My wife and I recently had the privilege to travel to Moscow and St Petersburg, Russia. We had been invited to speak on our book, Healing of a Wounded Idealist. We were asked to present a two-day seminar on the essence of the book and the way forward for wounded idealists.
Alexey, who leads the Eurasian family of churches and Slava, who heads up the Russian version of IPI books, told us that idealism was not a new concept to Russia as a whole. After the fall of communism many Russians were disillusioned when what they had imagined as a better worldview didn’t turn out as expected. Christians in Russia had also been wounded with unmet expectations of the church and the leaders, and many members had become stuck in their cynical outlook.
In our seminar, we taught on the idealists in the Bible and discussed the difference between idealism and faith. We also spent some time identifying the hurts in interpersonal relationships, recognizing when idealism had finally failed the individuals and embracing humility as a path to faith.
The messages resonated with many disciples and Alexey described the event as a turning point for the church. Our own faith was built recognizing that no matter the culture, language or demographics of a society, disappointment and faith look the same.
The video describing the book can be found here:
