Sharing the Gospel in Latvia
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by MEGAN MCDANIEL
ut of two million people in Latvia today, around 80 percent of people identify as Christian. However, many of them have never been to church or have stopped going. Since the pandemic, the evangelical Lutheran church of Latvia has lost around 20 percent of its congregation members. Because of this, one of the main goals for LHM–Latvia is to bring people to church. They do this through ministry activities, including Bible Correspondence Courses (BCC), Equipping the Saints (ETS) seminars, youth programs, movie showings, social media, podcasts, and more. Here are some of the popular ministry activities that LHM–Latvia does.
Bible Correspondence Courses
When someone responds to an outreach activity, LHM–Latvia will typically invite the respondent to begin a BCC as the next step in his or her spiritual journey. Bible Correspondence Courses introduce the Gospel to people who don’t know Jesus and reinforce a biblical understanding for people growing in their faith. After taking the BCC through LHM–Latvia, many people have started going to church.
Social Media
The primary social media platform used by LHM–Latvia is Facebook. Their Facebook page now has almost 5,000 followers who see the pictures and messages. Devotions, Christian quotes, event reviews, and audio from their radio program are some of the pieces of content shared on Facebook.
“It’s Time to Dance” Program
These dance events are geared toward youth, featuring Christian hip-hop dance instructors. During the course of one hour, teenagers learn a dance sequence to Christian hip-hop music. Young people enjoy the music and activity while also learning about the Christian faith. Most of the time, participants leave the event feeling encouraged by the Christian lyrics to the songs and further connect with the ministry center staff to learn more about the Gospel.
New Podcast
Podcasts are rising in popularity in Latvia. A new media program that LHM–Latvia recently launched is a video podcast called Under Four. In Latvia, when two people want to talk, it is common for them to say, “let’s talk under four.” This means talking under the four eyes of two people or having a private conversation between two people. LHM–Latvia films two episodes for this podcast every month and uploads them as videos on YouTube and audio files for the podcast version. During this podcast, the host will talk with a guest, having a conversation “under four,” about God working in our daily lives, and how we can apply the Christian faith to daily life. u
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