The Daily Message

Over the crisis of the Romanian evangelic Christianity: Application to the Pentecostal church from Romania

More and more voices are heard talking about the existence of the crisis through which the present days Romanian Christians pass, both traditional churches and the newest evangelic churches which opened the XX century with a spiritual renaissance in our country. May be the signs of the crisis can still be seen at the beginning of the third millennium, after those 12 years from liberation of communism, period when the real revolution of the people should have been produced: a spiritual revolution. Thing that did not happen, and there are so little voices which can affirm that this is the only chance that Romanian people has (we can remember that the period of glory of Romanian society from the inter-war period was opened and had at its basis not the economic reform but a Christian spiritual renaissance of the people).

The discussion about the existence of a Christian crisis in Romania parts the interlocutors of a possible dialogue about this subject on more categories: some who agree that we pass through a crisis, those who cannot tell whether there is a problem, and some who panic when trying to find a solution, supra-evaluating the dimensions of such a crisis. But each of the three categories confronts with the present to which they offer solutions by a practical way of thinking and a Christian reality. Precisely the analysis of these solutions, of the road of Christians and the way it responds to the challenges of the present world that make us notice the amplitude and the dimensions of a crisis at a large scale: from the stare of self-sufficiency of sects and idolatry of some persons (persons, communities, confessions), until the mediocre avant-gardism and activism, lacking the actuality of others, from the lack of a critical position over the confessional and local identity, from the stereotyped repetition of a lost tradition and until the fragmented sentimental positions, isolated and envious.

Regarding this subject, is good to precise the fact that the Church, in its bi-millennial existence, always passed through problems, crisis, so that it can almost be told that the life of the Church was and still is a fight for survival, for keeping its identity in a hostile world, in a world which permanently contests its transforming vocation and efficiency. From Gospels it can clearly be seen that the presence of the divine truth in a decayed world is a sensible presence, put through kicks and damages. The history of the chosen people offers us enough examples, and from the New Testament and the History of the Bible we learn that Christian life was and is full of challenges and problems that the Christians must put up with in order to separate truth from lie, light from dark.

The gravity of things is not in the fact that we deal with a crisis, that there are crisis, but in the fact that we are not aware of it, we do not fight for over-passing t, do not evaluate its real consequences and dimensions, in this way history teaches us something about the manner of approaching the situations of crisis. Any delicate period of the Church was marked by some kind of spirit , as also the solutions or transformations was made under the impulse of a certain spirit, vision, direction, too. It is interesting to notice the fact that the majority of the crisis situations of human kind try to impose the revolutionary spirit and the critical spirit of a negative way, demolishing that wish to overturn the old order and impose a new one. The revolutionary spirit adventures into radical solutions, but does not appeal to fundamental references and does not touch the main problems, so that it does not save but apparently the situation, the crisis remaining, risking to become chronic. This spirit encountered also the Church in its moments of hard try, we are not guarded from this spirit, the present ones. Still, in its maturity, to the revolutionary spirit of the world the Church answered with a transforming spirit of a different kind, which has to do with man‘s nature, with his soul structures and after with his social, economic, politic structures in which man is implicated. In moments of crisis the Church was an identifying one. (The truth of the Church is connected with what it is and the way it is the Church. The existence of the Church cannot be doubted by nobody and nothing, because it is anchored in the Son of God Himself, but its way of existence handles the conditions of the historic and human limits) in moment of crisis, the Christians were provoked to find their identity, to evaluate in a critical manner through the eye of what Revelation would affirm about the nature and life of the Church, about the Christian state. More, the Christians were provoked to act critically and creatively this content, this identity anchored in the revealed eternal truth, in spite the situation in which Christianity and the world are encountered. Now, if we are to answer to the challenge to look towards what a crisis of Romanian evangelic churches would represent (in particular the Pentecostal ones), a possible measure which can lead to pertinent solutions cannot but start from the analysis of its own confessional and local identity, analysis made in the spirit of the universality of God‘s Church. A critical evaluation of its own tradition, in parallel with an evaluation of the present situation and the trends to evolve existent inside confession, can guarantee that maturity necessary to approach the problems with which the churches nowadays are confronted. Or, regarding the Romanian Pentecostal environment, we believe that for a long time is felt the need to an evaluation of its own identity in our cultural, social and religious space, especially after the evolution directions opened in the 90s.

The present discussion is concreted after many challenges which came from the Pentecostal Romanian space from the last years. These challenges came under various forms, by seizing some events of the kind of: people who feel unaccomplished and in a profound spiritual crisis, priests or servants which notice a decay of the spiritual life level inside the church, the fragmentation of communities, the trends to evolve in extremely different directions (from the extreme „liberalism” of independent churches, to the conservatism

...... the sudden clash between generations, determined mainly by the exodus of the young people with ages between 20 and 30 years, the fast beginning of the alternative” communities that are against any connection with the Pentecostal Union and the official spiritual authority, the social stratification of the local communities and the tendency of creating communities that bring together, preferentially, persons belonging to a certain social class etc.

