People are Converted by God, not by Missionaries -- Interview with Russian Missionary

False churches actually adopted the missionary methods of the Orthodox. But unfortunately, we often imagine their methods to be heterodox, because we ourselves are not engaged in missionary work, we do not study the experiences of the saints, and we don't realize that there is nothing new in their methods . . .

Continuation of the interview with the head of the missionary movement in honor of the holy prophet Daniel with Viktor Kupriyanchuk. 

- Let's go back to the main issue - to the mission. For example, Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev in one interview said that you cannot learn to be a missionary and that this is a vocation. Can we agree with him?

“On the one hand, he is right, but, for example, the greatest missionary, the holy martyr Philosoph Ornatsky, said that nowadays an Orthodox Christian does not have the right to be stupid and that he must constantly learn, because now in the information age people have a fairly wide range of knowledge and if they only have knowledge of the Catechism it will be difficult for them to preach. Therefore, every missionary needs to know and read a lot. For example, when you approach the Tatars, they often answer that they do not want to hear anything about Orthodoxy, and in order to interest them, I usually tell them the story of how the Tatars converted to Islam. And after that they ask me where our temple is. Of course, this is not a mission - to tell how the Tatars converted to Islam, but it helps to interest a person. Therefore, communication with Muslims or sectarians needs to be learnt. It is impossible to prove anything to an Adventist, not knowing what he believes.

Let us recall the case of Jehovah's Witnesses, who pushed me to study the Bible. They greatly embarrassed me, so I began to study the Orthodox faith, then I studied their faith, and only after that I went to preach to them. The more I communicate with Jehovah's Witnesses and their faith, the easier it is for me to preach to them. What is the dialogue of an ordinary Orthodox person with Jehovah's Witnesses? “Get out of here! You are traitors to the faith! ”

But missionaries communicate with them based on quotations from the Bible, although sectarians often fear the Bible themselves, and when they begin to read something to them that is contrary to their dogma, they simply leave. So much for the way to get rid of Jehovah's Witnesses! You just need to preach to them in the Bible. And now the Jehovah's Witnesses call me themselves, offer to meet, I make friends with them, and this is a completely different level of communication. Therefore, if you don’t know anything about the creed of those you want to convert to Orthodoxy, such communication will not happen.

For example, I came to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses and demanded that they explain to me the positions of their faith. Jehovah’s Witnesses led me to a separate room and answered my most difficult questions for several hours. And now, when I say to Jehovah's Witnesses, that I read all their journals and books such as The Theocratic Ministry School and Discourses Using the Scriptures, this is a shock to them. They just can not understand how I, having read so much, have not yet become a member of their sect. So not everything in their books is written convincingly.

- How many people have you converted? Did any miracles happen during a mission?

- Father Daniel Sysoev said that a good missionary did not convert a single person, God did. Missionaries can tell a lot about miracles, especially recruits.

- How should a real mission be built?

- We do this: We go on a mission visit with two people, because when one person communicates, the other at this time prays, thereby leading an invisible battle against the source of all lies and delusions - the devil. It is important. Everyone tells the same story about how they communicate with an atheist for an hour, and then suddenly when the praying missionary gets distracted and stops praying, that's when the atheist leaves. It happens all the time.

- Who would you call an outstanding modern missionary?

- Of course, Father Daniel Sysoev. There are people who are seriously engaged in the mission, sometimes at risk for themselves, for example, Deacon George Maximov, Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev. A few people from our missionary movement abandoned all and left to preach in Tyva. This is Anton Dulevich and Deacon Dimitri Uvarov. In China, there is only one missionary, Archpriest Dionisy Pozdnyaev. In Taiwan, one priest also preaches, who went there with his family and opened several temples. In Mongolia, Archpriest Alexey Trumpeter, rector of the Holy Trinity Church, preaches in Ulaanbaatar. In Thailand, Archimandrite Oleg (Cherepanin) preaches. And that's it! They ask for help, so that someone will come and help them with the mission, but there are few such people.

