The Gospel for Every Person, A Church for Every Location… Are We Reaching Our Goal? OC International 2008

The Gospel for Every Person, A Church for Every Location…

Are We Reaching Our Goal?

OC International 2008


What is the status of the evangelical movement at in Romania at the beginning of 2008?

CHURCHES There are now approximately 5,750 Evangelical

churches in Romania. This represents an increase of 700 churches since

2000 or an average of 100 new churches started per year.

This is one of the highest church planting rates in Europe.

But this rate is considerably less than the number of churches started in 1994-2000 when there were at least 180 churches started per year.


What is the status of the evangelical movement in Romania at the beginning of 2008?

EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS According to the 2002 Census there are over 500,000

people who attend Neo-Protestant churches. The comparison of the 1992 and 2002 Census shows

that all these groups are growing in number. The true number of evangelicals

should also takeinto account other true believers found in Adventist, Roman Catholic, Reformed, Luthern, and Orthodox churches, especially the Lord’s Army movement.


Where are the Evangelicals in Romania?

Most evangelicals

are in Northwestern

Romania


The Need for Church Planting in Rural Areas

There are at most 1,102 townships out of 2,855 (38.6%) without a single evangelical church.

In all there are at most 9,638villages in Romania withouta single evangelical church.

5,830,000 people live in these“church-less” villages or 60% of the rural population.

In Southeastern Romania there are 978 townships and over 7,000 villages having nearly five million people without a single evangelical church.


The Need for Church Planting in Urban Areas

The majority of evangelical Christians live in rural areas.

Over 55% of Romania’s people live in cities, but just 45% of evangelicals live in cities.

From the 2002 Census we discover: In cities the average percentage of evangelical Christians (over

age 10) is 1.85%; In rural areas the percentage is 2.5%.

It is clear that more attention must be given to evangelism and church planting in urban areas.

For example, there are 12 cities with more than 20.000 inhabitants for every evangelical church, all of which are in Southeastern Romania.


There are 21 Cities in Romania without Evangelical Churches

In 2001 we published in the report God’s Heart for Romania that 11 cities did not have evangelical churches.

Since then we found out that churches were stared in just two of these cities.

Moreover since 2001, the Romanian government raised 55 townships to city status.

There are today 320 de cities in Romania. Today 21 cities do not have an evangelical

church, having some 140,000 residents. 20 of these cities are in Southeastern Romania.


Making Disciples of all the Ethnic Groups in Romania

According to the 2002 Census, ethnic groups make up at least 10.5% of Romania’s population, or we could say that one person in ten is not an ethnic Romanian.

Several of Romania’s minorities are more evangelical than Romanian people group. Ukrainians (10.8% evangelical) and the Roma people (7.8%) appear more evangelical than ethnic Romanians (2.26%).

From Census information we see that there was a significant growth in the number of Pentecostals among the Roma people in the 1990’s, growing from 2% to 6.4% between 1992 and 2002.

Serbs, Hungarians and Russian-Lipoveni are less evangelical.

There are other ethnic groups with very few believers.


Comparison between the Northwest and Southeast

Northwestern RomaniaNorthwestern Romania15 counties 15 counties 4.72% evangelical4.72% evangelical1 city without an 1 city without an

evangelical churchevangelical church124 Townships without 124 Townships without

evangelical churchesevangelical churches2,607 villages without 2,607 villages without

evangelical churchesevangelical churches943,400 people without 943,400 people without

access to an evangelical access to an evangelical fellowshipfellowship

Southeastern RomaniaSoutheastern Romania27 counties 27 counties 1.19% Evangelical1.19% Evangelical20 cities without 20 cities without

evangelical churchesevangelical churches978 townships without 978 townships without

evangelical churchesevangelical churches7,031 villages without 7,031 villages without

evangelical churchesevangelical churches5,033,000 people 5,033,000 people

without access to an without access to an evangelical fellowshipevangelical fellowship

The greatest need is in the

Southeast

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

2008 & BEYOND


Levels of Evangelization

Unreached/Least Reached: The number of evangelicals is less than or equal to 2% and adherents to any form of Christianity are less than or equal to 5%.

