ROMANIAN TIMES
AReview of the 2013 Romanian Pentecostal Convention inArizona
FromAugust 30, 2013 toSeptember 2, 2013, the annual RomanianPentecostal Convention
from North America was held at Happy Valley Romanian church (led by Pastor Cornel
Avram) in Phoenix, Arizona. The last time the convention was hosted in Phoenix was in
2006. Overall, the convention has been running for a straight forty-five years. Each year
the convention is assigned a certain topic, or tema, from which the pastors are to draw
their sermons from. This year the topic was “descopera pasiunea slujirii” or in English
“discovering your passion for serving”. Romanians from Romania, Canada and around
the United States gathered in an approximate attendance of 3,500-4,000 for all three days
of the convention. Credo TV, a relatively newChristian Romanian network, was in charge
of filming, transmitting the service online (which is featured on their website at www.
credo.tv) and reproducing the convention into DVDs.
Thefirst, orFridaynight, openedupwithworship througha fewoldRomanianhymns.After
performances by the men’s choir fromHappyValley and a few local church groups, Pastor
Vasile Cinpean, from the church Philadelphia in Portland, Oregon took to the podium. His
message was based off Moses the “Faithful Servant”. (Disclaimer: although I will try to
stay true to the topics the pastor’s presented from here on out, I need to summarize their
words which may lead to a softening of their message. In addition, their messages were
mostly in Romanian, so the translation might not be exactly what they said but as close as
I could get it.) A few important points from Pastor Cinpean’s message are:
--“We need to knowGod as Moses knewHim.Also, we have to have a burning passion to
serve Him even when serving Him gets difficult.”
--“We need to know God’s people and go where His people are. In our case, we have to
serve, teach and learn from or with fellow Christians.”
--“We need to know God’s plans and follow them. We are blessed people since we are
children of God, so therefore we must influence the world and spread the Gospel.”
Taking the stand after Pastor Cinpeanwas Pastor FlorinCimpean fromPhiladelphia church
in Chicago, Illinois. His message was the following:
--“We should feel passionate about serving God because his word is supreme. No other
book compares to the Bible. It touches every topic ranging from poetry to morality and
economics to prophecy.”
--“We should feel excited to read God’s word because of its sufficiency for building,
healing, and saving people and souls.”
--“Only God’s word can change hearts.”
Saturday night opened up with some more Romanian worship hymns and led to a handful
of English worships songs later in the service. Particularly adorable was the children’s
choir, grupul “Licuricii”, fromFirst Romanian Pentecostal Church in Seattle,Washington.
The first message Saturday night was from Pastor Marian Condrat, who serves at the
church Elim in Tacoma, Washington. Some pointers from his message, based on the
example of Tabitha in the Bible, were:
--“God does big things with little people, and big things with what seems like nothing.”
--“Real servants [of Christ] find a way to do everything they can instead of trying to find
excuses to why they won’t do something.”
--“A real servant says little but does more and knows to serve in a pure and loving heart.
They have to serve people, not just blacks, or whites or Republicans…they serve all people
because Christ served all people.”
After his message followed more worship, prayer and featured causes to gather money
for. Then Pastor Leonard Semenea from First Romanian Pentecostal Church in Seattle,
Washington took to the podium. His was the only English sermon, which was quite a
relief for us teens, but just as the ones before him had a strong message, so was his. His
used the example of Paul who wrote a good portion of the New Testament letters.
--“What does it mean to be separated for the gospel of God? First, we have to know we
were created with God’s own hands and into His own image. Second, we have to know
that we are all fallen people even after we are saved. Just because we are saved does not
mean we won’t mess up, but that we have Christ there to get us back on track. Third, we
must understand that we can be rescued beings. We have to give our ugliness to Christ.”
--“Once saved, we are transformed and we must live our lives differently from the world
around us.”
--“We are eternal persons.We can either followChrist’s footsteps andwalk inHis holiness,
or we can chose to live the life we want and follow the devil.”
--“We must also know that Christ died for the sinners who repent to Him, not for all who
live as they want and refuse Him and His mercy.”
Sunday morning opened up with worship by Bethel church from Stanton, CA. Pastor
Lazar Gog from the church Emanuel inAnaheim, California shared the first message:
--“What is love? Love is Christ.”
--“What does it mean to love Christ? It means to walk with Him and His laws, to serve
Him through our words, thoughts and actions, and it means to listen to how he disciplines
and corrects you.”
--“We have to have the character of Christ when we serve with love.”
--“What does it mean to serve through love? Well, it does not mean manipulating, candy
coating or preaching what is popular. It does mean preaching the truth and presenting
Christ no matter how hard it is.”
After Lazar Gog, Pastor Nelu Moldovan from the church Speranta in Oradea, Romania,
stepped up to deliver his message. It was centered on our Lord, Jesus Christ and about
how faithful he was to the One who sent him.
--“Jesus preferred to do the things God sent him to do as opposed to what the society
around him told him to do.”
--“Jesus’ life was preordained and premeditated by God from the very beginning.”
--“Christ served God faithfully through prayer, actions, thoughts, and words.”
--“We should look at the world through Christ’s eyes and pray and share the gospel in love
so that we may follow His plans and live eternity with Him.”
Sunday night opened up with more hymns and prayer. Pastor Alin Bob from Emanuel
church from Sacramento, California shared the first sermon. His message was based on
Christ as well and how He was the supreme sacrifice and the best example of a servant.
--“Old Testament to New Testament parallels: Our temple today is heaven, where Christ
is our High Priest. Our magnificent High Priest was also the final sacrifice whose blood
covered all of our sins for all time.”
--“Jesus listened toGod’s plans and followed every instructionHe received from the Lord.
He knew he came not to be served by others, but to serve others.”
--“Now, Christ has sent out the Holy Spirit who is our comforter. If we confess our sins
He, Christ, will forgive us our trespasses, redeem us and empower us in our walk with
Him. We should be glad in Christ who redeemed us and keep ourselves set apart for the
High Priest.”
(go to page 20)