Survey of the Land

The evangelical churches in Romania have made remarkable progress toward fulfilling Jesus' commission since the fall of communism in 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. However there still remains much to do. In that same report it states over 22 million people in Romania do not attend evangelical churches. Only 2% of the population attends life-giving churches. Seven million people live in more than 10,000 villages that do not have a single evangelical church.

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 of any province in Romania (0.42% or 4,256 people), the fewest churches (77) and thus the fewest number of churches with good potential to start new churches (32). 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. Romania’s cities have very few churches in comparison with their population.

It is an incontestable fact that in the 1990's God did a marvelous work in Romania. But why should that stop? Is this an impossible mission? Certainly it is a huge task, beyond our human ability to fulfill in our own strength. But the love of God 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 success.