Bethlen Almanac 1999 (Ligonier)
Kálvin Egyházkerület - Calvin Synod - Keleti Egyházmegye - Eastern Classis
pray not so much that we get back to where we were, but that God would bring us to a place where we never have been before where God will so move us in our relationship with him that we will serve him with more zeal and conviction to the end that many in our community who don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior will have their lives transformed, to God’s glory! Eastern Classis Meeting, March 21, 1999 The Manville Reformed Church is no longer bi-lingual; we have become tridjjtigual. If bi-lingualism poses particular problems in the church, now a third language has complicated things all the more. The third language is not Polish or Italian. It is a language of worship, a worship style. For the past year we have held three distinctly different worship services on Sunday mornings: traditional Reformed worship in English, traditional Reformed worship in Hungarian and a contemporary Reformed worship service (English). They are, in a very real sense, three different languages, each of which requires of the worshiper an ability to understand and participate in order to feel comfortable. The first two (traditional English and Hungarian Reformed worship) most of us are used to. Since the 50’s and 60’s there have been separate English and Hungarian worship services at the Manville Reformed Church. Although there were difficulties in the beginning when the strictly English language service was added, any vestiges of conflict over that change have long since disappeared. Now, however, we have conflict in our congregation over the third service (as it is referred to). The nature of the third service is freer and more dependent upon congregational participation. There is less strict adherence to the bulletin although the basic elements of preparing for, hearing and responding to the Word are present. I encourage congregants to be aware of the Spirit’s presence that together we may allow God to lead our worship of him. We sing many styles of music, encourage outward forms of biblical praise and make space for congregants to pray aloud. Concurrent with this renewed worship is a strong desire for many in our church (even among some who don’t attend the third service) to be more demonstrative, more vocal, more public about their faith in Jesus, in the hope and intention that others may come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The forms of the third service and the impulse to be more public about our faith are issues at the center of the conflict in our congregaZ 67
