Baptistic Theologies, 2009

onicles of Mihaly Kornya, Baptist Pioneer and Peasant Apostle] (Budapest: Egyetemi Nyomda, 1990), pp. 29-38. Revival among Hungarian Baptists in Transylvania 67 also died in 1890 and he subsequently married Mate Zsuzsanna Toth from Derecske, a widow who he had baptised eight years earlier. " Like Lajos and Toth, Kornya was from an ordinary background but his spiritual gifts developed in a remarkable way. Kornya was not a rich man, but he was careful in his business dealings. He rented land for crops, reared pigs, cows and horses, and soon after his marriage was able to buy a house that the Baptist group later used as a church. Although his education was limited, after his conversion he was highly disciplined in his reading of the Bible, and this was to prove a great advantage in his preaching. Often when he went out to work on the land, he ended up doing nothing but reading the Bible. Here is an example: He was sent by his wife, who appears to have been a strong-minded person, to hoe the corn on their land, but he spent the time reading the Bible instead. In the evening his wife asked: ‘are there thorns still on the field?’. ST He admitted that there were far too many. Henrik Mayer soon recognised the spiritual gifts with which Kornya was endowed, and he organised an ordination service for Kornya which was held on 11 th November 1877 in Nagyszalonta. Here, for the first time, two Hungarian Baptists, Kornya Mihaly and Mihaly Toth, were ordained as deacons. Fritz Oncken and Janos Rottmayer attended the ordination ceremony, representing the wider Baptist movement. Kornya immediately started his mission and soon, as a result of that ministry, Henrik Meyer was invited to come and officiate at baptismal services in Biharugra, Berettyoujfalu, Darvas and Komadi. 54 On 9 th July 1881, three years after the ordination of Kornya and Toth as deacons, Henrik Meyer again visited the church in Nagyszalonta, and on this occasion Kornya and Toth were ordained as elders or baptising ministers. 55 There were three main periods in Kornya’s ministry. The first one was from 1881 to 1893. During this period, for most of the time Kornya was travelling from Nagyszalonta to a variety of places, preaching the Baptist message. It was a remarkable period of Baptist expansion. There were more than 100 localities where Kornya planted new Baptist churches, most of them in County Bihar and County Hajdu. The second period started in 1893, when Kornya moved first to Derecske then to Nagyvarad. That was the hardest period in his life because there were tensions and problems among the Baptist churches he planted and cared for in this region. The question of state recognition divided the churches. This was a very painful 5 ' Kovacs: A Magyar nyelvu Baptista misszio kibontakozdsa, p. 65. 53 Kirner, Kornya Mihaly baptista iittoro parasztapostol kronikaja, p. 47. 54 Kovacs, A Magyar nyelvu Baptista misszio kibontakozdsa, p. 65.