Mission
History:
In the 20th century,
Eastern Europe
, including the Hungarian lands, faced a very sad period of its history.
In the first half of the century, it was the scene for the world's
"great powers" fighting. It
had no time to recover because right after this, it was conquered by the tyranny
of Communism. These events greatly
affected the destiny of the churches of these countries.
Communism, among many other sad things, meant total control by the
atheist authorities over everything. The
official churches could take steps and make decisions only with the permission
of the communist state police. Only
those who assured the communist authorities of their submission and obedience to
them could fulfill key roles in the church.
The communists forced the smaller denominations into one religious union;
churches were closed and buildings confiscated.
Besides this, in the Reformed churches of the Hungarian lands, liberalism
and Barthianism had found good ground and started to bear its fruit.
Standards were forgotten; the church died within; and Communism had only
a house of straw to blow down. Of
course, God had his people in these countries during those dark years, too, but
they had to hide from the authorities. They
were jailed, and many of them were put to death.
After the fall of Communism, theoretically, the years of freedom arrived
in these countries, but there were few who could take advantage of it.
In the Reformed churches, most of the key positions continued to be held
by those who were the co-laborers of the communists and were committed to
liberalism. The teachers in the
theological seminaries remained mostly the same. The born-again,
gospel-preaching pastors existed as a tiny minority within the state church.
During the years of communism, many Christians in western countries were
praying for the spiritual liberation of
Eastern Europe
. The fall of communism created an
unbelievable opportunity in the former Soviet Empire with many mission
organizations going in to fill the void. The
problem with most of their work was that it did not aim at either reforming
existing churches or starting new ones. There
was great fervor to spread tracts and distribute Bibles, but little attention
was given to training nationals to plant and pastor churches.
Many Christians from the West visited the countries of the former
communist block. Among them was Dr.
Robert Rapp, an American missionary.
Arriving in
Hungary
, Dr. Rapp was not thinking of starting a new denomination.
His focus was to go as far as he could to reform the state church, the
Hungarian Reformed Church. Therefore,
after having discussions with some of the born-again pastors of the Hungarian
lands, his first step was to start a school to train pastors who were committed
to, and stood for, the standards of the Bible.
But the liberal church leaders did not welcome this kind of seminary. As
their liberalism and lack of interest in the historic Reformed faith were
exposed, these church leaders started to fight against this small group, and in
1997 the bishops concluded: "There
is no room for conservatives within the Hungarian Reformed Church."
Consequently, the small group of students was expelled from the state
church.
In 1998 the students organized the first new church of its kind in the
Hungarian lands since the Reformation. It
was called the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Central and
Eastern Europe
. This fresh, new beginning gave us
another great opportunity. But in
the days that followed, we learned how really difficult it would be to disciple
people, especially when so much wrong teaching had to be undone. So we taught
them how to read the Scriptures on a daily basis.
Our pastors visited their church members monthly to follow up on this.
We taught fathers how to lead the family and mothers how to be mothers,
indeed. Parents were taught how to teach and train their children.
We taught single people how to engage in courtship.
We taught our people how to tithe and care for their pastors, and how to
live according to the matchless, sovereign grace of our God with one another and
with the world outside the church.
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
. . . and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
This is what the Lord has called us to do in the Hungarian lands.
The planting of congregations and the building of Christ's church is the
goal, and discipling (teaching and training) is the means, but "preaching
the Gospel" is the first step. So,
in
Hungary
,
Ukraine
, and
Romania
we have personal evangelism, home Bible studies, hospital visitation and
meetings. We have opportunities for
preaching on special occasions such as funerals and weddings.
We distribute tracts and Christian magazines.
We attend book fairs and public markets where we buy space to put up book
tables. Our churches have lending
libraries of Christian books, tapes and compact discs with sermons and lectures.
We attend openings in public schools where students (and parents) are
taught Christmas carols, or English is taught using the Bible.
During the summer we have camps for children, teenagers, young and older
adults. We organize creationist
camps for students and teaching camps for young couples where practical issues
of family life are studied in-depth. Many
are blessed at our evangelistic camps, as also in our teaching camps.
Each year we have 15 to 17 summer camps in
Hungary
,
Romania
and
Ukraine
. In the spring, summer and fall we
organize conferences where people from our congregations come together to
rejoice in the Lord and to have Christian fellowship.
Our churches have children's meetings and week-long evangelistic
services. During these special
meetings we concentrate on one village or area, inviting people door-to-door
during the day, and preaching at night. We
also have a web site where general information about our church can be found and
some literature and audio sermons made available.
By God's grace we have published 17 books covering important theological
issues and problems that Hungarian Christians face. We also cover the practical
aspects of the Christian life. The
Lord willing, we hope to expand greatly the availability of sound, Hungarian Reformed literature.
