Conservative Baptist Univ. Thrives in Former Communist Block Nation
by Allie Martin
June 30, 2004
(AgapePress) - The president of the Romanian Baptist Convention says there are unlimited opportunities for mission work in the former Eastern Bloc communist countries as well as in western Europe.Dr. Paul Negrut became a Christian while he was studying clinical psychology in the late 1970s, when Romania was a communist nation. When communism collapsed nearly 15 years ago, Negrut says there was a huge void in training for pastors and missionaries. Now he is president of Emanuel University in Oradea, the only conservative Baptist university in Europe.
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Dr. Paul Negrut |
Negrut explains the mission of the school. "We award degrees in theology, literature, languages, social work, education, music, business, and management," he says. "So we train pastors, evangelists, missionaries -- but we train missionaries for the marketplace as well. Those people will be there Monday through Friday [as] salt and light to take the gospel."Negrut once served time in a concentration camp for his belief in Christ when Romania was under communist rule. He now describes the European continent as a mass of humanity ready for the planting of the gospel of Christ -- and an ultimate harvest.
"If you think of eastern Europe only and then add western Europe, we [are speaking] about one-billion people," he says. "Western Europe is so secular, so hardened in its heart [that] it drifted away from God -- it's so filthy. Move beyond that, into the Middle East, and the Arab world is right there at our doorstep. It's another great mission field for us."
Before it achieved status as a university, Emanuel University existed as an underground training school and then as Emanuel Baptist Institute. Now more than 1,000 graduates from Emanuel University are serving throughout Europe and the former Soviet Union.