We do not think that the believers from the Romanian Pentecostal churches are absent in front of these events. However, without a common voice, without a consistent and conjugated analysis of one‘s own identity, there will exist no possibility of reaching pertinent solutions and directions. It would be even sadder if the real problems of the Romanian Pentecostal community from the beginning of this third millennium would not be identified and if there would be a continuity of the debate of false problems or of problems that are nothing but side effects of more serious problems (such as, for example, the recent concern of the Pentecostal Union, with a text of the doctrine of simplicity). As an observation, we also notice a lack of a concern with the evaluation of the identity of the present Romanian Pentecostal Church, at the level of leadership, as well as at the level of the local community, and even a renunciation of the pioneering actions (initiated by some of the pioneers) that needed to be continued.

We believe that, from among the main points of the critical analysis that is necessary in the present situation, the following should not be omitted:

1. The Charismatic and Authoritative dimension of the Church

Several essential problems can be identified at this point:

Most of the Churches are led by only one person (the preacher), whereas the model of the Holy Scripture indicates that the divine authority is granted by the constitution of several gifts that work together and support each other (the idea and the model of the church committee have nothing but a non- functional administrative value and are borrowed from the laic area);

Usually, the preachers that lead the churches, promote a light, superficial, evangelistic typology (most of the preachers in the Pentecostal Churches are evangelists, educated at the pulpit or at the school- institution and not in an apprenticeship process), and have a conservatory attitude by their very structure (they have the tendency of maintaining a certain situation of static stability, without possessing the dynamics requested by the very nature of the church). This phenomenon seems to appear from the unfortunate encounter, within one single person, of various different gifts, with different predispositions: the preaching gift- that inclines towards the interior, towards maintaining and feeding the community; the prophecy gift and the leadership gift- that manifest themselves in a visionary, directing, dynamic manner, at the border;

The gift of teaching- it goes thoroughly into things, it fashions and it gives shape, it builds. An unfortunate synthesis of this gift within the preacher that leads the Church, is often shaped into the evangelistic type of preaching during the Sunday service, thus missing the gift of evangelization as well);

The evaluation and promotion in authoritative positions of the Church, are absent (no accent is placed on the charisma, on the calling, on the apprenticeship and evaluation process of those that are promoted into service- most of the times, the service criteria is given by intuition: the vote of the church or the studies diploma);

Furthermore, and serious enough, there exists the problem that many of the Church leaders are people that dedicate themselves to all types of activities, they hold in their possession the belongings of the Church, which means pure mediocrity. It is impossible to do, at the same time, things that belong to completely different domains (a quite typical, yet scandalous example, is the type of the preacher in charge of the management of the activities at the labor site, the business man or the one in charge of support receiving and, more recently, the type of the „missionary - evangelist traveler” that wonders throughout the world);

By means of the ecclesiological raw model from nowadays, the young generations that grow up in Churches, also risk to become generations deprived of spiritual parents, generations of orphans that grow up according to circumstances;

The Holy Scripture tends to play a role less and less important in the life of the community, both in the public as well as in the private area (we have heard about a person in charge of a zonal community that confirms the fact that, when it comes to sermon, the Holy Scripture is less used every time, that it represents, at the most, a pretext for a chaotic and full of stories sermon, or for backing up personal opinions, whereas in the private area, the Holy Scripture is each time, more and more replaced with the reading of brochures and magazines, with listening to Christian shows on the radio or on the television);

2. The theological and teaching speech
In this chapter, the following can be looked into:

The need for theologs that can evaluate and update the theological contents of confession (we find the following to be damaging and with quite serious consequences: the lack of theological interest in the Romanian Pentecostal area, the renunciation to what had been accomplished up to a certain point - T. Sandru‘s works, as well as the radical renunciation to the tradition of the of the theological university education- with their consequences evaluated in the students and graduates, actually interested, type ITP, that can hardly say what they have learned and what the Pentecostal Church means). We say this with a lot of pain, since the Pentecostal tradition and vision can offer a feasible theological raw model in the Romanian area, a model that is close to the Romanian specific nature as well as to the Romanian spiritual tradition;

The situation of the generations that grew up with evangelization sermons, without a serious rooting in the basic Christian truths; the values and the basis of the Christian traditions are every time less and less promoted and included within the community, while the long discourse, rich in images and suggestions proliferates (we believe that the Sunday morning, two- hours long sermon, evangelization, has become more that inefficient; the auditorium is left with very little- we no longer encounter ourselves in the position we were 80 years ago; the teenagers are informed, they read and learn in schools, we no longer can offer them sweet and historically unfitted sermons);

The lack of actuality and cultural relevance of the Christian message in those spaces where it is sent out (that is why one recurs to the „star” phenomenon - the great evangelists or preachers that animate nowadays the Sunday sermons, by going through Churches);

