Bethlen Almanac 2000 (Ligonier)
Tóparti Egyházmegye - Lakeside Classis
to ideas and thoughts of our people, and my own life and experiences in our Church Family. With God’s help and your prayerful support, I want to: 1. Continue visitation with members; this remains a high priority that is a slow process because of time demands and also to some extent because people are shy to invite the Pastor to their homes. However, I still hold to the regulation of the church in the old country as a goal: visit every family at least once a year! 2. Build upon our focus of mission: for the purpose of continuing the congregation’s strong commitment for ministering mainly in the Hungarian community of Greater Cleveland and the world. 3. Increase Bible study and educational opportunities for the purpose of understanding Christ’s call into community and ministry. 4. Continue to enhance youth and confirmation ministries; these programs have to be effective, my hope is that we will have more parents and members involved in these ministries. 5. Expand music and/or drama program opportunities; this will involve members in a new and exciting way. 6. Improve our witness through the use of diverse media communication; besides our presence in local radio programs and papers, I want to develop a Web site for our church that would provide ample opportunity for interactions with our sister churches in our Calvin Synod as well as the whole world. 7. Develop a five-year plan for ministry. Although this is something that we have never done before, my hope is that a long-range planning task force will be developed through the efforts of our Vision Committee. 8. Develop evangelism teams to extend hospitality to visitors and prospective members; develop a method to help assimilate members into the life of our congregation through a mentoring program. 9. Lead a Consistory and Cabinet members retreat for the purpose of claiming our spiritual life and establishing short and longterm goals for ministry. 10. We all need to work together to create an environment in all that we do as a church that would enable the spiritual growth and prayer life of everyone in our Church Family. The central organizational characteristic of the Hungarian Reformed Church 64
