources to help most people.  The local church is packed full of resources including many men and women who can serve in a Christian counseling capacity.  The local Slavic Christian community will be better as a whole if it embraces Christian counseling now!

Please comment below, I would love to read your thoughts on this subject.

Click HERE for another article that I did on the topic of Christian counseling that you might find helpful.