Often, the bad preparation of those that preach the Gospel and the lack of unity of the message at the level of the local, district, national community (the many „theologs- preachers”, named in two- three years after their baptism, that are not very well acquainted with the Christian basis and with the doctrines of the Pentecostal Church);

The sectary and fragmentary spirit with which the truth of the Revelation is approached (the claim of knowing, in exclusivity, the truth, then the commercial spirit and the consumism of the relationships that animate and give birth to new local churches);

3. The functions of the church
In this chapter, the following aspects are important:

The analysis of the existent ecclesiological model, of the functions that the local church accomplish at the moment, in relation with the needs of the believers (the evaluation of the model of the „mammoth” churches that have hundreds or thousands of members, the evaluation of the occidental typology related to importation, promoted in the organization and in the practice of the Churches, the evaluation of the Pharisaic typologies, type „this is how we have received it”);

The reevaluation of the charismatic function of the church (the mature use of the Pentecostal specific nature- the practice of the gifts of the Spirit - and their analysis in a thorough, unitary teaching procedure, based on the Holy Scriptures and on the experience of the Church);

The reevaluation of the liturgical and sacramental function of the church (the surpassing of the program structure of Sunday sermon, the renunciation to the scholastic typology of the public meetings based on as many and as long as possible sermons, the anchoring of the ecclesiastic sermon in the universal realities of the Church, in order to surpass the sectary and self sufficient spirit, in order to build the local experience of the believers within the eschatological reality of the Church- as apostle Paul says to those in Corinth: „ You are the body of Christ.”);

The analysis of the apprenticeship function, long forgotten nowadays, and the renunciation to the substitute of the work with great masses of people (inefficient labor);

The analysis of the cultural and social local impact of the Christian community- the missionary function of the church (the following are necessary: the updating of the Christian values, their anchoring in the local, true realities- the surpassing of the wooden language, the redeeming dialogue with the values of the human spirit).

Obviously, the points included here, do not represent but a part of those aspects in which we consider it to be compulsory for the Romanian Pentecostal Church to look into in order to evaluate the present and the possible means for a future evolution. It is self implied that this effort should not be an isolated one, but that it supposes the involvement of the entire Romanian community by means of the gifts that God placed here (and we consider these to be sufficient, if only they were used). Furthermore, we believe that, by means of the previously presented aspects, we can emphasize the fact that the crisis that the Pentecostal Church (the evangelic churches) from Romania, is experiencing at present, is an identity crisis that supports no postponing in its approach and resolution.

Finally, we could mention another point that requires reflection. We were saying that there exist voices (isolated, it is true) that say that Romania‘s chance resides in a reformation, a spiritual reformation. By taking care to avoid the extremist spirit, characteristic to the revolutions, we still can learn from the revolutions of mankind an aspect that we consider important to evaluate in our situation. The great or the true revolutions were animated by great defiances. The ones that won through reforms were the ones that defied the cruel, dark, unchangeable, deprived of perspectives and solutions reality that they belonged to. However, in order to have something similar, one needs a different kind of truth, one needs faith, and a power that comes from beyond that crisis status. We believe that all these resources abound in Christianity. Then, what is to be done? The way is represented by the identification of our great defiance that we have to offer to the world and to the present defiance it is confronted with. If our time is meant to be now, then we have to approach reality with a prophetic touch, and surpass it through a great defiance. We do not intend to rush in by providing solutions, but rather to dare you, all of you that read these lines, so that, together, by God‘s gift, we might reach the best solutions.

(You must know that we are also trying to consider and evaluate which might be the deepest and more serious darings that the present world presented to Christianity. We are wondering, at the same time as you are: might the materialism that the capitalist horizons which appeared after the 1990‘s, be the one that sends our young people to all the placed of the planet and erodes, each and every day, our strength in the struggle for a better living or even, for surviving? This might be too easy, but it is still a daring. Might the information society with all its means of communication, be the one that makes the Church irrelevant for most of the young people? This can be noticed by anyone. Might cultural and political globalization be the one that overwhelms the local common ways of being and annihilates the personal identity so that one feels as belonging to nowhere and to everywhere? Here is where the analysis becomes more complex. .... Might the aggravating institutionalization of Christianity and the loss of its charismatic, creating, and prophetic dynamism be the cause? Wurmbrand said that the real church lied in the underground. .... Might the break and the clash between theory and practice in today‘s churches be a „sensitive tearing apart” that created a huge lack of equilibrium between what is being said and what is being done? This too can be seen from a long distance. .... Might the cause be the fake, pseudo - Christian dream of creating a new order in this world, by forgetting about the eschatological calling of the church, y forgetting which is its historical destiny? Here we are really blinded- we dream about a future world, but we fight to build it here. Might evil itself be the one that convinces us today that it does not exist, so that we begin to believe that we have no other foe or adversary but in the simple human construction? Here we face a great challenge....).

We stop here so that you can continue your discussion.

Dănuţ Jemna

Iassy, 31 May 2002

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