HopeRussia History
HopeRussia is the oldest Reformed seminary in Russia. Based in St. Petersburg, we provide free masters-level education to resource-challenged students―most of whom are already pastors―scattered across nine time zones from Latvia in the West to Vladivostok in the East. We also plant churches across the Russian-speaking world through the Presbyterian Church of Eurasia (PCE), a denomination that we founded eight years ago. We operate a partnership of US churches―from many different denominations―that have teamed-up with this brand new Russian denomination to fund and oversee PCE church planting in Russia and other Russian-speaking countries. We also have a cooperative agreement with the PCA’s Mission to the World (MTW). MTW’s Russian national church planters are graduates of HopeRussia Seminary, and the churches they plant are part of the PCE denomination. Russia is a strategic, unreached nation, being only 1.1% Protestant, less than India (1.6%), China (2.2%) and Pakistan (1.3%).
Our Beginning
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HopeRussia began three decades ago as the church planting ministry of Blake and Cathy Purcell. In 1990, one year after the Berlin Wall fell, Navigator staff members Blake and Cathy Purcell (left) moved their young family to Leningrad, Soviet Union, to start an evangelistic outreach to young adults. In the following year, the Soviet Union dissolved, and the city of Leningrad returned to its former name: Saint Petersburg. Many of the young people that Blake and Cathy were gathering together professed faith in Jesus Christ, so in 1999, the first new church was formally organized. 1999 was also the year in which HopeRussia Theological Seminary was launched. It was a momentous year.
2000-2021: A Growing Movement
In the early 2000s, the new HopeRussia Seminary began to fuel movement growth in two ways. First, to date, the seminary’s graduates have planted five Presbyterian Church of Eurasia churches. Second, evangelical church leaders across the Russian-speaking world are seeking us out, because of the training and mentoring that we provide.
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Recent Developments
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Today, HopeRussia’s students and graduates serve in approximately 25 churches spanning nine time zones across Russia and three other Russian-speaking countries. About three thousand people attend these churches served by our graduates and students.
Twofold Pedagogical Model
Because our ministry area is more than four thousand miles wide, we conduct classes in a twofold way. First, we operate standard semesters using the internet; and second, we bring all of our students (often along with their wives) to St. Petersburg twice per year for two-week intensive courses in the Fall and Spring. This model allows our students to continue pastoring their churches while they study with us. The intensive courses also provide time for our widely-scattered student body to connect and encourage one another.
Mentoring
Although theological content is important, we provide students with more than academic rigor. Mentoring is the “secret sauce” of our ministry. We build long-term relationships with our students and graduates. We visit them in their homes, and get to know their families, to help them grow as disciples of Jesus and shepherds of his flock. We invest a great deal of time and effort helping them develop both theologically/cognitively, and spiritually/relationally. Much of this mentoring is provided by HopeRussia Founder and President, Blake Purcell, who speaks fluent Russian. Each student is also required to participate in an accountability group for at least one academic year during their masters program.
HopeRussia Theological Seminary & Church Planting Partnership
Equipping the Russian-speaking church to transform the Russian-speaking world