This month we’ve looked at the countries in Eurasia where PLI has been training for the last fifteen years. Today, we’re delighted to share the exciting news that in 2024, adult confirmations in Russia surged to record levels in parishes led by PLI-trained leaders, numbers not seen since before the revolution!
In 15 years, PLI training…
- has been the primary post-seminary training for the pastors in the Latvian Lutheran Church,
- has positively impacted the Ingrian Church in Russian (see the letter excerpts below), and
- has united church bodies from the countries of Latvia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, building stronger relationships and collaboration.
From a letter by Bishop Ivan Laptev, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria in Russia to Rev. Dr. Scott Rische, PLI’s Director of Training (April 2025):
“I am very grateful to the Lord for allowing our Bishop Emeritus Arri Kugappi to get acquainted with the program of Pastoral Leadership Institute (PLI)… He is an astute man with extensive spiritual experience who immediately realized that this program was necessary for our church and invited PLI representatives to Russia.
The materials of the PLI program were applied in the development of the missionary strategy of our Church, the implementation of which from 2017 to 2025 produced excellent results. In 2024, we received a record number of [adult] confirmands in our parishes since pre-revolutionary times.
Subsequently, not only pastors and deacons joined the program, but also heads of charities established by the church, Christian houses of mercy, etc. We are currently considering the possibility of implementing this program at the interfaith level.”
What a powerful testimony—more adults were confirmed in 2024 than have been since pre-revolutionary Russia! Even more encouraging is their vision: to reach more people for Jesus by expanding PLI training of pastors, key leaders, and spouses to other Russian-speaking countries and beyond the Lutheran Church.
We are now prayerfully exploring how we can help multiply the number of trainers to support this growing movement across Russian speaking countries.
We are deeply grateful for our donors and volunteers whose financial support and generous service make this multiplication possible. We also invite you to join us in prayer, echoing Bishop Laptev’s request: “for the end of all conflicts, for the advent of peace and the opportunity to meet face to face again!”
To hear more, you can watch these two segments from the PLI Global Webinar highlighting Eurasia:
