Seminar in Oradea

On February 24, Costel, Florin and Mihail went to Oradea, Romania, which is located on the western side of the country for a three-day seminar on evangelism and unity in the church by Phil Jackson. The seminar was very encouraging for us all. We focused not on methods and techniques of evangelism, but on the theology of evangelism. Theology means the study of God. Doing a theology of evangelism focuses on God's role in evangelism. Once we understand this, the matters will fall into place. We learned how evangelism and missions is, in fact, really not our responsibility, per se. Missons evangelsim is God's task and He will bless his mission and His people with or without us. We learned that when we begin thinking about missions from God's perspective, we will focus less on numbers and more on strengthening the relationships we do have. Missions evangelism is God's program, not ours. Evangelism flows from the nature and purpose of God. He is a sending God. This is very encouraging and motivating for those churches who think size creates worth. It was encouraging for some of the Romanian Christians who have been focusing more on our human endeavors than on the opporunities that God has and will place before them in their relationships with others.

It was God who went seeking Adam and Eve. It was God who heard the cries of His people and sent Moses. It is God who sent Jonah. It is God who sent His Son. It is in His nature to seek lost people. Once we truly understand that evangelism is God's activity and that He wants us as His partners in the endeavor, only then will we have true motivation and encouragement to persevere.