Dear Praying, Helping Friends:
John Calvin was born 500 years ago.
This is a good time in Reformed circles to remember this man the Lord
used so greatly as a reformer. When
we do this, however, we need to remember his passion for evangelism and
missions. After all, his theology
was based on the Bible alone and meant to bring glory to God alone.
He was thus committed to winning the lost to faith in Christ, building
them up in the faith, and gathering them into biblical churches – from
Geneva
to the ends of the earth. Sadly,
many who exult in Reformed theology miss the mark when it comes to Calvin and
missions. They do this by 1) not
including missions in their seminars on Calvin or, when Calvin is not the
subject, in themes related to his theology.
They do this, in fact, by 2) viewing missions as if it was not a
theological subject at all. This
truncated view of the Reformed faith then leaves the average church in a fog as
to what kind of enter-prises they should support abroad and how they should be
doing missions at home.
I cannot, in a letter like this, do justice to this subject.
Let me only say there is much confusion in Re-formed circles when there
ought to be much light. Worse yet,
not many recognize the problem exists (Joel Beeke is a refreshing exception).
Men of theological repute at the top of speakers’ lists make their
church circuits with little said on missions.
Why should they? After all,
missions isn’t a theological subject, is it?
Just applied theology with little in the Bible to tell us how to do it,
right? So any method will do,
won’t it? Such a conclusion, then,
even though missions is the great business of Christ’s church on earth!
Even though the church has been gifted and commanded to go into all the
world, preach the gospel, disciple the nations, and build Christ’s church
until He comes! No!
Missions is more than anyone’s applied theology, and Calvin
understood this. He was not only
chief pastor of the church in
Geneva
and chief teacher at the Academy in
Geneva
(from 1558 to 1564). His church and
the Academy were responsible for sending thou-sands of missionaries back to
France
, into all of Europe, and even to faraway
Brazil
.
Today, however, many of the best seminaries in the
USA
are graduating men who know little about truly biblical missions and, in some
cases, are involved in foreign enterprises which are so far from building our
Lord’s church abroad as to be a travesty of missions.
Let me, then, say briefly what missions ought to be.
Churches must not send just anyone who claims to have a call. They must
send only the best (Acts 13:1-3) since missionaries must train nationals to know
and stand for the truth. The message
must be clear and uncompromising on critical issues and, if necessary,
confrontational (Acts 13:38-45). Churches
on the foreign field that are not true churches should not be cooperated with,
but exposed as unfaithful and separated from (Acts 13:46-48).
The goal of foreign missions must be to make disciples of the nations
(Acts 13:49-52). The method of
foreign missions must not be to culturally “connect” with false religions on
the field, but stand against them (Acts 14:8-18).
And those who have been awakened by the gospel mes-sage and are becoming
true disciples must be strengthened in the faith and gathered into true churches
(Acts 14:21-23). Until then, we do
not have missions; we have a travesty of missions.
So, then, in Central & Eastern
Europe, we must send our best to train young Hungarians who must, in turn,
“equip the saints” and stand on Scripture in a way that the gospel is not
compromised. These young Hungarian
men must then be helped to engage in spiritual warfare against the darkness
surrounding and coming out of false churches (Hungarian Reformed Church) and
false religions which offer people some way other than the “narrow way” of
Christ and His gospel. The whole
enterprise must aim at nothing less than the building of the church of our
Lord Jesus: Reformed in doctrine and church order, reformational in spirit,
zealous in evangelism, strong in discipling others, and moving toward
self-support and self-governance ASAP. “I
will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not…”
This is missions.
Now some quick news about our 15 men and 22 congregations as follows:
1)
Imre Szoke in
Miskolc
,
HUNGARY
is thankful for an upsurge in the number of people wanting to take our D/M
(discipleship/membership) course. He
asks prayer for this and all aspects of the work.
2)
Gyula Bagoly in
Almadi
,
Hungary
is now guiding two congregations in southern
Hungary
and seeing the Lord do great things as he does the work of “equipping the
saints”.
3)
Mihaly Siko in the capital (
Budapest
) is engaged in intensive discipling of others through his preaching, teaching,
biblical counseling, evangelism, and the example of his life.
4) 5)
6) Our men in
UKRAINE
are Istvan Gal, Bertalan Lorinc, and Geza Demeter.
Their work has not moved as fast as in
Hungary
, but they are now seeing some progress as they labor in prayer, hospital
evangelism, creation seminars, camp and conference ministries, children’s
ministry, and a strong effort to train our church members and disciple others
who are showing interest in spiritual things.
Pray!
7) Attila Szasz in
Kolozsvar
,
ROMANIA
has more and more people coming out for Friday evening group instruction.
Pray that some of these contacts can soon be given more personal
attention.
8)
Sandor Molnar in Marosvasarhely has a new Bible study in the town
of
Adamos
with ten very interested people coming. His
main work is now 50% self-supporting.
9)
Lehel Laszlo has two congregations, one a Gypsy work where
children are also being reached. Pray
for his main work in Erdoszentgyorgy that we might find land near the center of
town and at a good price.
10) Ferenc
Kovacs is a pastor in Szovata, heads up our fruitful camp and conference
ministry, and is coordinator for the entire work in
Romania
. Pray for daily strength.
11) Kalman
Kovacs is a big help to Ferenc. He
leads three Bible studies, including a new one in Parajd where we recently had a
great week of evangelism. He also
preaches for Ferenc when Ferenc must travel.
12) Gabor
Curcubet in Szekelyudvarhely heads up home schooling in
Romania
, does creationist seminars, publishes our creationist newspaper.
Home schooling is not yet legal in
Romania
. Keep praying.
13) Sandor
Tamas not only helps Gabor, but preaches and helps in other congregations.
He is now courting Biborka, a fine Christian girl.
Pray for the Lord’s direction in this and in his future ministry.
14) Szabolcs
Simon has three congregations and directs our foundation, the legal wing of
our church in
Romania
. Pray for the blessing of God’s
Spirit on his labors.
15) Csaba
Zolya has a congregation in
Vulkan
,
Romania
and a preaching point in Petrozseny. The
Lord is blessing his zeal to reach the lost and disciple the saved.
Pray for Ibolya and the twins she is carrying.
Some key developments in our work: 1) We now have translated and printed 18
books in Hungarian and soon hope to have two more out.
2) Children’s ministries are starting up in most of our congregations.
3) In
Hungary
we have new contacts which could lead, within a year, to starting a work in
Hungary
’s second largest city,
Debrecen
, and in
Northern Serbia
. 4) In April or May, we hope to graduate our first distance learning student
from Karolyi Gaspar Institute and support him as our 16th church
planter. Pray for Peter Szabo as he
is about to begin his work in
Budapest
with Mihaly Siko.
Finally, our financial needs. We
need funds for another car in
Romania
– a small, three-year
Dacia
that will save Ferenc a lot in fuel. Our
home church, Westminster PCA, has given us $2,500 in seed money toward the
$7,000 we need. Pray for the
remaining $4,500. Pray also about a
building we want in
Zapszony
,
Ukraine
. It would be a big boost to our
work in
Ukraine
. Last year we offered the owner
$40,000 when he was asking $70,000. Last
week he came down to $50,000. We
will now offer him $45,000 and see what happens.
Pray for this and the many spiritual and financial needs of our men in
Hungary
,
Romania
, and
Ukraine
.
Yours in His faithfulness,
Bob & Clara
Rapp
