March 12, 2001

Northwest pastor came from Romanian underground
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___PORTLAND, Ore.--John Brisc began his ministry participating in underground Bible studies in Romania. But today, his ministry among Romanians in the Northwestern United States would be hard to keep secret.
___Brisc is pastor of Romanian Baptist Church in Portland, the second-largest Romanian

JOHN BRISC

Baptist congregation in the United States.
___The 300-member congregation recently raised $300,000 over a three-month period to make a down payment on a new building with a 600-seat sanctuary and to completely renovate that building.
___Within the last year alone, the church grew from 160 people to 300. Attendance sometimes reaches 500.
___The congregation also has blessed and encouraged the starting of another Romanian Baptist congregation this year.
___While that may sound like a lot of activity, it's calm compared to the way Brisc learned to do ministry in Romania. There, he was pastor of 10 churches simultaneously.
___During the communist rule of Romania, churches were allowed to exist, but the number of pastors was severely limited.
___In this environment, Brisc participated in an underground Bible study with the Navigators and eventually studied in an underground seminary sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ.
___"Young people from various cities gathered secretly," he explained. "Professors came as tourists, then disappeared inside the country. They lived in homes of Christians and taught students. We met in forests, attics, basements, orchards."
___A fellow student in the underground seminary was faltering under the load of serving 16 churches as pastor. Brisc agreed to take seven of those churches. And then he started three more.
___"The Lord blessed our work," he said.
___But what God blessed, the Romanian government attempted to thwart by persecution, he said. Eventually, he and his family fled to America, where he became pastor of a church in Florida.
___From there, they moved to the Portland area three years ago to serve the Romanian congregation that had begun in 1988 with four families.
___Now Brisc is leading the effort to reach the estimated 20,000 Romanians living in the Portland area. Most are non-Christians, and many are atheists.
___"Now we have all the conditions to grow," he said.
___The addition of new believers is pushing the congregation to look ahead to its next major project, however. The building they purchased and renovated was built for a Lutheran congregation and therefore has no baptistry.
___There's a perfect place for one in the sanctuary, but it will require an addition to the back side of the two-story building. The addition also will create two more Sunday School rooms.
___For more information about working with Romanian Baptist Church in Portland, contact the Texas Partnerships Resource Center at (214) 828-5183 or call Brisc directly at (503) 785-0372.

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