John White - Developing Church Leadership in the Russian Speaking World
DCU, Prospect Ilicha 106-A, Donetsk 83059, UKRAINE                October 2005 
011-38050-567-6550 | jwhite@alumni.princeton.edu | http://www.marucheck.net/jw

Changing Paradigms

One of my favorite books that I read in seminary was “Transforming Mission” by David Bosch. He writes about the idea that the way that the church does missions has gone through many “paradigm shifts” throughout history. In other words, as the world has changed, how people have done missions has changed. This was fascinating to me, because it helped me to put together a lot of what I had learned about history, theology, and missions in seminary.

I guess we should always be learning in our lives, and so it is natural for each one of us to go through paradigm shifts as we adjust to a changing world and as we grow in our relationship with God. I’ve been seeing some changing paradigms lately, both in my life and in our school at DCU. Maybe these aren’t huge changes, but I think you’ll appreciate seeing them all together.

Changes at DCU

• We want to do more to help the spiritual lives of our students, so we’ve changed from two hour-long chapels per week to 20 minute chapels every day. Sermons are supposed to be seven minutes—and I’ve given two of them so far! From a culture used to 40-60 minute sermons, this is a big change, but so far a little encouragement at the beginning of every day has been quite good.
• We have decided to get more active in traveling to different churches and conferences to recruit students and raise more church support. These may not seem like new ideas, but here they are. As the economy continues to go through large paradigm shifts of its own, young people are now far more interested in making money than going into ministry, and many churches are turning inward again, not investing in missions and education. So, we need to serve and challenge the church, proving that we can help the church make a difference.

Changes in My Life

• I’ve just been given permission to move to DCU and live on campus. I’ve been wanting to more there for a while, because I feel I really need the fellowship and I hope to get more involved in the student community. I plan to move around November 1, so please note the change in telephone (my mobile phone) above. My address remains the same.
• I’ve just started teaching my “Contextualization” course without a translator! It happened kind of accidentally, when my translator didn’t come the first day and I just started teaching on my own. It’s a small class of seven second-year students, and so far, so good. I would like to teach my other two courses (Introduction to Missions and Missions Seminar) in Russian, too, but need to do a lot of preparation!

And some things stay the same...I’m still here in Ukraine, trying to teach and motivate students at DCU to better serve God wherever they might go. I make my share of mistakes, and still don’t understand a lot of things here in Ukraine. But I’ll keep trying—and I want to thank you for praying for me and sharing this ministry with me. Let’s keep at it, together.

Praise and Prayer:

• Praise for God’s provision this last month for DCU. We’re still in debt, but we were able to catch up some. Thanks to all of you who helped this summer and fall.
• Pray for us at DCU, that we would serve and challenge the church as God calls us to
• Pray for me as I move on campus, that I could be salt and light and receive some salt and light, too
• Pray for me as I teach in Russian and prepare my next courses

In Him,

John

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