In a report about university congregations, pastor of the Debrecen Reformed University Congregation Dániel Püski said that “thinking outside the box” is an important element of building up a university community. The recent start of a partnership project between the Reformed Church of America Global Missions (RCA Global Missions) and the Transtibiscan Church District (TT) of the Reformed Church in Hungary is one example of how communities can be built in an innovative way.

RCA Global Missions and TT would like to work together to revitalize and develop their missionary goal of reaching out to the new generations through the support of the church planting process of the University Congregation of Debrecen in the period of 2014-2019. The vision of a multisite congregation operating on three different campuses (Egyetem Square, Kassai Street and Böszörményi Street) is brought to life by the building up of a mission team of four pastors working as one congregation.

The plan is being implemented through the work of Luminex Global Collaborative, a group consisting of the leaders of the supporting congregations and organizations as well as the University Congregation of Debrecen. The group works on the system development, strategies and funding of the multisite congregation, organizes meetings and conferences in order to give feedback to the supporting congregations and also provides the assessment, training, mentoring and coaching of new pastors. Besides its project-related tasks, the Collaborative wishes to serve as a forum where European perspectives on the Church’s role in a secular world as well as American experiences on church planting could be exchanged. “The supporting churches of this project are: Great Lakes Synod of the RCA, Harbor Churches (Grand Rapids, Mi), Centerpoint Church (Kalamazoo, Mi), Fifth Reformed Church  (Grand Rapids, Mi),  Grace Church (Ann Arbor, Mi).”

The project started on the 1st of August 2014 and ends on the 31st of December 2019. According to the partnership agreement, the ultimate goal of the collaboration is to set an example for multisite church planting projects in Hungary, thereby providing a platform for future community building.

Among other things, the collaborative has launched its blog in September 2014 where you can follow the latest news about its activities and results. In the last part of 2014, and in addition to the blog, there have been some activities such as a Bible Study that began with team building activities and ending with some snacks. There was also Sandwich Party where food, fun and fellowship as well as vision was shared with the students. December saw the collaborative throw a Christmas Party to celebrate the season with the Invisible Theatre (Four Senses Theatre) leading the students in presenting the Christmas Story.

Annamária Kótay-Nagy