April 2018
Greetings from Hungary.
Spring is finally beginning to break through. We are looking forward to better
weather and a great season of ministry.
Vertical
Church Conference:
The month of March was definitely
dominated by our conference which was held March 16-17th in Kecskemét, Hungary.
If I could describe it with only one word, I would choose the word amazing! Our
goal for the conference was to not only talk about Vertical Church, but to
actually experience it. What would it be like if 400 Christian leaders and
workers would unite to seek the glory of God through passionate worship,
fervent prayer and Spirit-filled preaching? We truly felt like God’s presence
was there in a special way. Many pastors and leaders said that the conference
was life-changing for them. Here is a brief exerpt from a letter we received:
„I
have attended many conferences in my life, where I heard many good things, but
this conference was different. God was present. The theme was vertical church
and you modelled this for us, and we experienced exactly what the speakers
spoke about: God’s glory showed up in our midst. And I arrived home changed...”
The conference also had a powerful affect
on our church in Esztergom. Our worship team was very involved leading worship
in two of the sessions. All of our leaders were also present, as well as a
number of our members. We pray that our church in Esztergom will be an example
and inspiration to other churches in Hungary.
It has also been interesting to see the
continued „after-affect” of the conference. The services were live streamed and
several hundred people followed online during the conference. Since then, the
five services have been watched more than 17,000 times on youtube (an average
of more than 3,000 per sermon), and invitations continue to come in to speak on
this subject in churches and conferences across Hungary. I even received a
letter inviting me to speak to some Hungarian pastors and leaders in the
Ukraine. God is working, and we continue to seek His guidance in how to respond
and continue moving forward in this area. I am thankful for my two Hungarian
pastor friends who co-hosted the conference with me: Samuel Mike and Barnabas
Uzonyi. I am also thankful for the team from Harvest Bible Chapel in Granger,
Indiana who came to help with the conference. Please pray with us for continued
fruit and guidance!
Marc
and Charin Patton
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| That's me opening the conference. |
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| Esztergom worship team with Micah Klutinoty helping out. |
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| Trent Griffith preaching with Attila Zeman translating |
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| Worship being led by the Pécel Baptist Church worship team. |
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| Shot of the crowd. |
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| Passionate worship. |
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| Main Speakers from left to right: Cristian Barbosu, Samuel Mike, Marc Patton, Barnabas Uzonyi and Trent Griffith. |
