19 April 2018 | Debrecen, Hungary [Géza Hegyes-Horváth/tedNEWS]
Over 700 members from across eastern Hungary committed to ‘Building churches in a crumbling world’ during the Tisza Conference’s fourth ‘Out of the salt shaker’ Mission retreat, the weekend of 13-14 April 2018. The weekend also saw a special dedication of staff for two Centres of Influence in Hungary’s second and fourth largest cities, Debrecen and Miskolc.
The Tisza Conference leadership are delighted with the response as pastors and members attendance at the event has grown from 500 in 2015 to more than 700 this year. 
The conference, covering the east of Hungary, has 2,239 members in a population of 3.7 million.
Pastor Géza Hegyes-Horváth, Conference president, states that the aim is to continuously “motivate our members to mission, to give back the vision that the mission is still possible with God, and that we have a mandate from God to make him known in the world.” He agreed with Pastor Raafat Kamal, TED president, that they were both very excited to see so many church members are interested in mission and wanting to work for God despite the difficulties of an increasingly secularised Europe. “We think that we must catch the opportunity to motivate and train our members while they still believe that mission is possible,” he said.
Pastor Simon Martin, Trans-European discipleship coach for Scandinavia, joined Pastor Kamal, to deliver pastoral training on the Friday before sharing with the larger membership that mission is still possible with God.
During Friday, Pastor Martin worked with the other pastors to demonstrate that there are very simple and effective ways in which every church member can do mission and can lead Bible studies. Later that evening many more people joined them at the Debrecen Adventist church to worship God and to listen to ‘the Word’. Debrecen is some two hours east of Hungary’s capital, Budapest, and is the central church of the Tisza Conference.
Worship continued Sabbath morning with a larger audience. Pastor Martin spoke about the Old Testament war between Abija and Jeroboam and the covenant of salt [2 Chronicles 13:5]. He challenged that in mission “it is more important who is with us than the power of the enemy,” and that every church member has a salt ministry to the community in which he lives. “We must add salt to the everyday activities which we are already doing,” he insisted. Pastor Kamal then took the audience through the Bible demonstrating that everything in the Bible clearly shows that it is the mission of God to save people.
Watch the Sabbath morning worship service with Pastor Raafat Kamal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DyBuTyllo4
The day was not just preaching. Hungarians love music and so worship was also a real celebration of God’s goodness in mission via many choirs and singing groups. Yet mission is also dedication, and so the height of the celebration focused on the staff at two Centres of Influence (Hope Centres) that have been developed.
T
he Debrecen centre has been operating for three years but with new funding grants from the TED and General Conference they have now expanded their activities. The Miskolc Centre is a new start with an enthusiastic group ready to begin activities in the city. The four employees, their spouses, and the volunteers who work with them were invited to the platform for a special prayer of dedication.
After lunch, the afternoon concluded with Pastor Martin further encouraging the church family to work for God and to be a witness in their surroundings in very simple ways such as just eating together with neighbours or colleagues.
Pastor Hegyes-Horváth states that he has received very positive feedback from church members and that more and more are joining with the group which will be trained for mission. “Our purpose with this initiative to motivate people to mission and to find church members who are willing to be trained and work for God,” he says. A team of eight people across the Conference are now working together to coordinate mission and to train as many as possible for mission.
“Let us be salt and add flavour to the world!” he concludes. [tedNEWS]
SEE ALSO:
TED President, Raafat Kamal reflects on his visit to the ‘Out of the salt shaker’ conference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikmXBd3shs8&feature=youtu
tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, editor; Sajitha Forde-Ralph, associate editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ted.adventist.org
tedNEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division. Readers and news agencies are free to republish or share this article giving appropriate credit including an active hyperlink to the original article.
