Baptistic Theologies, 2009

55 Kiss: Az Erdelyi Magyar Baptistak Tortenete, p. 24. 68 Baptistic Theologies and difficult issue for Kornya. The third period started in 1900, the year Kornya moved to Dioszeg. From there, Kornya started a new mission and planted many new Baptist churches in the area of County Bihar and County Szilagysag. This was a very fruitful period in his ministry. Until 1894 he was the only ordained Baptist pastor in Eastern Hungary and Transylvania. Later, after he helped others to become deacons and pastors, he officiated at baptisms only within his own area of ministry. As Bertalan A. Krinir affirms, over the whole course of his ministry Kornya single-handedly baptised more than 11,000 people. 56 Baptisms in this period were usually conducted out of doors, in rivers, since there were no church buildings and baptistries at the beginning of his ministry. When a baptism was organised and Kornya was invited, a large number of candidates, sometimes from different villages, got together in order to be baptised by Kornya. He often officiated at baptisms numbering between thirty and fifty candidates. The largest known baptism was in Nagyfalu in 1912, when eighty-four candidates were baptised. What contributed to Kornya’s effectiveness? He was an impressive speaker, who knew how to communicate with ordinary people. Sometimes he could be very harsh and condemnatory in his speech, but on the other hand he could express love and kindness in powerful ways. In his preaching he was able to make his listeners both laugh and cry. He was full of creative ideas, which were put into practice in difficult and sometimes seemingly impossible circumstances. His presence and role in the history of the Hungarian Baptists were crucial, since he started Baptist mission in places where there had never before been any kind of evangelical preaching. Accounts of Kornya’s work illustrate his wisdom in dealing with people and also dealing with the authorities in very complex situations. 59 Kornya was also creative in his methods of evangelism, seeking to find appropriate opportunities to give his testimony and to preach the evangelical message. There are many examples of the ways he approached new locations and people. In one of the villages the local authorities found out that Kornya was coming to preach. They wanted to prevent the meeting happening and they placed the local police at the entrance to the village. Kornya knew that the local authorities wanted to put him in prison and 56 Kirner, Kornya Mihaly baptista iittoro parasztapostol kronikaja, p. 195. 57 Kirner counted the hours Kornya would have spent in water in baptising 11,000 people. The result was 366 hours, (15 days), lifting about 550,000 kg. in water. Regarding Kornya’s travelling Kirner affirms that he would travel about 20 km per day most of the time walking or by cart. In 40 years he would have travelled 288,000 km, the equivalent of going around the world about