Formative or Nominal Church: the number of evangelical Christians is less than or equal to 2%, but adherents to any form of Christianity are greater than 5%.

Emerging Church: The number of evangelical is greater than 2% and there is an accelerating rate of new evangelical fellowships being started.

Growing Church: the number of evangelicals is greater than 10% or there exists one evangelical church for every 10,000 individuals.


The Challenge of the Least Reached

The least reached in Romania are the various Moslem peoples: Tatars Turks Some Gypsies who are Moslems Moslems from other countries who have settled in Romania.

Less than 100 true believers come from these groups. According to the Romanian government, the number

of Moslems in Romania has grown between 1992 and 2002 from 55,988 to 67,257.

Non-governmental groups estimate that 30.000 Moslems who are citizens of other countries live in Romania.

Special missionary effort is needed to win these Moslem peoples for Christ.


The State of Evangelicals by County


Challenges for the 27 Counties with Churches in the Formative Stage

EVANGELISM• There are 27 counties which have

less than 2% evangelicals according to the 2002 census;

• 19 of these counties are less than 1% evangelical.

• For the counties that are less than 1% evangelical, we challenge the evangelical churches in these 19 counties to grow so that they number 1% of the population.

• For the eight counties have between 1% and 2% evangelicals, we call for a goal of 2% evangelicals.

Attaining these two goals would result in some 66,000 new believers being added to the kingdom.



CHURCH PLANTING• Plant churches focus on the 978

townships in these 27 counties that do not have a single evangelical church.

• Plant churches in the 20 cities without evangelical churches.

• Plant more churches in the 12 cities that have more than 20,000 people for every evangelical church.

• 43 new churches are needed in these 12 cities to reach the goal of one evangelical church for every 20,000 people.

A total of 1,041 new churches are

initially needed in 1,010 locations.



THE CHALLENGE 1,041 new churches in

1,010 locations. 66,000 new Christians.

Do the churches in these counties have the potential to accomplish these objectives in the not so distant future?

61,359 more evangelicals in these 27 counties in 2002 than in 1992 according to the Census information.

966 churches were started in the 1990’s.

These bold objectives involve a bit more than what was accomplished in the 1990’s.

Churches today should have more potential and resources than they had then!


Challenges for Seven Counties with Emerging Churches

• Evangelicals grow to 5% of the population, adding some 61,000 new believers.

• Plant a church in the city Dragomireşti in Maramureş County (population 3,541), which does not have an evangelical church.

• Also there are 6 cities with have more than 10,000 people per evangelical fellowship that need 36 additional churches.

• Plant a church in every one of the 89 townships without an evangelical church.

• Start an evangelical fellowship in every village with more than 500 residents, at most 457 villages.

580 new churches are

needed.


Challenges for Seven Counties with Emerging Churches

THE CHALLENGE

• 580 new churches

• 61,000 new Christians

Can this be done?

• In the 1990’s 465 new churches were started.

• There are approximately 1,160 evangelical churches in these 7 counties.

• So just half of the existing churches would need to start a new church to meet the proposed objectives.


Challenges for the Eight Counties with Growing Churches

THE CHALLENGE Grow to 10% evangelical – and to keep

on growing beyond this goal! This would represent 97,000 new Christians.

Since there were 93,475 evangelical believers added between the 1992 Census and the 2002 Census, high potential exists for achieving this goal.

Arad County is already over 10% evangelical.

Because cities need key attention we call for a goal of an evangelical church for every 5,000 people in urban areas. Meeting this goal requires at most 76 new churches in 15 cities.

There are at most 1,129 villages in these eight counties that do not have an evangelical fellowship.

