“We want to build the church around the people and not the building,” Raul said. “The Romanians, we hear the word “church” and think rules and glass windows and priests who judge what you do.”
The Americans think that too. Where I grew up, churches rose from the ground on every corner like mushrooms in a dark forrest. Baptist, Presbyterian, Non-Denominational, Methodist, Pentecostal, and more are spread out before the American people as if Christianity was a buffet instead of a dinner table. And what are we to do? Enter these holy edifices, gaping in awe at the immaculacy of the stained glass illustrations and woodwork and tile? Or would you rather feel the boombox in your chest of boisterous music and feeling of freedom when worshipping in a warehouse? Are we afraid of being judged by the hymn-holders and stony-faced zealots? Is our vision of what the church looks like impaired with our human view of physical things? Are we too small to peek over the crowds of good works to see the face of Christ and the vision He has for Community?
Raul wants what God wants for his church. He wants to build the church around its people and not the building or music style. And he’s beginning with the youngest generation. Hope Church is seeking out the apathetic generation, the ones who can set the world on fire if given the opportunity. Why are people my age so averse to the gospel of truth? It isn’t the way technology has shaped our lives. It isn’t how our governments are run. It isn’t the way schools teach the theory of Evolution. It isn’t that drugs that are being sold on street corners. Young people are turning away from the faith because the church isn’t living out what God wants for it. Young people see the way churches hurt and exclude and judge and decide they don’t want it. They see a church who is more focused on the outside appearances and not on the hearts of the people inside it. They see rules and works and judgement. Raul’s mission is to show the young people of Craiova what the church really is. We are children of the King. We are loved, worthy, wanted, and full of divine purpose. We belong in a community of people who love Him and want to see His face shining in the eyes of other believers. We are people of worship, we are people of Prayer, who cry out to their Creator with magnificent petition.
This is where Gap G comes in. Our assignment is to bring 20 young people into the youth group so that they can be discipled by the long-term missionaries at Hope Church. We have gone out into the streets, found young people, and spoke with them. We ask them questions about what they like to do, where the best coffee places are, and what they want to be when they get older. Craiova is a city of students, with a large University and lots of young hearts that long for knowledge and purpose. Hearts like yours and mine. The first time I went out with my team, I thought, “I might meet a new brother or sister today.” Shouldn’t that be our vision of church planting- discipling individual people instead of filling seats and making spreadsheets? What’s beautiful about Raul’s work in Craiova is that it looks so similar to the early church. The early church focused on discipleship, prayer, and fellowship, allowing the Lord to bless them and add to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-27 reference) In the same way, Hope Church lifts their hands in prayer, worship, and wonder, coming boldly in asking the Lord for new brothers and sisters. In America, we pray for revival, but in Romania, we pray for the outbreak of a pandemic of Hope. We are praying for all the youth in this city to be infected by love for Christ, and for it to spread into the country, and then the entire world.
Join us in prayer for Raul and for Hope Church. He is looking for 100 prayer warriors to commit to praying 5 minutes a day every day in 2022. If you feel called to this position, contact me for more information!
Prayer Requests:
- Financial provision for the buildings they rent- the mission house where we stay, the church building, and the office building
- Financial provision in order to give salaries to Romanian missionaries and support to foreign missionaries
- Protection against spiritual warfare which is so relevant in this city. Pray against witchcraft and darkness, that the light of the Lord will overcome as we know it will.
- 20 new young people to regularly attend the youth groups by the time Gap G leaves in January
- Gap G! Pray that we would embrace this city and these people as our own. Pray that we would have the power of the Holy Spirit to tell others about the hope that we have in Him.
Also, go check out their website, https://www.hoperomania.org/craiova.html to see other needs that need to be met, or join their Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/hopechurchromania/ to be updated on prayer requests and join other believers in advocating for them.
