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The idea came after Operation Mobilization set international leader meetings in Budapest for February. OM Hungary leader Terry Lingen-hoel decided that those 200 veteran missionaries could expand the church’s vision. Besides motivating believers to take a more active role in world evangelism, Lingenhoel and others felt an expo could help bond churches. Some 60 percent of Hungarians are Catholic, but the historic Reformed Church is the largest Protestant denomination with a 24 percent following. A wide gap exists between the traditional church and newer denominations. Some still consider as sects mainline groups such as the Baptists who have been in Hungary for 150 years.
An evangelical alliance launched in 1936 was disbanded in the 1940s under the Communist regime. Today’s Baptist Union president Kalman Meszaros remembers the repression that followed: “For a long time we couldn’t think of foreign missions. It was prohibited to go abroad. We had to stay within the church building.” The alliance was resurrected after the Iron Curtain’s fall and recently has gained momentum. Church leaders plan its restructure for greater impact.
“After the collapse of Communism, all of Eastern Europe was flooded with mission organizations and also, unfortunately, sects,” Meszaros said. “Many heresies came in during those first years of freedom.
“The picture became clearer during the second part of the ’90s. Everything calmed down, and we started to study the strategy and vision of the various mission organizations,” Meszaros said. “We want the Evangelical Alliance to be an umbrella for cooperation between churches and approved missions.”
While one mission conceived the expo, 300 Hungarians representing an array of churches and missions made it happen. Hungarian OMer Istvan Horvath coordinated. As enthusiasm rose, committees were set up to create workshop tracks to supplement the displays, including praying for the world, and separate tracks for church leaders, youth, church members, and children. In the main auditorium was a continuous program of speakers and media presentations. The climax was an evangelistic concert by Bill Drake attended by more than 2,000 youth.
Meszaros was enthused. “When we are standing too close, we really can’t see how colorful and different God’s people are,” he said. “It’s only when you step back that you see the whole picture. This is the first time Hungary has had such a cross-denominational event.” The 115 displays represented traditional and newly emerging churches, and national and international missions, including Awana, East European Mission, Youth for Christ, YWAM, Wycliffe, and Child Evangelism Fellowship. Campus Crusade for Christ, which has ministered in Hungary since 1978, is among the bigger missions with 72 workers; of them, 52 are Hungarian. A Pioneers exhibitor said his agency’s goal for the expo was to help raise missionaries from non-Western nations. OMS International came to Hungary to teach English at the govern-ment’s invitation. An OMS staffer said, “This is the first time we’ve had a display in Hungary. We never thought of doing one in a country where we work. But we have students we hope will get involved.”
A comment from a representative of the Barnabas Team Mission, which focuses on training leaders and pastors and church-planting within Hungary, typified that of mission groups there:”We’re mainly here to make contacts with pastors and church-planters. We also want to encourage groups to work together more and not just do their own thing. The expo has really been good. It’s surpassed my expectations.” Horvath would like to see the event repeated every two or three years, but next time it needs a bigger venue. “We had to reorganize the display space twice to make more room, and it still wasn’t big enough,” he said.
“Every person I met, pastor or leader, expressed their appreciation. They say this has been a big step in bringing revival to Hungary.”
May 4, 2001