For almost 50 years Romania endured a severe form of communism. Christians suffered many forms of persecution during those years. One of the less brutal, but equally damaging was the interdiction of Christians to take jobs of importance or serve in positions of influence. As a result, evangelicals were marginalized and pushed to the bottom of the economic ladder.
When the revolution came in 1989, Evangelical Christians gained freedom to express their faith, but due to the lack of resources and influence, that expression had little impact on the society around them. Well meaning, generous Christians, especially from the US, came to Romania with open hearts and open pockets ready to “fix” the problems faced by Romanian Christians. While some good was done, a greater problem was created. Unhealthy dependencies were developed that fostered the mentality that says; We can’t do ministry without buildings and other material resources like we see in our American brothers churches, and we can’t afford those things without them giving us the money, therefore we can not do ministry unless the rich Americans pay for it.” This mentality is not biblical and one result after 17 years of freedom is a stagnant evangelical church in Romania, crippled by dependence on man and not on God.
As the IMB began to develop a strategy for mission work in Romania, we had to struggle against this current of foreign subsidies and support. For the past 10 years, we have been working to communicate and implement strategies that are not as dependent on material resources. At the same time, we have recognized that some material resources are necessary for the expansion of the church in Romania and that prices are increasing at a much more rapid rate than the salaries of evangelicals. In Bucharest, for example, an acre of land anywhere near the center of the city will cost between one and three million dollars! This is in a context where a simple blue collar worker is still making less than $300 per month. It is simply not possible for churches to be planted the “American way”, where a group buys a piece on land, throws up a building and expects people to come!
We realized that the solution to the problem comes from working from both ends of the problem. Our church planters are all implementing strategies that utilize homes, unpaid leaders, and simple materials as much as possible. We are doing all we can to try to develop Biblical models that keep material needs low.
At the same time we need to find ways to help improve the element of resource creation. If we can help Romanian Christians develop good Biblical stewardship and apply good, ethical, business principles to the development of small businesses, Romanians can again take greater ownership in their ministry which will result in a greater vision for the expansion of the church by the power of God.
In our strategy we now have a missionary whose primary focus is to assist Romanian Baptists in stewardship and small business development. One of this missionary’s primary strategies is to mobilize Christian businessmen from the US to come, not with their dollars, but with their expertise to help Romanian businessmen be more productive and more faithful with the resources that are created. This also has the positive effect of mobilizing a new segment of the US church membership to be directly involved in missions which brings about a greater enthusiasm for the work of their own local church in the US.
One other practical aspect of this strategy is the preparation of Romanian national missionaries for overseas service. God is touching the hearts of many young Romanians with a desire for involvement in international missions. Because of the many political and economic ties that were formed between Romania under communism and Muslim and other communist countries, Romanians have great freedom to travel to places such as Iran, Iraq, North Korea, etc. In order for Romanian Christians to serve as missionaries in these places, they need a legitimate reason to be there – such as a business platform, as well as a means to help support themselves. Our desire is to help prepare Romanian missionaries to develop small businesses that can enable them to live and minister in places closed to western missionaries.
We know that God is the owner of all things and the giver of all good gifts, the greatest being salvation through Jesus Christ. He has called us however, to be good stewards of these resources and blessings as well as the “mystery of the Gospel”. We believe that small business development as a missionary strategy helps is good stewardship on our part and will help the Romanian Baptist churches to be good stewards of all that God wants to do through them here in Romania.
Larry Carnes,
IMB Strategy Coordinator
Bucharest, Romania