A note for Slavic & immigrant churches
Joining the Southern Baptist Convention · Part 7
A note for Slavic & immigrant churches
Everything in this section applies to you — but a few things deserve to be said directly to our Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking churches.
If you’ve read this far, you understand how cooperation works. This last word is more personal. We know the questions that sit quietly in the heart of a Slavic pastor — about belonging, about your children, about whether a movement of mostly American churches has room for a congregation that worships in Russian or Ukrainian. Here is the honest encouragement.
You are not the first — and you are not alone
This is the most important thing to hear: Slavic churches cooperating with the SBC is not a new or lonely experiment. There is a real and growing Slavic movement within the Convention. In 2024 and 2025, Slavic Baptist leaders gathered for their first annual fellowship dinners at the SBC annual meeting — gatherings that were called historic — with Russian and Ukrainian both spoken in the room, and IMB and NAMB leaders present specifically to help resource Slavic churches.
A movement, not an exception
Bogdan Kipko, who planted Forward Church in Irvine through Send Network, now serves as a NAMB catalyst connecting Slavic pastors across North America to church-planting resources — pastors who, in his words, longed to plant but had no pathway, no strategy, no vision. Dozens of Slavic churches have since engaged that pathway. As he put it, without the SBC and Send Network, he doesn’t know where many of these pastors would be.
And the need is vast. By long-standing estimates, several million Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking people live in North America, yet only a fraction of Slavic Baptist churches here are connected to the SBC — which means there is enormous room for churches like yours to help reach a harvest that is far from finished.
This can help you reach your children
The next generation
Many Slavic churches feel the same quiet ache: the second generation grows up speaking English, and some drift away when church life remains only in Russian. Partnership with the SBC speaks directly to this. Through Send Network, English-language training, youth and discipleship resources, and church-planting help, some Slavic congregations have even planted English-speaking churches out of their Russian-speaking ones — keeping their young people and their heritage. Cooperating doesn’t cost you your children; it can help you keep them.
The practical realities we know you face
Immigrant churches carry particular challenges — and there is real help for each:
Bivocational pastors
Many Slavic pastors work a job and shepherd a church. The SBC has covocational training, coaching, and care designed for exactly this.
Foreign-trained ministers
If you studied at a seminary in Ukraine or elsewhere, six SBC seminaries offer affordable paths to add U.S. training. (See our Education section.)
Renting or sharing space
Like Bogdan Kipko’s own family once did, many start in borrowed rooms. Church-planting support is built for churches without buildings.
Setting up legally
Incorporation, EIN, and tax status can be daunting in a new country. (See our step-by-step Legal Setup section.)
An honest word on culture and polity
Said plainly, in love
Cooperation isn’t friction-free, and it’s better to name that. Some Slavic churches are led mainly by a council of presbyters/elders, which differs from the congregational decision-making the SBC describes — worth an honest conversation with your association, though usually not a barrier. There is also a real cultural adjustment in walking among mostly American churches. None of this requires you to stop being who you are: your language, your reverence, your traditions, and your union ties remain yours (see “What changes — and what doesn’t”). Come as you are; you bring something to the table that the wider family needs.
You don’t have to choose between your heritage and a future for your children — cooperation lets a Slavic church keep its soul and gain a family.
Where this comes from
Stories & resources
- Send Network — Slavic church planter catalyzing dozens of new churchesBogdan Kipko’s story and the Slavic Send Network movement.
- Baptist Press — Slavic Baptists hold ‘historic’ inaugural gatheringThe first annual Slavic fellowship dinner, with IMB and NAMB present to help.
- Baptist Press — Slavic Baptists ‘hive’ more churches in the NorthwestSlavic congregations planting English-speaking churches to reach the next generation.
Joining the Southern Baptist Convention, Part 7 — within the Slavic Church Planting & Missions Hub. Population figures are widely cited estimates, and the Slavic SBC movement is growing and changing; details here reflect 2024–2025 reporting. Confirm current resources with Send Network and your state Baptist convention.