Place of birth: Zenta, Serbia
Role on staff: Pastor of Calvary Bekásmegyer,
overseer of the Homeless Ministry of the church
Favorite verse: Matthew 6:25–34 – Do not worry!!!
Favorite hobby: I'm slowly building my house;
I love watching movies (though not as much as Isti),
but the times I enjoy the most are when I can play
with my kids (I would like to make the most of the years
before they grow up and leave). I like playing football,
volleyball, handball, in fact any kind of ball-game.
But if I had the choice, the thing I would love to do
the most is to be out at sea with my wife Ágota - I love the sea.
Please tell us about your family and their role in your ministry.
Ágota and I were married at the end of 1994. It was the very first wedding in our church. Calvary Esztergom and Calvary Budapest organized the whole event together; we cooked and baked all the food, we rented a large hall and danced a lot. 12 years have passed now, and I love my wife even more.
We have three boys: Benedek, Tivadar, Sebestyén. They make our lives lively and don’t let us get bored; they keep asking, learning and ‘teaching’ us (although they are not aware of that). Since becoming parents, we now understand much more the love and care that our Heavenly Father has towards us. If I, a fallible human being, long to provide for my kids everything they need, how much more does our Heavenly Dad, who is perfect, long to give us all things.
You began working on staff back in the early days of Calvary Budapest. What was it like back then?
Back then Calvary was a small family-like group of believers. I learnt a lot from Greg, our first pastor. We spent a lot of time together. Huge hamburgers (that are not available in Hungary fortunately) and surfing were recurring patterns in most of his teaching. Since then he has become a Hungarian guy, he likes chicken goulash, perhaps he should speak a little more in Hungarian :)
In the beginning I was amazed to meet a Christian who not only talked about God but had a living, daily relationship with Him, and lived what he was talking about. He demonstrated that believers could be happy, that they could make jokes and enjoy what God had given to them. A Christian doesn't have to wear a mask. These things touched me the most.
Was working full-time in ministry something you always thought you would do? How did God lead you to be working in the church?
Initially I never had a desire to work full-time in ministry. We had been attending the Bible study in Esztergom when the idea came up of starting a Bible study in Budapest. A high-school outreach team came to Budapest for 2 weeks and I was fortunate enough to join them for the whole outreach. What they were doing really impressed me. I was responsible for preparing the technical stuff for the street outreaches – the concert, testimony and skits. I got the electricity supply for the amplifiers, I translated (although I didn’t speak English really well), I looked for cheap restaurants that served good food and took them sightseeing. Then God spoke to Rob, the leader of the team, and to Greg and to me at the same time that I should be staying in ministry. That’s how my ‘career’ at Calvary started.
Have there been times when you felt like quitting and leaving the ministry? If yes, what kept you from leaving?
Of course. Plenty of times. I usually wanted to quit when I made a mistake and when I was corrected. I was never good at being rebuked. But I learnt how to be obedient through the times it did happen. I listened and learned. The most difficult period I can tell you about was a few years ago when due to the large size of the church, I had so much to do that I wasn’t able to perform my duties properly. I spent more than half of each day away from my family. I could see them only when they were already asleep. During that period I thought that if ministering meant this, I should seriously consider looking for a nine-to-five job. But the Lord who called me into this ministry, didn’t indicate that I should leave. So I stayed, and prayed and asked for help. I talked over these difficulties with Greg and within a few months (actually six, though it felt four times longer) Attila Sipiczki joined the staff and became my new colleague.
That was a hard period, but I learnt that until God spoke to me about a situation, I had to persevere in what I was doing. Just as his initial calling was clear and obvious, his instruction to move on to another path when its time, will be exactly the same.
What have been some lessons you’ve learnt during all your time serving in the church?
Through godly love and communication problems can be resolved more smoothly than by rules and commands.
