First Person with Wayne Shepherd

First Person: Cristian Barbosu - extended conversation

Following the radio conversation, Cristian talks more about the amazing story of Metanoia Church in Arad, Romania. Send your support for FIRST PERSON to the Far East Broadcasting Company: FEBC National Processing Center Far East Broadcasting Company P.O. Box 6020 Albert Lea, MN 56007 Please mention FIRST PERSON when you give. Thank you!

Duration:: 5m
Broadcast on:: 16 Dec 2010
Audio Format:: other

Following the radio conversation, Cristian talks more about the amazing story of Metanoia Church in Arad, Romania.

Send your support for FIRST PERSON to the Far East Broadcasting Company:
FEBC National Processing Center
Far East Broadcasting Company
P.O. Box 6020
Albert Lea, MN 56007

Please mention FIRST PERSON when you give. Thank you!

Christian, let's reward the listeners who have joined us on the internet part of First Person and tell them more of what God is doing through Metanoia, the church there in Romania. I've been there and it's an amazing story. It's indeed an amazing story because it's a story of grace. It's nothing to do with men. I never dreamed to see things happening, get such a high pace and such an intensity. We've been planting about seven churches in this past five years, two more on the way in the next few months. You're planting other churches in other parts of Romania. Other parts of Romania, actually one of them in Vienna in the next month. So you're not just one church? No, no, no, no. So we send people from our church or we have groups of people from other parts of Romania. See, we have a radio ministry, nine broadcasts a week. You've been there, you're trained some other people. We have now a TV ministry that goes all over Romania and about 39 countries in Eastern Europe. We also have the internet. It's very strong. All of our services are on the net. So this media is a great channel for other people to join in. But this is a poor country. How do you support all that? I mean, you have a very missionary mind to church, don't you? Well, it's true. It's hard to speak about finances in Romania. The great thing about it is that a lot of people are very generous people. We don't have a lot of rich people in the church, but they are generous people, very much mission-oriented. And also, I have to say this, we have a big brother, and that is Harvest Bible Chapel. Since I was here for my PhD, right from the beginning, when we launched the Medellat Church in Romania, Harvest was with us. And they popped in with a lot of training and just support and encouraging. So they are part of our life. For those who don't know, that's the church led by James McDonald, our mutual friend. Yes, yes. And they have been a tremendous encouragement to you and many other churches. That's correct. And around the world, and in the States, of course. Yeah, actually, in about two weeks, I'm going from here, from Chicago. I'm taking a team from Harvest to go and train in small group ministry, a simulation ministry. Somebody was here for counseling ministry. So we work a lot with Harvest Church. One question I had for you that we didn't have time to talk about on the broadcast, and that is ministry in a post-communist world. I don't think Americans understand how different the mindset is. You were thrown into turmoil with this sudden freedom. But what does the freedom become there in Romania? Well, that's a realistic question to say the least about. It's a chaos. It's chaotic because the legacies of communism are still living on. Somebody said that when communism was over, it's going to take a generation like they came out of Egypt, but Egypt never came out of them like the generation, the wilderness. I have to say that, probably that is true. Well, we thank God for that generation that stood strong. Oh, that's right. That's right. But I'm talking about those who either align with the communist or those who are in the pot of communism, because regardless of where you are, culture molds you. And you may be blind, don't see around you, but there is always some type of an influence. The way you think was formed by that. That's right. Coming from a very rationed and restricted, economical, poor country, like was in communism, to supermarkets, to credit cards, to a lot of stuff today, people fall on materialism on the other side of the issue. That corruption is very, very high when one of the most corrupted countries sadly to say, abortion is a high stake, which means moral are very low. So in a lot of these things, to me to go home and to start a new church and address this was the major concern, because the legacies of communism, they cannot be redeemed by a economic or political system. There are matters of the heart and the one who redeems the heart and changes the heart metanoia is God. So that's basically what we are all about. It gives us a good idea how to pray for the church in Romania as it reaches out to the culture around it there. There must have been a tremendous rush when freedom came, but then it degenerated into again a sense of self-sufficiency and materialism. So that's what you battle now, isn't it? It is true. There are a lot of influences. I have to say a lot of bad influences from the West that come in the culture. And then on top of that, lots of our own garbage, social and all kinds of moral. It's not an easy time, but it's a challenging time. And for a time of crisis, I think the Lord is calling the church. You look at all of the reforms in history. They all came in a time of crisis. There is never an easy road for the gospel, the narrow road. It's there. So, to see in our church, I mean, I have about seven interlope, which is in translating in your language, kind of like mafia people that came to the Lord in the past three years. And if you look at our trucks of ears in prison and all kinds of illegal things, and people are shocked. Some of them are mocking us. Some of them are saying, what, your brain washed them? No, the Lord Jesus has changed their lives. The repentance is a good word. That's right. That's right. And to see those lives, those people coming to the Lord, you're just excited because you see that there is real hope. Well, just as the gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer in American culture, he's the answer in a very different culture, the culture of Romania. Everywhere. You're committed to that gospel. Amen.