Magyar Egyház, 2010 (89. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2010-01-01 / 1-2. szám
6. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ The Hungarian Reformed Church is a mission Our progress is determined in part by our past. For nearly 100 years, we Hungarian Reformed congregations have lived out of a truth: in Christ Jesus we are one. Since the beginning we have voiced the validity of our mission, to pass the Word of God to our Hungarian brethren. Today one description of our way of sharing that good news is: we are Hungarian Reformed, a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. God is calling us to him, in this broken and injured world, we do have to option to choose life. Choosing life is attitude. It’s prayerfully focusing on God’s blessings; it’s deciding to live according to God’s will. Choosing life is also action. It’s caring for the body. For individuals, this means attention to exercise the faith. For church, caring for the body, means attention to the covenant by which we are related to God and each other. This is our mission and our duty as Hungarian Reformed Churches. We have to know that... The Church is a mission... In the early days of the establisment of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America in all its previous forms, the church didn’t have a mission; it was a mission. A mission to share the love and grace of God with others! It is my desire that we begin to see ourselves as a movement, a people on a mission of inviting and forming disciples of Jesus Christ, as opposed to having a mission. I invite you today and in the future to renew your commitment to being a living mission - in body, mind, and spirit, as a church and our Hungarian communities across the American Continent. The Church is a mission ... A living mission through healthy bodies... Health and wholeness are foundational to discipleship. Everywhere Jesus went in his ministry, he healed, taught and then people followed him. Reaching out to the health needs of the people was his first means of interaction and so it needs to be for us today. In years past, Hungarian Reformed built wonderful churches but also nursing homes and other facilities for the health and wholeness of people in our communities. Just for example, in what Bethlen Home at Ligonier,PA does, we are unique within the Hungarian community, even world wide. We still have some of those, but the health and wholeness needs of people in our communities have changed; maybe we don’t need more institutions, but we need more grassroots movements of changing unhealthy habits into holy ones. I would like to challenge the clergy and the layity to indulge in healthy, holy living. I used and will continue to use the word indulge because in our society today to eat healthfully, exercise, spend time in prayer and personal Bible study is truly felt as indulging; clergy often feel that they can’t afford the time or effort to be healthy and holy. The Church is a mission ... A living mission through our minds... One of my goals since became the bishop of our denomination has been to raise the awareness of Calvinism in our congregations! The last year was a very good time to remembering for John Calvin who was born 500 years ago. This rememberance in our congregations was worthy of his faithful life and service. I want people around our Synod to know the wonderful secret of Calvinism! In the 21. century, we as Calvinists need to raise our awareness about who we are. What makes us unique and therefore even a favored option for those many people who have no religious affiliation. Don’t be ashamed of our faith! The Church is a mission ... A living mission through our spirits... When we find out who we are as Calvinists, we will discover that we need to return to the holy practices of prayer and Bible study. Our "ethos" is not that of being people of the Bible - we know that biblical illiteracy is high in our denomination - or a people who spend significant time in prayer. There are certainly exceptions to this "ethos," but unfortunately, we have lost touch with our roots in being people of the Scripture and of prayer. How many of us spend time in prayer and Bible study. I went "Googling" on the Internet to see if I was off base in my sense that most people don’t read the Bible and pray each day. I looked at about five to eight fairly well respected surveys, including Bama, and all of them reported percentages ranging between 15 to 18 percent of Christians who read their Bibles daily. Over 90 percent of Christians own a Bible. I ask all members of our congregations to read their Bibles and pray at least 30 minutes per day! It’s not too much. People ask me how to have vital congregations, but I believe that we need to work on vital Christians, too, people who are steeped in the word of God and a relationship with God through prayer. The Church is a mission ... A living mission through our churches... Churches need to be places where holy, healthy living is foundational in order to invite and form disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Every church needs a system or plan or pathway to help lifelong Christians as well as new Christians grow deeper in their relationship with God through Christ. I call it a disciple making system. How do our churches help form, shape, and develop Christians as disciples. There are many ways for us to live out our discipleship, our Christian faith; - through Bible study, prayer, worship. To be a disciple means that we are lifelong learners and followers, never seeing our faith as a destination - we’ve arrived! To be a disciple means that we are reaching out, sharing the little bit of what we know about God with others so that they might have the same sense of love and grace that we have. We have to have a plan and implementation of a disciple making system. What do you have? What do people need? What’s missing? How can you better utilize the resources available through our denomination to help form Christian faith? It would be nice if our disciple making system would transformed our individual and congregational life - through a Bible study, a prayer circle, a Women’s study, a Sunday School class you’ve been a part of for years, as many congragation has. The Church is a mission ... A living mission in our communities... The practice of our faith is meant to do nothing less than transform the world around us! Throughout our locations of ministry in the Hungarian reformed congregations, we are performing many acts of mercy and even justice for those most in need. However, I want to encourage each congregation to care for the needy people in your communities, and also do not forget our brothers and sisters in Hungary and in the Carpathian basin especially the children who are the future generation everywhere. How is your church transforming your community? God expects nothing less from us as disciples of Jesus Christ! The call to mission... These are my emphases for our servises, through various ways of keeping our eyes focused on inviting and forming