The 2,650 churches here have the potential to start an evangelical fellowship in every location that needs one.

These objectives can be achieved!


SUMMARY OF OBJECTIVES

224,000 additional believers

2,826 new churches


GETTING THE JOB DONE

These objectives will not be realized without effort. If we continue to do what we have been doing so far in

this millennium, we will get the same results, which is much less than what was done in the 1990’s!

At the current rate of church planting, we are looking at over 23 years to achieve these church planting objectives!

However what is called for here is little more than what was accomplished in the 1990’s when evangelical churches were fewer and had far less potential.


Number of churches added per year

100

180

275

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

2001-2007

1996-2000

1990-1999


Years to reach the goal of 2826 new churches based on Average Annual Growth Rates

23

9.3

5.76

4.9

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

Rate during 2001-2007 1.74% AAGR (19% DGR) 23.18 years

Rate during 1996-20004.39% AAGR (53% DGR)9.3 years

100% DGR 7.18% AAGR 5.76 years

Rate during 1990-19998.68% AAGR (130% DGR) 4.9 years

AAGR: Average Annual Growth Rate

DGR: Decade Growth Rate


Call to action!

What is called for here is little more than what was accomplished in the 1990’s.

If every church would focus on ministering to people outside of its four walls and every church with more than 50 members would start one or more new fellowships in the next five years, with God’s help, these objectives could be exceeded!

ACTION STEPS

2008 & Beyond


Action Steps

The important thing is not whether or not these objectives are achieved in two, five or ten years. The most important thing is to accelerate the present process. Otherwise these goals might never be achieved.

We challenge you, church leader, to mobilize your church to reach out to those beyond its four walls.

We encourage you to consider your response in each of these areas:


Priorities

Give priority to those activities that impact the unevangelized world. What is the first priority of your church?

If your church has less than 50 members, concentrate on local evangelism.

If your church more than 50 members, consider starting another church.

If your church has more than 200 members, seriously consider multiple church planting projects.


Inform yourself

Get a vision for reaching the people beyond the four walls of your church. What are the needs within 25 kilometer radius of your church? In your county?

Do a community survey to discover needs in your area.

Walk and pray in the neighborhood where your church meets. Ask God to give you a vision and compassion for these people outside the four walls of your church.

Upon request OC can provide you with a map of your county, lists of cities, townships and villages without evangelical churches in your area.


Training

We need tens of thousands of new Christian workers to fulfill the task before us in Romania!

We need thousands of new pastors, teachers, evangelists and missionaries.

Build the capacity of the people in your church to be effective workers for God.

Develop your church’s training program. Every leader in your church should be training

another to take his place. (2 Timothy 2:2) Find two or three young people to mentor.


Mobilization

Involve each member in your church in the work of evangelism and church planting.

Involve the new generation in evangelism and church planting.

Meet with others in your area to pray and develop a strategy.

Meet with other leaders in your area to discuss what can be done together to take the Gospel to every person in every locality in your area.


Partnership

Intentionally seek out people with whom you can partner to get the job done.

Churches in counties that are more evangelized should consider partnering with churches in counties that are less evangelized to assist there.

Adopt location that does not have an evangelical fellowship.

Send a short term team or a long term worker. See the Directory of Christian Organizations in

Romania, published by OC International, for others who can help your church.


Prayer

Last, but not least, we must pray. Meet with another leader to pray about what

steps you church should take to see that the Gospel is taken to every person.

Call the members of your church to prayer regarding the challenges that stand before us to fulfill the calling Jesus gave us to take the Good News to every person!

Use the prayer calendar for 2008 prepared by Pastor Dan Boingeanu that highlights a different county in Romania and a foreign country for each week of the year.

2008 and Beyond

Let’s work together with God to fulfill the Commission which he gave us, to take the Gospel to every person, in every place, in every generation.


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The Gospel for Every Person, A Church for Every Location… Are We Reaching Our Goal? OC International 2008