A Survey of the Land

Evangelical churches have made considerable progress since the fall of communism in December 1989. The 2001 "State of the Evangelical Church in Romania" report from O.C. International shows there are at least 5,000 evangelical churches and 500,000 believers. While this is significant, there still remains much to do. In the same report it states that over 22 million people do not attend evangelical churches. Seven million people live in more than 10,000 villages that do not have a single evangelical church. Only 2% of the population attends life-giving churches.

In the province of Dobrogea which includes the two counties of Constanta (where Harsova is located) and Tulcea, the evangelical churches have experienced the second highest rate of growth in the country. Fifty new churches have been started since 1989 giving a total of 77 evangelical churches. Dobrogea has the highest average church planting rate in all of Romania since 1995 (8.76% Annual Average Growth Rate). On the other hand, Dobrogea has the smallest percentage of evangelical Christians (less than 0.5%), the fewest churches (77) and thus the fewest number of churches with good potential (32) to start new churches. Over 99.5% of the population does not attend an evangelical church. Over two-thirds of the townships do not have a single evangelical church (67 of 95). 290 villages do not have evangelical churches. In all 271,386 people in rural areas do not have an evangelical church in their village – an astounding 81% of the rural population! The Population to Church Ratio is 12,645:1 in Constanta County.

It is an incontestable fact that in the 1990's God did a wonderful work in Romania. But why should that stop? Is this an impossible mission to continue? Certainly it is an enormous task, beyond our human capability to fulfill in our own strength. But God's love compels us to reach the lost and Jesus' authority and promise that He will be with us until the end of the age is the surety of victory.

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