The founding pastor of our congregation is Sándor Tóth, his wife is, Mónika, whom the Lord has gifted with three daughters, Fanni, Gréta and Helga. His parents did not know Christ in person, so he could not hear about the Savior in his childhood.
During his high school years, he began working in discos as a disc jockey. After graduating from high school, he started working for a company in Debrecen, meanwhile he continued to organize parties. The question, which had also come up during his high school years, kept engaging him: “What is the meaning of life, education, work if we die at the end, no matter what?”
In this search he got into contact with the occult, the representatives of oriental religions, but following the exciting, seemingly interesting experiences nothing remained that helped him answer his question. In the meantime, he met Christians, thanks to whom he bought a Bible which he started to read. One of his friends attended the local Baptist Church from time to time driven by curiosity. He invited him, with his friends, to the junior meeting, where he was carried away by the love and honest care that he experienced. After that he regularly attended the junior meetings and the Bible study group led by the pastor Géza Kovács. Here he found answers to a lot of his questions including those that came while reading the Bible. Nine months later, caused by a movie about the second coming of Christ (The Rapture) he realized his sins. That evening he gave his life to the Lord in tears, confessing his sins. He became a new person, his life changed totally.
He left his disc jockey (D.J.) career as he got to hate what he had liked before. He began his studies and obtained a degree in engineering and later in theology. He was baptized in September 1992. Following this, from November he started serving the Lord in telling the good news (the gospel) in the framework of the so called FAMISZ (Village Mission) evangelization movement. Since then several people from his family and circle of friends gave their lives to Christ. They also brought the message of the gospel to the village, where he grew up. They served there for years with a missionary group he was asked to lead by the pastor Géza Kovács. As a colleague, later the leader of the village mission he could serve in multiple settlements within and outside the border with witnessing, telling the gospel and leading groups. He became the leader of the junior teenage group of the Baptist Church of Debrecen. He was inaugurated as an evangelist of the Baptist Church of Debrecen and the Mission District of Derecske at Pentecost in 1996. His mission Bible verse was Isaiah 49:6. Later he took over the position of junior pastor in the Baptist Church of Debrecen in October 1996 after the previous pastor had left. In the meantime, he could also be an instrument in the hands of God in planting a new congregation in Pocsaj and Esztár.
His mandate to lead the junior group expired in October 2000. The leaders of the asked him to undertake the task in the following period. He stood before the Lord and prayed to know his will. He was given the direction that he would not have to do that anymore, but he had to begin planting a new congregation in Debrecen, in which his wife supported him. He saw it in his heart that it is no longer a junior service that he needed to do, but a new congregation. He shared this vision with the leaders of the congregation and asked them to examine whether they believed it was the God’s will. They supported him 100% in that and judged that vision came from the Lord. Soon after this the congregation was also asked by the pastors and it also saw that it was the will of God that the congregation send Sándor Tóth, his wife and 8 colleagues to plant a new congregation in Debrecen.
They had to realize that new wine is poured into new wineskins (Matthew 9:17). Today’s people can be reached to tell the gospel of Jesus Christ via a congregation close to culture. This way it became evident that the new congregation had to be different also in format from the mother congregation. We did not lose anything with that, but the old and new together could become a blessing for more people.
OUR VISION OF THE CONGREGATION
Planting a new, culturally modern congregation, which is ready and can reach people,
disciple, and engage in service the people nearby who do not know Christ yet.
About the beginning
At a dawn prayer event in 1997 some of us received a vision from the Lord. In it we saw a huge gospel event in the main square of Debrecen, where a lot of people accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. At that time the main square (Kossuth square) was one of the busiest parts of the town. I thought about how to stop the traffic here during the evangelization. Since then the Lord has kept working in our town. The local government of the town decided in 1999 to close the main square from traffic and turn it into a pedestrian area. The square was opened to the public on 30th June 2001. So, the square was ready. The question is: are we ready? Since that we have organized numerous evangelization events (Jesus Festival) with the Pastor Circle of Debrecen. I think that a lot of congregations will be required for the awakening, who are able to include, disciple and engage repentant people in service.
The build-up and realization of the vision
The most effective mission method in my opinion is a living, culturally modern congregation, build on biblical standards. Its purpose matches God’s purpose. Jesus Christ in his great mission command indicated reaching the world as a long-term mission purpose for the congregation. I believe that no congregation should think in less than that. Naturally, we do not need to begin with a world mission. What we can do now is to reach our immediate surroundings and establish new contacts to share the good news. Because of this we do not hold more than two events per week for the whole congregation so that the members would have the time to build new contacts. We would like to meet people in a personal manner, not as crowds. We aim to exert a great evangelical effect on our town with these personal connections. I consider it important that we can serve not only towards a generation, but towards entire families. Our congregation is open to plant new congregations and to send out missionaries. Our subsidiary congregation, the Szegedi Új Remény Baptista Gyülekezet [Szeged New Hope Baptist Congregation] is not only a fruit of the blessing of the vision given by God, but also its sharer. In order to reach the town with the gospel we seek to uphold good connections not only with the Baptist Church, but with other evangelical congregations of the town.
Introduction video
CHURCH RELATIONS
Our congregation is an official member of the Hungarian Baptist Union.
We are in regular, living contact with the following congregations in Debrecen:
- Baptist Church of Debrecen
- Trinity Baptist Church
- Free Christian Congregation, Debrecen
- Hungarian Pentecostal Church, The Congregation of Life in Debrecen
- SHALOM Open Biblical Congregation
- Salvation Army – Debrecen Congregation in Hungary
- Hungarian Pentecostal Church, The Downtown Congregation of Debrecen