- Do you feel the spiritual support of father Daniel Sysoyev?

- I do not know. I am very sad that he left. It annoys me when they say: “Now it's even better! Now we have someone praying for us in Heaven!” But he waited for death and was worried when this did not happen at age thirty-three, but for me his death was a big surprise.

- Why does the Lord call dysfunctional people to engage in a mission and help others?

- Because they become uranopolitans. It is very difficult to be a missionary and not to be an uranopolitan, because such a person is attached to earthly values and ideologies, and an uranopolitan lives in heaven. Problems make you break away from earthly values. A person who has no problems, lives in a family, apartment, car, cottage — why does he have to do anything; does he have everything? A uranopolitan does not consider anything here as being his own.

- How do you know sectarians on the street?

- Sectarians are easy to recognize. It is worth having a little chat with them. They have a certain style of clothing, gait, and all of them are engaged in active missionary activity. Jehovah's Witnesses can be especially active. You need to learn perseverance from people, because they give such long sermons!

- Is it true that sectarians adopted the missionary methods of the Orthodox?

- Of course. But we often imagine their methods to be sectarian, because we ourselves are not engaged in missionary work, we do not study the experiences of the saints, and we don't realize that there is nothing new in their methods. In Russia, the anti-sectarian sermon began to be conducted widely, thanks to the revolution of 1905. Prior to that, it actually had been forbidden to publish anti-sectarian books.

First of all, we learn to preach from the holy Apostles, the founders of missionary activity, and much of what they did is described in the book of Acts in the New Testament. We draw much from the labors of the holy fathers and our holy missionaries - St. Innocent of Moscow, St. Innocent of Beijing, St. Nicholas of Japan and the Venerable Macarius  of Altai. We need to learn to apply these experiences in our modern times.

- St. Nicholas the Japanese said that a person must first love, and then preach to him. How should one learn love?

Love is the thirty-third step of the ladder, of St. John of the Ladder. For example, on Sunday, someone goes to rest with his family. Meanwhile, the missionary goes to preach in the streets. I believe that this is a manifestation of love. The Lord says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15, 16). And one of the commandments is: “Go, teach all nations” (Matthew 28: 18-20).

Missionaries are ordinary people, so love comes to them with experience. The person, communicating with sectarians, understands that they are mistaken, and begins to pity them. First pities, then begins to learn to love. Now I am telling the missionaries that before you convert a sectarian, you need to make friends with him, find out what kind of person he is. You can tell him something personal, and then they have confidence in the person. I am convinced that the task of Orthodox Christians is to make friends with sectarians, because they really have no love in sects. For all their smiles, there are actually lies, hypocrisy, and headaches. They follow each other, so that no one says anything out of order, otherwise they will surrender to their mentor.

- And are there many baptized among the sectarians?

- I would say almost all of them. At least, the majority of modern sectarians in Russia are former Orthodox Christians, who for some reason have gone to sects. Either they did not hear the Word of God from the Orthodox Church, or they saw unsightly things, and this turned them away from the Church. Therefore, we must be careful in our words and actions, because our actions primarily cast a shadow on the Church. A person thinks that if you did this, then our church is bad. “But the sectarians will not do this,” the person thinks, and goes to them.

- How is the sectarian worldview different from the Orthodox?

- They have a different faith, and this changes both thinking and culture. For example, if you come to Jehovah's Witnesses for a holiday, they will smile with American smiles. It is very hard to look at. On the one hand, they are very simple people, on the other - they have no sincerity towards each other.

- And due to the fact that they are not Orthodox, they will go to hell, even if they do a lot of good deeds?

- Yes. But why do they do it? They have nothing but the Bible, so the whole righteousness of the Protestants, of various denominations, comes down to preaching. They just don't know what else to do. Of all the good deeds, they know only one thing - to preach.

Source: https://orthoview.ru/xoroshij-missioner-ne-obratil-ni-odnogo-cheloveka-obrashhaet-bog/