Marks of Strong Committment to Christ's Work
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The Bible Union
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Pecel Bible School
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What is Needed

Marks of Strong Commitment to Christ's Work
Faithfulness during oppression, patience, not looking for support with conditions but accepting the responsibility that comes with it – these are marks of strong commitment to Christ’s work. It is hard to find a purer work than that of the Hattam Church and the Bible Union of Budapest, Hungary.

The Bible Union
The Bible Union is an evangelical renewal movement within the Hungarian Reformed Church (HRC), which is a national church, consisting of 2.5 million members who are, by and large, members by nationality (or enculturation) rather than spiritual conversion. The Reformed Church is heavily influenced by liberal theology, neo-orthodoxy, and German higher criticism (e.g. Wellhausen, et. al.). The 1000-member Bible Union, which includes 103 pastors and elders plus one of the four ruling bishops in the church, is an officially registered organization which prays to bring renewal and is working to return the church to the orthodox, Calvinistic doctrines of its roots. (In 1550, Hungary chose Calvinism over Lutheranism and remained Calvinistic until the last half of the 19th century.) The Bible Union hopes to begin starting new churches as a core piece of its renewal movement.

Pecel Bible School
The Bible School at Pecel is the vehicle by which the Bible Union hopes to achieve its purpose by grounding Christians in the Scriptures by offering basic Bible courses, weekend postgraduate courses for pastors, alternative/supplementary courses for theological students, etc. The school welcomed the first class of students to its newly renovated facilities in the Fall of 1998. It teaches a basic bible curriculum with a focus on lay people and pastors, offering courses in church planting. In fact, some students are opting to enter the Bible School for pastoral preparation rather than the HRC's seminary in Debrecen. The short-term goal of the school is to offer a two-semester certificate program. They then desire to work toward the implementation of a 4-6 semester Masters Degree curriculum. During its first 10 years the Bible School has been operated on a modified TEE format offering six one-week intensive residency courses. Of the 500 students who have been involved over the years, 100 have completed all six courses.

The Bible Union has completed remodeling of an old building which was associated with several revivals in the early part of the century, in order to house the Bible School. The current building contains space for classrooms, a large lecture hall/conference center, dormitory rooms, administrative offices and a 20,000 volume library (with only 300 volumes now in place which include A. A. Hodge on the Westminster Confession, B. B. Warfield, J. G. Machen, John Murray, Geerhardus Vos and Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology).

What is Needed
Although the school has been self-sustaining for some time now, ITEM continues to share networking resources when needed and understands the importance of keeping them in your prayers as we labor together in the Lord's Harvest.