AFWIS Joins Operation World in Prayer for Romania - Europe

Published on Operation World (http://www.operationworld.org)

Home > Oct 11: Romania

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Oct 11: Romania

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Romania

Europe

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Geography

Area: 238,391 sq km
Balkan state on the lower Danube River, a mix of mountains, hills and plains.
Population: 21,190,154    Annual Growth: -0.41%
Capital: Bucharest
Urbanites: 54.6%
HDI Rank: 63 of 182 (UN Human Development Reports 2009)

Peoples

Peoples: 29 (21% unreached) All peoples
Unreached Peoples Prayer Card

Official language: Romanian    Languages: 23 All languages

Religion

Largest Religion: Christian

Religion		Pop %	Ann Gr
Christians	20,545,973	96.96	-0.2
Evangelicals	1,149,647	5.4	2.3

Challenges for Prayer

Many challenges face the Church. Since the fall of Communism, the Church has grown numerically and even matured, but there remains a long way to go.
a) Lack of unity is a major problem among denominations and within congregations. There is almost no cooperative work, concerted prayer or unified public voice. Ethnic divisions exist even within the Church, with the Hungarian and Romani minorities rarely enjoying fellowship with the Romanian majority.
b) Blind adherence to tradition creates a Christian ghetto out of touch with the wider society. It becomes increasingly difficult to connect to non-Christians and young people in particular. Pray that churches find a balance between genuine holiness and cultural relevance.
c) Materialism imported from the West has a toxic effect on spirituality.
     i The deep spirituality of long-suffering churches is damaged. Materialism is now a prevalent attitude, especially among the younger generation who aspire to a Western lifestyle at the cost of spiritual vitality.
     ii An unhealthy dependence on outside money was created as a result of generous but ill-advised material assistance. This stunts the local church in many ways, it introduces potential divisions locally and it introduces difficulty in ministry partnerships as well as dangers of manipulation and questionable motives.
Leadership development in churches is a great need. The average pastor supervises multiple churches. Most new churches lack a pastor, and many pastors lack training. Active congregations with effective programmes will emerge from well-trained leaders.
a) Bible schools and seminaries have been launched by many denominations, many focused on pastoral training and leadership development. Yet these places of learning are not enough to fill the needs of the churches. Pray that the schools might be able to train increasing numbers of students who are biblically astute, spiritually on fire and ready to lead.
b) Entrust (formerly BEE - Bible Education by Extension) was pioneered in Romania and spread to many Communist Bloc countries. Pray for the hundreds of evangelical leaders studying part-time in BEE and other TEE courses. Now, an advanced course is also part of the programme.
     For an additional 11 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.

More Information

The Operation World book, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM provide far more information and fuel for prayer for the people of Romania.